Tuesday, January 31

This is the last day of January. We're sad to see it go!

This morning, Mrs. Johnson's class came over, and we reviewed yesterday's lesson on mammals by reading "Mammalabilia" by Douglas Florian. We also introduced today's topic, birds, by reading "Molly the Owl" by Eric Blehm. It's a book about two common barn owls, Molly and McGee, that Mrs. Bruno's classes used to watch on Ustream. That camera has been turned off, though.

In math, we practiced our math facts by doing Math Magician. We also worked on a pictograph sheet.

After math, we discussed birds further. We said that birds must have feathers and wings. They lay eggs, but not all of them fly. Some flightless birds are emus, ostriches, cassawaries, penguins, etc. We checked in on Phoebe and read "About Hummingbirds: A Children's Guide." We also watched Mel and Sydney for a few minutes, as well as the Jordan Lake bald eagles.

We are eating snack right now and are headed to PE. We did our blog once, but had some type of technical issue and had to type it all over again. :(

Monday, Jan. 30

This morning, Mrs. Johnson's class came over, and we began our study of vertebrates. We began with mammals. We read "Somewhere in the Ocean" and "Junior Buddy: A Jaguar's Tale." The second book was about the jaguar we saw in Mrs. Bruno's video of Belize.

We learned that mammals have hair or fur, breathe with lungs, give live birth, drink mom's milk, and are warm-blooded. We had deep discussions about whales, dolphin, sharks (even though they're not mammals), and jaguars.

In Mrs. Johnson's room, we read about dogs. We also worked on some questions that went with the story.

Wednesday, January 25

This morning, Mrs. Johnson's friends came over to watch Math Monsters with us. We're going to be studying about graphs, and they talked about collecting data. In math, we worked on more money word problems. In science, we talked extensively about our upcoming Skype with Julie Scardina. We're so excited. We even watched a 2:00 video that introduced us to her. We're about to have a strange homework assignment . . . to watch her and Jack Hanna on TV!!! We've never had that kind of homework before.

We also looked at some animal webcams. We watched the manatees in the Tampa Electric Company pool. We saw the barn owls, Mel and Sydney, who are about ready to lay eggs in their next clutch. We saw the hummingbird, Phoebe, who is sitting on a new nest. (She lays about six clutches a year, so she's ALWAYS sitting on a nest!)

We're excited about studying animals!!!!!

Friday, January 20

Congratulations to Sarah, our Good Citizen for the week. She's really improved her self-control in the hallway. She's learning to control her volume. Her classmates say she's awesome!

First thing this morning, Mrs. Johnson's class came over. We watched video of Mrs. Bruno's trip to a rainforest. We saw all of the animals from the book we read yesterday, The Great Kapok Tree, with the exception of the sloth. We also learned how to play Coin Bingo that would be one of our centers later today.

In math, we did centers. Center 1 was to meet with Mrs. Bruno and count real money. In center 2, we counted money flashcards. We went to the computer for Math Magician in Center 3. In center 4, we played Coin Bingo. Our favorite center was Bingo because it was fun and new.

We also did a tree pantomime to act out the life cycle of a tree. We really liked this activity. We're eating snack, and we're about to take our timed test. Yippee!!! :)

We're looking forward to the weekend, even though it will be very soggy and dreary!

Wednesday, January 18

We did a fun plants sheet to kick off the morning. We got our fact fluency folders first thing this morning. Mrs. Johnson's class came over to learn how to use them. We also previewed our Socrative quiz for today.

We headed to the red hall computer lab to take a math quiz on Socrative, then IXL money skills. If you finished in time, you got to go to Raz-Kids. This morning, we also did Math Magician. We planted bean seeds to test different soils and how the seeds would grow in each. We have a homework sheet to find four leaves. We'll compare and contrast the four leaves.

We're heading to PE after snack.

Tuesday, January 17

We're glad to be back after a long weekend. We enjoyed our day off, though.

We wrote our spelling words in our SCRIPTs this morning. Then Mrs. Johnson's class came over and read "Plants" on Science A-Z.

For math, we completed Math Magician and then rotated through centers. Center 1 was subtraction flashcards. Center 2 was counting money at our desks. Center 3 was money flashcards. We worked on the computer game "Powerlines" in Center 4.

