Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from room 310! We had a wonderful last day before winter break. We had I Time (we are wrapping up working on identifying the main idea of a passage), we took our spelling tests, completed some math assessments and we celebrated! This morning we watched "Santa Claus 3" with the specialist teachers. This afternoon we watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

Have a wonderful and safe holiday break! See you next year!

Monday, December 17, 2012

Today was another busy day in room 310! During our class meeting, we talked about all the things we do to stay safe at school - we have fire drills, tornado drills, and emergency drills. We talked about the importance of listening and following directions to also stay safe. Then we switched for our regular I Time and math groups. We are finishing up our units on identifying main idea and place value/rounding. This afternoon we had SEL. We got our new spelling sorts, practiced them, and put them into our iPads. We also did Achieve3000, read to self, and Daily 5. We took an afternoon break for Adventure to Fitness, and that was interrupted by a fire drill. It will continue to be a busy week this week!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Happy Day after "Aaron Rodgers Day"! We have been so busy in room 310 and we have had so many special activities. Mrs. Benedict was absent and took the peer mediators to training one day, so we had a couple substitute teachers. In math we have continued to work on place value, rounding, estimating, and using addition, subtraction, and multiplication strategies. We also continue to work on committing our math facts to memory. In literacy, we continue to work on making connections as we read, identifying good vocabulary words, and we have been reviewing making sure we have a good fit book. We are working on writing a personal narrative, a story about something that has happened in our own lives. In addition, we continue to practice math and reading skills on ScootPad and develop as readers with Achieve3000.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Happy last week of November! We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. Today we got right back into the swing of things. We switched classrooms for I Time, math, and spelling. during I Time, we are working on identifying the main idea and supporting details in our reading, in math we are continuing to work on place value, and we got our new spelling sorts for the week. This afternoon, we did some reading and Daily 5. We worked on ScootPad and Achieve. We worked on writing "super sentences" using nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. It was a busy day!

First Quarter Award Winners

 

Congratulations to our 1st Quarter Award winners!

 

 

Our BEAR award winners.

 

 

 

Our STAR award winners.

Vote for Jefferson - Clorox Grant

Jefferson is currently in the running for a grant through Clorox. The grant would allow us to expand our playground area to increase safety and physical fitness.

With these easy steps, you’ll help Jefferson get one step closer to winning this grant.  You can vote once a day online and once a day via texts.

1.      Text to vote (Message and Data Rates May Apply)

• To vote for Jefferson, text 1220pbf to 95248.
• Vote one time every day! 
• Spread the word!

2.      Vote online

• Log on to https://powerabrightfuture.clorox.com/nominees/detail/?nid=1220
• Vote one time every day!
• Spread the word!

 

You can also help with simple acts like:

• Posting on Facebook to encourage your friends and family to vote.
• Tweeting the link to our voting page so your followers can vote.
• Sending an email to your family and friends, letting them know the great news and telling them how to vote!

Please spread the word.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

We continue to stay busy! Although we haven't had I Time this week, we have been using the time to work on parts of speech, which is a skill we need to know for ScootPad. Yesterday and Monday we learned about nouns and verbs. Today, we reviewed verbs and wrote sentences on Angry Birds. In our sentences we had to underline the verbs. In math, we are all mixed up with Mr. Bagurdes' and Mrs. Bahl's classes. Most of us do not stay in Mrs. Benedict's classroom. We are all working on Numbers and Base Ten. In particular, we are working on place value and rounding. This afternoon, we did Daily 5, Achieve3000, ScootPad, and read more about veterans and Veteran's Day. This afternoon we celebrated Seeraj's birthday. We worked on writing letters to veterans. Tomorrow, we are excited to go see "Beauty and the Beast" at Central High School. Everyone should remember to dress warm and wear walking shoes.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

