Our Dragon

On Mr. Wardell's November visit, he brought our class another amazing gift. He had flown to Billings from China and brought this fantastic dragon. The dragon was wrapped in a large box similar to what the stamps from last year came in. He told the children how in China many people hang dragons above their doors. The dragon symbolizes protection, that when you enter this place you are safe and able to be your best self. The children hung on every word. After his visit, we hung our dragon exactly where Mr. Wardell said. Thank you for the incredible, unique gift.

Just Like Sid

Wow, does this episode look familiar!  Watch this 'Sid the Science Kid' clip.  How does it compare to what we observed with our pumpkin?

Meet Lizzie

 All for science....

The children were very interested in the science investigations we did before Halloween with pumpkins.  So, we decided to keep it going.  Meet Lizzie.  Lizzie was one of our class' pumpkins that we carved on Halloween.  Then, after Halloween we put her in a plastic container with some soil on the bottom.  In reading, we have been studying how things in our world grow and change and with Lizzie we had a real life example to observe and study.

Our experiment began on November first.  We had a  bright, orange, round pumpkin.  On day one we drew the pumpkin and made a prediction about how it would look in twenty days.

Next, we watched.  Lizzie has changed.  She grew some white fuzz.  The flesh of the pumpkin turned black.  Part of her eye collapsed and fell inside.  Her smile became quite droopy.  And, let's not forget about another significant change.....the SMELL!  Yikes!  About every three days the scientists recorded observations in their journals.

 At the end of 20 days, Lizzie is hardly recognizable.  Decay....one way things in our world can change.

Buddy Bloggers

We have added something new to the blog; individual student pages!  We will be using these pages as a digitial portfolio.  Students will be publishing their best work to their page.  On Friday, we learned how to login to our page, import pictures, and write a post.  Our 5th and 6th grade buddies came in to help us compose a profile piece.  This first entry to the individual sites allowed us to further develop our tech skills, publish some writing, and use our school's new Chromebook lab!

 If you want to see your child's page, first click on the Student Pages Tab at the top of the blog.  Then, find your child's name.  When you click on your child's name you will be asked to give a password before being linked to their page.  Please send me an email and I will give you your child's password.

Vote for Our Class

     Farmers Insurance is providing an incredible opportunity for Montana teachers.  In October, they set up a site that teachers could be thanked.  Then, the teachers thanked had an opportunity to submit a grant proposal for $2500.
     I submitted a proposal called the Linked Listening Library.  I have two file drawers full of books on tape.  It is so valuable for children to hear great literature read aloud and I love how with books on tape, students have to follow along in the book.  However, have you looked for a cassette player lately?  Nearly impossible!  I want to convert, replace, and update my cassettes with digital files; link up my listening library to the 21st century.
    The top ten voted on proposals receive the $2500.  Please help our classroom get votes.  You can vote once every 24 hours for the entire month of November.  To vote, go to the Thank Montana Teachers site by clicking here.  You will want to vote for a proposal.  You can search for my proposal by typing in Niemeyer.  The vote requires your email.  You can share the site with friends and family.  The more votes we get, the better!  Thank you for all your support!

Super Subtraction

We have been working hard on subtraction.  The students really understand the process of subtraction, we are just needing a lot of practice to become fluent.  Practice at home will only help.

ABCya has a fun online balloon pop game at http://www.abcya.com/subtraction_game.htm.  On the same site, there are a couple other games to practice subtraction as well, Math Match and Math Quiz.  If you are looking for apps, the kids love Math Bingo for addition and subtraction practice.  Another great app is Subtract and Add to 10.  This app works on addition, subtracting, and missing addend problems. 

