Weekly Highlights for May 22- June 2, 2000

We had Arts in the Park last week. Michael Higgins came and carved a turtle and they put it up for auction. Our web site has a new June Survey and the results of the May survey are posted. Some kids got to take home some organisms. Many of the Bess Beetles died. Third year students are having their silhouettes drawn. We chose our top 3 choices for Colt State Park trip. The Talent Share was last Friday and it was a lot of fun. We had no school on Monday because it was Memorial Day. Mr. S’s class watched a video about trees. Thursday was Enrichment Night at Hampden Meadows. Mrs. Evans has been filling in for Mrs. Reinalda all week. Conner turned 9, Happy Birthday!!! Mr. S is reading I want To Go Home, and Mrs. Evans is reading Popcorn in the Palace

In Mrs. Reinalda’s Language class we read a book about monster animals. We had to figure out what the pictures were. We also made and illustrated books like that. We are finishing up our research projects.

In Mr. S’s Language class we wrote letters to our 4^th grade teachers. The second year students wrote to Mr. S and Mrs. Reinalda. We chose a page from our club journals for our portfolios. We have done club books twice this week. We have been practicing our vocabulary test. We finished our Rip Van Winkle stories and shared them. We did one-minute talks on various topics and we had fun reading and tongue twisters.

Mrs. Matthes and Mrs. Reinalda’s class completed a fraction paper where we had problems to solve. We learned a fraction Math Game where we had to cut out triangle fractions and divide them up. We did some review pages. We finished a sheet about counting fractions in different ways. Some kids practiced measuring. We had a listening test about measurement.

Mr. S’s math went outside and made a minute book where we had to do different activities for a minute. We looked at a US map and we found the different high and low temperatures. We chose portfolio pieces.

Weekly Highlights for May 15-May 19, 2000

In Mr. S’ LA class we baked cookies because we earned our tenth point. It was also a fun way to practice following directions. Club books have finally begun. We reviewed our vocabulary words and did a discussion. Some kids from Mrs. Reinalda’s LA are doing club books with us. We watched Rip Van Winkle. We did a new discovery draft. We started our stories with a time we were either surprised, brave or excited.

In Mrs. R’s Language we are doing research projects. Some of the topics people are learning about are cats, dogs, and snakes. We read a book called Creepy Beetles. We also read a book called Amazing Grace. We learned a new poem called Click Beetle.

In Mrs. Reinalda’s and Mrs. Matthes’ math we did a problem solver about sharing brownies. We had to deternine how brownies could be shared equally. We did some journal pages about fractions. We revised another problem solver. We learned how to add fractions. We did some practice with slates. Some shared students shared their fraction stories.

In Mr. S’ math we did 4different explorations, they were, Pattern Blocks, Geo boards, Measuring, and Templates. We did some journal pages and math boxes. We worked on our unfinished work folders. We did some warm ups with the overhead projector and calculators

We went to the Performing Arts Center to see the Chance to Dance program. This week we will be bring home our plants. We made a plant book in Science yesterday. We had our third week of enrichment clusters. Parent volunteers have been taking pictures for a school yearbook and the third grade dinner. The Colt State Park trip is coming up, get your permission slips in. The Talent Share will be on May 26, don’t forget to get your forms in.

IF YOU HAVE YOUR CHILDS’S PROGRESS-FOLIO, PLEASE RETURN IT TO SCHOOL

Weekly Highlights for May 8-May12, 2000

Alex Graves turned 9^, Happy Birthday! 2^nd year student took a reading and math test called the Stanford 9the on Wednesday and Thursday. We made Mother’s Day cards and a special present for them as well. We went to see 2 puppet show in Mrs. O’Conner’s room, The Fisherman and His Wife, and The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Third graders took a test called the Otis Lennon on Thursday. In science we observed the snails, guppies, beetles, and pill bugs and made venn diagrams. There is a school field trip on Tuesday to PPAC to see Chance to Dance. We had week 2 of our Enrichment Clusters. There was a big thunderstorm and half of the school lost power.

In Language Arts, Mr. S’s class wrote an essay about our three club books, which we also started reading today. Third grader students wrote about the pros and cons of going to Hampden Meadows next year. Then we discussed them with Mr. S. We did a dictionary activity with partners. We got our club book vocabulary words. We earned a cooking activity for next week.

Mrs. R’s Language we looked through Microscopes and lenses. We read a book called What is it? We made other Mother’s Day projects and thought of ways we could help our mothers.

Mr. R’s math read a book called Each Orange Had Eight Slices and had to do number stories like the ones in the book. We made a trick math problem that Mrs. Reinalda couldn’t even solve. We also did some story problems. We practiced fractions. We also did some calendar math.

At the end of math on Monday we played "around the world" outside in the shade. We worked on our journals. We did a problem solver about crayons and there was a bonus question too. We practiced solving money problems with calculators. We did some Math Boxes on Friday.

Weekly Highlights for May 1- May 5, 2000

This week we started the Enrichment Clusters on Wednesday afternoons. We finally finished our ERB tests. Jordan celebrated his 9^th birthday with snacks and drinks. Happy Birthday Jordan! Friday we are doing a special Physical Fitness day. We have been doing a lot of work with our Organisms kit. Some groups have had baby guppies. We’ve set up aquariums and terrariums. Next week 2^nd year students will be taken the SAT-9 test on Wednesday and Thursday. Some kids put together a recycling bin and predicted what would biodegrade.

In Mr. Sangiuliano’s Language Class we wrote direction on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and he made one. Club books will be starting next week. We edited and did the final draft of our chore stories. 18 kids earned lunch in the class and ice cream for the third quarter WEB bags and responses. We did a sheet on synonyms.

Mrs. Reinalda’s Language Class is starting to do research projects and some people chose their topics. We wrote questions that we have about the topic and some facts we already know.We read the book Stellaluna by Janelle Cannon.

In Mrs. Reinalda and Mrs. Matthes’ Math Class we started a new game called multiplication card draw. We got a recycling problem that we did with a partner. We did a graphing activity. Some kids played a game called fraction Top-it. Some groups earned lunch in the courtyard.

