It's the first day back after Spring Break and the last day of March. We went to the Computer Lab this afternoon.
We put birdseed in our birdseed holders today. The students all liked that!
We worked on letters and numbers. Everyone worked hard, even after being off for a week.
We have new spelling words to practice at home and at school.

It's good to be back to school and routine. We are talking about the calendar. Tomorrow it will be APRIL. Each day we practice handwriting by writing the day of the week. We see if we can remember what day it is, and check the calendar to see what we do in the afternoon. You might use the calendar I send home to preview the day and activity, to count how many days to the weekend, or to count to how many days until a favorite activity.

We read the book "Have you filled a bucket today?" this morning. School wide we practice the concept of "bucket filling," small acts of kindness to others that fills their (invisible) bucket. "Bucket dippers" are those who make us feel bad (bullying) by dipping into our invisible bucket.

On Tuesday there were yo-yo's in our language activity, WHAT'S IN THE BAG? Everyone played for about 20 minutes with their yo-yo and interacted with each other. It really was a great experience for ALL!

We painted empty coffee creamer bottles for a project on Friday afternoon.
Painting is an enjoyable activity that we all enjoy and participate in.
The paint had to dry for awhile so we worked on other parts of the project.
We will try to finish the project this week. We are making "birds" to hold bird seed.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Many children were dressed in green today.

We painted shiny shamrocks this morning in honor of the day.

TODAY:

• What's in the bag?

1. red and yellow and green and orange and purple and pink

2. chewy

3. oval

Jelly beans

• Number Identification - find and circle a number said orally
• Handwriting
• What day is it? What will we do today? What month is it?
• Reading News-2-You : Horton Hears A Who.
• Addition practice
• Reading 1st grade group new word: big
• Spelling practice
• K group - Letter Rr book
• Practice using touchpoints on numbers 1-5
• Language, language, language - requesting favorite stories and songs and Power point lessons in small group computer-led instruction
• Computer Lab - students followed directions to stamp shamrocks, count them, and type that number on their sheet.

Thanks for your support and encouragement.

Green Eggs and Ham

Most of us answered, "I do so like green eggs and ham! Thank you! Thank you, Sam-I-am!" (from the Dr. Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham.) But there were others who answered, "I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them Sam-I-am." They were fun to make even if you didn't want to eat them!

Each day we count to number of days until Spring. When we return after the break, we'll start the countdown 'til Summer!

This morning, Friday, March 14, classes from Ore Creek middle school are coming to read with all classes here at Creekside. It's pretty exciting when the "big kids" fill the hallways.

As soon as all the permission slips come in, I will add classroom photos. Until then....this picture is from one of our power point language lessons. See if your child says, "The ladybug is under the glass."



Today we practiced reading and spelling, addition using touchpoints, watched part of Horton Hears a Who, found hand sanitizer in the bag (clues: 1. clear 2. wash your hands 3. smells good) and had a great Speech/OT group.





What's in the bag? That's our daily language arts activity. It's so much fun in just a short amount of time. Each day there is something different in the bag. 3 clues are written on the board. Students help read the clues......and they are improving their reading ability! Often, one or more students will make a guess. Then we look inside to see if we have guessed correctly. I welcome items to put in the bag...see if you and your child can come up with 3 clues together and write them down and send the item and clues in to school.





Speech/OT group Our dedicated team of speech teachers and occupational therapists lead the group in the weekly song "Hi there, I see you" using each child's name. They also played a singing game that reminded me of "A-tisket, a-tasket" with a letter being dropped behind a student who then had to find it and run around the circle.





The group worked on making cards for Mrs. Hickman our school social worker. She had a baby girl on Saturday. Children were looking through magazines for pictures, using language to talk about them, and cutting and gluing. What an appreciated gift these cards will be!





Willy Wonka tomorrow...we are excited!





Here's something funny-


The blog site is restricted on the school computers (I'll see if I can get that changed!) So I can't view it at school, and today I couldn't even get to the posting site!

Time Change!

Spring Ahead! I think I have all the clocks at my house changed to the new time. I wonder if the clocks at school will be changed? Although it will be dark for awhile when I get going in the morning, it will be great to have more daylight in the evening. Be sure to send me a note if your child is having trouble adjusting to the change in time so that we can be aware of it at school.

We will be reading the Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hears a Who and watching it online this week. We will also be reading a current events newspaper, News-2-You, about the soon to be released animated movie with the same name.

On Wednesday, March 12, the whole school will be boarding buses to go see the play Willy Wonka. We will be talking in class about how this will change our schedule that day.

Thursday afternoon we will be cooking eggs (from the Dr. Seuss book, Green eggs and Ham).We will all get to choose what color we want to make our own scrambled eggs.

Friday afternoon we will be making a bird to hold birdseed. I'll post a photo from school.

Let's make it a great week!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

I am out of the builiding today at an Instructional Consultative Team inservice. Students will be following their daily routine and making a special March lamb listing "Bb" words they know. In the afternoon, our Speech and OT staff will lead the group.

March 3, 2008

Welcome to our first ever blog posting! Hopefully, this will be the beginning of many.



Today many students are wearing red and white in honor of Dr. Seuss's Birthday. We read part of the book, "Horton hears a Who" and we will be talking about the upcoming movie soon to be released.



This morning students practiced identifying numbers and they played "What's in the bag?" (Sean brought in a transformer to put in the bag today - the clues were 1. red and orange 2. feet 3. wings) All the students enjoyed it!



We practiced handwriting with the word Monday. Students are instructed to read the word and say each letter as they practice writing. I ask them later to tell me what day it is. It is important to know what you have written!



This afternoon we will go to the computer lab. Students will be instructed in the program Kid Pix. All students are doing well following these lessons!