November 25, 2009

Only one month until YOU-KNOW-WHAT!

Mr. Heidebrecht asked all teachers to remind parents that ALL children need to come dressed for the weather. Right now, that means coats and boots at a minimum. They should also have a way to keep their heads dry: hoods or umbrellas.

Please, please, please, have your child also bring indoor shoes EVERY DAY. Sitting in boots all day is not healthy. It's especially not healthy when the boots get full of water and the choice is sitting in wet boots or nothing.

Thanks to those of you who send your child properly dressed each day.

NOTE: If you do not have jackets, boots, shoes, or other necessities for your child, we have fund for that. Let me know what you need. All the kids at Gibsons Elementary deserve to be warm, dry, and healthy, even in rainy weather.

November 20, 2009

Today we celebrated Jessica's birthday with cupcakes she brought.

We also got to practice on the stage for our Christmas concert.

November 19, 2009

Today we talked about how people and animals prepare for winter. You can extend this conversation with your child by pointing out what you are doing to get ready. You can also note changes in nature that you see together.

Tomorrow we have a full day of school.

November 18

Tomorrow will also be an early dismissal day.

If you haven't seen the book sale in the Library, do stop in. There are some wonderful books and the library gets credit for the books sold, so the school benefits by being able to buy new books as well.

Be sure to check the planner pocket for the red notice about the costumes we'll need for the Christmas concert. There's a need for helpers, so if you are inclined toward the arts or are good at crafts, this could be your moment to shine.

November 17, 2009

Grade One is a time to set a good foundation for life-long reading. Much of the day is given to reading activities. Hearing a story is still a great way to develop reading skills. During story time, children hear language used by some of the world's best writers, see illustrations by professional artists, and are challenged to think about literature or stretched in their knowledge of the world.

Your story times at home also build that foundation. Although it's important for your child to read, it's still important that you read to your child.

Wednesday and Thursday this week, students will be dismissed at 1:35 so teachers can meet with parents. The schedule is posted outside the classroom door, and your interview time is in the planner.

Nov. 12, 2009

The Primary Team at Gibsons Elementary is putting emphasis on mental Math this year. Mental Math involves using strategies like visualizing arrays of numbers. We use a variety of arrays to help children develop flexibility in building numbers. Watch your child for signs that he or she is using mental Math strategies.

November 10, 2009

We went to the gym for a Remembrance Day assembly. We listened to the school choir and band and to poems and a short talk by a Legion member. Then we watched a short video that helped us to think about the soldiers.

We wore poppies.

When we came back, we wrote and drew our thoughts. You can see what we wrote if you visit the bulletin board outside our classroom.

November 9, 2009

Did you get your child's Driting? It's in a special planner pocket. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

The children are writing their own report cards this week. I'm impressed by what a good job they are doing. I think you will be, too.

November 6, 2009

Today we had examples of good sharing: Things kids made or items with personal meaning.

A word about H1N1...

At the end of the day, I ask kids if they want a hug or a handshake. Some people have been startled to see this in the face of H1N1 fears.

The kids in our class will have washed their hands (and I will have washed mine) at least once before the end of the day. Anyone who sneezes, coughs, or even puts his or her hands near a nose is asked to wash right away. That said, if you would rather I not shake hands with your child, please let me know and we will make another arrangement.

You should also know that our custodians are more diligent than usual in cleaning classroom surfaces daily. We even had our carpets shampooed an extra time during our professional development day.

November 4, 2009

We met Baby Charlotte today! When she comes, we sing a her a hello song. Shannon brings Baby Charlotte around so she can meet all of us. We don't touch her, but we can smile at her.



Baby Charlotte has a special green blank to lay on in our classroom. We all stay off her blanket. Sometimes today she was on her tummy and sometimes she was on her back. She played a little bit. Shannon measured her with our multilinks. She is 29 multilinks long. Shannon says we can watch her grow.


We have a bulletin board with information about Baby Charlotte. Last time Shannon came we guessed whether Baby Charlotte would be smaller than, bigger than, or the same size as the doll Shannon brought. We made a graph about our guesses. Most of us thought Baby Charlotte would be the same size as the doll. She is bigger than the doll.

Baby Charlotte was in the newspaper with the rest of her family. We put that part of the newspaper on our bulletin board.

We are all looking forward to the next time Baby Charlotte will visit us.