In Mr. S’ Math we did a shape neighborhood activity. We had to count and tally shapes. We did a graph about the April Internet Survey (take our May survey at www.booksontapeforkids.org/class). We did some warm-ups using the overhead projector. On Friday we did a symmetry activity using pieces of wallpaper.

Weekly Highlights for April 24-April 28, 2000

We had a very busy and very exciting week. The third grade students started and completed the language portion of the ERB tests. Next week will be the math section. Our living organisms arrived this week and we have set up aquariums and terrariums filled with snails, guppies, beetles, pill bugs, pine seedlings, moss, and other plants. We also planted pea, sunflower, kidney bean, and pumpkin seeds. Please send in any other seeds you would like for our class tray.

We received 2 books from a hospital in New Mexico with a thank you letter because we sent them books on tape. The books they gave us are called "Building Bridges" and "How Would You Like to be a Prarie Dog?"

Mrs. Reinalda’s language this week was with both 1^st and 2^nd year students. We had lots of fun reading about ecology and doing follow up activities. We read Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, The Wump World by Bill Peet, Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg, and watched The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Ask your children about what they learned and what they can do for our environment. We buried some items and will be seeing which are biodegradable and non-biodegradable.

This week we celebrated Earth Day by cleaning up the courtyard. We also planted flowers in the front of the building. The school had trash free lunch and we also watched a video. A seventh grade student came to our class to discuss his invention called "Trash Talk".

In Mr. Sangiuliano’s Language Class we made appointment cards for partnerships. We also began working on the final drafts of our Animal Chores stories. We have been doing some mysteries called "Slylock Fox" on the overhead projector.

Those students who participated in three-way conferences should be receiving the follow up form if they haven’t already. Happy May!

Weekly Highlights for April 10-14, 2000

This has been a fun and exciting week. Here is a list of some of the special things we’ve been doing:

Reading Week Activities:

We made bookmarks
We listened to books read aloud
Len Cabral the storyteller performed for the school
Our published books were shared
We charted how many minutes the school read

Field Trip:

Program B visited Slater Mill
Thank you to all the volunteers
Read the brochure about Slater Mill
Visit the web site to see pictures and read about it
(go to "news and notes" www.booksontapeforkids.org/class)

Notes and Reminders:

Thank you all for attending parent conferences
3^rd grade ERB testing will occur between April 24^th and May 5^th

 Weekly Highlights April 3-April 7, 2000

We began our new science unit organisms. We watched a video that explained what an organism is? We drew a picture and explained a habitat and made a venn diagram. Mr. Alley came in and talked about illustrating. He drew Morris from the No Nothings and Detective Dinosaur. It was fun watching a illustrator work. Mr. Danforth and Mrs. Fisher. came in and talked about Slater Mill. We worked with cotton, wool, and flax. Some people completed three way conferences on Wednesday. The remainder of conferenced will be next week. Extended day ended. Pictures were taken for the yearbook.

Happy 9^th birthday Chris!! Mr. S has been out this week to score the third grade state writing test. Spring is here!! We all took the HBJ reading writing assessment this week. We have almost completed our cycle on taping for the Books on Tape Project.

Mr. S’s language has been working on dictionary skills. We had to look up words and see what they meant. We are getting new club books. We are working on illustrating our published books.

Mrs. R. language. We have been working on publishing our books so we will have a published book for reading week. We have completed all the letters in penmanship. We did a reading response to Ginger by Charlotte Voake.

Mr. S.’s math Blue journal is working on fractions. We learned a new game, Dots and Squares.

Mr. LMatthes and Mrs. Reinalda. We did TINS. We made some selections for our portfolio. We did end of the unit assessments. We are finishing our explorations in the units.

Remember there will be no school Tuesday, April 11, 2000. There will be conferences on that day. Three-way conferences will continue on Wednesday and Thursday nights. We look forward to seeing everyone to share their child’s progress.

Weekly Highlights for March 27-March 31, 2000

In Language with Mrs. Reinalda, we have been reading Patricia Polacco books. We read The Keeping Quilt and made our own quilt with squares of special memories. It is hanging on our classroom bulletin board. It’s beautiful. We read Firetalking, which is an autobiography of Patricia Polacco. We learned lots about her life. She loves to rock in her rocking chair and letter her thoughts boil in her head! We read Thunder Cake which talks about how Patricia dealt with her fear of storms. We worked on acrostics using words or phrases to describe ourselves.

Mrs. Reinalda and Mrs. Matthes’ math we counted the last of money for the penny drive. Mrs. Matthes’ group had lunch with her son Calvin. We did two different problem solvers this week. One was about multiplication. One was about a store purchase, making change and finding out how much money is left over. We did the TINS worksheets. We have been working on multiplying big numbers.

We all made flowers and hung them in our "garden". David lost his first tooth. Mrs. R had lunch in the classroom since all our field trip permission slips are turned in. We made butterflies to hang in our window. We watched the Patricia Polacco video called Thank you Mr. Falker.

Mr. S’ language class did a great listening and following directions activity. Please ask us about it. Our spelling homework is learning how to use a dictionary. We read a book called The Golden Treasure and did an "inner and outer circle" for following directions. We earned a bonus point today. We answered fun questions from the book of questions. We wrote our own directions.

In Math, Mr. S’ learned about Venn Diagrams and that was our problem solver. We used different shapes and colors. We did some journal pages. We reviewed money and wrote number stories. We got things ready for our portfolios. We learned a really fun game called "dots and squares". We learned how to do "pizza problems".

Thank you for a wonderful Portfolio Breakfast. We enjoyed seeing all of you and look forward to seeing you again for conferences. Conference slips will be going home next week. Please sign and return so we confirm the time.

Weekly Highlights for March 20-March 24, 2000

The third year students had an ice cream party on Thursday. We read Be Quiet, Go Slowly before we went on an observational nature walk and brainstormed what we noticed. Then we made flowers with watercolors and construction paper. Look for them displayed on our classroom window gardens. We have been getting our portfolios ready to share at conferences. We sent out Portfolio Breakfast Invitations for next Thursday. We are packing up our latest Books on Tapes and they will go to 9 states. Mrs. Monahan is reading Regarding the Fountain to kids who are interested in it. We started to do edit journals.

