2011 will be here in a BLINK!

Hi Friends of Room 138-
We hope you are having a great holiday break. Was Santa good to you? He was great to us!
It is hard to believe how fast time flies- 2011 REALLY??

We will be back in school next Monday. We have already planned our first week back. We will be comparing and contrasting two stories in Reading, and starting geometry in Math. This is a big part of our FCAT this year. We will also be working in Destination Success in both Math and Reading. In Social Studies we will talk about the events leading up to the American Revolution. In Science we are still working with energy. There is still a TON to do with our Energy unit.

If you have not started, or not been there in awhile- fcatexplorer.com is a great place to visit. Make sure you are also continuing your daily reading. Remember the FCAT is a timed test, so if you are behind in stamina you will no do well on the test! For the most part, all portions of the FCAT are READING!!

We will be working DAY 1 back from break. Now is a great time to check to make sure you have all needed supplies - paper, pencils, planner, etc.

You may also want to check your lunch account so you have money to eat this first week back.

Get some rest, because we will be BUSY, BUSY, BUSY from now until the end of the year!

See you soon!

This Week!

*Today students took an end-of-unit Florida Test in Math. All students have test corrections tonight. When we return from our Holiday Break we will start working with Geometry for the next six weeks. It is so important to continue working with your student on basic math facts. Division and Multiplication will follow us into our Geometry Unit.
* Supplemental Lessons in Math tomorrow include Games of Chance. Students will have an opportunity to experience two kinds of Games of chance with Dreidel and Bunko. We will also talk about the dreidel game and serve latkes, applesauce, and sour cream.
* Thursday is our building day! Can't wait to make Gingerbread Houses with the kids. Please be sure to bring in your graham crackers, icing and bag of hard candy.
* Friday is our Holiday Party! Can't wait for the fun to begin at 12:00.

Enjoy your time off these next two weeks. Catch up on your reading OR read ahead!! As the song says... It's the most wonderful time of the YEAR!!!!

5 days!

A blog slacker- SORRY!! It has been so busy in Room 138 with all the Benchmark testing and the Spelling Bee today! I will post some pictures this weekend of our last few weeks!

Just a quick reminder -
* Wednesday is Latkes and Applesauce day and Games of Chance for Math
* Thursday - Gingerbread Houses in the Cafeteria 8:45 (Any and all help appreciated!!)
* Friday - Pizza Lunch and Holiday Activity~

Check back for more updates!!

Can you believe we are almost to 2011??

Welcome to December!

WOW! The days are flying by, and we have been very busy in Room 138.

* Progress Reports / Scholarship Warnings are coming home today. Please sign and return these forms by Tuesday, December 7th.
* If you would like a conference, please call us at 904-739-5226 ext 138- we are available most mornings at 8:00am.
* We are in the process of Benchmark Testing. These tests will be compared against tests that we took in August. We will be testing one hour each day until next Wednesday. Please make sure your student is here everyday.
* Your student should have given you information on the Holiday Shop. Our buying day is Monday, December 6th.
*Tonight is Beauclerc Night at Red Elephant! Come out and support our school.

* Please make sure your child's planner is filled out everyday!

* We have noticed that our students who do not know their multiplication tables are really struggling in Math. They are having to spend additional time working on a multiplication problem that should take seconds, and it is hindering their ability to work with fractions, decimals, and percents. Students should know facts 1-12.

Happy Holidays!

Yesterday until the New Year is my favorite time of year! Why you ask?? Well, it's the time when people are usually in a mood of good cheer :-) Too bad we can't make it last all year!
We get to see our family, we have time off from school, and I love Christmas Music!!

We had a great time with our family yesterday, and hope you did too!

Can't wait to see you Monday! Get ready... these 3 weeks will be a blur... kind of like a blizzard!

Happy Holidays!

Marine Science and Catching UP!!

A scene from the beach - REALLY!!

