College Students

This afternoon, college students came to teach our class as part of their Health, Safety, and Nutrition course. The kids are always so excited to work with them and it's truly a learning experience for both college students and elementary students. Here are a few snapshots from this afternoon...

Becoming Part of a Story

This afternoon during social studies, our class worked in groups to write plays based on one of the books we've read and discussed. After learning how to summarize a story, each group began writing a summary of their chosen book. Here are a few snapshots from our afternoon...

Chase, Natalie, Ethan, Lindy, and Will (not pictured) wrote a play of Henry's Freedom Box.

Miss Taylor worked with Lilly and Savannah's group as they wrote a play for Moses.

Dr. Willey met with some older students to prepare for the 85th birthday celebration taking place tomorrow!

Mrs. Watson's Math Group Explore Area and Perimeter

This week we have been measuring the area and perimeter of various objects and understanding the basics of these concepts. Today, as a class, we decided to measure around the rug they were sitting on. This was a pretty big task for this group! We figured it would be easier to place the cubes in trains of 10-then when we were finished we could break it apart and count together. The students figured out there were 10 groups of 10 to make 100 and that is when they organized the cubes into groups of 100. With support we all counted them (by 10's). When we realized there was 540 cubes, they wanted to know how to write it. They each took turns attempting to write this number. Below is a short video of some highlights! Enjoy!

Mrs. Johnson's Baby

Though many of you have already heard the news, I wanted to share our excitement on the blog. Yes, it's true - I am pregnant and expecting a baby towards the end of June. A few weeks ago, I shared the news with the class. We read the book, Baby Brains, and talked about the significance of reading the story. Several students guessed, "Someone's having a baby!" After guessing some of the other teachers, Alexis pointed at me and guessed, "Is it you?" When I confirmed the news was true, many kids cheered and started offering name suggestions and babysitting services. (My favorite name suggestion so far is Sparkles, or maybe Princess Leia.)

Last Monday, I missed the Valentine's Party for our doctor's appointment and ultrasound where Scott and I found out our baby's gender. We found out we are having a baby girl and are really excited. What a great Valentine's Day present! At the party, everyone voted on whether they thought I was having a boy or girl. There were 18 votes for a girl and 23 votes for a boy. On Tuesday, I revealed the results and we made a chart to count the votes. Everyone in the class cheered when I told them our fun news, "She's a girl!" It has been a joy to share in this experience with our class. I'll be sure to post updates in the future. Thank you all for the support and warm wishes. Scott and I are counting down (only 19 more weeks) until we can meet our little one.

- Rachel Johnson

85 Years of SCCS History

SCCS 85th Birthday!!

Tomorrow, February 24th, 2011, is our 85th Birthday celebration! We have some amazing things planned and we hope that all of you can come by and celebrate with us. There will be an all-school open house tomorrow from 8 am to 4 pm. During this time, you will be able to enjoy slide shows about our school and a time line of our history in the preschool building (Audrey Webb). At 5 p.m. we will have a special presentation in the Audrey Webb Child Study Center (room 107). This will feature Dr. Lynch, the Stephens College president, Dr. Willey, our school's director, and Terry Teague, former director of SCCS. We will also have some great refreshments! Please join us tomorrow, we hope to see you all there!

Also, our SCCS birthday t-shirts will be here today! Please show your school spirit and wear them tomorrow!

This Morning's Independent Inquiry Presentations

Nicole became interested in a news report about UPS trucks making only right turns to save time and gas. She tested this theory with her mom, and sure enough, it took them less time and less gas when they made only right turns. For her presentation, Nicole created a news show desk and acted out three characters: a news anchor, a reporter, and a mad scientist. What a creative idea!

Alex presented on the current event of the floods in Australia. He shared this interesting, yet shocking video:

Molly also presented on a current event: the earthquake in Haiti. She shared some shocking information about the tragedy and how it was worsened by the weak building structures. Molly also shared some positive efforts volunteer groups are making to help the people in Haiti.

Important announcements for Mrs. Clifton's Literacy Group

We have moved to a new genre study of standardized testing as the children work on publishing their Memoirs. The objectives we are focusing on during this study include:

• meaning and purpose of standardized testing
• become familiar with a variety of text structures
  
• ways to be successful before, during, and after the test
• what to expect when testing

During the past week, they have read general articles about what is standardized testing and its purpose. Here are some of their findings:

• helps teachers decide what to teach
• a way for parents to see how child is progressing
• scores compared with other children

The children did a mini investigation into text structure of a released standardized test. They worked with a partner to read, discuss, and share their findings. Then they organized their information into a graphic organizer to be shared in front of their peers. Students attended to punctuation, bold print, question and answer, fill in the blank, content, prior knowledge required to answer questions, vocabulary, graphs, diagrams, pictures, and labels.

