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We loved having parents and grandparents join us at school today.

Animal Riddles

Friends recorded each other reading their own animal riddles.

Working with doubles

Today we worked with partners to brainstorm all of the doubles facts we could think of.  Knowing some of our doubles will help us become more efficient mathematicians.

Students have started to notice patterns in doubles and have started to use doubles to figure out other addition problems.  For example:

if 1+1=2, then 100+100=200

if 5+5=10, then 5+6=11, because it has one more.

Quintin and Tilman take us on a quick tour of some of our work today.

Namaste

Today, when we took a quick wiggle break, we practiced some yoga: deep breaths, tree pose, downward dog.  Then I bowed to them and said "namaste."  I explained that "namaste" is a way to tell the other person that you hope they feel peace in their life.

 I am cherishing our children right now.  They provide light in my life every day.

 Namaste.

Busy Butterflies

Our week has been a busy one.  We enjoyed a concert by the fifth graders.  We also had the opportunity to view some of their beautiful Virginia Landscapes.

The PTO treated the school to a Science Day.  We watched the power of electricity at an all- school assembly, got our hands on a huge variety of science-related activities and learned about food webs and ecosystems.  All of this was in addition to our regular academic schedule.  

Our Tree in the Winter

The following post was written by kids in the Butterfly Class.  Our day was SO busy (many thanks to the PTO for hosting a fun-filled Science Day!) that we ended up with a very short amount of time to write about our tree, so we decided to combine our writing into a blog post.

It is bare.  It doesn't have many leaves.  The leaves are almost all gone.  The leaves are brown and orange.  Some of the branches are falling off.  There were lots of leaves in the summer on the tree.  Throughout the year it has been fewer and fewer leaves.

We used this joint writing experience to talk about the different purposes of writing:  a note to a friend, a grocery list, a letter to a loved one, a journal entry about a vacation, a scientific observation, a mathematical explanation.  In the case of writing about our tree in the winter, we noticed how the notes we jotted yesterday look and sound different than the blog post we wrote today.  We can write for ourselves and we can write for others.

Gingerbread Display This Weekend

(This is the gingerbread "log cabin" that my family made this year.)

Marley shared with the class today that she will be going to see gingerbread houses Downtown this weekend. The children wanted more information, and I promised I would post about it:
The Omni HotelCome join us in a Winter Wonderland complete with elves and helpers, Mrs. Claus, and electric trains! Stroll through the gingerbread houses from the 9th annual competition that will be on display. Santa will even stop by with some surprises from the North Pole! This year's Winter Wonderland will run for four days, concluding with the St. Nicholas Reception. Winners for the gingerbread competition will be announced, and prizes will be awarded at the reception. Thursday, December 6th: Grand Opening. 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. Friday, December 7th: 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Santa visiting from 4-8 p.m. Saturday, December 8th: 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Santa visiting 1-4 p.m. and 5-8 p.m. Sunday, December 9th: 11 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Santa visiting 12-3 p.m. St. Nicholas Reception 3-4:30 p.m.
for more information

Kids blog

We are learning to blog!  We will use this digital tool to write throughout the day.

Animal Classification

We worked together in small groups to sort animal photos.  Each group determined their own rules for classifying the animals.

Next, all students had a chance to visit each group of photos.  They then asked each other questions and tried to figure out how the group had decided to sort.

This group sorted the photos into two groups: mammals and not mammals.

This group sorted photos into three groups:  animals that live on land, animals that live in water and animals that live in both land and water.