Awesome Thursday

Today we had our topic 7 math performance task.  We had the most fun art class today.  The class is making Polar Bears, and it's so much fun!  In handwriting today we learned how to make a cursive x. Then we played musical Fundations.  You have to listen to the music and if the yarnball stops at you, Mrs. Sullivan says a word and you write it on the Smartboard while your classmates write it on their white board.  After that, we did writing and we had to edit our writing prompts.  Mrs. Sullivan read us  "The Polar Express".  It was the best book ever! Then, we did wonderful writing to finish up our books.  Today was a great day!

By: Thomas and Sydney

Sulli!

Yesterday in math we learned about ink spilling on tiles and figuring out how many squares were covered. We had indoor recess and then we went to lunch. It was pancakes for lunch. When we got back from lunch we did handwriting. Then some of us went to Mrs. Shephard's class. When we got back we had snack. While we were eating Mrs. Sullivan read Hugo. Then we went on the carpet and Mrs.  Sullivan opened more presents.  After that we tracked Hurricane Sulli and it hit land! Then it went back to the ocean and died. Then we got  the the computers and played weather games.  We had gym inside our classroom. We played silent ball. Vincent won 1st, Ethan A. won 2nd and McCall, Taylor and Aura won 3rd. After that we packed up and went home.

By: Ethan G.

Party!

Today we had our holiday party.  The students had a great time rotating through 3 stations: making a craft, playing musical chairs, and playing bingo.  Thanks so much to the class moms for volunteering their time to make sure the students had a memorable party!  Also, thank you so much to everyone who donated food and supplies!

Holiday Party

Today we had a sub named Miss Becker.  In math we did division stories.  Also, we went to music and sang Jingle Bells.  In handwriting we did the m's.  Miss Becker read us a book called, Christmas Tapestry.  In guided reading we read independently.  In writing we did a writing essay.  We had a party today.  We played bingo, did a craft, and played musical chairs.  We had a great day!!!!!!!!


By Taylor and Emily

What a fun day!

On Monday we do awesome things like listening to music because we needed to learn more Spanish!  We listened to  Feliz Navidad and we learned what the words meant in English.  When we get in the class we do math then Spanish.  After that we have recess and lunch.  In handwriting we learned the letter N in cursive.  Then we sat down on the carpet and read, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins.  Today in writing we made snowmen that we will be doing a writing project on!  We played, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" in science.  We have fun on Mondays!!!!!!!

by: Lola and McCall

  

School on thursday!

Today we went to the fifth grade concert.  They sung and played with instruments.  In math today we learned division.  Also we read some more of Hugo Cabret.  In writing we wrote summaries of nonfiction.  In art we started a new project. We are painting polar bears.  We had a weather alert- Hurricane Sulli is getting closer to NJ!  In Fundations we learned about the open syllable and closed syllable.

By: Garrett and Aura

What We Did Today

Today we had a math test.  This chapter we learned multiplication.  In science we learned about tornadoes.  A pair of pants were in a tornado with money in them.  The pair of pants were found hundreds of miles away with all the money in it!  Today in handwriting we learned the cursive letter
q.  At snack time we're reading, The Invention of Hugo Cabret.  We finished our Christmas presents for our parents.  In wonderful writing we're making books.  Today we have gym!

By: Keith and Tucker  

Mrs. Labar

Today Mrs. Labar came to our classroom. She talked about honesty, trustworthiness, and peer pressure. She makes it clear to us that lying is not good, and making good choices is. She also talked about not stealing and asking people before you touch their stuff. "Dares are sometimes fun, yet other times dangerous. Sometimes dares can be fun! Maybe like when your friend tells you to say something funny, but dares have a way of going from fun to dangerous."  Pictures that are brought along make it easier to understand, when the point is not exactly crystal clear. Role play makes interactive solutions more understandable. We don't see her a lot, so we should respect her and what she has to say. We share our problems and temporary solutions, but Mrs. Labar always comes up with better ones, and because of that, she is the solution to all of our problems..... right next door!

By: Carissa and J.D.

Our School Day!

