Homework Binders

From now on, if I have something important to communicate to you, I will communicate it through the blog, wiki, or email.  Students no longer have to bring their binders back and forth to and from school.  Instead, they will be using their Friday Folder to take papers back and forth to and from school.

Young Learner's Showcase is....

Thursday, May 17th from 6-7:30. :)

Great Day!

Hello everyone! I've been completely slacking on posting and having kids post on our blog!!  We've been soooo busy working, we've had a limited amount of time to blog!!!!

Today, my daughter visited our classroom for Take Your Child to Work Day!  The class was AMAZING as usual with welcoming her and including her!! Thanks everyone!!!

We put our eggs in the incubators on Tuesday and expect to have our chicks in just a few short weeks!  We can't wait!!  Families will be invited to come in and visit our chicks before they are sent to their new farm. 

In math, we're working on double digit multiplication.  The kiddos have a bunch of different methods for solving problems-new, modern ways that most parents might not have ever heard of!  Try to be patient with your kiddo as they try to introduce this new way to solve multiplication problems!

We're transforming our classroom for Young Learner's Showcase!  If you haven't heard, I will be teaching first grade next year.  I'll be sad to leave my third grade colleagues and kiddos, but excited for a new venture!  With that said, I've chose to begin pulling apart my classroom during free time-some kiddos have even stayed in at recess to help!  This opportunity has allowed me to hang student work everywhere around the classroom!  It looks really awesome!!! It's all about the kids!!! I love it!! 

Can't wait to see you at Young Learner's Night so you can see the great work that the kids have been doing!  A flyer is coming home on Friday!  I don't have a calendar in front of me right now, but I'll post it on a future post!

Have a great evening!!

Another beautiful day!

To celebrate another beautiful day, our class went outside and worked on our vocabulary in the sun!  Students worked extra hard so we'll definitely be doing that again soon!

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Today, in our classroom we had a rooster and a hen.  We learned:

There are little tiny holes on the egg called pores.  -Paige

There can be lots of different colored eggs like brown, white, green, pink and blue. -Anna

The rooster did the cock-a-doodle-do 28 times!  -Niko

We learned that they breathe through an air bubble in the egg. -Chloe

We got to pet the rooster and the hen and they were really soft. -Noor

Jonathan's Crayfish Escaped

Today at Jonathan's house, my crayfish escaped out of it's container.  It was out for at least 10 hours.  It stayed alive!  We put it back in the container and we put it on the steps of our basement for a little while so it wouldn't crawl out into our bed! 

So busy!! Not much time to blog!!

Sorry, we're lacking in blogs this week!  We've been super busy!  The kiddos got to visit the "Ag Van" today!  Ask them about it!  They made their own lip balm!

Yesterday, we played spelling football outside.  Super fun!

Also, ask them about money dots where they each got a little reward before break!

Have a great spring break!!!!!

Love, Mrs. Smith :)

Students practice multiplication algorithm outside!

Students practiced the multiplication algorithm outside today-for a few minutes!  It was a little colder than it looked out there!

It's all about toilets!

Team Smith recently wrote informational pieces of writing about an invention.  The team voted and decided that Brady and Jonathan's piece about "toilets" should be shared on the blog!

Toilets

By Brady and Jonathan

      Coming up is a story about toilets.  I will tell you and describe toilets.  Then, I will tell you about different kinds of toilets.  Then, just a few fun facts.

     Toilets are differetn colors, not just white.  There is a toilet that was made in England that had 2 trays, one with a computer on it and one with a phone.

     These are different kinds of toilets.  There are toilets that hand you toilet paper and toilets that give you a splast when you're done.

     An average person visits the toilet 2500 times per year.  The average person spends 3 whole years of their life on the toilet.  Kind George the II of Great Brittain died of falling off the toilet.

Flowerific!

Today, we made paper flowers with different kinds of colors.  We put big circles on the outside and small ones on the inside.  We hung them from the ceiling to celebrate spring!

By Niko

Hiyori Brought Geta and a Kimono

We are so lucky to have Hiyori in our class!  She brought geta (shoes) and a kimono for us to see!  It was really cool to be able to see them in person!!

Suki's Kimono

Today, we read Suki's Kimono in reading.  It was about a girl named Suki who had a kimono.  It was her first day of first grade and she wore her kimono.  Her sister's made fun of her.  During school, she danced to a song that she danced to at a festival.  At the end of the song, her teacher said very good and they started clapping.  Everyone clapped.  When she was walking home, her two sisters were talking about how nobody talked to them or noticed their shoes or anything.  But everyone noticed what Suki was wearing.

