Beginning/ Middle/ End

As we have been studying Mem Fox' books in our class, the children have begun to practice writing retellings of the books. After watching the teacher model a retelling of Koala Lou, the children then divided into partners and chose a different Mem Fox book to retell. They divided their papers into three sections. Before you know it, they had an entire retelling!

Comparing and Contrasting Books by Mem

Comparing and contrasting books is a good way for our children to begin to understand books across a single author. Today we demonstrated the way that Koala Lou and Possum Magic, both books by Mem Fox, are alike and the ways that they are different by using a Venn diagram. Next the students were divided into partners and allowed to select two other Mem Fox books to compare and contrast using their own Venn diagrams. What great work!

Swattin' Those Flies

There's nothing more fun than playing a game while we practice a skill. Welcome to the fly swatter game! This competition requires us to divide the class into two team, write high-frequency words on the board, call one word at a time and seeing who can swat the word first! Boys won today, but it's girls revenge tomorrow!

Sliding Through Science

What do we find on the earth’s surface? Well today the T&R’s explored the grounds of Chets Creek Elementary to find the answers. Our class has been discussing soil, sand, clay, rocks and water over the last few days. Today we got an up close and personal look at a few of these things. The students created slides by cutting out the centers of index cards and placing packing tape over the hole to make a microscope slide. We visited the garden that was recently planted where we found an abundance of topsoil. The students trampled the baseball field that is full of red clay and we took samples from the playground sand, as well as, from the gravel behind the school. After our outside adventure the students came back into their classroom science lab and looked closely at each sample. Through the use of magnifying glasses they wrote down what they observed in their science journals. As the students compared and contrasted the room filled with scientific thought and conversation. Bill Nye would be so proud!

Our Trip to the Corn Maze!

We had a great time at the farm! We went through a corn maze, went on a hayride and saw sunflowers and pumpkins, has lunch at a picnic table, bounced on the popper, played on the playground that had the coolest corn box and slide and even saw farm animals! We were exhausted coming home but what a day! What a day!

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How Many Am I Hiding?

As you can tell by now math games are a huge part of R&T's math workshop. These games are designed to engage the students in making sense of mathematical ideas. Today we played How Many Am I Hiding? This game teaches children how to break numbers apart. In this game, the students have to figure out what part of a number is hidden or missing. After breaking down into groups of two the students worked on combinations of 10. This is a difficult concept for the students to understand because they have to keep track of the total number of cubes, the number visible, and the number that is hidden.


As difficult as it is to grasp all of these strategies at once the class stayed focused. There is nothing better than learning and having fun at the same time. That's what it's all about!

Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge

Today we read the delightful story of Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge by our favorite author Mem . who Wilfrid lived beside an old folk's home and helped Miss Nancy get her memory back. It is a delightful story that we will be revisiting for the next few days. On Wednesday Mrs. Ruark will bring a item from home that evokes a memory and will write her story for the children. On Thursday Mrs. Timmons will bring an item (make sure to ask your child what item they each brought to school!) On Thursday your child is invited to bring an item that reminds him of a favorite memory and then he will be invited to write the story of that memory. If you would like to hear the story or share it with your child, go to this web site and find the book. Maybe you have a memory item that you would like to share with your child!

Heads and Tails

Today we welcomed Mrs. Rebecca Roberts to our class. She is Chets Creek's newest teacher and will be joining our class for the afternoons for Math Workshop. Mrs. Roberts comes with experience in first grade and has recently moved to Jacksonville with her husband. We were so lucky to find her! Today she helped us while we played a game called "Heads and Tails." Each child was given 8 pennies. One of the partners dropped the pennies and then the other recorded how many heads and how many tails. As the children worked with the pennies they were really finding combinations of 8! We had a great time!

Word Frog

On Thursday we played a new game in class on the computer called Word Frog. The game helps children practice pairs of words that are opposites like yes-no, good-bad, girl-boy. To access the game all your child has to do is click on Word Frog (antonyms) in the right hand column at the top of our blog or click on Word Frog right here. The game gives your child a word that is on a frog and then six opposite matches show up. The child chooses the word that is an antonym and the frog grabs the word with his tongue. The game is timed and moves up to more difficult levels as the child chooses the correct answer. It's a fun way to practice vocabulary!

Peas and carrots!

Today during Math Workshop Mrs. Ruark told a story about peas and carrots. According to her story she dipped a spoon into a pot of peas and carrots and scooped out 7 vegetabe pieces, but how many peas and how many carrots. The task for the children was to figure out how many different combinations of peas and carrots they could discover! Some of the children worked in a small group with Mrs. Ruark. Others worked by themselves as Mrs. Cordoza and Mrs. Timmons went from one child to the next so each child could explain his thinking. Peas and carrots! What's for dinner?