We enjoyed having a full week of school again after many 4 day weeks! Please remember that Monday is the last day to turn in Picture Day orders at school so they can be delivered before the Winter Break. After Monday, orders must be placed directly with Picture Day and will incur a shipping fee. Also, be sure to return the consent forms for the arithmetic study if you choose to have your child participate. Thanks.
BREAKFAST POTLUCK ON WEDNESDAY
We are looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday morning for our Fall Breakfast Potluck from 7:30-9:00 a.m. Click here (Fall Potluck) for the complete food assignment list. Potlucks in the N/K, Primary and Lower Schools are a Lab School tradition. They are a wonderful way to bring families, children and teachers together as a classroom community.
MOON ROCKS
Mr. Gunty, High School Math teacher, came into our class on Wednesday to share moon rocks with us. They were on loan from NASA and Mr. Gunty had special permission to borrow them. You child may have seen a similar presentation from Mr. Gunty in Kindergarten. We learned all about the Apollo missions, what the astronauts had to wear, the tools they needed, about the geography of the moon and the kind of rocks found there. Mr. Gunty also showed us an experiment using a pan of flour and a marble and ball to simulate meteors hitting the surface of the moon and leaving craters. The kids asked great questions! Be sure to see the classroom blog for a a fun video of the astronauts jumping, skipping and singing on the moon.
PLACE VALUE
In math, we finished up our introductory unit on place value. We will revisit these skills and concepts later in the year when we learn two and three digit addition/subtraction and work on making change. Your child should be able to identify the ones, tens, hundreds and thousands places and their value. He/she should also be able to read and write numbers with four digits.
MAIN IDEA AND DETAILS
In reading, we have been working on identifying the main idea and details that support it. Most of our work has been with nonfiction or informational texts. We have learned that the main idea is what the story or paragraph is mostly about. You can often find the main idea in the first or last sentence of a paragraph. This week, we looked for the main idea and details in sections/paragraphs of a book about gorillas. This was also a good way to build our background knowledge about gorillas. The children also played a main idea game. Each pair was given a bag which included three details and three possible main ideas. The children worked together to read the details and choose the best main idea. Ask your child why a "table" helps us to remember why details are important. Here is a hint.
KINDERGARTEN BUDDIES
We recently met our Kindergarten Buddies from Ms. Stowe-Grant's class. This year, the children will become kindness secret agents. We are calling ourselves the Kindness Kids. We enjoyed a wonderful book together called, Have You Filled A Bucket Today? and began work on our first mission. The children decorated bookmarks to place in random books throughout Blaine Library. We hope other children and teachers will be surprised and delighted when they find the bookmarks and then the kindness will become contagious. We will put the bookmarks in library books next week. Stay tuned for some undercover photos...
Our plan is to meet with with our buddies once a month for the rest of the year and to spread kindness throughout the school and beyond! This is a wonderful opportunity for your child to be a "big buddy." Be sure to ask your child what it means to be a "bucket filler" or a "bucket dipper." Photos of our buddies have been posted in the Gallery.
CHANGE 4 CRANES FUNDRAISER AND UPDATE
The cranes have reached the halfway mark to Florida and have traveled 569 miles. They are now in Tennessee!
We are getting ready to launch our Change4Cranes fundraiser before the Thanksgiving Holiday. We are asking each family to send in a sturdy container from home that we can reuse as a donation container. In our effort to “go green,” we do not want to purchase new containers and are hoping to reuse containers you would be recycling to throwing away. Some ideas include 24 oz. yogurt tubs with lids, oatmeal cylinders, plastic baby wipes boxes, etc. Containers need to be able to keep coins and paper money secure. We have Change 4 Cranes decals to decorate our containers. Please send in as many as you can. We need them by Friday November 16th at the latest. Thanks for you support. We'll give you more details next week! Please let us know if your child will be leaving early for the Thanksgiving Break so we can be sure to have his/her container ready.
Below is a wonderful 4 minute video produced by the National Fish and Wildlife Service describing Operation Migration's important mission. Your child could use this video to teach others about our fundraiser and why we are trying to help the cranes. Also, here is a link to Blaine 309's fundraising efforts in past years. Our fundraising efforts are not a competition (between students or between previous classes) and no matter how much we raise - every penny counts!