We have been extremely busy in room 310!! In math we have been working on place value, writing numbers in different ways (standard form, written form, expanded form, etc.). We have also been learning about different parts of speech. We read about and discussed Veteran's Day and what Veterans are. We learned about parts of a friendly letter and are now writing letters that we can send to people serving in the Armed Forces right now. We are looking forward to our field trip to Central High School to see "Beauty and the Beast" on Thursday. It is getting really cold outside!! Students must wear winter jackets or they will not be allowed to go outside for recess.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Today was hopefully our final mixed-up day. Except for a few circumstances, we finished our testing this morning! After testing, we continued to work on our inquiry projects, ScootPad, Achieve3000, and Daily 5. We had another special activity in the gym. This afternoon we also go to exchange library books. We also worked on our final writing piece about why we have rules at school. Tomorrow things will go back to normal.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Today was a mixed-up day! This morning we had more WKCE testing for our third graders and second graders again participated in activities in the Multipurpose Room. This afternoon we worked on our inquiry projects, Achieve3000, ScootPad, and Daily 5. Then we had a special activity with the specialist teachers in the gym. We did more "Just Dance Kids 3" dance activities. Afterwards, we held a mock election with the rest of Team Brilliance. First we had to register to vote and then we got to vote. After we tallied the popular vote, we looked at each class as a state and determined where the electoral votes for that state would go. After the election, we watched a video with the entire team about how a president is elected. Finally, we watched a Charlie Brown video about the constitution and how voting and the electoral college were decided.

Room 310's registered voters waiting at the polls.

Results of Team Brilliance's mock election:
For President:
Barack Obama -36 votes
Mitt Romney- 15 votes

For Senator:
Tammy Baldwin - 20 votes
Tommy Thompson - 31 votes

School wide mock election results:
Barack Obama - 69%
Mitt Romney - 31%

Monday, November 5, 2012

Today was a busy day and different from most because we began our WKCE testing. This morning, the third graders took two reading tests. The second graders did activities in the Multipurpose Room (MPR). After lunch, we all got back together because it was an indoor recess. We did an activity on AdventuretoFitness.com. After recess, we read a bit of Ramona Quimby, Age 8,  and we glued our word sorts from last week into our spelling notebooks. Then we had "specials" in the gym. We did dance videos with all of the specialist teachers. Then we did literacy. We worked with our inquiry groups to research our government topics. Then we had birthday treats from Tatym and watched two books online. Finally, we had some Daily 5 time and worked on Achieve3000 and ScootPad. This week we have to do five reading practice activities on ScootPad for "homework." Even though it's "homework" we don't have to do it at home. We could do it during Daily 5 or at recess time if we ask Mrs. Benedict, but it must be done by Friday.

Tomorrow is ELECTION day! Wear RED, WHITE, or BLUE to show your American Spirit!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

We cannot believe it is November already! Time just keeps flying by. This morning we took our geometry post-test. Third graders did a practice math test to prepare for the WKCE. We have been finishing up our session of I Time. Tomorrow is the last day of this session! In art we made animals out of leaves. In physical education we played "Clean out Your Backyard." In literacy we read more about electoral votes, read an article about animal shelters on Achieve3000,  did activities on ScootPad, and did Daily 5.

Reminders:

• Tomorrow we have our spelling tests
• SPARC (for students that participated) is over today
• Next week 3rd graders will take the WKCE test
• November Homework calendars are coming home today - remember to record your nightly activities

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

We worked very hard today. This morning we learned about a new app (and website) that we can use to practice our math and reading skills. It is called "ScootPad." We also tried out a new app, called "Sushi Monster", that we can use to practice addition and multiplication skills. We continued working on comparing and contrasting during I Time. In math we continued working on identifying different angles - acute, obtuse, and right. This afternoon we had a substitute teacher in music, we did a practiced timed reading test, and learned how to log on to Compass Learning Odyssey with the new logins we have this year. It was a busy day!