Next week, we will move into two new topics. First, learning ways of being successful on the test. I'll call this BDA! Before-During-After strategies. Then, students will learn what to expect in a testing environment.

As part of this study, students have been given spelling words with spelling tests on Thursdays. Thursday, February 17th has been their second test. I have been working out the details, so here are some of the expectations we as a group have decided on.

• 20 words
• tests will be every Thursday during work time
• before taking test, students must turn in their practice spelling-handwriting sheet
• any words missed on test will continue to be spelling word for the following week
• words spelled correctly are highlighted and child is held accountable
  

Friday, February 18th expect to see a word list and weekly spelling word list come home. I think it would be beneficial for your family to have one at home as well as at school. New spelling word lists should be expected to come home every week on Thursday or Friday.

*Spelling tests are saved on the last page of the draft book.

Valentine's Day Party!!

Our Valentine's Day party was a huge success! The students enjoyed games and activities, exchanging Valentines, and lots of treats!! Special thanks goes to Jen Stem, Marshana Gresham, Christina Gardner, Shannon Hensley for helping out and to all the parents who provided treats!!



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Social Studies

We continued our study of slavery and history this week. The students shared their reflection projects and began discussing important dates throughout history, specifically those involved in civil rights. We also read a great book called Almost to Freedom by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson which tells the story of a slave girl escaping to freedom through the perspective of her doll. Next week we will continue exploring our thoughts about slavery and civil rights through great literature, and the students will have an opportunity to act out some of the courageous stories they have heard.

Math Fun!

Ms. Howle's group has been working with money. This week they went pretend shopping. Each student had $20.00 to spend and had to decide what items they could afford. Students took turns being cashiers in charge of adding up totals and making change.

Jeannie, Natalie, Ethan, and Jack go shopping!

Savannah and Kedzie organize their bills to get ready for their customers. Kedzie wrote down all the items and prices in the store as a reference for when customers were ready to purchase.

Konnar and Jack count out change for a customer.

Ms. Parks' group measure distances between objects with cutouts of their feet

Manny working on an some measurement problem solving

Nadia investigation the area of her foot

Robin and Brandon helping each other measure the area of their feet

Literacy

The students have produced some great writing this week in literacy and are learning so much! Our student teacher, Ms. Peter, has been working with Mrs. Johnson's literacy group. They are studying the writing and illustrations of Eric Carle. Ms. Parks and Ms. Howle have been working on spelling and word families with their students. Today, both groups learned about words with -ed endings. Mrs. Clifton has been teaching her students about writing and reading for standardized tests. They have been digging deeper into reading comprehension strategies that they might need for future standardized testing.

Measurment with Ms. Howle's Math Group

Because Ms. Howle was absent, Mrs Clifton taught Ms. Howls's group how to play a game called "Race to a Dollar!"

How to Play:
You play by rolling a die. The amount shows you the amount of money you collect on each turn. As you roll, you collect coins that represent the face value on the die. As you collect, you trade in for different coins. For example: Six pennies = 1 penny and 1 nickel. You continue play until a player reaches one hundred cents; equaling a dollar.

What Fun We Had!

*This game helps with coin recognition, counting money, and number sense.

After the game, students came together to share what strategies they learned from this game. Here's some things shared from our discussion.

"One hundred pennies equal a dollar."

"Ten dimes equal a dollar."

" It helped me count by fives..."

"and tens..."

Play at home to see what other discoveries your child can make from learning about money and counting.

This week during social studies we have been diving into the topic of conflict, specifically focusing on civil rights. Through literature discussions and group projects, the students have been thinking critically about issues such as slavery, segregation, and important events in black history.

Here are a few of the books we've read this week:

After a literature discussion, students work in groups to creatively express their feelings, understandings, and questions about the story.

How many feet?

This week during math we have been working with measurement. Each group has been discussing how and why we use measurement in our daily lives.

Mrs. Johnson's group worked to find out how much 100 meters would be

Ms. Howle's group has been working with money. Here Holly, Jack, and Thomas are trying to figure out all the possible coin combinations to make 15 cents using pennies, nickels, and dimes.

Mrs. Watson's group traced their own feet to measure objects around the classroom.

Ms. Park's group used string to measure each other and discussed growth over time.