Microscope Lab

Tomorrow is my favorite holiday! Probably because I like to cook and my family likes to eat :-)

We hope that each of you enjoy this time off with your family! In our house that means sleeping in, big breakfast, lazy day of football and then a huge family dinner with some close friends! And then Friday is the BIG Alabama vs. Auburn Game!!! Should be interesting to say the least!

When you look at the calendar you will see that we have three weeks until our big winter break. We will be very busy during this time- we will have three students compete in our Spelling Bee, we will take Benchmark Assessments, have a few holiday activities, and we will be wrapping up our unit on Fractions, Decimals, and Percents!

Make sure that your student is current on their 25 Book Goal- by the end of the 2nd nine weeks which will be mid-January they should have read 14 books!

***** stay tuned for fun Blog Changes ******

Marine Science Center

Don't forget... FRIDAY IS MARINE SCIENCE CENTER DAY!!!

*We will leave school on the bus between 8:30-8:45 -
*This is an all day field trip.
* Students need a bag lunch and a drink.
* Students can bring money to purchase a soft drink, however, those items may not be available for purchase so it is good to have a drink :-)
* Students can bring money for souvenirs
* You can check out the Marine Science Center at: http://www.duvalschools.org/msec/

* If you chaperone DON'T forget your lunch!

I have a lot of pictures to add- Will update the blog this weekend!

Fraction Benchmarks

*In Math we are really working with fractions! We have used Fraction Bars, Fraction Circles, and everyday we convert fractions into decimals, percents, and fractions using our Calendar Math work. We have talked a lot about factors, Greatest Common Factors (GCF), and Least Common Multiples (LCM). We will continue working in this unit for the next several weeks and WE NEED YOUR HELP!! Please check over your student's homework each night. This unit is not going away. Many of our students are struggling with finding like denominators. A lot of this struggle can be traced back to a weak understanding of multiplication facts!! Please help your child memorize facts 1-12.
* Remember there is No SCHOOL next Thursday and Friday. This is a short month for us, so it is important that students are here ON TIME, EVERYDAY!
*Gator Bowl Tickets will be on sale until Friday! This is a great New Year's Day Activity!

Moon Phases - Is there any other way?

Star Students - Sarah and Zachary! Rock ON SUPERSTARS!!!!

In other exciting news... check out our Moon activity with Oreos!

The Moon Phases! (We used Moon Charts as guides! Pretty Good!)

We have had a great time watching the Moon these last 30 days! Who knew it did all that?? Well, we have now graduated and we are Moon Experts! Ask us anything- we would love to tell you all about it!

* Moon journals are due Friday. Make sure you have a completed journal.

* Explorer Reports were due TODAY!!

* Remember Wednesday is EARLY RELEASE! Please make sure you know how you are getting home!

2nd Nine Weeks.

*We have jumped right into the 2nd nine weeks. Reports cards should come home November 2nd.
* If you would like to send in a bag of individual wrapped candy we will distribute it at the end of the school day Friday. We are not having a Halloween Party.
* Students are learning to add fractions with unlike denominators. You may want them to practice this at home with you. They should be aware of finding the LCM to make that happen.
*The new reading goal for this nine weeks = 7 books! This is a fast nine weeks, so make sure you don't fall behind.
* Our schedule for the next few weeks will be quite busy. Please make every effort to arrive at school on-time and with needed supplies. Many students are coming to school without any paper or pencils!!! YIKES!! Our classroom supply is currently - NONE!!
* Remember the Marine Science field trip is Friday, November 19th! If you want to volunteer, you may have to drive your own vehicle. We are taking 96 students and 6 teachers, so we are unsure of bus seating availability.
*Please check planners for homework. We had 14/28 students come to school today without their vocabulary homework! This really interferes with our daily instruction. All students know what they are supposed to do before they leave and it should be written in their planner. A blank planner should NEVER occur!

Don't forget- No School Monday!!