We are practicing our last 100 spelling words. We are learning how to conduct interviews. Mr. S and Mrs. Matthes modeled how to do it and how not to do it. Then we practiced by interviewing each other. We have been doing practice tests with Mr. S and Mrs. August. We learned that Barbara Cooney, the author of Miss Rumphius and other great books, died recently at age 83. We watched a Reading Rainbow video about wheels and the book Bicycle Man.

In Mrs. Reinalda’s language we have been doing writing for our portfolios. We have looked at our writing for writing mechanics and for content. We all shared our stories. We have been reading Patricia Polacco books. On Friday we saw a video Thank You, Mr. Falker read by Patricia Polacco.We read Birthday Presents by Cynthia Rylant. We copied the poem, March, for a penmanship sample.

Mr. S’s math did a problem solver using coins. We picked a problem solver to put in our portfolios. We played Place Value Uno. We did math boxes, and some journal pages. The blue journal group has been learning about fractions and the red journal group has been reviewing geometry.

Mrs. Reinalda’s class counted the Leukemia Society donations. We are learning about parentheses in math. The problem solver was A Three Hat Day. We have been focusing on the explanation. We did a portfolio piece about our feelings about math. We will be using the TINS program for problem solving. We played math basketball.

Check out the News and Notes section of our web page to get the latest information!

Second and third year students: Please return your conference forms as soon as possible. Thanks

Return to top

Weekly Highlights for March 13-March 17, 2000

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17. Yesterday, we did a paper and a picture about what we want to be when we grow up. We did it after Mrs. Reinalda read the book called What I Want to be When I grow Up, by Carol Burnett. We also re-did a paper that we did in October called "Reflecting on Ourselves" that was in our portfolio. Our next round Books on Tape Project is moving along, we wrote our letters to the hospitals and almost all the recording is done. A High School student named Ashley Acciardo is volunteering in our classroom as part of her Senior Project. Our next science kits are here and they are called Organisms.

In Mr. S’s class we read Mrs. Katz and Tush by Patricia Polacco. We also read another book by her called Aunt Chip and the Triple Creek Dam Affair and did a step by step reading response. The writing topic on the State Assessment last week was "what if you found a key, describe it and tell what it would do". The third year students are having lunch with Mr. S on Monday. We have been doing a lot of web reading. We voted on our new club books. We presented our Biography projects last Friday.

Our new poem was the "Wearing of the Green" by Aileen Fisher. Mrs. Carney is using a computer game called Oregon Trail. We did peanut butter and jelly words and we had a layer cake when we learned layer cake words. We listened to Somebody and the Three Blairs by Marilyn Tolhurst and did an individual story map. We read Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco. We are publishing our writing workshop books.

In Mr. S’s math class we played miniature golf after we did our mini golf problem solver. The blue journal group did a problem solver with Mrs. Lyons where we had to find sums of different numbers. We did some lessons about fractions. We did some journal pages and math boxes. We also played math basketball and place value UNO.

Mrs. Reinalda’s and Mrs. Matthes’ class did "factor, factor, product". We did math problems with parentheses. We did a problem solver about how many handshakes would there be if everyone in the math class shook everyone else’s hand. Some kids learned how to use the M- and M+ keys on our calculators. We are working on badges for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Visit our class web site at www.booksontapeforkids.org/class
Check out our Book Reviews! Take our March Survey! Look at the updated Photo Gallery!

Weekly Highlights for March 6 - March10, 2000

Today we counted the money for the pennies for Leukemia. Mr. S.’s class raised $28.29 and Mrs. Reinalda’s was $15.24. We have two more weeks to continue this drive. Thanks for your generosity. On Thursday we went to the high school for the World’s Largest Concert. It was fun and we sang lots of patriotic songs. The third grade took the State Writing Assessment on Tuesday and Wednesday. Mrs. Lyons was our substitute on Thursday. Extended day started this week. Mr. Cronin came in and talked about pulleys. We got to lift 60 pounds of lead. The more purchase added, the easier it was to pull. Our new science kits have come. The topic is organisms. We all worked on completing the next round of Books on Tape. Mr. S.s group is taping the books and Mrs. R.’s is doing the accompanying art work.

In Mr. S’s language some kids typed their book reviews on the computer. (Check them out on our WEB site!) On Friday we dressed up for our biography person. We had no homework this week because of testing. We did a newsletter article. On Friday we had Biography Day and we got to dress up as our person.

Mrs. R.s language and some people from Mr. S language went to Mrs. Felag’s room and did a problem solver. It was about the book Moira’s Birthday by Robert Munsch. We also did an activity with pentominoes. Our poem is The March Wind.

Mr. S.s math we played the Dice Tally game. We also played Place Value Uno and worked on our folders. We did a geo-board exploration.

Mrs. R. and Mrs. Matthes, our problem solving strategy this week was making it easier. We are learning division and multiplication. We got new journals and we are beginning a new unit. Mrs. R’s group is beginning Multiplication and Division we finished our decimal unit. Mrs. Matthes’ group is beginning the unit Patterns and Rules.

PORTFOLIO BREAKFAST: THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2000

PLEASE VISIT OUR WEB SITE! CHECK OUT OUR NEW FEATURES SUCH AS THE MARCH SURVEY, NEWS STORIES, AND
BOOK REVIEWS!

Mr. And Mrs. S. had a leap year baby boy. He surprised everyone by being born at 7:26pm on February 29 and weighed 6 pounds ll ounces. His name is Michael Sangiuliano.

We have to send our science kits back on Monday. We have been doing our final building this week. The last thing we learned about were gears. We made mixer, clown, merry go round and our final project was to build something with moving parts . It has to be useful.

Our web sites received the Miss Rumphius Award from a group of reading teachers for making the world a better place. We are all so proud. Please check it out and look for the Miss Rumphius seal! (booksontapeforkids.org)

In community meeting we discussed line behavior and lunch. We were also talking about appropriate talk.

