Week 21 in Review

Greetings from room 119! It was a busy week with a big, full moon! We were quite loud this week, and our school being short a substitute teacher in kindergarten on Wednesday had us hosting 5 kindergartners in our class. We learned a lesson in flexibility and Mrs. D. was proud that we were all so patient with the change in our 'normal' day (kindergartners and first graders).
Kindergartners were not the only visitors to our class this week. We actually had many visitors, beginning with Kaylee's big brother who came to read to us. He did really well in his 5th grade class and asked if he could come and read to us. He read us a book about Winnie the Pooh and Valentine's Day and did a great job. Now there are other fifth graders that are working hard in hopes that they will be able to come and read to us.

We had four "Star" students this week. Since Mrs. D. was sick on Friday last week, she pulled sticks on Monday so we could have "Stars" on the remaining days. We had fun celebrating our friends and they loved their books, cape and being able to work at Mrs. Doran's desk all day!




But the highlight of our week was a different visitor... one with 6 legs! We began our study of insects and much of what we did this week in reading and writing also centered around us learning about insects. We made habitats for our insects on Monday, but we didn't get to observe them until Wednesday because we were so loud. We learned that Mrs. D. means what she says, and says what she means when she asks us to control our volume. Hopefully this week we will be quieter so we can get more time with our insects.

Mrs. D. refers to us as entomologists because we are studying insects. We each have our own journals where we mark dates things happen on our calendars, make observations and record other things we are learning about insects.

We also each got our very own Insect Poetry Book. We have been reading poems from our books and illustrating them so that they match the words. We also are reading nonfiction books about insects to learn more about them. Ask us to sing the "Insect Song" that we learned to teach you about the parts of the insect.

In math we began working more with money again. We spent a long time counting by 25s to help us. Mrs. D. met with some of us to really understand what we need to help us count money. Some of us have difficulty recognizing a coin and/or it's worth. Usually when we know what a coins value is we are able to count change. Counting change is something that we should practice at home. A little practice will go a long way!

On Friday we had a special visit from Dr. Beattie who is a dentist in our area. She came in because February is National Dental Health Month. She did a great job teaching us about how to keep our teeth and bodies healthy. She did experiments with us and also left us each a smelly pencil, a toothbrush and a tooth box. She also left us some awesome books for our classroom.

After meeting with our fifth grade buddies, we came back to our room and got ready for our Mystery Reader. The last clue was that someone in our class washes and dries laundry and even folds it! It was Bailey! Mrs. Doran has decided that she needs Bailey to come and help her with her laundry (or at least teach her kids how to do all that work). Bailey's mom came in and read us a wonderful book and though we had a chatty week we were very well behaved for her!

As always, there is a slideshow below with many pictures of us (mostly from science).

And a few reminders...

*Tuesday is our Valentine's Day party. Please make sure that your Valentines and Valentine Container are at school Tuesday MORNING and consider turning in your $3 donation for the party if you haven't yet.

*Don't forget to send in $1 for bagels on Friday. We are now also selling Cinnamon Sugar bagels! Each sale helps earn money for our school

*If you have not yet taken the survey that Ms. Qonja sent you, you can find it by clicking HERE.

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