It has been quite some time since my last post and I apologize. With 2 kids and all the commitments with school I have been so busy. I promise to do better. I hope all of you attended at least 1 of the Funding Crisis meetings this past week. Volusia County Schools are known for their fantastic education, programs, and sports. The meetings were held to let parents know how the state funds our county education budget. Dr. Smith, the School Board, and our teacher's Union, VTO, worked very hard to ensure no salary cuts or loss of teacher jobs. 13.7 million is a lot to trim from this year's budget and the proposed $37-$44 million next year is frightening. I am pleading with you to please write your legislators and ask them to make education a priority in Florida!
So what has been going on in the classroom? We wrote snowman stories and they are hanging in the hallway. We are discussing various addition and subtraction strategies. We leaned about needs, wants, goods, and services. Sometimes the needs and wants got a little confusing-don't worry we talked and they understand. I know what you are thinking, why didn't we have that lesson before Christmas. :) We observed some race cars in class and wrote about our experiences in our science journals. I have finished the DRA tests and high frequency mid year check. Check back soon because tomorrow is a day for the history books.

Jimmy Sawgrass @ Cypress Creek Elementary

Remember back to the Walk-a-thon in October. Our fabulous PE department takes the money raised and uses it to buy needed sneakers and sponsor students for field trips. They also use the money for school wide events like the fishing tournament under the Dunlawton Bridge and the much anticipated Field Day at the end of the year. This year they sponsored Jimmy Sawgrass to talk to the children about his Muskogee heritage. He was awesome! He taught the children words and showed various authentic skins. He talked about tradtions of hunting. He talked of a world without Wal-Mart and the using the woods to find the things you need. He even fired a musket so watch the movie clip below. The children really enjoyed the show and learned a lot! Thank you to the Walk-a-thon participants and contributors and thank you to our fabulous PE department-Coach Glover and Coach McLean.

1st week in December

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... Our room is taking shape with all of our decorations. Don't forget to complete your Holiday Family Banner to hand in this week. We just finished ours and here is the picture. We had a grand time talking about our favorite part of the holidays. It is so cute to hear from the little people what they find fun and exciting. I can't wait for each student to share on Wednesday. We had our pictures with Santa, thanks to FFEA. If you didn't get a chance to have your photo, they will still take pictures with Santa the 11th and 12th this week. We have so many fun activities to come so be on the look out for the updates and invitations to come.

By the way, your children are turning into pretty proficent "texters". We used the ActivExpressions to text in the "s" blend to words we learned this week (snake, slide, skate). We also took a practice math assessment using the Expressions. They did a fabulous job showing me what they know about addition and subtraction so far this year. That same afternoon we took the district math assessment and the class average was 87%! WOW we are so smart!

Text in your answers...

We did something Friday I just did not think would be possible at this date and time. As a state finalist for Teacher of the Year, our awesome Promethean ActivBoard company gave me a set of ActivExpression as a gift.
If you remember back to Open House and we used the handheld voting devices to answer the questions. These are the next generation of those voters. Children can input numbers and even text answers that are read by the board. Well I thought I would wait until after the holidays to bring out that capability. We were reviewing out weekly high frequency words, focus skill, and language arts skill-verbs and took a short quiz with multiple choice and the class asked when we would be able to type in answers and so we tried it. I can honestly tell you they amazed me! By the way I taught a bunch of 6 and 7 year olds to text!
I can add that to my list of accomplishments! We text in our names-way cool!, spelling words, and even words in the -ake family. They begged me to text in November. It was amazing! I wish you could have been there to see it! I am so proud of them and asked them what they thought. I heard they wanted to do more and this was the most fun thing they had ever done. Needless to say I see more texting in our future. Maybe you child can teach you how to text...

Shhh!!! Don't let the hunter know where we are...

With Thanksgiving around the corner we decided to disguise our turkeys so the hunter won't know where to find us. Check out the coolest turkeys in town... Our families did a great job with just a turkey picture. We heard all about the fun when each child shared their family turkey. Can't wait to dream up the Christmas family project...

Election Day 2008!!

Tomorrow the USA will make history regardless of which party's candidates are elected. We had our own voting in the classroom. I belong to a wonderful Yahoo group filled with election ideas. I decided 1st graders needed something important to them and so we voted on the Best Cookie-homemade chocolate chip or Publix brand. Each child sampled both cookies (I made the homemade ones from the Toll House recipe on the back of the bag) and cast their votes. Mr. Butler, our principal, and Mrs. Culver, our assistant principal stopped by for the vote. After submitting ballots to Mrs. Weir, each voter received a "I voted!"sticker.

You can see the pictures of our polling place. We talked this week about it being our responsibility and duty as American citizens to vote for the leaders of our country. I hope this lesson reminds them one day that every vote counts! By the way, homemade chocolate chip cookies won 16 to 6. :)YEAH!! Please check out the SUPER COOL search me toolbar below. I have pieced together some favorite websites for you to visit with your child. You will find our reading series site, some interactive math games, Spelling City, and our new favorite the Pigeon!! I also included the Promethean Planet so you can look around to find out more about our fabulous ActivBoard your kids talk about. Just click on the page and it will take you to the website so you don't have to type in addresses. I tell you the technology we have available is amazing and just think how good your child is going to be-we are only in 1st grade. Enjoy! :)

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50s Day!

Friday was the 49th day of school and we celebrated with an almost 50s day. We enjoyed hula hooping, a bubble gum blowing contest, drinking a root beer float, dancing, and making a 50 necklace. We learned the hand jive and got pretty good at it. We watched the candy factory episode of I Love Lucy. The class had a blast! Make sure to watch the new slideshow to see first hand the fun you missed out on. We had a busy end to the month with our pumpkin day. Each child "guesstimated" the circumference of the pumpkin and we arranged them from smallest to largest. Jordyn was exact! and won the prize. We scooped out the 298 seeds and I roasted them at home for the class to sample. It was great fun and we want to thank Mrs. Weir for helping us out! We celebrated Spider Day with Mrs. Garver's class visiting to make "yummy" spiders-our favorite kind! The spiders were the cutest and tasty. It is hard to believe it is November but we are eagerly awaiting Thanksgiving.