Some people were on trips over vacation. The Feinstein singers came today and performed. Pokemon is fading and cars are a big thing. Great news. The Kalidoscope Theatre came and did a play called "I’m Special and You’re Special". It talked about how people learn in different ways. We are all special. The actors were Bob, David, Mom and Dad. We’re also doing a penny drive for Leukemia. Today we are watching a video called "Why, Charlie Brown, Why?"

 Mr. S.s language made stories about footprints. We’ve been practicing for the 3rd grade writing assessment which will be next Tuesday and Wednesday. Some of the kids gave book review on the biography we read over vacation. We revised, edited, went to our final draft in the footprint stories. Next Friday will be Biography Day, we will dress up as the person we read about. Mrs. Matthes read On Call Back Mountain.

Mrs. Reinalda’s language poem is Paper Dragons. We are working on good endings for our writer’s workshop stories. We read the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse by Jan Brett. We wrote about our vacation and will include these on the WEB page.

Mr. S’s math class we did some work with calculators. We all did a problem solver about eggs with Mrs. Muccino. We did a lot of pages in our journals and worked on our folders. We did practice with patterns too. We also took a badge test.

Mrs. R. and Mrs. M’s Math Problem solving strategy this week was using logical reasoning. We did a great job and found this to be a very easy strategy!! Both groups had end of the unit assessments on Thursday. We will be beginning new units next week.

Return to top

Weekly Highlights for February 14-18, 2000

Mr. S’s math class did a problem solver with candy hearts with Mrs.Muccino. We found out that pink is the most popular color. We made over 150 math triangles. We sat silently for 100 seconds on the 100^th day of school. We did take away using plus. We did 100 exercises. The blue journal group started some multiplication and division. We worked on our folders.

Mrs. Reinalda math class made a place value decimal book. We are learning about tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. We did some math facts tests last week. Mrs. Matthes group learned some new games, one was called Array Bingo. We got new team tables in math. Our math problem solver was about Valentine’s cards. We read a book called Arther’s Great Big Valentine by Lilian Hoban. After solving the problem we extended to make a more difficult problem.
Please remember to send in folders and marble composition books!

Mrs. Reinalda’s language class read a book called the 100^th Day of School. We also read A Picture Book ofGeorge Washington and made a mini-book to bring home. We read the 100 Animal poem and are turning it into a book and illustrating it. Rafeek and Endy did a news report on ice mummies. We read Charlie the Caterpillar by Dom DeLuise about friendship.

Mr. S’s language class made fudge brownies today, they were delicious. This week we continued to practice reading our nonfiction books on tape. We watched an episode of Reading Rainbow about the book Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons. We did a reading response on a book Mrs. Matthes read to us. We had vocabulary instead of spelling this week. We did cursive in shaving cream.

We had a Valentine’s Day celebration on Monday and passed out cards. We made fans in science and an entertainment machine using pulleys. Winter vacation is next week. The readers of books on tape paired up with illustrators. We will be doing 18 books this time! Mrs. Albano came to visit us today.

In Mrs. Reinalda’s language arts we did a poem called The Groundhog and we acted it out. We did a retelling and a story map for the book The Snow Lambs by Debi Glioi. Jimmy and Rafeek, Endy, and Geoffrey shared their projects with the group about electricity, earthquakes and volcanoes. We are continuing to publish books.

Mr. S’s math class played domino top-it. Mrs. Vial will be with our math every Tuesday and Thursday. We practiced our turn-arounds. Some of us learned part/part/total boxes. Our problem solver was called 9 cubes into 2 bowls, we found all the different ways to make the number 9. We did some coloring in sheets.

Mrs. Reinalda’s and Mrs. Matthes’ math group did a game called Number Top-it with numbers up to MILLIONS! Practice reading big numbers at home. We are learning a new strategy called working backwards. Mrs. Matthes’ group now has a rug. We will do new explorations tomorrow. Some of us got assigned seats in math. We revised our "Sharing 25" problem solver so that we could meet the standard. We have a new volunteer now, welcome Mrs. Davidson.

Happy February and Happy Groundhogs Day, 6 more weeks of winter! In science we have been working on building with our simple machines kit. We made cars and a cab with a trailer. We wrote about how we made them. Mrs. Evans was in for Mr. S. because he was at a Writing Workshop.

It will soon be Valentine’s Day (and the 100^th day of school!). Mrs. Reinalda’s class is doing an activity called "What makes a friend?" Mrs. Reinalda is reading the School Mouse and Mr. S is reading The Twits.

We started using our Simple Machines Kit. We got a chance to play with the legos. We got our picture taken with invention we made and wrote about it. Michael Higgins came back to our school. Everybody in the whole school put names on chopped up pieces of wood and stained them. They are feathers for wooden owls. Yesterday it snowed! It was Mr. S’s birthday this week, Happy Birthday!!! If we want to go out for recess when it snows we need, gloves or mittens, hat, snow pants (over our regular pants), boots, winter coat. We learned a lot about Dr. Martin Luther King. We made bells that say "Freedom is…" and we completed that sentence. We read some books about him too.

In Mrs. Reinalda’s Language class we started plays of The Mitten and The Hat. We got a class check. We have been singing The Mitten Song as well. We have been enjoying other stories about snow and winter. We are using story maps to respond to what we hear. We are all working on reading individual web books.

Mr. S’s Language class has 8 points, 2 more to go! We did a lot of punctuation and capital letters practice. We learned cursive capital letters K and H. We did our final draft of our special places stories. Some kids retook some old spelling words to earn a badge. We will be starting Biography Club Books about Harriet Tubman, Amelia Earhart, and Benjamin Franklin. Mr. S is working on putting a Web Site together for our class and our Books on Tape Project; we gave him some ideas. We might even get our stories publish on the Internet! We listened and saw a part of Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous "I Have Dream" speech.

Mrs. Matthes and Reinalda's class played a lot of math games. We did a problem solver about sand dollars. We learned to look for a pattern as a problem solving strategy. Some students solved another problem solver about kids leaving a park. We reviewed unit 4. Some students learned about 3 dimensional shapes.

