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Although I am a little late... it was Sunday, September 8th.  I could not let Grandparents Day go by without reading books about Grandmas & Grandpas and celebrating Grandparents. My Grandma is 92 years old and one of my favorite people in the world.  (I've included a picture of me and my Grandma below.  :)

Enjoy the slideshow of the students telling why their Grandparents are the best in the world!!
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My Grandma, Josephine Finocchiaro.

Learning about the Five Senses and describing things has been a ton of fun!! The kids had a slow start with 'taste' last week... I received answers like, "good, bad or lemon." haha I'm not quite sure where the lemon came from, but as soon as one student said it. Everyone said it! :)

The Tongue
                                                           
Yesterday the students did a taste test with pretzels and pudding. 
Here are the comments I received:
Pretzels~ salty, crunchy and hard. Then there are my favorite answers... VERY VERY Salty and horrible. haha
Pudding~ cold, sweet, vanilla, milk, banana, lemon, sugar and creamy. (The pudding was Vanilla pudding. Some students swore there had to be banana and lemon in it... I didn't taste those two flavors, nor did Ms. Godbold. But they were adamant that the flavor was in there. )

Today we did a taste test with Granny Smith Apples and Bitter- Sweet Chocolate.
Apples~ cold, sour, juicy and crunchy. 
Chocolate~ crunchy, cold and a little sweet. We learned the term bitter. :) Then my favorite answer that a student yelled out across the room, "HORRIBLE! That ain't real chocolate."  haha


Today's lesson with the apples and chocolate helps lead us into Thursday's Science lesson. :) Just because it looks like something you've seen before... doesn't mean it's exactly what you think.

**Please share the video's on the Blog with your child. We are unable to watch the Science Video's this week. :(

Resources for this week are: Music(Mon), Art (Tues) and P.E. (Wed). Wednesday is an Early Release Day. (If you plan on surprising your child at lunch time. Please be aware that lunch is at 9:40.)  Friday we are having Hat Day! The hat needs to be in your child's backpack. We are only able to wear them in the classroom and outside at Recess.  :)

Below is what we will be focusing on this week:
Reading: We will continue to discuss Characters and Setting. Wednesday the children will be assessed on this skill by completing a cut and glue activity. (Gluing the pictures under the correct heading: Characters or Setting.  We will also continue to see how illustrations help support the Author's words and allow us to understand the events in the story. We will read three different Walter the Farting Dog books and watch a Youtube video on a different Walter book. (The video is below.) We will continue to review the letters of the alphabet (names and sounds). We will  review last week's sight words on the Word Wall and we will discuss the following Sight Words: I, it, one, two. Students will be practicing Partner Reading and Big Book Reading. They will be asked to find color words and Sight Words in their books. When reading books at home to your child, please ask them these questions: "How did the illustration help support the author's words? What sight words can you find in the text?" **I will not send home the Sight Word Money for the new sight words until the end of the week. Also, I noticed that last weeks words had the word in. You may practice that word with your child, but that word will not be assessed this quarter. **
                           

Writing: We will continue to focus our thoughts into one idea and write a story about it. We will be reviewing "take a risk" and adding settings to our pictures. We will also review that during writing time the students have free movement (they do not need to do finger signals when working at the tables) and what they should do if they need help (ask a few neighbors at their table, before they ask the teacher). We will discuss that ALL students are Authors and Illustrators! They just need to draw and write about things that they know. :) Plus they need to remember that they can learn from their neighbors and from Share Time. When drawing pictures with your child at home, continue to stress details are important when drawing people and when drawing settings.  When the drawing is completed, have your child tell you a story about the picture. If they begin telling you a "This is" story. (Ex. "This is the beach. This is me. This is my castle. This is the sky.") Ask them if Authors write stories that way and then tell them a story about their picture. Once you are done, have your child tell you a story about their picture.  **Please remember to have your child draw with a regular pencil (we call them eraser pencils in class) and add color details with crayons or colored pencils. I do not want students drawing with crayons, because they are unable to fix their mistakes.**

Science: We will continue to study the five senses. This week we will continue to focus on the sense of taste. We will discuss foods that taste salty, sweet, bitter and spicy. We will taste test a few different treats and describe them.  (I can't wait to see the cute faces the kids make!) We will also use the five senses to describe different substances when they look similar. The substances will be flour, sugar, salt and white cake mix.
Here are a few video's that we will be watching in class to get us excited. :)
                                           

Math: We will continue to work on number sense. We are working on 1-1 when we count objects and draw them. We will also be discussing, "Without recounting... If I add one more,  how many objects do we have now?" Every day students will complete a number writing and counting math sheet. **Because of Wednesday's early dismissal time, we will not be having a Math lesson that day.**


Shop Online for books at Scholastic Reading Club!

Encouraging reading is one of the most important things we can do to help your child succeed. It can be tough finding the right books to keep them interested, which is why I am so excited that our class will be participating in Scholastic Reading Club this school year.

At Open House everyone received Scholastic Book Flyers. Look through all of them! When you decide what books you want to order: You can go online or fill out the order form on the back of the flyer and send it to school with cash or check. As long as we have a good response to ordering books... your child will bring home Reading Club flyers every month. :)  If you have any questions about Scholastic Book Clubs or ordering, please contact me by email.


If This Is Your First Time Ordering Online:
 REGISTER at https://clubs2.scholastic.com and ENTER the Class Activation Code: GLPLP

Orders are due by Sunday, September 22.

We had another FANTASTIC Friday!!
We began the day singing and dancing to all of our Music. (We had a teacher visit our room and she LOVED the class. She said the students were the sweetest, most well behaved class she has seen this school year. :) It meant the world to me!! )   Then we read the book The Recess Queen and the class did an amazing job discussing Characters, Setting and Events!  After Lunch we visited the school's Media Center and we got to borrow books. The students were a little bummed when I told them the books had to stay at school, but once I said they could use the books for Partner Reading... I received a ton of smiles. :) We made a journal entry in our Interactive Math Journal and we ended the day taste testing in Science. (I couldn't wait until Monday for taste testing... it's Fun Friday and we had to make it extra FUN! )

In between all of this, pictures were taken. :) Enjoy the pictures from Sports Day!!
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The winners of the Candy Containers are... 

Jayden for the Hershey Kisses  and Santana for the Peanut Butter Cups!
(When they realized they had won and would get to eat them... they became very hungry!!)

 
                           


Jayden's guess was super! He was only off by ten... the actual amount was 125.
Santana's guess was PERFECT! He guessed the actual amount in the container, 60... WOW!!

Thanks to everyone for participating in the guessing. :)

I wanted to say "thank you" to all the Parents that were able to come to Open House tonight. I also need to congratulate the kids on their behavior. They all did an amazing job working and reading while we discussed all the school information. They were FANTASTIC!! 
We made a class decision earlier today: all the kids that came tonight and behaved like super students would receive a Treasure Box. So in the morning... all the kids that came will be receiving a toy! :) We will also figure out who the winners of the candy containers are. I can't wait to see what great guessers you all were!!
  

Hope everyone enjoyed their child's pictures. I thought the pictures were so cute... that I went on Smilebox and made a Slideshow.  
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