Our Day at the One Room School

We had a wonderful day at the Pittsboro One Room School.  Our authentic living history experience took place on December 6, 1892. Even though I was one of the "older" students, I did try to sneak as many pictures as possible.  Although, my zebra print iPhone looked extremely out of place!  I was not able to photograph all of the students, unfortunately.  I will take more pictures at our Pioneer Celebration on December 19th.  Enjoy the pictures! 

Sam looked great in his red suspenders as our schoolmarm, Miss Elizabeth, took the roll call.

Leah and Alana enjoyed their authentic lunches together.

Some of our boys went to the front of the class with the McGuffey readers to recite a passage.  This style of teaching was called "blab school." 

Madison and Brooklyn enjoyed their authentic lunches together.

Uh-oh!!!  Look who had to wear the dunce cap!  Tucker confessed to putting the frog in Miss Elizabeth's desk, so she put him in the dunce cap.  He was a good sport!  (sorry this is sideways)

Poor, poor Tucker.

Some girls took the McGuffey readers up to the front of the class for their recitation.

More blab school...

At recess, students played with authentic toys from the late 1800s.  Many kids enjoyed chasing the hoops.

Jackson couldn't wait to unpack his lunch from his basket!

Maya played with the popular acrobat toy.  (sorry this is sideways)

You may be wondering if this is the schoolmarm.  It is not!  This is Abe's mom, who was one of the chaperones.  She played Annie Sullivan in a production of the Miracle Worker and still had her costume.  She looked VERY authentic!  She had to go to the front of the class and show Spain on the map during our history lesson.

Tucker enjoyed his lunch on the boy side of the room.

A special thanks goes to the Delaware Trail PTSG for paying for this field trip, so that students could attend free of charge!  A huge thanks goes to Miss Elizabeth, our schoolmarm, and Mrs. Klimenko, Mrs. Vink, and Mrs. Russell, our parent chaperones.  Also, I would like to thank EVERY SINGLE parent for helping your child dress the part and pack such an authentic lunch.  As a parent, I know it was extra work for you to prepare your child for this field trip.  Your efforts helped the children truly experience living history.  I think this was a trip they will never forget!

Happy Election Day!

 Today our three candidates, Third Little Pig, Cinderella, and Peter Pan, participated in a mock debate.  Mrs. Terry was the moderator!  Each candidate did a wonderful job discussing the issues of national security, education, and the economy.  Students learned about the election process in the last few weeks.  The class was divided into three groups.  Each group had to create their own political party, create party platforms, and campaign strategies.  The three political parties were named the Peterpublicans, the Republicrats, and the Greek God Party.  We learned about the real life election in a way that kids can relate to and with candidates that they know a lot about....Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Third Pig!  Thanks to Brooklyn, Abe, and Jack for representing their parties well!

 This is the audience at the mock debate.  They may look sweet and innocent, but they were passionate about their candidates!  There was lots of cheering going on!!

 This is a shot of our three candidates before the mock debate got started. 

After the debate, we placed our votes.  Cinderella won by a landslide!!  The class really liked her vision for America.

Happy Election Day!  I hope everyone had a chance to vote!

Parts of Speech Links

In Language Arts we have been studying the parts of speech!  Here are some links to some great short cartoons from School House Rock!  Enjoy!

Adverbs:

http://www.schooltube.com/video/054c4aca89b412d90612/

Pronouns:

http://www.schooltube.com/video/cf3e7fff3db76def26a8/

Verbs:

http://www.schooltube.com/video/2f64b89f85db90e07260/

Nouns:

http://www.schooltube.com/video/21001073474c19344891/

Adjectives:

http://www.schooltube.com/video/964198d6a8d99911f4dc/

We are Scientists!

This week we learned all about the Scientific Method.  In order to practice the steps of the Scientific Method, we did a messy, but fun experiment today.  We wondered what would happen if we mixed Borax, cornstarch, and water.  Students made a hypothesis and designed an experiment.  After measuring and mixing, we learned that the materials form bouncy balls!  I put on my lab coat, which was good because this experiment ended up being much messier than expected!  My "Scientists in Training" put on their imaginary lab coats.  21 students, 1 teacher, lots of Borax, cornstarch, and food coloring came together to experience hands-on science!

Mrs. Terry in her lab coat

Amadou and Jackson show off their creations!

Sam and Evelyn show off their creations

Henry laughed as he showed off his very messy solution

Madison is all smiles as she begins to mold her bouncy ball

Scientists at work!