In science, we learned about the job of leaves. They make food for plants by using air, water, and sunlight to make sugar and oxygen. We learned that plants don't need oxygen, so they give it off as waste. The interesting thing about what they give off as waste is that it's exactly what OUR bodies need!!!!! What our bodies give off as waste is what THEY need to make food! Hmmmmmmmmmm! I think we could be pretty good friends with plants! : )

Now, we're heading to PE when we finish our snacks!

Friday, January 13

This morning, Mrs. Johnson's class came over for some handwriting practice. We're about to begin the long process of learning to write in cursive. Carson was our good citizen this week because he has really practiced self-control this week. Way to go Carson!!!!

We worked on math centers today. Center 1 was to meet with Mrs. Bruno and practice counting money. Center 2 was to work on money word problems. Center 3 was to use money flashcards. Center 4 was to play a money game on the computer. We did really well. This was the first time we'd gotten to do centers since we've been back from Christmas.

We learned about stems today in science. We talked about the jobs of stems: to hold up the plant and to carry water and minerals to the plant. We talked about stems being different in different types of plants, but they all have the same jobs.

We're about to take our timed math test and head to PE.

Thursday, January 12

First thing this morning, we unpacked and made lunch choices. Mrs. Johnson's class came over and we talked about money and how to count it. We finished this week's Math Magician. Then, we learned how to use the money flashcards because we'll use them in centers tomorrow. In science, we talked about the parts of a plant. We highlighted the roots today and learned that their two important jobs are to bring water and minerals to the plant AND to anchor the plant in the ground.

We're eating snack now, and we're going to listen to some Gooney Bird!!!! Yea!!!! We're about to go to PE, too!

Wednesday, January 11

Mrs. Bruno has morning duty this week, so we see her before we even get to class. She's reading an "Olivia Sharp" book.

The first thing we did in our room this morning was to combine classes and work on number sense. We also reviewed subtraction with regrouping. We went to the red-hall computer lab and worked on a "soils" quiz and IXL. Our IXL skill was estimating sums. When we came back to the room, we watched a short George Washington Carver BrainPop, jr. We also read an online book about living and nonliving things. We had snack and headed to PE.

Tuesday, 1-10

We came in and did spelling ABC order as our morning work. Mrs. Johnson's class came in and talked about getting paid each day. We talked about how to earn and lose money. Mrs. Bruno's rule is that we are always to keep the fewest number of coins to equal our amount. That means that we'll often have to trade coins with Mrs. Bruno, better known as "THE BANK." We also learned what we could buy in our classroom with the money that we earn.

We had a special, unannounced visitor this morning. We were glad to see Dr. Hodge. She came and sat with us this morning for a few minutes to see how smart we were becoming!!!!

The classes helped to complete an "It All Adds Up" sheet. We like these because we really have to THINK to get the correct answers!

In math, we practiced our fact fluency, using Math Magician. Then, we looked at coins, their names, and their values. We'll begin counting coins tomorrow.

In science, we connected our soils unit to how we live each day. We talked about living and nonliving. We made a Venn diagram to compare and contrast living and nonliving things. Then, we made a T-chart to list examples of living and nonliving things.

Monday, Jan. 9

This morning, we copied our spelling words and wrote sentences in our notebooks. Mrs. Bruno rearranged our desks into four groups of five. We worked in partners to determine values of shapes in our Shapes in a Grid activity. We went to Mrs. Johnson's room and read our Storytown books. This week's story is "George Washington Carver." He is famous for working at Tuskeegee University (in our state of Alabama) to develop new ways to use the potato and peanut plants.

Today was also the day that we DIBELed with Mrs. O'Connor. Mrs. Bruno is looking forward to seeing how much our scores improved from the beginning of the year. We're about to head to PE.

WELCOME BACK!!

We're excited to be back at school. We started the day telling each other about our Christmas breaks. We told our favorite toy and why we were glad to be headed back to school. We shared our papers with our friends.

The class combined with Mrs. Johnson's class to do a KWL chart about soils. We talked about soil and why it might be important to us. We investigated worms and drew a diagram of them. This afternoon we'll continue our soils unit. What fun!!!!!