Storybook Character Parade

Today had to be the best Parade we have ever seen at Chimney Lakes!! There were a ton of students from Kindergarten all the way to 5th grade participating in it. :) Kindergarten and First grade students were ADORABLE in their storybook costumes. The Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth graders did a great job of showing off their vocabulary words.  (If you were able to come to school you know exactly what we mean!! :) AMAZING!!)

When you watch the slideshow you will notice some of the pictures are a bit blurry, but I had to post them because the kids all looked adorable. :) Also, the students walked around the school twice and pictures were taken both times.    (Thank you Mrs. Orr for taking the pictures during the Parade. Mrs. Pitts and I loved getting to walk in it and see the smiles of all the children watching the Parade. Not to mention the other teachers LOVED getting to see us. We totally made their day! hahaha)

As you watch the slideshow you may ask yourself why there aren't any pictures from the Fall Activities.  We were so involved that we didn't even think to take the camera out until the very end of the day. :( So sorry... fun sometimes gets in my way.  Anyway make sure to check out all the things your child made in their large Ziplocs and ask them about the yummy food we ate. :)

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ooh I almost forgot to thank all the parents that helped out.

 So many of you sent items in for the Fall Activities and showed up to cheer on the students during the Parade. Plus some of you even came back at 11:30 and ran a station. You all ROCK!!!

Library Visit with Mrs. Thomas

Yesterday Mrs. Noah Thomas came to school and did a WONDERFUL lesson with our class!! She gave information about the libraries in Jacksonville (we have 21 libraries... WOW!), read them books and poems (my favorite was The Monster Under My Bed!), did a few dances, made a craft and even gave them all special candy treat at the end.

Mrs. Thomas was amazing and the class adored her!! We aren't sure when she will be coming back to our classroom to teach us again... but we are hoping it's soon. Maybe a visit in December. :)  In the meantime, you can visit the Webb Wesconnet Library and you'll find her in the Children's Section.

Enjoy the pictures!

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Light the Night

Mrs. Pitts and I will be taking part in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light The Night Walk on Thursday, November 6th at the Jacksonville Landing. We are joining the team 

Kentrell's Crew!

Kentrell is a second grader at Chimney Lakes (and one of my former Kindergarten students). He is fighting Leukemia and has been undergoing chemotherapy. 

Please support us and help find a cure for this disease by donating to our Team.We can be found by going to this link and entering in our team name~ Kentrell's Crew. 

Thanks in advance for all your support!!

Week of October 27

Fall Activity Day on Friday!!
~ Safe Halloween wishes go out to everyone that will be celebrating the Holiday on Friday. ~

Our Resources for the week are: Monday- #1-18 ART and #19-36 MUSIC, Tuesday- ART, Wednesday- #1-18 in the classroom and #19-36 P.E. and Thursday- MUSIC. Wednesday is an Early Release Day. Thursday we will have a visit from Mrs. Noah Thomas, she is the librarian at the Webb Wesconnet Library. Friday is the Storybook Character Parade for K & 1 and the Vocabulary Parade for 2-5. (The parade is at 9:00. Parents are welcome to stop by and watch.) We are also having our Fall Activity stations on Friday afternoon. Thank you goes out to all the parents that sent in items to help make the day great!! Kinley S. will be bringing in Fun Friday Snacks for the class. ooh don't forget to say "Happy Birthday!" to Emily and Ryan!

**Continue to have your child practice writing their first name. We need to see the first letter as an uppercase letter and the remaining letters lowercase. Once that is mastered, begin the same process for the last name.** We still have quite a few students writing their whole name in uppercase letters. Please practice.

MATH

We are continuing to work on comparing groups. Our vocabulary is greater than, less than, equal to, more and fewer. Practice comparing two different groups with your child and asking them which has less. Then show your child one group and have them make a group for you that is either less than your group or more than your group. We will also focus on numbers 11 and 12.

ELA

(English Language Arts~ Reading and Writing)

The sight words we are focusing on are make, have, in and is. Our book for the week is The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams. We are practicing sequencing/ retelling stories that are read multiple times in class. Your child will be bringing home their retelling pieces at the end of the week so that they can tell you the story with them. :)
 Here is a video of the book.

SCIENCE

We will continue to practice sorting items by one attribute in different stations,. Plus we will make an entry in our journals about sorting pictures. Later in the week, we will begin discussing what matter is and the different ways we can change matter. Example paper~ fold it, crumble it, rip it, etc.
*We will not have Science on Wednesday because of our Early Dismissal time.*

Red Ribbon Week Activities

Red Ribbon Week is an important week to educate kids about the dangers of drugs, alcohol, and violence awareness. Our whole school will be participating in the following activities during the Week of October 27:

MONDAY: Wear red! 

TUESDAY: Wear silly socks.

WEDNESDAY: Wear your favorite hat.

THURSDAY: Wear a superhero shirt.

