A New Playground!

We've been watching them build the new playground since September... since it's so close to our classroom, the kids were pretty sure that the playground was all for them...but, don't worry, we'll share! :) We couldn't wait to get out there and try everything out. The best part? There's enough swings for a ton of people! (The old playground, that we still use, only has 4 swings!)

 

Safety and a Special Guest

Last week we read the story, "Officer Buckle and Gloria". (I love this story... it's one of my favorites!) It's a fun book about a police officer who teaches safety tips like, never put anything in your ear and never stand on a swivel chair!

Throughout the week we talked about ways we can be safe doing our favorite activities:

And the ways we can be safe in the different places we might go:

To wrap up our little unit on safety, we had a very special guest stop by... Meet Mr. Hoyer! (Better known as Mr. Aiden's dad.) He works at Clackamas County Sheriff's Department and he came by our classroom to talk to us about the many different ways we can be safe.

Then... the most exciting part... we got see Officer Hoyer's car! Each kid got a turn sitting in the (very uncomfortable!) back seat. What a treat! He also turned on the lights and gave a couple of hits on the siren. I heard a couple of the kids say, "This was the best day ever!"

What a fun experience! Thank you Officer Hoyer, for sharing your safety tips! (And, the cool car, of course!)

IXL Math

I am pleased to tell you that we will be using a website called IXL in our classroom this year. IXL is a comprehensive math practice site with an unlimited number of math practice questions in hundreds of skills — all of which are aligned to state standards. One of the best things about IXL is that your child can access it from home, so you have a chance to see your child's progress!

To get your child started on your home computer, please follow these easy steps:
-Click on the IXL link on the right-hand side under "Links". Or,

-Go to www.IXL.com/signin/nclack.
-Enter your child's username and password and click Sign in.
-Navigate to your child's grade level.
-Find a skill to practice by doing one of the following:
-Select a specific skill to practice from the list of skills. You can place your mouse over any skill to see a sample question and click on the link to begin.
-Click on the Awards tab. Each grade level has an embedded game board with challenges for your child to conquer and virtual prizes to be uncovered. Place your mouse over any challenge to begin.

In addition to making math practice exciting, IXL is designed to help your child learn at his or her own pace. The website is adaptive and will adjust to your child's demonstrated ability level. The site also saves all of your child's results, so you can monitor your child's progress anytime by clicking on the Reports tab.

I hope you'll encourage your son or daughter to use IXL daily. Here's to a year of working together to make math fun for your child!

Spiders

In honor of Halloween, we did a full day of spider research. First, we read spider books with a partner and picked out important facts. Next, we wrote the new information on our graphic organizers.

From there, we wrote a spider research report. We also drew a picture of a spider... either alone, or on its web.

We also read "The Very Busy Spider" by Eric Carle. After that, we created our own "very busy" spiders. Each leg has something that we've been busy learning about and studying.

 

I was prepared for October 31st chaos, but the kiddos were amazingly calm. :) Our day was awesome! (Now, the day after Halloween is another story...)

Bald Eagles

We have continued to learn about some of the United States' most famous symbols. This week it was the Bald Eagle. After reading several books about the eagle, (and discovering all of the places where we can find this symbol!) we created our own bald eagles. They turned out so great!

Jog-A-Thon

We had our Jog-a-Thon fundraiser today! It was the perfect fall day for a run. :) Everyone did an awesome job! Go Linwood Lions!

Arianna shows us she ran 8 laps!

Thank you to everyone who supported us today!