December 16, 2010
Dear Parents,
First off, watch the video of the kids singing The Horizon Cookie-Baking Company song. We recorded them singing it in class today, and you can see the clip by cutting and pasting this link into your browser:
http://voicethread.com/share/1606588/
Tomorrow is our bake sale. Thank you to all of your who are cooking today with your child, helping to sell tomorrow, or helping by buying the warm clothes to donate to the mitten tree.
Horizon House on Channel Five News! Monday, look for Ms.Schwartz, Mrs. Powers, and four Horizon House Students (including our very own Kayla Cousino) on the morning news. They will be delivering the warm clothes that all of you have made possible by the cooking and the selling of the baked goods.
ABS Holiday Food Drive: if you can spare it, send in a can of food with your child to donate to the ABS Holiday Food Drive. All the donations go to the Williston Food Pantry. Thanks in advance!
In Economics today, we learned more about the difference between goods and services, and we read about how firefighters, by protecting all of us, are an example of people who provide a service to the community.
In 2nd Grade Math, students are learning "all the math facts in the world" (up to 20) by making a giant chart of them and noticing all the patterns. They're also solving challenging word problems such as "John had some crayons. he gave 5 to Jen. Now, he has 7 crayons left. How many crayons did John have to start with?"
Another one they did today was,
“ Ruben has seven snowballs. Samantha has nine more snowballs than Ruben. How many snowballs do they have in all?
We realized that it really helps if we use unifix cubes or pennies as our snowballs. That way, you can act out the problem as you’re reading it – and get to the answer. Second-Grade parents, challenge your child to explain to you using coins or a diagram how he or she would solve one of these two problems.
Continental Math: 2nd graders have been tackling some tough math problems and learning great strategies for taking them apart and solving them. Thanks again, Horizon-Parent CML Coaches
In 1st Grade Math, Students are on unit 3. The unit is called Lobster Legs and Whale Tails
This unit helps children continue to develop a solid understanding of basic operations and place value in the context of problem solving. They start with the crab problems that were introduced in unit two and then end up creating new problems using some lobsters. Then Mrs. Powers introduced a collection of games and activities designed to provide practice with addition facts to 10 and counting sums of money to 25 cents. The children have been doing a lot of sorting and graphing using some sea creatures. The upcoming lessons will focus on multiples of 2, 5, and 10. They will have opportunities to count and compare small collections of nickels, dimes and pennies. First-Grade parents: feel free to get out some money at home and have your child identify the coin and sort them into groups. Then have them count the coins by 1's, 5's and 10's.
In their Fundations class, the 2nd graders are learning the difference between there and their. They are also learning that in the words hunted spilled and splashed the endings sound very different, but they are all spelled with -ed.
Polar Express in Pajamas on Wednesday!
We will be watching the Polar Express on Wednesday as part of our holiday celebration. We will watch it and drinking hot chocolate for about an hour and a half in the morning. We are inviting the kids to wear their pajamas to school on Wednesday as a celebration of the hard work they have been doing over the last several weeks. There will be an official flyer in Friday's folder. Does anyone have any extra “hot cocoa” powder they’d like to donate for this event?
That’s about it for now. Stay warm, everyone.
David
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
December 13, 2010
Hello Parents!
A few notes:
1) The kids did a great job today presenting our advertisement for our upcoming bake sale. They presented, and then they sang the Horizon Baking Company song to our neighbors in Harmony House. The bake sale, as most of you know, is taking place on Friday -- from the morning sing-along through lunch and after school. We'll be doing shifts.
2) As part of our Economics unit, students, on Friday, did a lesson called, "Camp Mini-Haha" where everyone pretended they were going to go on a camping trip and needed to buy some essential items and some optional items. the classroom was turned into a store. Instead of real camping gear, we had several hundred cards laying on tables depicting, for example, different models of tents for different prices. Students were given $200.00 and needed to create a smart and frugal shopping list including food, a tent, etc.
It was a blast.
3) For our read-aloud book, we are reading a book called Toys Go Out (2006) by Paul Zelinsky. It's a book about a handful of stuffed animals who start out inside a backpack that "smells like a wet bathing suit." Later, Lumphy, the buffalo, gets peanut butter all over him. The stuffed animals debated: Is food on a stuffed animal dirt? "It's just food," says Lumphy. "It's not dirt." "Nope. Food is dirt," says Stingray, "when it's mashed into your fir it's dirt." We debated that question too.
Well, Lumphy is scared to death of the washing machine, not to mention the basement where his stuffed-animal friends tell him there are things like spiders and ghosts and sharks and things. Today we read about how Lumphy hides in the closet in the girl's soccer shoe (head-first) so he won't have to get washed. But, he gets stuck, and now, who knows when anyone will find him and get him out.
Kids shared how they would have this problem turn out if they were the authors. Ask your child how they think it's going to turn out for Lumphy.
4) At-Home Reading: students picked their five books today from our class library to put in their cubbies and read during the week. Many also had a chance to choose two books to sign out and take home. If your child didn't bring home books today, he or she will finish choosing tomorrow. Please help your child collect and bring back classroom books he or she has finished.
5) There will be a half day tomorrow.
7) My apologies for being out of touch for the last three weeks or so . I didn't write during Report Card/Conference time, and then the Bolger family got hit by the bug, and it's rattled through all of us in the last ten days or so. But we're on the mend, now, and I'm glad to be reconnecting with you about all that's happening in here.
Take care, everyone.
David
A few notes:
1) The kids did a great job today presenting our advertisement for our upcoming bake sale. They presented, and then they sang the Horizon Baking Company song to our neighbors in Harmony House. The bake sale, as most of you know, is taking place on Friday -- from the morning sing-along through lunch and after school. We'll be doing shifts.
2) As part of our Economics unit, students, on Friday, did a lesson called, "Camp Mini-Haha" where everyone pretended they were going to go on a camping trip and needed to buy some essential items and some optional items. the classroom was turned into a store. Instead of real camping gear, we had several hundred cards laying on tables depicting, for example, different models of tents for different prices. Students were given $200.00 and needed to create a smart and frugal shopping list including food, a tent, etc.
It was a blast.
3) For our read-aloud book, we are reading a book called Toys Go Out (2006) by Paul Zelinsky. It's a book about a handful of stuffed animals who start out inside a backpack that "smells like a wet bathing suit." Later, Lumphy, the buffalo, gets peanut butter all over him. The stuffed animals debated: Is food on a stuffed animal dirt? "It's just food," says Lumphy. "It's not dirt." "Nope. Food is dirt," says Stingray, "when it's mashed into your fir it's dirt." We debated that question too.
Well, Lumphy is scared to death of the washing machine, not to mention the basement where his stuffed-animal friends tell him there are things like spiders and ghosts and sharks and things. Today we read about how Lumphy hides in the closet in the girl's soccer shoe (head-first) so he won't have to get washed. But, he gets stuck, and now, who knows when anyone will find him and get him out.
Kids shared how they would have this problem turn out if they were the authors. Ask your child how they think it's going to turn out for Lumphy.
4) At-Home Reading: students picked their five books today from our class library to put in their cubbies and read during the week. Many also had a chance to choose two books to sign out and take home. If your child didn't bring home books today, he or she will finish choosing tomorrow. Please help your child collect and bring back classroom books he or she has finished.
5) There will be a half day tomorrow.
7) My apologies for being out of touch for the last three weeks or so . I didn't write during Report Card/Conference time, and then the Bolger family got hit by the bug, and it's rattled through all of us in the last ten days or so. But we're on the mend, now, and I'm glad to be reconnecting with you about all that's happening in here.
Take care, everyone.
David
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