BREAKFAST POTLUCK ON WEDNESDAY
We are looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday morning for our Fall Breakfast Potluck from 7:30-9:00 a.m. Click here (Fall Potluck) for the complete food assignment list. Potlucks in the N/K, Primary and Lower Schools are a Lab School tradition. They are a wonderful way to bring families, children and teachers together as a classroom community.
MOON ROCKS
Mr. Gunty, High School Math teacher, came into our class on Wednesday to share moon rocks with us. They were on loan from NASA and Mr. Gunty had special permission to borrow them. You child may have seen a similar presentation from Mr. Gunty in Kindergarten. We learned all about the Apollo missions, what the astronauts had to wear, the tools they needed, about the geography of the moon and the kind of rocks found there. Mr. Gunty also showed us an experiment using a pan of flour and a marble and ball to simulate meteors hitting the surface of the moon and leaving craters. The kids asked great questions! Be sure to see the classroom blog for a a fun video of the astronauts jumping, skipping and singing on the moon.
PLACE VALUE
In math, we finished up our introductory unit on place value. We will revisit these skills and concepts later in the year when we learn two and three digit addition/subtraction and work on making change. Your child should be able to identify the ones, tens, hundreds and thousands places and their value. He/she should also be able to read and write numbers with four digits.
MAIN IDEA AND DETAILS
In reading, we have been working on identifying the main idea and details that support it. Most of our work has been with nonfiction or informational texts. We have learned that the main idea is what the story or paragraph is mostly about. You can often find the main idea in the first or last sentence of a paragraph. This week, we looked for the main idea and details in sections/paragraphs of a book about gorillas. This was also a good way to build our background knowledge about gorillas. The children also played a main idea game. Each pair was given a bag which included three details and three possible main ideas. The children worked together to read the details and choose the best main idea. Ask your child why a "table" helps us to remember why details are important. Here is a hint.
KINDERGARTEN BUDDIES
We recently met our Kindergarten Buddies from Ms. Stowe-Grant's class. This year, the children will become kindness secret agents. We are calling ourselves the Kindness Kids. We enjoyed a wonderful book together called, Have You Filled A Bucket Today? and began work on our first mission. The children decorated bookmarks to place in random books throughout Blaine Library. We hope other children and teachers will be surprised and delighted when they find the bookmarks and then the kindness will become contagious. We will put the bookmarks in library books next week. Stay tuned for some undercover photos...
Our plan is to meet with with our buddies once a month for the rest of the year and to spread kindness throughout the school and beyond! This is a wonderful opportunity for your child to be a "big buddy." Be sure to ask your child what it means to be a "bucket filler" or a "bucket dipper." Photos of our buddies have been posted in the Gallery.
CHANGE 4 CRANES FUNDRAISER AND UPDATE
The cranes have reached the halfway mark to Florida and have traveled 569 miles. They are now in Tennessee!
We are getting ready to launch our Change4Cranes fundraiser before the Thanksgiving Holiday. We are asking each family to send in a sturdy container from home that we can reuse as a donation container. In our effort to “go green,” we do not want to purchase new containers and are hoping to reuse containers you would be recycling to throwing away. Some ideas include 24 oz. yogurt tubs with lids, oatmeal cylinders, plastic baby wipes boxes, etc. Containers need to be able to keep coins and paper money secure. We have Change 4 Cranes decals to decorate our containers. Please send in as many as you can. We need them by Friday November 16th at the latest. Thanks for you support. We'll give you more details next week! Please let us know if your child will be leaving early for the Thanksgiving Break so we can be sure to have his/her container ready.
Below is a wonderful 4 minute video produced by the National Fish and Wildlife Service describing Operation Migration's important mission. Your child could use this video to teach others about our fundraiser and why we are trying to help the cranes. Also, here is a link to Blaine 309's fundraising efforts in past years. Our fundraising efforts are not a competition (between students or between previous classes) and no matter how much we raise - every penny counts!