Mr. S’s math we did a lot of warm up activities. We learned a game called 19 nice ones. You can play it at home with 19 pennies! We did a game making rows with unifex cubes after rolling dice. We did some journal pages about animals and how much they weigh. Mrs. Muccino’s problem solver was about 50 cents. Mr. S’s was about a book called 10 Little Rabbits, we did it as a class.

Portfolio Breakfast

January 28, 2000

7:45 – 8:10

Weekly Highlights for January 3 – January 7 2000

Mrs. Reinalda’s language class practiced plays, The Hat and The Mitten by Jan Brett. Our weekly poem is January We read The Mitten by Alvin Tresselt. We will compare the two versions. In penmanship we practiced the letter "p". Yesterday we reviewed chunks and did rhyming words. Our author study is Jan Brett.

In Mr. S’s class we took a reading test where we read a story and answered questions and vocabulary words. We did our Talk Journals. We got tested on the words we missed on our first 100 spelling words list. In cursive we started capital letters P, R, B. We saw some new games that Mr. S showed us on the Internet. We are on our 2^nd drafts of our special place stories. We will start a new round of club books they are nonfiction biographies. We voted for our top 3 choices. We read Miss Rumphius.

In Mrs. Reinalda and Mrs. Matthes math we made dodecahedrons calendars. This is an Everyday Math project that will result in a completed desk calendar. We shapes out of straws and twist ties and measured the perimeter. We played math games to practice math skills.

In Mr. S’s class we did an activity called Follow the Leader with Pattern Blocks. Mrs. Muccino did a problem solver with the blue journal group about the book 17 Kings and 42 Elephants. The red journal group did a problem about a New Years resolution and the calendar. Mr. S started reading a book about money.

It is the year 2000! We had 3 birthdays! Happy Birthday to Haley (9), Keshav (8) and Chloe (7). Before vacation we made an art project for our parents with empty ice cream buckets. We are working on a penny book of memories. We started a new schedule this week. Mr. S finished Fantastic Mr. Fox and started George’s Marvelous Medicine, both by Roald Dahl. Mrs. Matthes gave an assembly about how to be a good audience member.

Weekly Highlights for December 13 – December 17, 1999

This week we got a special Time Magazine about the century. We are making holiday gifts, you will love them. The third year students went to an assembly about endangered species presented by the Audobon Society. We learned that we shouldn’t disturb animal’s habitats! The chorus students will be performing a concert on Tuesday. Happy 9^th Birthday Haley (Dec 27) and 7^th Birthday Chloe (Jan 1). Mrs. Reinalda finished Atta Boy Sam. The Tap-In drive was a huge success, thank you. Our place mats were delivered to Meals-on-Wheels and they loved them! And finally, ornaments were delivered to the Giving Tree in Providence.

In Mr. Sangiuliano’s language class we reviewed our last 100 spelling words. Instead of spelling homework we had a writing homework. We are finishing our 4^th round of books on tape. They are going to Illinois, Georgia, Mississippi, and Indiana. We found out that Sony can’t donate the tapes BUT we received a $560.00 grant from BEF to continue our project! We are writing about a special place now in language arts. We will start cursive capital letters after the vacation.

In Mrs. Reinalda’s language we are reading a poem called "Home Is Where It’s Warm Inside." We have been practicing reading aloud, remembering a clear voice, good expression, and paying attention to punctuation. We practiced with a partner. We listened to and read a book, Green Bananas

and are continuing our chapter book 26 Fairmont Avenue. Our chunk this week was "ack".

Mr. S’s math made clocks and took them home. We did a problem solver about a paper boy from the book The Paper Boy by Dav Pilvey. Mrs Muccino will be coming in to help us with our problem solvers every Tuesday. We are practicing our facts with our triangles. We did explorations with tape measures.

Mrs. Reinalda’s group has continued working on multiplication and division. We will begin practicing the facts in the new year. Our problem solving activity this week involved making a table. It was a cooperative lesson and we now have a long paper chain. More badges were earned for addition and subtraction facts!

Due to the short week there will probably NOT be an issue of Weekly Highlights next week. We would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a happy and safe holiday season. Happy New Year.

Weekly Highlights for December 6 – December 10, 1999

In Mr. Sangiuliano’s Language Arts we learned about paragraphs and indenting. Also, that extra space between paragraphs means a new time or place. We did a review of contractions and they were our spelling words. We learned about adjectives and how to use them in our writing. We sent books to 2 more states, Hawaii and Illinois, that is 9 states all together! Thanks Mrs. Cronin and Mrs. Perkins and Mr. Valentine for your help! We started taping more books for the next round. We finished our club books.

In Mrs. Reinalda’s language we are reading the book 26 Fairmount Avenue, it is an autobiography by Tomie de Paola. Tomie de Paola writes different genres of books. So far we have read autobiographies, non-fiction, and fiction books written by him. We played sight word BINGO, Rafeek won! This week our poem is "Home You’re Where It’s Warm Inside." Our chunk this week was "ed" and "ead". Mrs. Carney’s group started a research activity.

Mrs. Matthes and Mrs. Reinalda’s math had another time test of addition and subtraction facts. We all did better and some of us earned a badge. Playing the fact games sure has helped us! We did a problem solver and we used the strategy of Guess and Check. With Mrs. Matthes we did a journal page bout a snack bar and making change. We played addition shuffleboard. We took the end of the unit evaluation. Our next unit will focus on mental math strategies for two digit addition and subtraction. Mrs. Reinalda’s group began a unit on multiplication and division. We have written our own number stories. We have made arrays to solve problems. Keep watching for things that come in groups.

In Mr. S’s math we did a badge test of addition facts. We played a money game with coins and dollars. Our problem solver was about holiday lights. We did a count by 2 activity by cutting and pasting cherries. We did a vending machine page in our journal.

David’s Birthday was this week, he is 6! Happy Birthday! Happy (belated) 9^th to Caroline! Happy Birthday!