Monday, October 29, 2012

We worked hard in room 310 today! This morning we began our last week of this session of I Time. We are continuing to work on comparing and contrasting. In math we looked at the attributes of 2 dimensional shapes. We looked at angles and determined whether they were acute, obtuse, or right. After math we got our new spelling words for this week. We had lunch and recess and then Mrs. Prekop came for SEL. She had us do some activities that involved being a good listener. This afternoon we monitored our comprehension as we learned more about the branches of government. The book we read compared the branches of government to basketball. Then we worked on Achieve3000 and during Daily 5 we continued working on monitoring our comprehension.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Today was an awesome day. After our morning meeting we had I Time and worked on comparing and contrasting. Then we talked about polygons and 2-dimensional shapes during math. Polygons must be closed, made of straight edges, and have only 1 inside space. Recess ended up being an indoor recess and we did Adventure to Fitness. Afterwards, we went to music where we played "Just Dance Kids". Then we talked a little bit about being Mayor and brainstormed questions to ask our Mayor tomorrow. We watched the Jefferson Spelling Bee (congrats to the winner, Jesse!). We did a little reading and had physical education. After physical education we had cookies for Ava's birthday and watched a Tumblebook.

Reminders:

• Bring Library Books tomorrow
• Dress for our walking field trip to City Hall tomorrow
• Parent/Teacher Conferences are tomorrow

Monday, October 22, 2012

It was a cloudy and gray day outside, but lots of learning took place inside room 310 today! This morning we took a pretest on Geometry. We talked about some of the new activities in our BUILD math centers. Geometry has lots of new vocabulary for us to learn. This afternoon we discussed features of nonfiction texts. We did a partner scavenger hunt through a book to see what features we could find. After we celebrated Ty's birthday with a special treat, we went back to the text features. This time we each got our own book. We looked for three features in our own books. We identified the feature, illustrated it, and wrote it's purpose.

Reminders:

• Conferences will take place on Wednesday evening. Reminders were sent home today. If any conflicts should arise, please let me know as soon as possible, so other arrangements can be made.
• Wednesday we will be walking to City Hall. Students should dress appropriately for the weather and the walk.
• We do NOT have spelling words this week.

Friday, October 19, 2012

This was a busy week and we accomplished a lot in room 310. Today we finished our multiplication and division unit - we took our post-test and we all got better scores. We showed growth! Next week we are going to be doing a lot of learning in only 3 days. Here are a few reminders for next week:

• Conferences are on Wednesday, October 24th. Reminders will be sent home.
• Wednesday we are also going on our field trip to City Hall. Remember to dress appropriately for the weather (we will be going rain or shine) and for a walk. We will be back at school in time for lunch, so there is no need for a bag lunch.
• Since we have school for only 3 days, we will not be having spelling.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

We accomplished a lot today! This morning we continued comparing and contrasting during I Time. Afterwards, we reviewed multiplication and division fact families and writing number stories. We solved some multiplication number stories. Before lunch we got to go to the library to return our books and get new books. This afternoon, we had music right away. Afterwards, we read more of Ramona Quimby, Age 8. The author (Beverly Cleary) uses lots of good word choice. Since we only had an hour for math in the morning, we finished math in the afternoon. Then we moved on to reading. We read an article about the branches of government. Some of us met with Mrs. Benedict in a group to work on test-taking strategies. Others of us worked on Daily 5 and Achieve3000.