By Paige.

FIRE DRILL

We had a fire drill today!

Archives Field Trip

We got to see a letter from Milton Hershey asking his Uncle for money because his business was failing.  -Anna

We had stations and answered questions. -Noor

We got to see maps and most of the stuff was paper or videos. -Niko

We got to see a map of what our school used to look like. -Trevor

On the way back, we stopped and had a snack and a drink!  :) -Mrs. Smith

Happy Thursday

Today, we enjoyed a relaxing movie in celebration of our completion of the PSSA's.  Then, we did some St. Patrick's Day crafts!

Reminders

Just a reminder that conferences are tomorrow!  Check the wiki under "class news" for the conference schedule! 

Also, our field trip to the Archives is on Tuesday!  Students shoe wear comfortable shoes to walk and dress appropriately, rain or shine!

We love lucky charms!!!!!!!!

by trevor and alex

today we had a graph and we used lucky chrams!!!

It was awesome we used a graph to see how  many marshmellows!!!!and when we were done with that we got to eat them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PSSA ARE OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

                                                                               By:Jackson and Niko   
finaly pssa are over! now we can do are normal stuff. Pssa are kind of fun but we had to skip some things we wanted to do like spelling darts,word masters and word  master junior.IT IS GOOD PSSA ARE OVER!!!!

PSSA'S :(

By Ariana & Paige 

 This week we are having our P.S.S.A.'S! Some people think they are fun, and some people don't. We love P.S.S.A.'S! They are really long though. That's what most people don't like. At least we get yummy snacks!

Everybody loves that part!

Almost everybody is tierd after 'em :(  

Snacks,Snacks,Snacks!

by Chloe & Anna

Thanks so munch for the super good snacks!

We've been super hungry because

of the P.S.S.A 's thanks again for the

(:snacks!:)

Beautiful day!

What a beautiful day it was outside today!! The class was so busy that we didn't get to blogging today! We've been reviewing counting money and making change this week in math. In reading, we put on a reader's theatre show with Mrs. Valoczki's class. We also started new chapter books! At conferences next Friday, be sure to check out their four leaf clovers with their four special wishes on hanging in the hallway! PSSA's are next week! Thanks to parents who volunteered to bring a healthy snack! They Monday morning and afternoon and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning. We'll be doing lots of crafts, games and activities next week to relax after all of their hard work on the PSSA's! Due to the time of year, I need to buckle down and increase fines in order to make an impact on student behavior. A few students were fined $100 today. I'm falling asleep typing! I better get some sleep! Lots to do tomorrow! Love, Mrs. Smith

Beetles are here!

Today, we observed the properties of our new Bess beetles!  This is what we observed:
It has six legs. -Andy

They don't have antennas. -Brady

They have a shell on their back. -Noor

It looks like they have three eyes. -Gracie

It has lines on the shell. -Josh

Seed Soak Revealed!

We weighed our lima bean seeds today.  This is what we discovered:
The bean soaked up a lot of water. -Alex
It looks like a regular lima bean but it's lighter in color. -Gracie
It looks like a mushroom. -Trevor
The beans do soak up water.  All of the beans together took up 1/4th of the water.  -Andy
The inside of the bean is white.  It's not like the outside because it doesn't have a shell to it. -Paige
It's very sticky and feels weird when you're opening it. -Anna
It took 12 small cubes to balance the unsoaked seeds and 54 to balance the soaked seeds. -Brady
When it rub it together, it makes a cool noise. -Niko
It smells horrible. -Noor
It has a sprout. -Niko
It does suck up water. -Sterling
The lima beans are huge when they soak up water. -Maggie
They have a smell. -Hiyori
There's nothing inside of it.  -Josh and Gabe

Students are too busy to blog!!

Students were too busy to blog today so I thought I'd post a few quick comments to let you know about our day!

Today, we did some assessments to check progress for math.  Just about time to finish up those report cards!

We used a scale to weigh our lima bean seeds, then we soaked them in water to see if they can hold water.  We'll reweigh them tomorrow!

We finished watching Horton Hears a Who.

We rehearsed a new Reader's Theatre!! (By the way, we LOVE to act!!)
And we painted flowers to decorate our room for spring!

Gotta go help clean up! 

Conference Schedule

Conferences are scheduled for March 16th.  Times are listed on my wiki, under "Class News."

First Auction is Successful

Entry by Mrs. Smith

Team Smith had their first auction today.  I would say it was very successful!  The kiddos were excited to spend the money that they have worked so hard to save!  Some students realized that they need to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE!!!  

Read Across America Day Rocked!