We had art enrichment and did x-ray Aboriginal drawings. Thanks to Mrs. Conaway and Mrs. Swihart for their help We had a very special school assembly on Thursday. A man named Jim came to our school and talked about steps to solving a problems, they are: Stop…Step Back…Cool Down…Apologize…Talk it Out. Be sure to talk about these at home and show the arm movements that go with each step. We finished all the lower case cursive letters. Mr. S is reading Fantastic Mr. Fox and Mrs. Reinalda is reading Attaboy Sam.

Our focus this month is on giving. We have several projects that involve giving to others. We made and donated place mats for Meals on Wheels using cut paper. On Monday some kids went around to classes to talk about the Tap-In Project. The rest of us made posters for the project that are hanging around the school. The TAP-In box is almost full. Please remember that all donations need to be in by Monday.

Today we are making snowflake ornaments that will be brought to the Giving Tree at the Providence Place Mall.

Weekly Highlights for November 29-December 3, 1999

In Mr. Sangiuliano’s Language Class we earned our 10^th point, hurray! We did a step by step response about our club books because we finished reading them. We started our next round of books on tape. Mrs. Garland’s class is doing the project now and they came in to learn how we do it. They are sending them to 4 states.

In Mrs. Reinalda’s language Dragon Smoke was a poem, we read Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs

by Tomi dePaola We read My favorite Time of the Year by Susan Pearson , we wrote about some things we do on our favorite time of the year and drew a picture to go with it. We are working on choosing books to publish.

In Mr. S’s math we played with the number cards. We did explorations with pattern boards, locking cubes, and geoboards. We did a problem solver on Wednesday about a birthday cake and how much it cost. We played domino top-it and place value Uno!

In Mrs. Reinalda’s and Mrs. Matthes we played fact games. We played the game 7-up. We learned a new strategy called guess and check.

We had substitutes on Thursday because our teachers had a meeting. Caleb turned 8, Happy Birthday! It is a new month, Happy December. Welcome back from Costa Rica Gideon! We watched the Magic School Bus about water and we wrote what we learned on a picture of a bus. Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. We are waiting for our Time Magazines this week. We have been learning about map skills. We are in new teams in Mrs.Reinalda’s room.

Look for a special note regarding Tap-In next week!

Weekly Highlights for November 15 - November 19, 1999

In Mrs. Reinalda’s language class we read the poem "Thanksgiving.’ The chunk we learned this week was "ank". We re-read Mousekin"s Thanksgiving,finished our story maps and our retellings. Strega Nona, Her Story by Tomie dePaolo and The Art Lesson. We also did an HBJ assessment- The Lunch Box.

A lot of people are reading Harry Potter. We are finally finished with our "Owie" stories. We finished our kite string letters in cursive. We have been practicing our vocabulary words by acting them out and we’ll have a test next week. We continue to work on our Book Clubs.

Mr. S is almost done reading Dragons of Blueland. Happy Birthday Alex C. and Harry L.!!! Jacob took Professor Pig home. (I hope he had a good visit) We read a Time Magazine for Kids. For Thanksgiving we made bookmarks and watched some videos about the Pilgrims and the Mayflower. In Science we’ve looked at surface area, evaporation, and condensation. We will observed the results of some experiments.

In math, Mr. S’s class played number circle with cards. Blue journal group did a very challenging thing called Magic Squares. We have been practicing addition facts with coloring sheets and badge tests. We have some wonderful volunteers in math, thank you! We practiced math triangles.

Mrs. Matthes and Mrs. Reinalda did problem solvers using the strategy of organizing lists. We switched team tables. We started doing addition and subtraction with big numbers using different strategies. Some kids practiced money activities in their math journals. We’re getting better doing sunrise/sunset. On Tuesday there was 9 hours and 48 minutes of daylight. Groups 1, 2, and 7 won lunch in the classroom for good team listening.

Weekly Highlights for November 1, 1999 – November 5, 1999

Happy Birthday Andrew Dennis! It’s today!

"Belle took me home and gave me a bath. Thanks Belle!" Professor Pig

Tuesday was no school because there were parent conferences. Three- Way conferences will begin next Tuesday.. The missing goat was in Mrs. Hartman’s yard! She saw it!

The recorder students got their recorders.

In science we observed water and ice. Mr. S finished reading Elmer and the Dragon and started reading The Dragons of Blueland. Mrs. Reinalda is reading Attaboy Sam by Lois Lowry. We’ve been reading the Time Magazine for Kids. We have a copy of Avi reading Ragweed that we will listen to.

In Language Arts we sent 3 more packages out to Texas, California, and Colorado.

We are starting Book Clubs today. Everybody finished their second drafts of our "Owie" stories. Congratulations to Jordan, Kelsey, Haley, Gabrielle and Jen. They earned an ice cream party for remembering their WEB book and responses everyday the whole first quarter. For spelling homework we used coins to find value of words.

In Mrs. R’s language class we started centers. We read a poem called Daylight Savings Time. A group has started a book club. They discussing their books and doing reading responses. The class read the books Nothing Happened, Tom by Tomie dePaola and Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus.

Mr. S’s math learned how to do Frames and Arrows. Some kids learned a game called Name That Number. We’ve been learning about coins and did a money problem solver.

Mrs. R and Mrs. Matthes’ Mrs. R.’s math compared temperatures around the country and eggs in animal clutches. . We are playing some math facts game. We also did and addition and subtraction speed test. We’ve done some journal pages about Frames and Arrows and math extensions. We reworked a problem solver called The Witches Hat so we would all reach the standard.

NOTE TO PARENTS: If you haven’t returned your conference confirmation sheet, please do so as soon as possible.

Thanks to all those who attended conferences on November 2. It was great having an opportunity to talk to you about your child’s progress.

Weekly Highlights for October 25-October 29, 1999

In Mrs. Reinalda’s and Mrs. Matthes’ Mrs. Reinalda’s math we did some journal pages about fact extensions and in/out boxes. We also did "What’s My Rule". We started sunrise/sunset. Mrs. Matthes was at a Math Conference so we had a substitute. We practiced addition and subtraction facts and did games and fact triangles.

Mr. S’s class learned about what is on coins (pennies, dimes, nickels, quarters) and how much they are worth. We looked at them with a magnifier and drew them. We played a game called "Egg Head" and we started learning about fact triangles.

