THE WEEK OF NOVEMBER 23RD:
CHECK OUT OUR NEW PAGE OF PICS WITH FATHER JOHN!
CHECK OUT OUR NEW PAGE OF PICS OF US DELIVERING OUR THANKSGIVING CARDS TO
SPECIAL PEOPLE AT SAINT MARY!
GO TO OUR 256 KIDS 2009 GALLERY AND SCROLL DOWN TO OUR PICTURES WITH OUR
SILHOUETTES AND TURKEY BAGS!!!
THE WEEK OF NOVEMBER 23RD:
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD:
We began our morning with a beautiful Thanksgiving liturgy. Father John was
our celebrant. We were complimented once again for our participation in the
Mass. We did a self review about our behavior and work habits and about the
subjects we enjoy most in school. We worked in our "Bare" Books and in our
Poetry Books. (H.W. tonight only for those who didn't complete them.) We read
ARTHUR'S THANKSGIVING and worked together on story activity packets. We also
read THE GIRL WHO LOVED WILD HORSES. We worked on similes and on story
vocabulary. Some of us took the accelerated reading test on the story. We
enjoyed our music class with Mrs. Cantagallo. We worked on our upcoming
musical since we'll be missing our regular music class this week. We did a
Readers Theater of ARTHUR'S THANKSGIVING. Everyone had a part. We read a
story about the Pilgrims and the reason for their celebration. We began
working on some Thanksgiving math, but we ran out of time, so we'll complete
it tomorrow.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24TH:
We read SILLY TILLY'S THANKSGIVING. We sang a song about Tilly Mole and her
friends. We worked together on the story vocabulary and comprehension. We
also worked on alphabetical order (Mr. Mrs. Ms. Tilly/ Mr. Bunny, Mr.
Chipmunk) and on putting the steps in order for making Mr. Turkey's popcorn
recipe. We did a choral Readers Theater called TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE
THANKSGIVING. We worked in our Religion text on various Reconciliation
pages. We were reviewing the following words: Conscience, Confession,
Contrition, Penance,Absolution, Mortal, and Venial. We watched a video called
THOUGHT, WORD, AND DEED about doing the right thing. Mr. Wojnar came in for
Spanish. We played a bingo game. We worked on lots of math. We finished
yesterday's papers on reading large numbers and deciding which one was
greater. Some students had a lot of trouble being able to read large numbers
like 6111 and 6610. We had fun making three digit numbers out of three
numbers: 3 8 6...largest number we can make 863, smallest number we can make
368, largest number we can make with a six in the hundreds place 683. Most
of us did quite well on that concept. We worked on mixed strategies in our
text and on adding on or subtracting numbers such as plus 30, minus 40, plus
10, minus 3. This was another difficult concept for some. We ended our
morning with a Thanksgiving story and a couple of funny poems by Jack
Pretlutzy.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING, to all of you! Enjoy the mini break. I'll see all my 256
Kids on Monday in school and again at church for your FIRST RECONCILIATION!!!
THE WEEK OF NOVEMBER 16TH:
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16TH:
We went over the spelling lesson of the week. Our regular words are long e
words that are spelled with EA or EE. Our challenge and bonus words are all
about music. We looked for clues to help us learn them. We worked together
on r controlled vowel sounds in phonics, on the next Marta story, language,
spelling, and on the next Math Minute. We took the Chapter Three Math Test
on graphs after we reviewed range, mode, and median. Most of the class did
very well on the test. We had art with Mrs. Zueck. We began the listening
part of our Integrated Reading Test. After lunch and recess, we completed
the comprehension and skills part of the test. The test contained two silly
short stories, THE FARMER'S HAT and THE BIG EGG. We went to ORFF with Mrs.
