Thanksgiving!

I was so excited about December activities and coming back from break that I completely forgot to post about our Thanksgiving fun!  We talked a lot about all of the things that we were thankful for and made a "pumpkin pie." We shared our "pumpkin pies" with quite a few friends and were able to be thankful for so many things. All of the kids came up with some wonderful things to be thankful for, and "family" was definitely included. We are all so thankful for the families that are a part of Room 112!  We read Turkey Trouble and learned all about cause & effect, and we worked with friends to find really big Thanksgiving words in our word search. We even played "Roll-A-Turkey" and were able to switch turkeys with another classmate. Some of our turkeys ended up looking silly, but it was fun to draw turkeys while practicing adding the dice together. A little math Thanksgiving time made learning even more fun.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. These next 13 school days will fly by and it will be Winter Break before we know it.  Until then, I will be documenting our fun December activities!

Stay WARM!

Newsletter --- December 2, 2014

Star of the Week -- Jeter!

Jeter’s facts:

• Favorite Color: blue
• Favorite animal: frog
• Favorite Food: pickles
• Favorite Book: Magic Tree House
• Favorite Sport: Soccer
• Favorite Thing to do in School: Math
• Favorite Thing to do at home: Reading

Jeter is a star because he loves to eat.

He shows others he cares by being nice.

3 Super Cool Facts!

• He was named after Derek Jeter.
• He is a super good helper.
• He is good at soccer.

Magnets!

We have been scientists this week and have been learning all about magnets. We learned about magnetic attraction, magnetic force and magnetic strength.

Since we are scientists, we are using scientist words instead of 1st grade words. We know the terms for the different kinds of magnets including wand magnets, u-shaped magnets, bar magnets, horseshoe magnets, and disc magnets. We also know that magnets can attract and they can also repel.

We used wand magnets to test several items in our experiment bags and found a lot of things that did attract to the magnet. We also found things that did not.

We also used our wand magnets to move a paperclip.... and we found out we could move it without even touching it, all because of the force and strength of our magnets!

We did a strength test and found out that magnets are strongest at their poles.  We were able to get 34 paperclips on the North Pole and 39 paperclips on the South Pole. SO COOL!

Today, we got to be scientists on the move. We each used a wand magnets to identify items in our very own classroom that attracted and repelled. Some of the most popular items included: our Compliment Can, pencil can, Workstation workboard, and our chair legs. Who knew that we had a science lab within our reach!?

We will continue learning about magnets when we get back from Thanksgiving Break.

Newsletter --- November 17, 2014

Junior Achievement

Last week we had Mrs. Petersen here to tell us all about neighborhoods and the many things that people do in a neighborhood. We learned about needs vs. wants, goods vs. services, and that we have to work hard in order to graduate high school and get a job.

We had so much fun!