Report Cards

  There have been some major changes to our  report card.  The marks 3, 2, and 1 do not mean quite the same thing as they did last year. 
    Last year, on the academic portion of the report card a 3 meant that your child was performing as they should on that standard.  This year, as the video above highlights, a 3 means your child can master the standard as he/she should at the end of first grade.  Therefore, on the report cards this quarter, you will see mostly 2's.  A 2 means your child has partial mastery of the standard and is making progress towards mastery.  A 2 for first quarter is "on grade level."  If your child has a 1 in an area, it means your child is struggling and needs support meeting that standard.  At conferences, we will discuss any scores of 1 and how you can help your child's learning at home.
    The "Work Habits and Social Development" section of the report card is the same as last year.  Students will receive G's, S's, or N's for skills like "following directions."  G means above average, S means satisfactory/ average and N means needs improvement.
    Please keep these things in mind when you look at your child's report card.  Report cards will
come home Tuesday. Conferences begin Wednesday and I am happy to answer any questions you might have about your child's progress thus far.

Perfect Performance

Nursery Rhymes on PhotoPeach

I could not be more proud. I think the Nursery Rhymes and Pumpkin Play Performance was a huge success. The children are so incredibly proud of themselves and I could not have asked for more. Thank you for all your home support. Your practice and participation helped tremendously. We could not have done it without you!

Unfortunetly, after two different attempts, I was unable to get video of the play.  If any parents were able to video...could you please loan me a copy and I will upload it to the blog so we all have access.  I would really appreciate a copy!  It would be nice to share the performance with friends and family not in Billings.

Stellaluna

We read the wonderful story Stellaluna in class.  Click on the title to see a fabulous reading of the book by Pamela Reed.  The story was filled with rich vocabulary and we added six new words to our word wizard board.  The new word wizard words are clutched, crooned, adapt, gasped, sighed, and plunged.  We put adapt and plunged into our vocabulary notebooks.

The Arctic Hare adapts to winter by changing his coat.

Stellaluna plunged from the nest.

Be listening for your child to use these new word wizard words.  Ask your child if they can define the words!  We are word wizards!

Play Prep

We have been very busy getting ready for the play.  Besides practicing, practicing, practicing, we are also building a set and designing our own costumes.

And, we made pumpkin bars!  Every good performance should include refreshments.  Together we followed a recipe and made the bars in class.  We even tasted tested.... this talented group of children knows how to bake!  Delicious!

Pumpkin Investigations

Thank you for donating pumpkins to our science center.  We ended up with five very different looking pumpkins.  When the students were at the science center this week they had to pick a pumpkin and do several different investigations.  First, the scientists counted and recorded the number of lines on the pumpkins.

Next, the scientists measured.  They had to measure the height in cubes and the circumference.  To find the circumference, the children cut a ribbon to fit around the pumpkin then measured the length of the ribbon.  There were a few surprises!

Last, we did a sink and float test.  Even though we had read that pumpkins could float, many of the students predicted the pumpkins would sink.  Some of the pumpkins were very heavy!  To their amazement, all the pumpkins floated!  The experiment was a catalyst for a really interesting discussion.  These six and seven year old's were on the verge of some huge science concepts and I just LOVE their curiosity.  Have I told you before, I just think these kiddos are amazing!

Word Wizards

    Many parents have commented to me about Word Wizard. Vocabulary is one of the strongest predictors of reading success. Word Wizard is an activity we have been doing in class to help the children build their vocabularies in a fun and meaningful way.
New and interesting words that we find in our reading or content area studies are added to our vocabulary logs and word wizard board. The children try and put the words into their everyday speech. When a child uses a word wizard word, they tell the class the context they used the word in and they get to put a sticker up on our chart. The children are trying to get enough stickers to earn a popcorn party.
     Hopefully, the children have been trying some of the word wizard words at home. I even have gotten a couple notes from parents that their child used a word wizard word. I love it.
Our first word wizard words this year came from the wonderful book, Ruby the Copycat. Click on the title above to see an excellent video version of the book.
     After reading the book and watching the video, we have been studying the words, coincidence, murmur, recite, loyal, bitter, and sensitive. We even added sensitive and bitter to our vocabulary notebooks.

Bitter

Sensitive

     Ask your child what all six of these words mean and see if they can use examples. Try and use the words in your conversations and see if your child notices. Please be listening for word wizards! I would love to get some more notes! Thank you for your continued support!