Lessons the week of February 14th - 18th

This week the kindergarten students are using Pixie 2. They will be typing in a speech bubble, "There is only one of me and I love you!" Next they will take a webcam picture of themselves so it looks like they are saying these words. Finally they will use the shape tool to make a border of hearts within the frame.

The first and second grade students are going to be using http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=26 to be balancing equations. They are working with a partner and each making an equation to equal 10. Once they have balanced the scale ten times the second graders are moving up to the number 25, then 50 and finally 75. The first grade students are starting with the number 5, then moving to 10 then to 15 and finally 20.

February 7-11th lessons

Kindergarten:
The 100th day of school was this past Friday and the students had activities relating to this very important number. We stamped 100 stamps in Pixie 2 and then after counting by 10's and saying the pattern to the teacher we visited 2 websites.

http://oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Dogbone/gamebone.html
Students had to find the numbers that are on the white rectangle in the hundreds chart. We did not worry about the timer.

http://harcourtschool.com/activity/count/
Students type in the missing numbers to 100.



First and second grade were introduced to the different parts of a friendly letter and then typed a one to their homeroom teacher.

Behind 2 weeks :D

Though I had good intentions to blog each week on the lessons that my students are doing, I am behind 2 weeks. So goes my busy life I guess. The cold, (bitter cold -20's overnight and highs during the day reaching 0) was making it hard for me to function in a productive and positive way. I have a 2 credit class that I am taking online that is also time consuming and other competing interests in my life. So it goes... Onto the lessons :D

The week of January 31st:
Kindergarten students used 3 different websites. We used Literactive.com in the Road to Reading to get more phonics practice with letters V, W, Z, and J. We did the ABCYa.com lesson with counting fish. Students had 3 levels to make their way through. Finally we did the Place Value lesson again with the marshmallows and the bear from the week before.

First and second grade this week did a lesson in Pixie 2 in which they typed in clues to reveal to their classmates to guess who they were. On a second page the students took a webcam picture of themselves and stapled it behind the clues.

New week, new lessons

I have been too long in between posts on this blog. I am going to try something a bit different. I am going to post what is happening in my classes for the week. I think it is important to know what is going on in schools. Elementary computer integration with curriculum that is adopted by your district is a necessity in my opinion.

Last week my classes did the following:

Kindergarten- We had 4 websites that the students demonstrated their skills beginning with 1. smarttutor.com that involved numbers - addition and subtraction. 2. literactive.com a lesson that we did involving rhyming words - looking for the matching words. 3. smarttutor.com a lesson that taught us about how to sequence a story. and finally 4. smarttutor.com a lesson on geometry and finding the shapes based on clues

First grade- We had 5 websites to visit. 1.smarttutor.com sequencing a story 2. smarttutor.com a lesson on symmetry 3. smarttutor.com a lesson on ways to make the sum of ten 4. smarttutor.com a lesson on money using pennies-quarters 5. oswego.org a lesson from math magician using subtraction to answer 20 questions.

Second grade- We had 3 websites to visit. 1 smarttutor.com a lesson on homophones 2. mathplayground.com a lesson on making change using the least amount of dollars and coins 3. oswego.org math magician subtraction mixed level 2

Thanks- it is such a small word

I was inspired to write this blog post from someone else who posted about a month ago about the things that they were thankful for.
I think all of us muddle along through life. We have hard times and good times and great times. We have times of contentment, resentment, fun, drudgery, working hard and playing. Sometimes we jump through hoops doing what we need to do. We have rules to follow, laws to obey, others to consider in our actions and decisions. We are complicated and can move from many emotions and activities in a short span of time. Some people have personalities that are brighter, some are darker. Some of us see life as what others are doing to them while still others see life as what they are going to do.
I could list off all the the quote unquote normal things to be thankful for- great family, friends, my job, education, living in the 21st century in the most technological time ever...and truly I am thankful for all of this but there is more.
I am a person that has the ability to learn and I truly love learning. I love to read and discovered libraries and sharing books very young. I have an appreciation for nature as well as other cultures. I am willing to try new things. I am creative in lots of different areas and that creativity comes fairly easily to me. I am mostly nonjudgmental, letting others live their lives so long as they let me live mine. I am a middle ground kind of gal- a peacemaker of sorts and that suits me very well. I have mellowed about lots of things through the years, knowing that I can never walk in someone else's shoes. Yes there is poverty, abuse, war, natural disaster, sickness, and many other ills that are an every day part of the human experience. I am not blind nor do I want to make light of the suffering of others. I am one of the lucky people on the planet that has life pretty good. For that, I am thankful.