Tomorrow is Picture Retake day! Remember to dress appropriately if you need to have your picture retaken.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Today was a crazy day and filled with many absences! This morning we did not have I Time because Ms. Huebner's class had another commitment and Mr. Bagurdes was absent. Instead, we got to have extra math time. We reviewed using multiplication facts (and our multiplication charts) to solve division problems. We also reviewed what multiplication facts we are able to instantly recall at this point. We should be able to answer all facts that are x0 or x1. We might also be able to answer x2 and x5. After lunch we were supposed to have music, but Mrs. Bina was not here either. Mrs. Benedict showed us how to use two new apps for reading on our iPads - Storia and National Geographic. The online books and magazines often have special interactive features. We got to spend some time trying out both apps. Then, since we missed music we got to do an activity on "Adventure to Fitness". For our second workout, we got to have physical education. We had a substitute teacher in physical education, too, because Mr. K was absent. We finished the day with more Daily 5. Mrs. Benedict was happy that with all of the absences, at least all of the students were here in room 310 today!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Today was a wild day. This morning we worked on multiplication and division story problems in math. We had an assembly during I Time. We did all of our team cheers and we learned a new Jefferson school cheer (Ms. Wall might still change it a little bit). We also got our new spelling words this morning. This afternoon, in literacy, we found several great vocabulary words in Ramona Quimby, Age 8. Then we read about our country's government and Washington, D.C. We learned that Washington, D.C. is a city that belongs to all of the states in the United States. It is not a city that belongs to one state like other cities.

Reminder: "Let's Spell" worksheet is due tomorrow

Friday, October 12, 2012

Today was a kind-of crazy day. After our class meeting, we started working on math, but only for a little bit of time. Then we switched classes for I Time and continued to work on comparing and contrasting. Comparing is telling how two or more things are the same or alike. Contrasting is to tell how two or more things are different or not alike. We made multiplication strategy charts during math. Read our KidBlog posts to see them and learn more about them. This afternoon we learned how to include pictures in our KidBlog posts. We worked on writing, we worked on reading and monitoring comprehension, and we worked on Daily 5.

Thursday, October 12, 2012

Today was another crazy, busy day in room 310! This morning we continued to work on multiplication strategies. We also worked on writing multiplication/division fact families. During I Time we continued to work on comparing and contrasting. This afternoon we read more about local and state government. We left tracks of our thinking as we read. We also did Achieve3000, glued our spelling sorts into our notebooks, and did Daily 5.

Spelling tests tomorrow!!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Today, we wrote our own individual posts about today on our kidblog website. Please visit it!

http://kidblog.org/MrsBenedictsClass-2/

Tomorrow we have LIBRARY!! Please bring your books.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Today was another busy day. We began the day with two pretests - one in math and one for I Time. In math we are learning about multiplication. We learned the rules for multiplying by 0 and by 1. Any number times 0 always equals zero Any number times 1 equals that same number. We switched classrooms for I Time today, too. We are working on identifying features of nonfiction texts and comparing/contrasting texts. This afternoon we started new guided reading groups. We also finished reading Jake Drake, Bully Buster. In addition to all the work we did, we had two fire drills!

Homework tonight:
1) Finish "Let's Spell" worksheet
2) Return progress report slips and conference slips ASAP

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Today we did a lot of work! This morning we learned about area in math. Area is the amount of space inside an shape - like the tiles on a floor. We found the area by counting square tiles, using repeated addition, and even using multiplication. In the middle of math we went to Ms. Raab's room and read Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad for "Read for the Record". We finished area when we got back to our classroom and then we played the "I have...who has..." measurement game. This afternoon we reviewed our spelling sorts and glued them into our notebooks. One reading group did a play about bullying. We used TTQA (turn the question around) to write complete sentences about what we would do in different bullying situations. Then it was time to head home.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Today was an amazing day! It was "Wheeling and Walking" to school today - many of us were able to walk, skateboard, ride a Razor, and roller skate to school. We got to go to the library and check out books for the first time this year! Mrs. Rivest (our new librarian) said that we were the best class in the library yet. In art we earned five tickets towards our chance to win the Jefferson Traveling Bear award. This afternoon we got to do Adventure to Fitness.