We watched the air show from our driveway today, and from the parking lot of Wolfson High School yesterday! They are just an amazing group of pilots!

Did you see the moon last night? It sure lit up the football field at Wolfson!

Sweet girls! Working hard!!

Really.. we have scratch paper for our MATH test!! don't let us fool you! I know... Joseph is thinking 3 tests in one day.... REALLY??????

Friday's are so nice in Room 138~ We love laptop day! Usually we do interesting things like research, GIZMO's, or cool curriculum related work. Today however, we had to take PMA's ! Oh my goodness- it was a day of testing! I guess you could say we are preparing them for the SAT's! It is NICE that we were able to stay in our room AND use the laptops!

We had no interruptions and we even went outside!

Finally, at 1:45 we have free time! Thanks guys for finishing the PMA's for Math, Reading and Science !

Star students of the week - Alex Y. and Dajana! Good job!

We hope you enjoy your day off Monday! Both your teachers will be busy cleaning our room and planning for the next nine weeks. Historically the 2nd nine weeks is the fastest nine weeks of the year. We have lots of time off during this time. It starts Monday with Teacher Planning Day, and then two days for Veteran Day, 3 days for Thanksgiving, and then we are off the for the Holiday break! And then, the third nine weeks begin!

So- it will be important that you are here everyday!

Enjoy your long weekend! Mrs. Yadon and I will think about you at our HOUR lunch on Monday!!!

A Preview of the Next Few Weeks

Now, what in the world is this? Trying to determine seasons.....

Christian and Nicolas

Alex Y working hard!

Becky with her new book!

Sarah, Erisa, and Madison working hard!

Working on ISS ;-)

Laroy working hard.

It is hard to believe that the first 9 weeks ends tomorrow! In some respects it seems that we just met our new friends, and at other times we are just moving right along like we have been friends forever.

We have really worked hard this first 9 weeks to establish patterns that will help us for the rest of the year. Report card grades will reflect your student's progress during this time. We would encourage you to review your student's subject work folders so you can see how they are progressing through units of study.

These next few weeks we will be working with fractions. Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division of fractions to be exact. This past week we have spent a lot of time with the words: factors, multiples, factor pairs, prime and composite numbers, prime factorization, least common multiples (LCM) and greatest common factors (GCF). It is important that your student understand these terms because this will sink or swim their ship in the next few weeks.

We are also working on INDEPENDENT SILENT SEATWORK (ISS)- Some of us are having a very difficult time focusing during work periods. We are trying to make students aware of "time constraints" and the fact that there is NO REDO on the FCAT. The ability to stay focused, work hard, and finish the task is our goal.

We will begin our second Literature Circles next week. This is a great way to cover many benchmarks in our reading standards. We will still be working in our Reader, but our Literature Circle books will help us reach our reading goal for the 2nd 9 weeks!

In Social Studies we will start the 2nd nine weeks with Explorer Reports. Students have received their explorers and their books. They have also received their rubric which shows them what we expect their final project to look like.

In Science we are studying the Moon, Seasons, and the Earth's movement around the Sun. Moon journals should be completed in the next 10 days. This always seems to stump our students- how the Earth's position can affect the weather and seasons.

Not for the faint of heart!

Gloves, - CHECK, Toothpicks - CHECK, magnifying glass - CHECK!

We had a GREAT time Friday with our Owl Pellets! It wasn't for the faint of heart, that's for sure! Check out the bird skull!

We all participated, and we used our chart to help us determine what was in our pellets- BONES, FUR, TEETH, and ALL!

The weather was great!

We were all anxious to see what we could find!

We love Life Science!

We were all working hard! And we even finished before LUNCH!!

Just for the record, that is Alex Y's cast.. not Mrs. Rowan's :-)

Ummmmm... look at all those feathers!

and ALL those BONES!!!

Our line that goes on FOREVER!!!

Star Students: Jalyn and Joshua!

Hope you had a great weekend! We are loving this COOL weather!!!