Today in school we had our last lesson of math.  We are having our math test on Wednesday 12/14/11.   In Spanish we learned the names of the colors.  In handwriting we learned the o's and wrote words with them.  For shared reading we talked about strategies to use when we are reading. We are reading a book called, Thank You, Mr, Falker.  We are split into 4 groups for guided reading.  In writing we are making summaries for non fiction books.  We are learning different types of storms in science.  In gym we are doing exercises for sports.

By:  Hannah and Zsofia

Weekly Update- 12/9

The students are doing a great job with their multiplication facts!  Thanks for all of the practice you are doing at home.  Now that we have made all of our flashcards, the students can keep them at home.  However, keep practicing those facts; we will be moving onto division soon!  Today, the students learned how to multiply in order to find the number of combinations of objects.  We will be reviewing a little bit differently for the topic test.  On Monday, the practice test will be going home for the students to complete at home for homework.  It needs to come back to school on Tuesday so that we can review the concepts in class. The Topic 6 test is on Wednesday.

In reading, we used the book, George Washington Carver: Peanut Wizard to learn about the skill of using background knowledge when reading.  We then continued to read, Ramona Quimby: Age 8 to practice these skills.  The students are continuing to read independently and documenting the strategy that they are using.  In guided reading we worked on using text features to help understand a nonfiction text. 

In writing, the students learned how to write a book blurb.  They looked at many examples of  blurbs found on popular third grade books.  They then wrote their own for the folk tale, The Lucky Charm which we read as a class. We also practiced writing a basic paragraph and using 5 strong sentences.

We are continuing with our weather unit in science.  This week, we learned about different types of clouds. The students created a cloud mobile and sketched the 3 main types of clouds (stratus, cirrus, cumulus) into their science notebooks.  We have also started learning about different types of storms.  So far, we have talked about thunderstorms and hurricanes.  We are tracking our very own Hurricane Sulli as  it makes its way through the Atlantic.  The students are documenting its coordinates, wind speed, and status (tropical depression, tropical storm, category of hurricane) and then using latitude and longitude to plot the hurricane's path on a tracking chart.

We have just completed our unit on schwa sounds in Fundations.  In Spanish, we have started to learn the names for the different colors.  In grammar, we discussed imperative and exclamatory sentences.  Starting next week, the students will begin updating the blog!  Have a great weekend!

Weekly Update- 12/2

This week in science we reviewed the different types of weather instruments by playing a game.  We then began studying the water cycle.  As a kickoff, we set up an experiment using a balance and 2 wet paper towels.  We placed one paper towel in a sealed container on one side of the balance, the other we left in an open container on the other side.  At the start of the experiment, the balance was equal; however, when we came into school the next day we found that the balance was no longer equal!  We had a great discussion about what caused the imbalance, which was that the water in the paper towel left out in the open evaporated. 

 

After this experiment, the students watched a video explaining the water cycle, practiced putting the steps in order, and then designed their own picture of the water cycle.  We will continue our weather unit next week.

In math the students worked in groups on center activities to review for the test.  We began Topic 6 and have started to learn more multiplication facts.  Keep practicing at home!

We studied the author, Beverly Cleary in reading.  On Monday we watched an interview with the author and began reading the book, Ramona Quimby Age 8.  The students each read a book by Beverly Cleary independently and completed a reading log describing the reading strategies they used.  Each day some students used the netbooks to research the author and the main character of their book.  We kept a class list of information we gathered about Beverly Cleary.

The students enjoyed this week of writing because it was spent in the computer lab!  They retyped their descriptive paragraphs from earlier in the year and worked to edit and revise them in Microsoft Word.  

In Fundations, we began unit 6 which focuses on schwa.  A schwa is when a vowel makes a sound different from what is expected.  For instance, in the word melon, the o makes the sound of a short i.  In grammar the students practiced combining and expanding sentences.  After learning this skill on Wednesday, they practiced it in computer lab when revising their descriptive paragraphs.  In Spanish we continued to review numbers 1-10.

Thank you to all the families that sent in food for the food drive!  Alpine School collected an enormous amount of food!  Don't forget to send in money for the holiday shop on Monday.  Have a great weekend!