In Mr. S’s language the reporter from the Journal Bulletin came in and we got copies of the newspaper we were in on Wednesday. We found out what our club books are, Sophie’s Snail, The Magic Finger, and The Comeback Dog. We started writing "Owie" stories, about a time we got hurt. We answered a few questions about our connections to the book. We did talk journals.

In Mrs. Reinalda’s language we did the attitude flower. We read several Halloween Poems called "Witch Rides", "Mr. Jack-o-Lantern", and "Lazy Witch". We all read books. Mrs. Reinalda read Leo the Late Bloomer . We did centers and yesterday we wrote about Halloween plans or a special October events. Some kids are reading Koko’s Kitten by Dr. Francine Petterson and wrote and mailed a letter to Koko.

Happy Birthday Geoffrey and Gideon!!! Thanks for the treats. We had our first portfolio breakfast. James’ uncle is coming in today to talk to us, he’s a geologist. We are having a Halloween celebration. We did self-portraits for our portfolios. The Kindergartens came through all dressed up. In Science we’ve done science experiments with water. Mr. S.’s class had guests from the international house to speak with us about Japan and taught us how to do origami. The whole class did a problem solver about the book TheWitch’s Hat.

Please have a FUN and SAFE Halloween. All schedules for Three-Way conferences will be going home by Nov. 3 in the Backpack Express.

Weekly Highlights for October 18, 1999 October 22, 1999

In Mr. S’s Language arts class we read Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman. We wrote about all the different feelings she had in the book. We put together our first round of packages to send to 4 hospitals. The states are Tennessee, RI, Ohio, and Massachusetts. We are working on another set of books and this time we are making bookmarks that go with them. We received our Good Deed Journals from Mr. Feinstein. We have been getting our things together for Portfolio Breakfast. We learned 2 new cursive letters "I" and "u"

In Mrs. Reinalda’s Language we read a story called Left Behind by Donald Carrick and then we completed a story map retell for it. The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting had a very surprising ending. We read a poem called Witch Ways. We wrote our "about the authors". We are beginning our centers, some of them are the listening center, partner reading center, building word center, and sight word center.

In Mr. S’s math we chose and wrote about one of our journal pages for our portfolios. We did a problem solver about a ghost, wizard and skeleton lining up to go trick-or-treating. We did some journal pages. We learned all about turn-arounds. We used tape measures as an exploration.

Mrs. Matthes and Mrs. Reinalda’s class used the strategy of making tables in our problem solvers. We played beat the calculator and other games to practice our math facts. We used calculators to solve some money problems. We reviewed fractions. We talked about prime and composite numbers. Friday is explorations day.

In Science we made thermometers out of vials and straws. We put hot water and cold water and saw the water expand and contract in the straw.

We had a very special visitor to the school. Mr. Higgins from The Magic Garden in Tiverton came and sculpted for us. He used a pine tree stump and used a chainsaw to turn it into a crow on a pumpkin in 30 minutes! He also painted it with spray paint. Be sure to look at it in our foyer.

Happy Birthday Jimmy and Ben Shand!!!

 REMINDERS

Portfolio Breakfast is Tuesday, October 26, 1999

For Parents of Second and Third Year Students: Please remember to send back the form for Three-Way Conferences.

Weekly Highlights for October 12 – October 15 1999

In Mr. Sangiuliano’s Language Arts class a reporter from the Barrington Times came in to do a story on our Books on Tape project. A reporter from the Journal might visit next week. We finished the first set of 9 books and are started the second round of 7 books. We will color the states in on a map to keep track of where we’ve sent them. Our goal is to send 2 books to each of the 50 states. We wrote a letter to Sony asking for a donation of 100 cassette tapes. We did our final drafts of our "first time." stories. Our spelling homework was teacher’s names.

In Mrs. Reinalda’s class we did a paper activity and we wrote about it. We made a pumpkin design and on it we wrote what happened first, next, and last in the book Mouseking’s Golden House. We did some writer’s workshop. We are using our awesome new WEB bags!

With Mrs. Matthes and Mrs. Reinalda our math class did "What’s My Rule Boxes". We completed two journal pages where we had to add certain things up and find the total cost. We used calculators a lot this week. We had a homework problem solver.

In Mr. S’s Math class we did a pattern problem solver with cut outs of colored triangles and squares. We did explorations using geoboards and balances. We practiced our doubles facts. We did math boxes for the first time and also worked on some pages in our journals. We worked on our Numbers to 500 (some kids are over 1,000!)

In Social Studies we learned a lot about Christopher Columbus by playing a game and reading books. We read a Time Magazine for kids, which we will be getting every week. Some of the articles were about the world population, a boy who is going to college at age 10, a Native American Museum in Washington DC, and Monarch Butterflies.

In Science we have been working with our water kit. We put water on a slope and observed what happened. We learned about surface tension by putting drops of water on a penny, then adding soap. Professor Pig made his return!

Mrs. Surreira has been in for Mrs. Reinalda who had to go to some workshops about math. She will share what she learns with the staff when she returns on Tuesday.

Happy Birthday Chelsea and Chloe!!!

Reminders:

Students new to our class this year need to bring in a binder.

Portfolio Breakfast is on October 26, 1999 from 7:45-8:10

Weekly Highlights For October 4 - October 8, 1999

In Mr. S’s language we learned about our responsibilities for our homework and class work. We are almost finished with our first batch of Books on Tape. We will be sending them out maybe next week.. We did our talk journals on Thursday. We wrote stories about the ‘first time we did something’ and edited them. We added things to our future topics list. We wrote letters to the children in the hospitals that will be getting our books. A reporter from the Barrington Times may be coming in to talk to us about our project.

Mrs. Reinalda’s class poem this week was called A Frog is A Frog. We read the book called There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and Too Much Noise. We also practiced our penmanship. We have decorated our WEB bags and will be getting them today. (Remind your parents to read the note inside).

Mr. S’s Math measured all different things with unifex cubes. We did explorations with pattern blocks and geo boards. We did a calendar and date activity. We also did number stories and some pages in our math journals. We played a number circle game.