Cantagallo. After that, we discussed how to write a story outline. The
outline contained a title for the story, told what the problem would be, and
listed what would happen in the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
After that, I followed the outline and added details to turn the outline into
a story. For the last part of the test, we had to come up with a story
outline and follow it to create a story. Some of the stories were really
creative and most of the kids were able to follow their own outlines. We are
also working on Thanksgiving cards for our families and on our "Bag" Turkeys.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH:
We began our day with Mass. Father Trout was the celebrant. We completed
this week's lesson in our spellers. We also worked on phonics, Marta,
language, and the next Math Minute. We worked on a Chapter Four Skill Review
in math. We had Spanish. We read THE TAPPLETONS' THANKSGIVING (class set)
and completed a puzzle about this funny tale. We completed our Thanksgiving
cards and many of us have finished our very cool turkey bag art. After an
early recess and lunch, we had gym with Mrs. Olson. We shared a few of our
HOW MY FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA reports. Caroline brought some pictures and a
beautiful doll from Poland. We reviewed the steps in Reconciliation, talked
about this week's H.W., and read two stories, I NEVER DO ANYTHING BAD and THE
HURT.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18TH:
We took our pretest and practice dictation. We had many good checkers today.
We took a test on Chapter Four in our math book. We worked on completing our
bag turkeys or on illustrating our tongue twisters for our internet exchange
project. We enjoyed computer class with Mrs. Campobasso. We read MOLLY'S
PILGRIM (class set). After lunch and an indoor recess (We played a game
called Turkey Roll.), we worked on story sequence, cause and effect, and
vocabulary from our story about Molly, a modern day Pilgrim who came to
America from Russia for religious freedom. We began taking the accelerated
reading test on the story. We went to the library. We read two stories by
Steve Metzger, THE GREAT TURKEY RACE and the sequel, THE AMAZING TURKEY
RESCUE. We also listened to TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE THANKSGIVING by one of our
favorite authors, Dav Pilkey.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19TH:
We completed the cumulative math review test. We all wrote a Thanksgiving
note to someone special at Saint Mary School. We will deliver our good wishes
tomorrow to our priests, principal, office staff, maintenance staff, and
special teachers. We completed our work on the MOLLY'S PILGRIM skills packet.
We finished taking the accelerated reading test on the book. We ended our
morning with music...we actually had an eight smile class because we are
working so hard preparing for the ADVENT CHRISTMAS MUSICAL. Don't forget to
mark your calendar for Friday, December 11th at one o'clock in our church.
It's the perfect start to the Christmas Season! Since we had another indoor
recess time, we watched the video of MOLLY'S PILGRIM. We noticed how the
movie was different from the book. We shared some of our pet and tree
reports and more that we haven't gotten around to. We then shared the
wonderful reports about how our families came to America. In Religion, we
talked about the Holy Spirit and the sacrament of Confirmation. We had Social
Studies with Mrs. Barr. We made an Indian or Pilgrim man or woman. They are
hanging near our Guess Who stories and silhouettes. We ended our afternoon
with a surprise visit from Father John Trout. He told the children a story
from his life in Africa. Matthew was able to personally present Father John
with his Thanksgiving card! We took some pictures of Father's visit and they
are now ready for your viewing. Take a peek!
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20TH:
We began our morning with our spelling and dictation test. All grades were 90-
100%! We took our final test on Chapter Four in our math book. Most of them
were tops! We completed our Tongue Twisters and got most of them in the mail
along with our letter about Chicago and Lake County. Mrs. Kolz came in to
take a few kids at a time around to deliver their Thanksgiving Notes to the
SPECIAL people in our school and at the rectory. We listened to the story of
THE LEGEND OF THE BLUEBONNET retold by Tomie dePaola. We worked on our own
on two story activities. We then read THE LEGEND OF INDIAN PAINTBRUSH (also
retold and illustrated by Tomie) in our Treasures Reader. We worked on three
story story activities. We discovered that most of us are better at reading
and comprehending than on listening and comprehending. We ended our morning
with gym. In the afternoon, we read another "Pilgrim" story called HOW MANY
DAYS TO AMERICA. This story took place in modern times. We worked together
on a variety of story activities. We then had some work time to try to
complete our projects for our conference portfolio! Most of us went to watch
a video in 255 while a few of us stayed behind to "Catch Up" on our work. We
worked hard and accomplished a lot today.
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