We have two special homework assignments tonight:
1) Correct & Finish Timed Test
2) Write address (including city and state) on index card

Big Goal Setting Day

Today was a big goal setting day! We set all kinds of goals. We wrote a goal and a learning plan for math, writing, and reading. In math, many of us are working on building our number fluency. In reading, many of us are working on monitoring our comprehension as we read. In writing, many of us are working on writing an on-topic paragraph with five sentences. In addition to goal setting, today we wrote about math on kidblog. We also practiced finding the perimeter of different shapes. The perimeter is the distance around an object, kind of like a fence. We did Daily 5 and got to go on raz-kids on our classroom computers. Unfortunately, raz-kids doesn't work on our iPads. Besides all the work we did in our classroom, we also had physical education and music today.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Today was a great day! We began the day with math. We started out commenting on a post on KidBlog. Then we practiced telling time and figuring out elapsed time. We used a t-chart to figure out elapsed time. Elapsed time means how much time has gone by. In the middle of math we had to take a break to participate in "Jammin' for the Record." We all had to exercise at the same time to break a world record. We did all different exercises for a minute while listening to music on the speaker. Then we went back to finishing our math. This afternoon we had literacy. Mrs. Bahl's class joined us as we read a chapter of "Jake Drake, Bully Buster." Jake's problems with Link, the bully, just keep getting worse! In art we continued to work on the trees we are making. After art, we read an article about invertebrates from National Geographic. Invertebrates are animals without backbones. In fact the animals we read about have no bones at all! While we were reading we worked on monitoring our comprehension, leaving tracks of our thinking on our think sheets as we read. Then we did Daily 5. You may have noticed that we didn't have physical education today. Mr. K was not here this afternoon, so we are going to have P.E. first thing tomorrow morning.

Daily 5

Here are some of the members of our classroom doing Daily 5.

 

Emily is doing "Read to Self."

Konnor is doing "Read to Self."

Morgan and Jaylon are doing "Work on Writing."

Ty is doing "Listen to Reading."

Daniel is doing "Word Work."

Hunter and Jair are doing "Read to Partner."

Monday, September 24, 2012

This morning, the first thing we did was to write on our KidBlog what we like about math. We did math groups and BUILD math. We worked on fractions. In the middle of math we took our MAP test on Language Usage. We are done MAP testing for fall! Yeah!! After the test we finished math. This afternoon we had SEL. We took a test on our listening skills. Our partners told us what to do and we had to draw what they said. We got our new spelling sorts this afternoon. It was kind of chaotic because we still had lots of kids who left the room to finish their MAP test. Then we did some Daily 5.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

We had yet another busy day today for our twelfth day of school! This morning in math we wrote about math on our iPads. We posted comments on our classroom KidBlog (the link is on the right side of our blog). We also played some math games. Then we used fraction strips to identify equivalent fractions. This afternoon we were focused on literacy. We did Read to Self, talked about many different ways we can practice our spelling words, and did Word Work. At the end of the day we started brainstorming for our first quarter writing assessment. Tomorrow we will be writing our rough drafts. If we have the opportunity tonight, we want to log onto Achieve3000 and earn some points for our class. Mr. Bagurdes' class is trying to stay in the lead and we want to overcome them!

Tuesday, September 18. 2012

Today was another busy day! This morning we worked on fractions again in math. We did BUILD math. At the end of math, we used DoodleBuddy on our iPads to draw a picture of what we learned. Then we took a picture and used a post-it to write about what we learned in the app, ABCNotes. After lunch and recess we had music. After music we went on Achieve3000 on our iPads. Achieve3000 is a great website that we can login to and do activities that will help us become better readers. Our goal is to do 40 activities per quarter. To get to Achieve3000, you can login at http://login.achieve3000.com (each student is bringing home his/her individual log-in tonight). We finished our Achieve3000 activities after physical education.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Today was another busy day! We are learning about fractions in math this week. We began practicing more of "Build Math". Build Math is like Daily 5, but for math. We have done Buddy Games, Learning about Math, and Using Manipulatives. This afternoon we had SEL and we played "Try Bingo". Then we did some Daily 5 - we worked on "Read to Someone". We also had some time to do "Read to Self" and "Work on Writing." After that a few of us switched into Mrs. Bahl's classroom. We all got our spelling words! We will have our first test on Friday.