Entry by Mrs. Smith

Students started off Read Across America Day by eating a special breakfast from the cafeteria!  We watched Horton Hears a Who with Mrs. Huston's class.  And that, my friends, make up our whole morning...then it was time to go!



Tyrone is King for a Day!

Entry by Mrs. Smith

Congratulations to Tyrone who got the most stickers and got to sit at Mrs. Smith's desk and be "King for a Day!"



HAPPY DR.SUESS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Yesterday and Today we where Dr.Suess crazy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday we did lots of fun things.

To be pacific we:

1. We made hats that said...I love reading because, I enjoy reading when,

I think every body should read ,and reading is important.

2.We also took pictures of us with the LORAX MUSTASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:) :) :)

3.We played Dr.Suess BINGO 6 times!!! Also we played 4 corners and the desk game (your child can explain how to play this game.)Today we played more BINGO,a lorax play and a lorax writeing prompt. The writting promt was abuot what we would do if we were the lorax.

Well have a great Dr.Suess day!!! :) :) :)

Did you know seeds grow without soil?!!

We had been doing something  called mini sprouters. We did them to see if seeds would grow without soil. All the seeds did grow at least alittle. We threw them away though because they started to smell bad. But we started : THE BIG SPROUTER! We are using the big sprouter to see if seeds will grow with only  water. And so far a cuple of the seeds have sprouter. Now there are three levels on the big sprouter. The first level has beans. The second level has beans too. The third level has sun flower seeds, pea seeds , and corn seeds.

By: Gracie

Crayfish Parts

By Ariana & Maggie

There are so many parts of a crayfish! Like swimmerets, they can be short or long. Also on a girl crayfish there is a little spot called an egg pore.  A girl crayfish has long swimmerets. Boys have short swimmerets and no egg pore. There is so much more like both of them have long and short antennas. There eyes are tiny and black.

PLAYING DR.SEUSS BOOK BINGO.

Today we played dr.seuss book bingo.Some of the books she said I did not know.It was really FUN!!!!!!!!.Some  of the books on it were Hop on Pop, Cat in the Hat comes Back, Cat in the Hat, Kings stilts, The LORAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!The lorax book was really good.there was a guy who choped down all of the trees is name is the ONCE-LER.A other book was horten hears a who.Horten hears a whoo was funny.The kangaro almost boild the speck of dust.

BY TREVOR AND GABE

Sticker Contest Motivates Kids!

Entry by Mrs. Smith

Today, I encouraged my students to have good behavior by motivating them with stickers!  Stickers were passed out for kids that were following directions, staying on task, getting their work done and being kind to others.  Check out these sticker collectors!

And the winner is.....



by jackson and gabe.

So today we watched dr.suess videos! We watched sneetches they were so funny .Green eggs ham max was funny. horton hears of whoo was awsome . It is all thanks to dr. seuss.

Students pair up with Mrs. Huston's class to get ready for Read Across America Day!

Gracie as The Lorax!

Brady as The Lorax!

This morning, Team Smith paired up with Team Huston to get prepared for Read Across America Day!  We watched a few of the classics, Green Eggs and Ham, The Sneetches and Horton Hears a Who.  Then, we made Cat in the Hat hats that expressed our love for reading!  Finally, we took pictures of us as "The Lorax" for our Lorax event on Friday!

Read Across America Day

Posted by Mrs. Smith

Friday is Read Across America Day!  Students are encouraged to wear red and white.  We get a special Read Across America breakfast and will be doing a school-wide Drop Everything And Read!  There will also be a trivia contest-Name two books that Dr. Seuss wrote!  Looking forward to the celebration!





Do you want to babysit a crayfish?

Interested in taking a crayfish home to "babysit" it?!  If you think your child is responsible and ready to take care of a crayfish, please email me and let me know and you might be the lucky babysitter for one night!

Photo and blog entry by Andy

Spring has sprung! We just got a seed sprouter .Three levels of awesome seeds! Sunflower seed, pea seed and corn seed are on the bottom. The two other levels are bean seed. It is green. the very bottom is filled with water.Two seeds have sprouted. water drains down the seed sprouter. The two seeds that sprouted were the bean seeds.

Let your kids count some change!

Today, we reviewed counting money.  Many kiddos are still struggling to count change up to $2.00 and bills and change up to $5.00.  If you have some extra change, let them count it!  Practice makes consistency!  Once they've mastered counting money, help them practice making change from $5.00.

Professional Development

Just wanted to let you know that I'm in a professional development training today so there won't be any student blog entries. 

They'll still be learning a lot and enjoying the crayfish! :)

Crayfish

By Maggie A Destiny

Today one of are crayfish lost one of there claws.