Read for the Record: Bunny Cakes

Today we read the book Bunny Cakes and we transformed into a class full of "Max and Ruby's!!" The class was adorable, everyone oohed and aahed when they were getting their noses and whiskers painted on. :) Then their smiles grew extra large when they were able to see themselves!!

Enjoy the slideshow, it has pictures of the students at their tables and during sight word work with partners. 

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Week of October 20

 

Our Resources for the week are: Monday- #1-18 MUSIC and #19-36 P.E., Tuesday- MUSIC and Thursday- #1-18 MEDIA and #19-36 P.E. Tuesday from 5:00-8:00 is Safety Patrol Night at McDonald's. The Patrols receive a percentage of all sales made during that three hour period, so stop by and order lots of food! Thursday is SCHOOL PICTURE DAY. Friday is a Teacher Planning Day, so there is NO SCHOOL for Students!! Enjoy the three-day weekend. :)

**Continue to have your child practice writing their first name. We need to see the first letter as an uppercase letter and the remaining letters lowercase. Once that is mastered, begin the same process for the last name.** We still have quite a few students writing their whole name in uppercase letters. Please practice.

MATH

We are continuing to work on 2 standards for comparing- MAFS.K.CC.3.6 Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than or equal to the number of objects in another group and  MAFS.K.CC.3.7 Compare two numbers between 1-10 presented as written numerals. As we begin the 2nd quarter the expectations for counting and number recognition increases. Our focus is counting to 50 (counting by tens also!) and recognizing numbers through 15. Car rides are a great time to practice counting. Try the new video we found for counting!

ELA

(English Language Arts~ Reading and Writing)

The sight words we are focusing on are up, my, so and be. Our book for the week is Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells. :) We will review the characters and settingin the book. Then we will discuss all the ingredients the two main characters use to make their cakes and give our opinions for who makes the best cake.  (I have a feeling quite a few students will like the cake Max makes for his Grandma, more than they like Ruby's cake. haha) Tuesday your child will be wearing bunny ears to show that our class participated in Read for the Record. Here is the link to find out more about the organization and a link to listen to the book read in English or Spanish. 
Enjoy the video's below! 

Go to this Nick Jr page to see the cartoon Bunny Cakes. :)

SCIENCE

We are excited about our science investigation this week! The students will be practicing their sorting skills by using different properties like size, shape, color and many others. The students will rotate through different stations and learn how to record their work.

Fun Run: Race Day!!

**updated on 10-21-14**
The Fun Run day finally came! :)
 The students were very excited!!  We were glad the run was at 9:00, because there was no lesson that could compete with the excitement that the students had for running. haha

The day began with all the students putting their Fun Run t-shirts on and then walking outside to the Fun Run track. All the 1st Grade and Kindergarten Classes were announced during Opening Ceremonies with their team names. (We kept it simple with Team Kindergarten.) Then all the students walked out to the blow up tunnel and a whistle blew for them to begin running!!! Some of the students are very fast! haha The students had 30 minutes to move anyway they wanted around the track. Parents even got a chance to join in the fun and go around too! (Check the back of your child's Fun Run t-shirt to figure out how many laps they made around the track. In case you are curious about the size of the track... 15 laps around is the equivalent of 1 mile.)

Enjoy the pictures!! 

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ooh at the end of the Fun Run some of the teachers got pied in the face. Our very own Mrs. Pitts was one of them!! She got pied in the face by London! Thank you Mrs. Barlow for the great photo and for the pictures for the slideshow below!!:)

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Diamond D Ranch

This was the best field trip ever!! The weather was amazing, the kids were great and we had a ton of Chaperones! :) We wanted to shout a very loud thank you to Mrs. Bolson, Ms. Alford, Mrs. Dumas, Ms. Fields, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jordon, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Orr, Mrs. Steele and Mrs. Hice. Our field trip would not have been the same without you guys!!!

(I am still receiving emails with pictures, so I will publish what I have now. When I receive the others I will write update at the top of this post. :) Then you'll never miss a photo!)

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Fun Run: Rise & Shine and EXERCISE!

We posed with our School Mascot. :) He's ready for Friday's fun run!!

 Today we had a visit from all four Fun Runners. :) BIG DOG, CAPTAIN AWESOME, SWISH and AQUASTAR!!! (The class was on CLOUD 9 seeing them walk through our door!) 

The Fun Runners had all the students Rise & Shine and exercise!! It was adorable seeing everyone do jumping jacks, stretch to the ceiling run in place and do pushups. It was just the right brain break, before we went to our Reading Centers. :)

 OOh I almost forgot!!! Every day a King and Queen is chosen by the Fun Runners. (It is the students who earned the most pledges the day before.) Well the Queen came from our class! 

YAHOOOO Great job London!!

The teachers had a contest too. We had to show school spirit for the Fun Run and... MRS. PITTS and I WON!!! We earned a gift card to Starbucks. :) (We will be using it the morning of our Field Trip, we will definitely need extra caffeine that day!!)