Some scientists had discrepancies in their measuring that effected the bounciness of their finished product.  Some scientists had amazing results!  Everyone learned a lot this week and was shocked that I was allowing them to experiment and get their hands very dirty.  Thankfully, the food coloring came off our hands easily.  At one point, some kids had hands that were completely blue!  These things happen in a scientific lab!

If any of my scientists want to do this experiment at home, here is the link with directions.  This experiment requires adult supervision!  http://chemistry.about.com/od/demonstrationsexperiments/ss/bounceball_2.htm

Reading News

In Reading, we started learning about the seven keys to comprehension and started making a flipbook that we will use as a resource tool all year.  Today's "key" was visualization.  I hope that your child can explain to you what it means to visualize while reading!  We are using Hour of the Olympics to practice the seven keys to comprehension this week.  Are you intrigued to find out about the seven keys?  Check out this website for a quick description.  http://www.delano.k12.mn.us/elementary-school/gradesstaff/third-grade/mrs-petersen/mrs-petersens-3rd-grade-class/keys-to-comprehension

Also in reading, we are beginning our first class novel of the year, The Hundred Dresses.  This is a great classic with many themes that are relevant to the kids' lives, such as bullying and friendship. 

Last week, students took the Scholastic Reading Inventory to assess their current Lexile level.  By knowing their Lexile, the kids can choose books that are more appropriate to their individual reading levels.  All this week I will be administering the beginning of the year DIBELS assessment to all of the students individually.  This is a test that measures their oral reading fluency.  These beginning of the year assessments will help me to see what your child needs help with in reading!

Many students have been digging into our classroom library and wanting to take home books that belong to me.  This is okay, as long as the books are returned and not damaged!  Our classroom is built on trust, so I trust the kids to be responsible with my books.

I am so excited about all of our great readers!  By the end of this week, I am hoping that all of the kids will have a book selected to read for their Top 25 goal for August!  I will also send out book order forms very soon.

n of reading this week! In addition toys to reading comprehension,

we will also begin our first class novel of the year,

The Hundred Dresses

. This is a novel with a great beginningof-

year message for students about friendships and bullying. I

am also in the process of administering beginning-of-year

DIBELS assessments to all students, so there will be some

time for independent reading as well.

Specials Schedule and Lunch Time

I apologize for not giving this information out at our Back to School Night!  Here is our schedule for specials. 

Monday: Art
Tuesday: P.E.
Wednesday: Media Center/Computer Lab
Thursday: Music
Friday: Flex

I will always tell the kids what their special will be on Friday in advance, so they know if they have P.E.  It is always a good idea to wear tennis shoes on Fridays....just in case Mrs. Terry forgets!

Also, we go to lunch from 11:50-12:20 each day.

First Day!!!

Happy First Day of School!!  I can tell already that I am so blessed to have such a wonderful new class!  Today flew by, and we were all beat, so I am sure there will be some sleepy kids tonight. 

I hope your child told you all about their first day!  The kids started out the day by filling out a sheet to help me get to know them.  On the sheet they could ask me any question they wanted to about myself.  That was fun!  More than a few wanted to know my age and why I like owls so much....haha!  We got to meet Mrs. Fowler, our new music teacher, today.  After music this morning we learned a lot about classroom procedures and we organized all of our supplies.  I read a book to the class about a crazy teacher named Mrs. McBloom who had a very messy classroom, and we all decided it was important to keep our room nice and neat.  Mrs. McBloom had chickens hatching eggs in her cubbies, an apple tree growing through the ceiling, and many more unusual crazy things.  I also started a read aloud with the kids that is very appropriate to current events.....the Magic Treehouse book, Hour of the Olympics.  We learned that girls were not allowed at the first Olympics....boooo!  One of our sweet second grade boys said that maybe it was okay now for girls to be there because it is safer.  Ha!  Another boy asked if the women just cooked and watched t.v. all day.....I reminded him that television wasn't invented back then!  We are super excited to be kicking off an Olympics inspired Reading unit.  In the coming weeks we will be learning different reading strategies and applying them to reading passages about the Olympics!  Then......we took a test.  It was the Everyday Math beginning of the year assessment.  It was very difficult for the kids, but I reassured them that a pretest is not for a grade and only a tool to show me what they need to learn.  After taking the math test, it was time for a brain break.  We did a fun "getting to know you" type activity where kids got to use their clipboards (always a supply they are eager to use) and ask each other questions.  The page they filled out came home tonight.  I shared my "Me Bag" and assigned Me Bags for tonight's homework.  Then we learned how to fill out assignment notebooks.  What a busy day!! 

Here are a few pictures for you. 

"Getting to Know You" activity

Ethan, Madison, and Alana interview each other!