Friday, December 16, 2011

Monday, December 12, 2011

Daily news

"I liked reading The Legend of the Poinsettia," babbled Mia.

"Visiting Australia was fun," roared Colin.

"I liked working on our wooden snowmen," explained Shayna.

"Doing the pointers was fun," grinned Nicholas.

"Seeing Davo was exciting," exclaimed Jadon.


"I liked reading my Garfield books," roared Ben.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

In the season of giving...

I love this time of year.  In class we have started to learn about the different continents and winter traditions around the world.  We learned about Sinterklass (in the Netherlands,) Hanukkah, Christmas in Australia.    In our class we are created a special present to give to our parents . 


Thinking of this reminds me of one of my favorite presents.  When I was 14 years old my mom gave me her high school I.D. bracelet for Christmas.  I liked it, but really I wanted something new, like a swatch watch 


 or a record player.








I put the ID bracelet in my jewelry box and there it sat gathering dust for a few years.  When I was a senior in high school, I gave the bracelet to my best friend, as a way of saying that we would be friends forever.  After a while, my friend and I lost touch but she kept the bracelet with her.  It reminded her of me even though we never got to see each other.  Many years passed, and one day when I was feeling very sad my friend brought me my mom's ID bracelet.  I was shocked.   I had completely forgotten the bracelet existed. I was amazed at how beautiful my mom's name looked engraved in the shiny silver.  It was the perfect gift.





What is the best gift you have ever received? 


 Is there anything special you want as a gift this year? 

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

A visitor from down under... Tasmania

Today we had a visitor from Tasmania, Australia.  Miss Wyatt has been traveling across the United States and Canada since September with her stuffed buddy Davo the Tasmanian devil.


 She shared lots of interesting facts with us about Australia, the Tasmanian devil and other Australian animals.

Here are some of the facts we learned:

"In Australia there is a kangaroo called the red kangaroo," added Sally.

"The red kangaroo uses it's back legs to attack, " babbled Mason.

"Tasmanian devils run when they get their food, so that the other Tasmanian devils won't get it," roared Christian.

"Tasmania is an island near Australia," grinned Colin.

"There's a lot of Australian snakes that are poisonous," exclaimed Noah. 

You can see Miss Wyatt's adventures on her blog:  http://mrdevil.edublogs.org/

Friday, November 18, 2011

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving is fast approaching. 

We have been busy in Room 125. We have been making turkey glyph puppets, making a pie chart about who likes turkey and solving turkey fact familiy equations.  We wrote about what Mr. Turkey would say the day before Thanksgiving and we wrote about how to catch Mr. Turkey.  



What will you do for Thanksgiving? 

Will you stay home or travel? 

Friday, November 4, 2011

November- Our poem of the week

November
In November's gusty gale
I will flop my flippy tale
and spout hot soup
I'll be a whale!
Spouting once, spouting twice
spouting chicken soup with rice.
                                       written by Maurice Sendak

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Daily News

"I liked playing with Shayna," said Jade.

"I liked doing the Word Find at the when you are done table," babbled Colin.

"I liked meeting Adam," said Michelle.

"I loved doing the separating of the season things,"  roared Mia.

"I liked doing the pointers," claimed Nicholas.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!

First Grade Halloween Party

Friday, October 28, 2011

Creepy Crawly Spiders

This week we have been learning about spiders.   

Mrs. Levy brought in her son's pet tarantula Morgan.  


We observed Morgan, read spider books and wrote spider facts.


We looked at a remote control tarantula and compared it in a Venn diagram with the real spider.



What was your favorite spider fact? 

Which spider did you like better- the real spider or the toy tarantula?

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Halloween Fun!

This week we are learning about bats, spiders, pumpkins and other fun Halloween creatures.

 Is your jack-o-lantern going to be funny or scary?

What are you going to be for Halloween?

Daily News

"I liked doing the spider web with glue," grinned Ben.

"I got a Cub Kudos for doing the challenging word search," roared Jadon.

"I liked playing at lunch with Michelle," thought Gabrielle.

"I liked doing the math problem with the creepy tree and the spiders," said Shayna.

"Reading with the pointers was fun,"  roared Sally.

"I loved being line leader," said Mia.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Just keep swimming!