We also want to give a quick shout out to a few more students. They earned pledges last night too. Great job guys!

Alexia, Kian and Micah :)

Fire Truck Visit

The students LOVED Friday's visit from the Fire Department. The students were excited about their Fire House Subs hats and they hung on all the words the Fire Fighters said. :) They were a great audience!!

Enjoy watching the slideshow and seeing all the students climb through the fire truck!

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Week of October 13

  

Make sure to get all your pledges in by Friday, October 17. :)

Our Resources for the week are: Monday- #1-18 P.E. and #19-36 ART, Tuesday- #1-18 MEDIA and #19-36 P.E. and Wednesday-ART . Thursday is our Field Trip to Diamond D Ranch. :) Please pack your child a lunch for the field trip in the large Ziploc baggie. (baggies will be sent home this week) Friday we have the Fun Run at school. :) All students participate in the Fun Run regardless of whether or not they have received pledges.  Alexia will be bringing in Fun Friday Snacks for the class.

**Continue to have your child practice writing their first name. We need to see the first letter as an uppercase letter and the remaining letters lowercase. Once that is mastered, begin the same process for the last name.** We still have quite a few students writing their whole name in uppercase letters. Please practice.

MATH

Comparing is our focus word this week in math. Students will learn how to compare quantities and numbers as we explore this concept using a Fish and Clam game. Students will be introduced to the symbols (<, >, =) we use to compare numbers and we will use the symbols throughout the week.

ELA

(English Language Arts~ Reading and Writing)

We will continue to practice letters and letter sounds. We will review all of the sight words we have learned. **We will not send home any new Sight Word Money for a few weeks.** We will focus on beginning sounds of words. When practicing at home with your child, please correct them if they try to name the letter. We want them to make the letter sound. :) We will read the book There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves by Lucille Colandro. We will practice retelling the story using pictures to guide our words.

Here is a Youtube Video to see the book. :)

Here is another Youtube Video. This is a collection of video's that change the beginning sound of a word and make new words. (We won't be viewing all the video's this week, but that doesn't mean you have to wait too. Enjoy!!) These three letter words are called CVC words. They are spelled with a consonant, vowel and another consonant.

SCIENCE

Scientists use a variety of tools to observe and investigate. We will use balances to explore weights of objects. We will use to vocabulary to compare objects that are heavier, lighter and equal in size. The children will work cooperatively to explore tools scientists use! Check out the game on pan balances from Sid the Science Guy! Here is the link. 

Fun Run: Rainbow Mohawks

We didn't receive a visit today... but Mrs. Pitts and I both earned RAINBOW MOHAWKS from the Fun Run Team! :) (Shout out goes to BIG DOG!! Thank you!!)  The rainbow mohawk is just one of the prizes students can earn from receiving pledges.

Here is a picture of us with the rainbow mohawks 

and our PTA President Tia McDaniel. 

(She earned a mohawk too!!)

We had to do a special Peace Out pose, the students show a peace sign every time they see the Fun Runners Team around school.
Thank you Mrs. Glass for coming down to our room and being a great photographer. :)

We also want to give a quick shout out to a few students for getting pledges last night. Great job guys!

Jaiden and Skylar :)

Fun Run: Thankfulness

Today our class was visited by CAPTAIN AWESOME! He discussed being thankful for family and friends. Then he had all the students stand up and pretend to help him stay on his scooter. (They loved helping him!!) When the students sat back down, he said that he was thankful for them, because they were helpful.

Here are a few pictures of him with our class. :) Enjoy!

We also want to give a quick shout out to a few students for getting pledges last night. Great job guys!

Emily, Kinley S, Orion and Ryan :)

Fun Run: Fuel Your Day!!

Today we had a visit from AQUASTAR! :) She discussed fueling our bodies with healthy food. Then she played a quick jumping game with them. Whenever she said the name of a healthy food the students all had to spin around fast, but when she named an unhealthy food... they had to spin really S-L-O-W. haha It was adorable!!

Here are a few pictures of the class. :)

Storybook Character Parade

**Attention Attention Attention**

Kindergarten and First Grade have changed from having a Vocabulary Parade on October 31 to having a... 

Storybook Character Parade.

Today your child brought home a letter (pictured above) about the Storybook Character Parade. We are super excited to see the students dress up. (We are even thinking of dressing up too. :) We love to take part in School Spirit!!) We want to stress that you do not need to go out and buy a costume. Look through books and I'm sure you will find a lot in the house that can be used to dress your child up like a storybook character. :) (I went searching for some ideas and I came across the coolest blog ever!! The blog title is 'Hello Literacy.' Go to her blog through this link and you will see a ton of pictures of the teachers and students at her school participating in their Parade. 

If you have any questions please let us know. 

Other than that, we look forward to receiving the bottom portion of the paper informing us of your child's storybook character. :)