November 3, 2009

Division 9 shows an impressive improvement since the beginning of the term. Everyone knows the routines and follows them well.

Our desks have moved. Now our desks make a big rectangle with a great meeting space in the middle.

Today we read Where The Wild Things Are. Then we played Wild Thing. Two players sit knee-to-knee and look into each others' eyes. The first person to laugh is out and the other player is the Wild Thing.

October 30, 2009

What a great day we had! We roasted the seeds from Vampire. We estimated them and counted them. Then we divided them among us. Everyone here got 15 seeds.

After recess we watched a presentation from Tricia Hunter who has had 24 surgeries to correct problems she has had since birth. She answered lots of questions.

You can see part of Tricia's presentation here. (It might take a minute to load. Be patient.)

In the afternoon, we joined four other classes for lots of Hallowe'en fun. Older kids led small groups around to activities like games, face painting, singing, dancing, bowling, drawing, listening to stories, Bingo, and lots of other fun things.

October 29, 2003

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!

Our class pumpkin, whose name is Vampire, is open and we are looking at his insides.

We are singing about pumpkins and counting plasticine pumpkins. We have drawn pumpkins and written Math stories about pumpkins.

Tomorrow we'll continue with pumpkins.

October 28, 2009

Today Shannon came to talk to us about baby Charlotte who will be coming to our class soon. First we had to learn some of the rules about what to do when baby Charlotte is in our class. We also guessed what baby Charlotte can do already and how big she is. When she comes, we'll see if we are right in our guesses.

One important rule is that none of us will touch baby Charlotte. We have a special green blanket for her to sit on. We will sit around the blanket so we can see her and she will be safe.

October 27, 2009

Today we worked on putting periods at the ends of our sentences. Everyone made some improvement! For some of us it was the first time to use a period. For some of us, it was the first time to try to write a whole sentence. Some of us wrote two whole pages. We get better each time we work in our Driting (Drawing and Writing) books.

October 22, 2009

Today we took magnifying glasses out to our tree. We looked at parts of the tree more closely and wrote about what we saw.

We are also learning that it doesn't matter how we arrange a set of items, the number of items will still be the same. The Grade Ones learned about the plus sign and practiced using it. The Grade Twos are working with bigger numbers. It's important to know as much as possible about how the number system works. We'll be spending a lot of time on that.

Here are some ways you can help with Math:

Play board games, especially those that use two dice. In a fun way, children will move from counting every dot to knowing exactly what a roll is worth.

When children are really comfortable with numbers to 20, you can use dimes and pennies to count. The motivation of counting money keeps kids working for a long time, getting lots of practice. Dimes and pennies reflect the number system, so they are a great set of tools. If you child doesn't really understand that a little dime is worth ten bigger pennies, you can play trading games until the understanding comes.

October 21, 2009

We made scarecrows today. Aren't they fantastic!

Thanks to the moms who helped us and to Donna who brought in the so many materials from her garden and told us what to do.

You can meet these wonderful fellows (and gals) tonight at Family Fun Night. That's 5-8 in the gym.

October 20, 2009

Tomorrow we make scarecrows. Today we crumpled up lots of paper to get ready. Just wait until you see the final product!

We will share our scarecrows with everyone at Family Fun Night on Thursday. You can see them there. After that, you can see them in our hallway and in our classroom.

October 19, 2009

At the end of today we had a very emotional chat about family breakups. Your child may come home with questions about adult relationships. If there is any situation I should know about, just put a note in the planner.

October 16, 2009

Grade Two students are learning to build numbers to 100 using special rods and cubes. In just two days we've made huge improvement in how quickly we can build the numbers because we are learning more about what the numbers mean and we can read them with new eyes.


Ms. Knecht's Grade Five class are our special big buddies. Big buddies come down and read with little buddies. What a treat that is! One on one time with someone they can look up to. In some cases, the big buddies are tutoring students who need a little extra boost.

Isn't Gibsons Elementary a great learning community! We are so lucky to be doing our learning here!


We are always happy to have parents come and help. Isaiah's mom, Amy, used to help in my classroom when she was in high school. Now she's back as a parent.

Any time you want to come in for a visit, just sign in at the office(in case of emergencies we need to know who is in the building), knock at the door (the door person will let you in, so you won't be disrupting the whole class), and join in either by watching or participating. If you want to volunteer on a more formal basis, talk to me.