This week we read many stories about characters that just didn't quit.  In Jasper's Beanstock, Jasper worked and worked to make sure his bean grew.  Zig, in A Hut For Zig Bug, kept of finding more things to decorate his new hut.  On Sunday Mrs. Levy is going to try to remember those great characters when she is swimming in the Golden Gate Sharkfest.  I will swim from San Francisco to Sausalito, right under the Golden Gate Bridge.

Update:  Here is a picture of 
Mrs. Levy and Mrs. McEvoy at the swim. 





Poem of the Week: Jack-O-Lantern Big and Scary

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Daily News

"I liked making the Columbus project," said Michelle.

"I liked doing the Touch Math subtraction," babbled Mason.

Ben said, "I liked reading the Skippyjon Jones books."

"I liked making the community art,"  roared Sally.

"I liked seeing the map of Moby island on the video that we saw,"  added Noah.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Spooky Writing Prompt

In honor of Halloween , please leave us a comment about something that scares you.



Are you scared of spiders?


Are you scared of snakes?




Are you scared of thunder and lightning?




Are you scared of ghosts?




What scares you?



Thursday, October 6, 2011

Math Fun!

We have been working on many concepts in math.  


 More and Less


Subtraction & Addition

Patterning



What is your favorite math center? 

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Daily News

"I like being the busy bee," said Jade.

"I like reading with pointers today," roared Evan B.

"I liked coloring the plant page," roared Jadon.

Leann babbled, "I liked going to lunch today."

"Seeing Mrs. McEvoy was fun," grinned Colin.

"I liked learning about plants today," rejoiced Mia.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Special Visitors!!

Today we had two special visitors in Room 125.  Mrs. McEvoy (our penpals' teacher) and Mrs. Foss (the Calabasas High School principal)  came to see our class and talk about our penpal letter exchange.  You can see the pictures and story at the CHS blog.


 http://calabasaspack.blogspot.com/2011/09/chschapparel-elementary-pen-pals.html

Daily News

"I liked seeing the pictures of my penpals.  They looked beautiful and I like them," said Michelle.

"I liked doing subtraction," roared Colin.

Mason babbled, "I liked doing math with Jade on the white boards."

"I liked being busy bee," roared Sally. 

"I like knowing my penpals better,"  said Mia.

"Using the pointer was fun," babbled Leann.

Ben added, "I liked reading from my book bag."

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Welcome Penpals!

On Tuesday Mrs. McEvoy came from CHS to pick up our first penpal letters.  

We asked her all sorts of questions about our new high school buddies.  We can't wait to see what they write back.  

What do you want to learn about your penpal? 
If you're one of our penpals, please leave us a comment!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Daily News

"I liked doing the dot to dot kitty," babbled Jade.

"I liked reading the books," added Mia.

"I liked coloring the crayon," roared Christian.

Evan B. roared, "I liked lunch today!"

"I liked snack today," thought Jadon.

Ben said, "I liked doing the cupcake writing."

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Jump on in, the water is fine...

On Sunday mornings  I swim in the ocean.  I love the swelly, blue-green salt water and the chill in the misty morning air.  It is an amazing way to start the day.  As much as I love it, I am always a little bit nervous right before I jump in. I stand at the waters edge with butterflies in my stomach.  Will the water be really cold?  Will I see any dolphin or seals?  What direction is the current traveling?   Slowly I get my toes wet, then I go in up to my knees and before I know it I am swimming through the first wave, then down the coast.

As I was swimming today I was thinking about how starting the school year is a lot like going out into the ocean.  Most of us, on the first day of school are a little nervous because we don't know what to expect.  But as the first few days pass, we meet our teacher and make new friends, we learn rules and routines and begin to work together as a class. In just 12 days we have already learned so much!  We have memorized poems, played math games, started working in our math books and writing in our journals.   This week we will start reading in our literature books, map our community and get our first homework packet. 

Our class has jumped in and we are diving through the surf :-)

Friday, September 9, 2011

September- our poem of the week

Today we will bring home the poem of the week September.  This will be the first poem of our Room 125 poem collection.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Wednesdays News

Jade said, "I liked doing the yellow color page."

"Doing the friend interviews was fun," roared Leann.

Gabby liked seeing Mrs. Sokolor today.

Shayna explained, "I liked using our new math books."

