Answering The Call To Duty

Our new President has challenged Americans to volunteer in their communities. We discussed what this means with our class. Some students already help others: Tyler mows the lawn for his neighbor and Sande reshelves books as a Pablo Creek Library helper. One way we can all pitch in is by working at the Chets Creek Saturday Mornings Campus Clean Up. This can be a family activity. Dates for 2009 include January 31, February 28, March 21, April 25, and May 30. Read The Connection for times and additonal information.

By Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Metzger

Just in time for the Chinese New Year...

As our unit on China draws to a close, the children have the opportunity to earn some Social Studies extra credit. Our students were encouraged to make a 4 minute presentation to their classmates about the Chinese culture. Many kids wore traditional Chinese dress, others brought delicious food to share, we had a PowerPoint presentation, a timeline of the many dynasties and their contributions, a diorama, and much more. It was a learning experience for all of us!
By Mrs. Metzger

Who Knew Sedimentary Rocks Were So Delicious?

As teachers we know that letting children experience or create something is the best way to make their learning meaningful. While teaching about sedimentary rocks, we found this recipe for a cookie bar that clearly shows the different layers through the glass baking dish. Once again our readers followed directions and worked together as a group. Each step of the process was recorded in their science journal, then diagams and observations were written.
By Mrs. Morrs

Taking a break for fun

As we prepare for winter break, it's nice to take a day to have some fun and enjoy being with our friends. On Thursday we spent the day creating ornaments: a candy cane reindeer, a mitten - wreath - or tree, a paper clip angel, we made cards and snowflakes, then we read a book called Stranger in the Woods and created a snowman out of a sock! We revealed our Secret Santa identity to everyone's surprise, and we danced to a DJ as we dipped treats into the chocolate fountain. Everyone in our class was happy and everyone behaved. We work so hard that it's important for us to take some time and enjoy ourselves and our friends. My only regret is that we forgot a camera!
Happy Holidays to all from the M&M's!

December Holidays

What a perfect time of the year to learn about the many cultures represented in our classroom. Yesterday we enjoyed latkes, jelly doughnuts, candy dreidles, and lighting a menorah. We read books about Hannukkah and listened as Rachel, Sarah, Sande, and Tyler shared some family traditions. In keeping with our functional writing and reading focus, please take a look at this Morris family latke recipe.

Potato Pancakes

2 eggs 2Tbsp. flour

1/2 small onion 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt 3 Cups raw cubed potatoes

Put eggs, onion, salt, flour, baking powder, and 1/2 cup of potato cubes into blender container.Cover and process at grate until potatoes have gone throught the blades. Stop blender and add remaining potatoes; cover and process at chop until all potato cubes have passed through processing blades. Use rubbern spatula to help guide potatoes to blades. Do not overblend! Spray griddle or pan with cooking spray. Pour potato batter as you would pancake batter and flip when the edges turn brown. Serve warm with applesauce or sour cream.

By Mrs. Morris

Oreo Cookie Turkeys

Supplies: Oreo Cookies, White Icing, Malted Milk Balls, Candy Corn, Cinnamon Red Hot Candies
Directions: Open the Oreo cookie and apply a generous amount of icing to both sides. Stand one half of the cookie up in the icing of the other half. Place the malted milk ball in the middle and fan out the candy corn across the vertical cookie half to resemble feathers. Dab a little bit of icing on the red hot and apply it to the malted milk ball to make a turkey's waddle.
Enjoy your delicious creation!

Reader's Theater: Soccer Field

On Election Day our class read a play about a group of kids that recently learned that their soccer field was going to be turned into a movie theater. They banned together to petition the city leaders to build the theater someplace else and spare their field.

We used this play to improve our fluency. First, we read through the play and decided who would read each part. Then we read it again paying close attention to the ending marks and trying to put emotion into our voices. This video will show you the final reading of our story. The students' fluency really improved and they read it over a minute faster!

Re-reading is a wonderful strategy!

By Mrs. Metzger