Valentine's Day 2009

Happy Valentine's Day! Each student made a valentine holder for their February family project. They were adorable and so creative! We enjoyed a day of friendship together on Friday. We missed our friends Vincent, Connor, and Jacob. Ivy Grace was enjoying her birthday at Disney World. We made a parent Sweetheart gift, shared some snacks, and enjoyed looking over our friendship cards. Thank you to everyone for making this a day to remember. Enjoy the long weekend in honor of President's Day. See you on Tuesday.

100 days smarter!

Can you believe we have been in school for 100 days? During calendar math we discuss the date, come up with various ways to make the day's number, and practice our place value while anticipating the 100th day. We celebrated by counting while dance/exercise, skip counting by 2s and 5s, and even making patterns by coloring our names. We made hats with 100 dots, created a special mix out of 100 yummy pieces of our favorite snacks, and wrote about what we would do with $100. The most popular response was "buy Webkinz" so if you are looking for a special present to let your kid know how proud you are of them or an "I love you Valentine's Day treat"-you can't go wrong with a Webkinz. Our day ended with "Do you think you can get to the center of a Tootsie Pop in 100 licks?" I couldn't help but chuckle when remembering that Mr. Owl cartoon commercial where he is asked about how many licks to the center of a Tootsie Pop from when I was a kid. 1,2,3 crunch...3 You know the one. :)It was great fun to count and see their faces. All but 2 thought we could but after the 100 licks...no one did. Thank you for sharing your children with me for 100 days. We have so much more to do in the 80 days left before summer vacation. :)

Wild, wild West day 2009

Congratulations to Rich West, Cypress Creek Elementary Teacher of the Year. The whole school celebrated by dressing up western for the day to surprise our fabulous art teacher. Our class made a special book letting him know just how special we think Mr. West is to us all! YEEHAW!!

Year of the Ox- Happy Chinese New Year

Family Snowman projects

We read the book Snowballs in class and the students were asked to decorate snowmen from everyday material laying around the house. Families were encouraged to work together for the final product. They were cute! Thank you for your time. I hope your family had as much making them as we had listening to the story behind them.

Where were you?

Where were you as the 44th President of the United States took the Oath of Office? I was sharing the moment with my first grade class. It was our lunch time but we came back to the classroom and celebrated this historic moment together.We watched as the past presidents took their seats. We talked about the crowd of people gathered in Washington D.C. for this special day. After Vice President Biden and then President Obama took their oath we cheered and celebrated with red and blue Jello topped with whipped cream and patriotic colored sprinkles. It was a day for all to remember. Thanks to my awesome Yahoo group of teachers we even have a keepsake of the day. A teacher suggested each student have a picture of them reading the January 20, 2009 newspaper with the flag in the background. I must say they are adorable! I was so lucky to spend the day, and everyday, with the future of our country.

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.