Mr. Matthes’ and Mrs. R’s played a game called broken calculator. We graphed the number of letters in our names. This weeks problem solver further developed the strategy of making a picture to solve problems. We did some journal pages. We learned about equivalent names. Homework will be sent home on Tuesday and is due back on Friday.

We started our science unit and did some experiments using eye droppers and water. We put water on different kinds of paper. (wax, paper towel, aluminum foil, and copy paper). We went to the library and went on line and looked at reference books to learn about our countries for Oktoberfest (Japan and Australia). We have been learning about Christopher Columbus. Don’t forget, no school on Monday.

Notes from the Teachers

Any student new to Program B this year needs to bring in a 2" three ring binder as soon as possible (single color is best). These are used for your child’s progress-folio and are important to demonstrate your child’s growth over time.

Missing: Hello Red Fox by Eric Carle If you find it at home could you please send it in. It was a WEB book last year and not returned. Thanks!

Oktoberfest basket items and donations are due on October 12.

Welcome back Johnessa, we missed you!

What is a Portfolio Breakfast? Portfolio Breakfast is an informal opportunity for your child to share with you their classroom work. Breakfast snacks are provided. Join us for our first quarterly breakfast on Tuesday, October 26 from 7:45-8:10.

Happy Birthday Ben Mollica, Mrs. Garland, Carlos, and Mrs. Reinalda!!!

Weekly Highlights for September 27-October 1, 1999

October has begun!

In Mrs. Reinalda’s math class we did some problem solvers about a mouse and another one trying to find out how many people live on the same side of the street. We got new math teams. We combined with Mrs. Matthes’ math class. We learned how to use calculators (using fingers not pencils). We counted letters in our first and last names and are organizing the information. We worked on our math journals. There is a divider in Mrs. R’s class now. We did explorations and math games.

In Mr. S’s math we sorted buttons after reading Frog and Toad are Friends.

We counted items in the room using tally marks. We did some journal pages. We played number squeeze. We built things using pattern blocks. We also did number writing practice.

In Mr. S’s Language class we started to record our books on tape. We also paired up with the illustrators for them. We read the book Down the Road and learned about experience and story clues and made a prediction. We had spelling this week. We got our talk journals and will be writing to Mr. S about once a week. We also started writing in our Writer’s Notebooks.

In Mrs. Reinalda’s we made books. We are going to be starting WEB bags soon. We got our browsing boxes. We made kites that are on display in room 9. We wrote stories.

We checked out our water kit and made science folders. We will star that unit next week. Mr. S finished reading My Fathers’ Dragon. We switched classes and went to the library to learn about Japan and Australia.

Happy Birthday Courtney and Lauren!!!

PORTFOLIO BREAKFAST

Tuesday, October 26, 1999

7:45-8:10

Wanted: Used tennis balls! If you have any lying around, please send them in. We use them for the bottoms of tables and chairs.

Also…We are finalizing our schedule for parent volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering and haven’t spoken to Mrs. Cronin, call her as soon as possible.

Finally…We have several children with nut allergies in our class. Please be sensitive to this when sending in classroom snacks. Thank you.

Weekly Highlights for September 20 - September 24, 1999

Happy Birthday Alex K, Endy, Christina, Johnessa, and Kelly !

We had school pictures on Thursday. Open house was Wednesday night. We shared what we’ve done in school so far, we filled out water charts, estimated M&M’s, showed our families the class pets including Cinnamon and Sugar.

A group went to the library with Mr. S and did research on the internet about frogs and then we switched with the other group who were making a project about metamorphosis.

Last Friday due to school cancellation there was no Weekly Highlights

Mr. S’s Language is putting books on tape and donating them to Children’s Hospitals along with artwork. We received our writer’s notebooks and WEB bags (Wonderfully Exciting Books). We are working on a newspaper. We read the book The Wednesday Surprise and did a response to it

Mrs. Reinalda’s Language class wrote down all the words we could spell. We read a story about a frog. We made kites that represented things that we did that were hard for us at first but now we can do. We shared stories we had written,

Mr. S is reading aloud My Father’s Dragon.

In math we played some number games including domino top it. We learned how to use templates and did some journal pages. We also solved a problem about teeth.

Another math class received red folders and did a preview for further lessons. We practiced facts and we did some problem solving using the strategies of acting things our. Mrs. Muccino came in and did some math with us. We got our math writing journals and answered the question "What is math?"

Some kids learned how to play addition top it and also a money exchange game.

We finally got our personal journals

Here is a copy of our schedule:

Mrs. Reinalda Mr. Sangiuliano

Mon. Art Phys. Ed

Tue. Art Music

Wed. Music Art

Thurs. Phys. Ed Library

Fri. Library Art

Please remember to put your child’s lunch money in an envelope. On the front to the envelope put your child’s name and lunch choice. Thanks.

Weekly Highlights For September 8- September 10, 1999

This was the first week of school! We made frog books. We listened to the story "Two Frogs" by Len Cabral and retold the story by making it into a book. On the first day of school, Program B teachers put on a play called "The Frog Prince". We made frog masks and sang a song called "10 Little Speckled Frogs", then we had popsicles. We now have two new gerbils (they don’t have names yet). We began our class jobs yesterday. There are some new things hanging up in the room like maps and new backgrounds. We read a book called Letter to the Lake and we wrote about our own summer memories and treasures. There is a new lunch schedule at school. We have recess first, then lunch. Mr. S’s class heard a book called The Princess and the Froggie. Mrs. R’s class read Jack’s Tale. Today we celebrated Jacob’s birthday, Happy Birthday Jacob! We read books silently. We learned about morning routines like signing in and reading the board. We put our origami frogs on the window and our team names on clouds. We were class detectives and found new things about our rooms. In art we drew self- portraits.

Welcome to your first Weekly Highlights of the new school year! You will be receiving a copy each Friday afternoon. The purpose is to help generate discussion between you and your child about what we’ve done in school that week. We will also occasionally include dates to remember and other notices pertaining to our class, so please look for it each week. Thank you for helping us get off to a successful start by sending your child to school with the necessary materials. Have a great weekend!
Return to top