We have started naming our crayfish:Curly:Ranger:Gunner:Bobby:Gunner 2:Gunner 3:Weensy:and pleage of aleanges.

Gunner reaches to pinch us when we try to pick up.

Bob is a big pincher.

Ranger is the meanest one in the group.

Naming Crayfish.

                                                            By : Brady & Gabe
We have started naming our crayfish with these names: Curly, Bob, Ranger, Gunner, Bobby, Gunner 2, Gunner3, Weensy and I Pledge Of Aliegence Guy.Curly curls up when we pick  him up . Bob is the  biggest and likes to pinch. Gunner reaches to pinch us when we pick him up. Ranger is the second biggest and the meanest. Bobby is a one pincher guy who is very friendly. Gunner is pretty much just like Gunner. Gunner 3 is just like the others. Weensy is a mini guy. And I Pledge Of Aliegence Guy always has his claws up when we try to pick him up.

Tropical Fruit Day in Cafeteria

Today at lunch a guy came and gave us tropical fruit.They were all different oranges, including blood oranges.  They all have vitamin c.They are all citrus fruits. They were very good.We had like 5.They were all awesome.

by jax & trev

A girl or a boy?

By Niko and Jonathan

Today we learned if a crayfish is a girl or a boy. A girl would have a dot called a eggpour.A boy has less and short spinerits.                                    

                                                                               This is a boy

                                      

                        

                                             Picture taken by Andy

We created fraction sundaes! Yum!

                             By Ariana & Paige

Guess what we did? We made sundeas, and every scoop was a fraction. We decorated a black sheet of construction paper, with chalk. Then we put the fraction cards on the black sheet of paper. Then we pasted the sundaes on the paper too.  We hung them in the hallway so everyone can see them. That's what we did with the fraction sundeas.

A Nice Day at Hershey Elementary School

BY Trevor & Jackson

Today at hershey Elementry school. It is 60 degrees outside.Alot of people were playing outside.And people are wearing shorts and t shirts.And after lunch we go to recess yay!!!!!!!:).

Jax & Trev  are going to play kick ball outside at recess.

 Flowers are blomming.The flowers are yawning.The sun is shining.I bet kids are playing out side.

Want to see a picture  of the brightness of the day.

Did you know crayfish eat cat food?

By Gracie and Chloe

Some crayfish are very stuborn they won't eat. Our crayfish get scared when we are with them. So they don't eat or do much. But some are mean. They try to pinch you and they get  mad. Alot of people have gotten pinched. ( Mostly Trevor and sometimes Gabe ) Some of the crayfish have tried to eat the cat food.

Nate the Great

By Anna & Destiny

Tuesday,February,21,2012

Nate the Great solves another Mystery

The Mystery of the missing painting.

Nate the Great eats pancakes,

makes a friend, finds out

he's not a dog lover,not a

cat lover either and

finds out you can have imaginary

friends and be grown up.

Mad Crayfish

                                                 By: Hiyori & Maggie                                                       

The Crayfish were really cranky today!We had a lot of mad Crayfish in the bins while they were on our desks.A few people got pinched while they were trying to pick them up.Others almost got pinched but they were lucky.There were two Crayfish in each bin there was a big Crayfish and a small Crayfish.The big Crayfish protected the little ones and tryed to keep us away from the little Crayfish.

Sprouting Seeds!

By: Brady &  Jonathan

      Today when we were investigating our amazing seeds we noticed that they sprouted. We think there were about 50-70 seeds sprouted. ( In other words most of them out of all of them sprouted.) They were a little softer than the first time we saw and felt them. More of the sunflower and pea seeds sprouted than others. Two days ago when we got the seeds we got 7 of each seed. The seeds sprouting spot is very exciting! There were these seeds: Bush Been seed, Pea seed, Sunflower seed and Corn seed. The corn seed hasn't been able to sprout .   

CRAYFISH HAVE ARRIVED!!!

Entry by Mrs. Smith

Our crayfish arrived today!  All 12 of them!  The kiddos saw Mrs. Baker come in the classroom with a big white box marked, "Perishable."  Needless to say, we had trouble focusing the rest of the afternoon!  We received 12 crayfish of all different sizes.  I was impressed with how many kids were willing to pick them up right off the bat!  We have such a brave class!!  If any parents would like to come to see our new class pets (for now!!) you are welcome to come and bring siblings on Friday, 2/ 24 at 8:30am or 3:15pm.  We are so excited for the journey with our new crayfish to begin! 

Trevor held up our crayfish for a photo!