"I liked doing the pointers," roared Jadon.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Daily News

Colin roared, "I liked doing super readers."

Ben said, "I liked doing the pointers on the poems."

Caroline roared, "I like recess!"

"I liked writing the color words with the play doh," said Suhana.














Friday, August 26, 2011

What did you do today at school?

What did you do today at school?

Daily News

Noah said, "I liked reading the books."

"I liked running around with Samuel at recess," said Christian.

"I liked coloring the Timothy sheet the best," said Evan B.


"I liked coloring and writing about my favorite t-shirt," babbled Mia.

"I liked working with my friends on the letter sheet," said Nicholas.




Thursday, August 25, 2011

Daily News

Michelle roared, "I liked snack time."

Sally said, "I liked going on the Mystery Letter Hunt."

Mason thought, "I liked making my self portrait."

Remember tomorrow is t-shirt day, wear your favorite t-shirt!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

First Day Of School

Wow, on the first day of school time flies.  Today we introduced ourselves, talked about summer vacation, charted the number of letters in our first name, read books, took a tour, talked about attentive listening and played with magic play doh.

Here's what some people said was their favorite part of the first day of first grade.

Sally said, "I liked putting my name on the poster."

"I liked sitting in the circle with the busy bee," said Jade.

"I liked playing the quiet game," said Noah.

Kimmie said, "I liked seeing Mrs. Levy and playing with the playdoh you made for us."

Charting Our Names




Reading in our library


Magic Playdoh!!





What was your favorite activity today?

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Back to School



Tomorrow we start our new school year. I can't wait to meet our new first grade class and get started on this years adventures.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Summertime!

Hurray for summer!   The weather has changed and it's now sunny and warm in Southern California. Next week I'm going to Kauai, Hawaii. I can't wait to go snorkeling, swimming in the ocean and just relaxing on the beach. 

What are you doing this summer?

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Saturday, June 4, 2011

This Week ...

free logo - http://www.sparklee.com



This Thursday our penpals from Mrs. McEvoy's class will be walking up to our class for a bagel brunch.

Are you excited to meet your penpal?

What do you know about your penpal?

What are you going to ask them?

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Slideshow from Open House

Open House Room 125 on PhotoPeach

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Open House

Tonight is Open House from 6:30-7:30. We have so much that we have learned this year.

What was favorite part of Open House?

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Our Trip To Underwood Farm

Our Trip To Underwood Farm on PhotoPeach

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Africa

Jambo! (that's hello in Swahili)

Today we continued our tour of Africa.  Miya's mom, Lisa came in and shared some wonderful stories about her trips to Africa and also shared some interesting souvenirs from her travels there.  She brought in wooden statues of African animals.

This is an African chief wisdom stool.


We took turns sitting on the stool. 




The wisdom stool must have worked because wrote amazing facts about giraffes!



What facts do you know about giraffes?

Monday, March 21, 2011

Facts We Want to Learn About Africa

"I want to learn how people survive there," babbled Nina.

 "I want to learn what language they speak in Africa," roared Noel.

"I want to learn what type of foods they eat," roared Luke!

"I want to learn what kind of music they listen to," dictated Amy.

"I want to learn how people dance in Africa," babbled Jakob.

"I want to learn how hot it is there," explained Natalie.

Friday, March 18, 2011


The past two weeks our class traveled to Antarctica and learned many facts about the  continent and the penguins that live there.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Our Trip To The Science Center

Our Trip To The California Science Center on PhotoPeach

Monday, February 28, 2011

Challenges

Whew, I made it!  Today was my last day of the February fitness challenge.  For the past 28 days I set my personal goal to swim everyday, and  complete  60,000 meters total.  I can happily say that I my did it: 28 days, 70,000 meters even.  I admit some days I did not want to swim, I would have much rather stayed home and watched T.V. or read a book, but that is the thing with challenges - they are a test to see what you are able to do.



At school I see boys and girls challenge themselves all the time.  In Room 125 we just started adding three numbers together, and for some students that is a big challenge.  For others, writing more than one sentence in our journal is a challenge. But each week I see more and more students write longer and longer journal entries. Some people at our school are challenging the old hula hooping records, or jump roping records.   



It's fun and exciting to see what you can do, if you challenge yourself.

Have you ever challenged yourself?  

What is your biggest challenge?