Valentine's Day

On Monday, we celebrated Valentine's Day!  We had a fun-filled day with candy, cards, and crafts!  We made candy necklaces, listened to "Franklin Says 'I Love You'" on tape, read Valentine's Day books, completed a puzzle shaped like a heart, created Valentine's butterflies, and read the Valentine's from our friends. Please enjoy the pictures below.

Awesome Addition!

Believe it or not, these Kindergartners are learning to add! (We have such a wonderful and smart class!) During Math, we have been focusing on basic addition. Together, we brainstormed different addition strategies such as: draw pictures, use manipulatives, count on fingers, draw tally marks, and use the number line.  The students are encouraged to use these strategies when solving addition story problems. For example, "Miss Barber had 3 cupcakes.  Miss Anair gave her 5 more cupcakes.  How many cupcakes does Miss Barber have now?"  In class, a teacher will orally tell an addition story problem.  Students work with their Elbow Buddy to write the equation and answer on their whiteboards.

This past week, we also learned a great new game called "Double Compare," in Math Investigations!   In this game, students worked in pairs and each student had a deck of cards.  Both students flipped two cards over and added the numbers together.  The partner who had the higher sum took all four cards.  The game ended when one partner won all the cards in both decks!  This game is based off a previous game called "Compare."  In Compare, students only flipped over one card each and the student who had the higher card collected both cards.

Second Semester Awards Ceremony

Today we held our Awards Ceremony for the Second Semester.  All of our students have been working very hard and we are so proud of each and every one of them.  We had several parents come to enjoy the ceremony: Mrs. Archer, Mrs. Bruzos, Ms. Garnes, Mrs. Gjoka, Mrs. Gopal, Mrs. Hartigan, Ms. LaHaise, Mrs. Leitch, Mrs. Gopal, Mrs. Gjoka, and Mrs. Pennywitt! Below are some pictures of the ceremony:

The Citizenship Award is given to students who always follow classroom and school rules.

Citizenship Award

Citizenship Award

The All E's Honor Roll Award is given to students who made E's in  Communication, Math, and Behavior.

Perfect Attendance

Our Soaring Eagles!  It is always difficult for us to only pick two Soaring Eagles because everyone in our room is very deserving!  However, we chose these two students because they always participate in class activities, they  take pride in their work, and they are wonderful friends to everyone in our class.

Gravity

On Friday, students experienced gravity!  First, they brainstormed many things that can fall.  Miss Anair shared her skydiving adventure and Miss Barber demonstrated how things can fall and hit you on the head! Ouch!  We were very impressed by the answers our students gave us!

Next, students were able to explore gravity by playing a game called "Keep it Up."  Students worked with their small table groups to keep a balloon in the air.  They were only allowed to gently tap the balloons; they couldn't catch the balloon to prevent it from falling to the floor.  The children felt that this game was very fun, but not easy!

Then, students worked in groups to drop several different objects and compare which ones hit the ground first.

Which one will land first? The pencil or the tissue?

Although they are just kindergarteners, these students can tell you all about gravity!  Ask your child about the picture they drew of our classroom without gravity (many of them included Miss Anair and Miss Barber with their hair straight up!! AH!)  

Sparkle Board

Has your child mentioned our class's new Sparkle Board?  Every few weeks, we will choose four students' work to display on our Sparkle Board.  Our first students featured were: Riley, Andrea, Kathryn, and Ansley.  They completed a worksheet about word families.  The students were asked to draw a picture and write a word that belonged in the -un, -ake, -ip, and -ay word families.

MOJO Comes to CCE!

Thanks to Coach Bailey and many other fantastic educators at Chets Creek, Maurice Jones-Drew, a football player for the Jacksonville Jags, visited our school!  Students in third, fourth, and fifth grades were able to listen to him talk about living a healthy lifestyle in the Dining Room.  Kindergarten, first, and second graders watched the assembly on TV.  A handful of fifth graders were also able to ask him questions about his life!  Jones-Drew was an awesome guest and we really appreciated his visit!

Measuring

In Math Investigations, our students have been learning how to measure with non-standard units of measurement.  We have used cubes, popsicle sticks, and footsteps.

We are also learning how to compare measurements.  On Friday, each student in class was measured.  We will measure the students again at the end of the year to see how much they have grown!  It's amazing how much these little ones grow in just a few months!  We also are comparing the heights of the students to each other. Many of the students were surprised at how tall they were!