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Sunday, December 12, 2010

Classroom News!

We said a sad goodbye to Ms. Platz on Friday. She is officially a certified teacher and graduate of Illinois State University. Congratulations....and we will miss you!






Friday was also Christian's birthday. Happy Birthday!



And just for fun....Hip Hop ABC Phonemic Awareness:

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Holiday Card Project 2010

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This is the card we sent out to all our new friends across the world. As we receive cards back, we will map the locations using Google Earth.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Mystery Reader!!!!

Dominic's mother was our mystery reader this week!!! He was very surprised! First, his grandmother and now his mother!!!






If you would like to be a mystery reader....just let me know!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

T'was the Week Before Thanksgiving!

Enjoy!

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Friday, November 5, 2010

The Author is in the House!

Click on the link to the right (student writing) and hear two new authors on the scene: Andrew wrote a story about playing with his friend and Dominic wrote a story about being afraid of Clowns.

Check them out....then let the authors know what you think about their newest writing!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Pumpkin Seed Friday!

To help students use technology as a tool for their learning, we work with schools across the country (and sometimes the world!) on various projects during the year. Our first collaboration was Pumpkin Seed Count 2010. We integrated language arts, science, social students and math to learn about pumpkins and then counting the seeds inside our pumpkin.

First, we created estimates based on our knowledge of how pumpkins grow and comparing the size of our pumpkin with those of other students across the country. We each made an estimate and then averaged a class estimate of 446 sees. Then, we began counting. By estimating and then counting we are working on number sense. Some students quickly recognized that by placing seeds in groups of 10, it was easier to get an accurate count. Some counted by one's, some by two's, some by five's and some by ten's. Some groups did several counts and discovered easier ways than counting by one's. Here are our results:

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We also participated in a school-wide PBIS celebration: the most students reading poetry at one time:

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Writing Fun!

Enjoy a story by Frankie!

Click on Student Writing to right and it will take you right to a story written by our very own Frankie!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Mystery Reader!

Savannah's dad came in today as a Mystery Reader! Savannah was VERY surprised. Thank you for taking time out of the day to read to our class....we LOVED it!



If you would like to be a mystery reader, just send me an email or a note and we'll get it set up!

We also had an opportunity to go the computer lab. We used KidPix to make patterns:


Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Mystery Reader!

We had our first mystery reader on Tuesday: Mrs. O'Brien...our favorite principal!!!!

Mrs. O'Brien read Those Shoes. We were able to share our thinking and how we are learning about metacognition: thinking about our thinking.

Thank you, Mrs. O'Brien!






If you would like to be a mystery reader, just send me an email or write a note! We LOVE surprises!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Setting a Record!

Friday afternoon the entire school went outside to set a record: the most Lowrie students blowing bubbles at one time:











Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Growing Readers and Writers




We are growing as readers as we learned more about how Reading is THINKING! We made a reading pizza. The pizza crust represents just reading the words: bland. But, when we add our thinking, the pizza toppings, we get flavor and excitement. We enjoy the pizza...our reading.

Students continue to write in their response logs to track their thinking each day.

We had 2 practice fire drills today as well.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Leaving Tracks of our Thinking!

Students all have a reading response journal to leave "tracks of their thinking" each day as they read. Today we learned more about what a read reader is as we learned about checking for understanding.

We also had our annual bus evacuation drill today.

This week students will be meeting with me to set academic and social goals. We have our class goals for each academic area as well as a social goal of walking quietly in the hallway. We're on our way!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Wednesday Wonders!

Today students continued to work on building stamina as readers. We practiced reading quietly and then picking out new books quickly and quietly. In writing we drew pictures of our "treasures" as we learned writers write about what is near and dear to them. Students then used their pictures to write about their treasures.

During math workshop, some students worked on sorting and counting. Other students worked on problem solving by making a table and began learning about arrays.

Yesterday students were asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. They learned more about Illinois State University and saw pictures of the campus. Next time you are in the building take a look at the bulletin board. Find your child's picture, learn what they said they wanted to study and see the building or hall where their major is housed.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Community of Learners at Lowrie!

Now that I have all the permission slips in....I thought you might enjoy a few pictures of our beginning days of school. We've been working on building a community, building stamina as readers' and writers' and mathematicians. We are learning how to follow routines and work independently. As children work independently at their level of ability, I can meet in small groups to differentiate the instruction and meet all students needs. Enjoy!










Thursday, August 19, 2010

Back to School Sneak Peak!





Sneak peak...the classroom is ready!