We have had a good first week of school, welcoming back our students and sharing our summer experiences. We have reviewed classroom rules and are establishing the routines for how we do arrival, centers, jobs, quiet time, and lining up. The letter of the week was “A”, and we studied word families including -at,...
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We will be starting out the New Year with a Fairy Tales Unit.  We will be reading a selection of fairy tales and learning about some of the basic elements of a story: Who are the characters?  Where does the story take place? What is the problem? How is the problem solved?  We will...
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On Monday, December 8th, we went to the Cooley Gallery to see some of the abstract paintings and discuss what students saw in them, how they felt about them, and how they were made.   We wrapped up our Home Living Unit on Wednesday with Nurse Martha doing a tooth-brushing demonstration. Students chewed up red...
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We did a lot of exciting things last week. We had our first gardening class with Julia, we made “foamy” ornaments, and rediscovered the wooden blocks in our classroom. We also did some activities related to Japan, including stories, a “virtual tour” of Japan on Google Earth and Google maps.  The students also used Skype to...
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During our short school week, we worked on matching, sorting, and counting coins. This week students will learn the values of each coin, and adding them. We also did more abstract paintings, this time outdoors in the crisp, sunny air, using a palette of blue, black, and white to make wintery scenes. At the...
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Last week we wrapped up our Community unit, discussing the roles of community helpers like teachers, doctors, police officers, and firefighters. Then on Thursday, Firefighter O’Keefe visited our classroom, taught us about fire safety in the home. Students got to practice hearing a smoke alarm, getting out of bed, crawling on the floor, feeling...
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Last Thursday we went on a walking trip to Safeway to get the things we needed for our Harvest/Halloween celebration. Before we left, the class went over the shopping list, reviewed the safety rules for walking trips, and decided who each person’s buddy would be during the trip. At Safeway, students helped push the...
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Last Tuesday we went on our walking trip to the Woodstock Library. Our tour began with a review of what kinds of things are available to borrow from the library and what the rules are. Our tour guide also told a sort of scary witch story.  Then we were shown the different sections, including...
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Last week we did a scavenger hunt in the classroom for words that started with the letters A, B, and C. Each teams gathered objects and cut out pictures and words for their letter. They made a collage with the pictures and words, and shared everything they found when they were finished.  We plan...
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We have been reading and learning about different types of communities. We have learned about community workers, like police officers, firefighters, teachers, doctors, volunteers and more. On Thursday, the letter of the day was A, so we made fresh applesauce. Students took turns using an apple peeler/slicer/corer, then we put the apples in a...
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Last week we did a few special activities with our visiting teachers. On Monday, Mr. Lee took advantage of the sunny, windy day to do a sensory activity under the trees. On Tuesday, the letter of the day was “T”, so Miss R. did an activity where we put T-words on cut-outs of train...
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Last week we did a few special activities with our visiting teachers. On Monday, Mr. Lee took advantage of the sunny, windy day to do a sensory activity under the trees. On Tuesday, the letter of the day was “T”, so Miss R. did an activity where we put T-words on cut-outs of train...
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Last week we spent part of centers time learning reading, math, and other academic readiness software programs. As the number of the day gets higher, students are challenged to count up to that number (we’re now up to 20).  We did a fun activity for the letter O, naming, cutting, coloring and pasting various...
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Last week we finished working on our “All About Me” books and had them on display for Back-to-School Night.  Students also took turns sharing their books with the class. On Tuesday, the Letter of the Day was J, so Miss R. led a fun activity in which the students made jumping jellyfish covered in...
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During circle time, we have been talking about the letter of the day, the sound(s) it makes, and words that begin with that letter. On Tuesday we will do a special activity with Miss R for the letter “J” and jellyfish. We have also been talking about the number of the day, counting up...
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We had a great first week of school in Room 7!  We have spent the first few days getting into the basic classroom and school routines that we will follow throughout the year. When students arrive, they hang up their backpacks on their hooks, and put notebooks and folders in their cubbies, then they...
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This week we are preparing for our field trip to the zoo. We will be taking Tri-Met, so we planned our route: #75 bus to Hollywood TC, then Max Red line up to the Zoo. We are also practicing using the right amount of coins and/or bills to pay the bus fare, which is...
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Last week we learned about signs you see in public. We saw pictures of restroom signs (men and women), wheelchair access, exit, entrance, walk/don’t walk, stop, and railroad crossing. We also practiced staying in place in line, and walking in a straight line in the halls and outside. For gardening, we observed how fast...
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For Mother’s Day, our students all painted birdhouses, colored cards, and made gift bags. For Cinco de Mayo, we did a ring-toss game with Mr. Lee and practiced counting to five in Spanish: uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco.  Some of the students have been practicing counting and adding skills by playing Bonkers and Yatzee. During...
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Well Art Night was a big success!  We spent much of last week putting together the photo slide shows, adding music, and doing final edits in iMovie. Thanks to Mr. Lauer for letting us borrow a nice, big computer monitor to present our slide shows.  As with the rest of the school, our class...
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We have been busy preparing for this Thursday’s Art Night. Our photography project is going well, the students are taking lots of photos based on topics they have selected. They are fine-tuning their iMovie slide shows and selecting music to accompany them.  Each student will also display five prints in the hallway outside our room....
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We have started a “Home Living” unit, which will include topics such as washing hands, brushing teeth, tying shoes, doing chores, table manners, polite daily expressions, road safety, writing letters and using the phone. So far, we have been practicing washing hands thoroughly, and brushing our teeth after lunch. Students have also discussed what...
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