Homework:

• Remember to be completing your homework calendar in the back of your red folder! We should be doing reading, math, and now spelling every night!

Friday, September 14, 2012

This morning we had our class meeting. Afterwards we played two different games on our iPads and we took a pretest on the computers in the classroom. We had SEL this morning. During SEL we took some tests about taking tests. Today's recess was better than yesterdays because we didn't get rained on! This afternoon we had music. We watched a movie about the war of 1812 and we sang "Happy Birthday" to Mrs. Benedict. It is also Mrs. Bina's birthday this weekend. After music we did three rotations of Daily 5 - Read to Self, Work on Writing, and Listen to Reading. We did each rotation for 20 minutes. We are building our staminas. The last thing we did today was to work on publishing our "Best Parts of Me" books.

Reminder:

• If you did not return the bright yellow information sheet sent home yesterday, please return it on Monday.
• On Monday, we are going to start spelling groups. Expect to see spelling words come home on Monday in red folders.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Yikes! School is going so fast and we have been doing so many things. It has been hard to fit in writing our class blog. So far this week, we have been working on writing numbers in different forms - using base ten blocks, expanded form, and word form. In reading, we have been talking about choosing a good fit book, using several reading strategies (Check for Understanding, Cross Checking, Backup and Reread, and Tune in to Interesting Words). We have begun Read to Self (one element of the Daily 5) and have been working on building our stamina. We (as a class) have been able to read for about 15 minutes. Our goal is to be able to read at least 30 minutes at a time. We have been reading to Mrs. Benedict and other reading teachers to help determine our reading levels. On the computers we have taken two inventories to help determine what type of learners we are. We have used our iPads to go on Tumblebooks and to explore other apps that Mrs. Benedict downloaded for us. This morning, in remembrance of 9/11 and anticipation of the upcoming election, we each made a square for a quilt about the United States. We also wrote thank you letters to some of the heroes that we have in the United States. This afternoon we read a book about maps. We created our own heart maps in our writing notebooks. A heart map shows things that are important to each of us. We can use our heart maps when we are looking for a topic to write about during "Work on Writing", another element of Daily 5.

MAP Testing:
We are starting MAP testing this week! Tomorrow (9/12) we will be taking our Math test, on Thursday (9/13) we will be taking our Reading test. Please encourage your child to do his/her best. We will be using this data to make decisions regarding instructional goals for each child.

Homework Update:
Students will NOT be bringing home worksheets. As part of our commitment to Next Generation Learning, students will be given more choices regarding homework. Rather than worksheets, homework is to read, practice math (facts or skills), and practice spelling. In the back of each student's homework folder is a bright yellow (for September, anyways) calendar. Students (or parents) should write down what is done for homework that night. There are several options at the bottom of the calendar. If you are choosing an online option, more options will be sent home as we come across them, and there are many resources on the Jefferson School (or other schools in the district) webpage and here on our class blog. I had hoped to do a practice spelling sort this week, but with all that we are trying to accomplish getting the school year setup, I think that next week will offer us more time to begin.

Tomorrow is TEAM spirit day! Team Brilliance is wearing our team color, RED!!! Please wear a red shirt or a shirt with red on it!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

We have had a fun and very busy beginning of the school year. Today is our first day writing our blog. On Tuesday it was our first day of school. It took us a long time to put away our school supplies. We did some activities with Mr. Bagurdes' class and Mrs. Bahl's class. Our three classes make up a pod, called "Team Brilliance." On Wednesday, we continued learning about the expectations and rules at school. We had an assembly with Team Brilliance in the gym.  Ms. Wall talked to us about "The Jefferson Way" and "The Three Rs", which are respect, responsibility, and ready to learn. In the afternoon we got to try out some apps on our iPads. Today we took some more pretests. We have taken several pretests so far. In math we made our own additional flash cards and we learned a game called "Addition Top-it". This afternoon we worked on building our stamina while doing "Read to Self."