Field Trip

Our field trip was today. We were scheduled to tour downtown Seneca. We were about 3/4 of the way through the trip when it started to rain. It was still a lot of fun though. First we paired up and got on the bus. We were dropped off at the police department and walked from there.

Our first stop was the newspaper. A nice lady named Michelle told us many interesting things about the paper and how it works. Then the kids decided to tell her all the reasons you could get into the newspaper.

Some said sporting events or good grades. One student told us a horrible story about a small girl who got kidnapped and murdered and was in the newspaper. Another student asked if you could get in the newspaper for stealing pizza (maybe she was considering it!).

Our next stop was the bank. The students watched the money counting machine, visited the vault, and learned how the drive through worked. It was really interesting.

One of their favorite parts of the trip wasn't even planned. On our walk from the bank to the library Mr. Bennett popped out of his barber shop and squirted the kids with his water bottle. They screamed and laughed and yelled for more. It was hilarious.

We made it to the library where Ms. Misty read us two stories.
Some of the kids were already complaining about their feet hurting and being tired so they were pretty relaxed while they listened to the stories.

Our last stop (before it rained) was the fire station. We all promised we would learn our address in case we needed to call 911. Then we learned about the parts of a fire suit.

The firefighters wanted us to see a firefighter dressed up so we wouldn't be scared if one had to come in our house.

Then we looked at the fire truck. Wow!

We loaded back on the bus and went back to the school (instead of the park).

Our cadet teacher, Skyler, brought all of the kids donuts! How sweet. No wonder all the kids love him.

We also had pizza for lunch which was provided by the P.T.O.

Overall it was a fun day. What a trip!

Did He Just Call Me Fat?

Today I was having the students use some of our word wall words in sentences. When I got to the word "heavy" Eli said: Tornadoes can lift heavy things. Lance chimed in and said, "Tornadoes can even lift two schools!" Then Scotty says, "or they could lift you Mrs. Ward".

Measuring and Sharing

We started mesuring in centimeters today. Who knew the most difficult part of the lesson would be saying the word centimeter! Alli was saying "cinnamon-eater" which started confusing the rest of the class.

Another student was saying "centi-peter". That caused some laughter.
After saying the word a few times really slow we went on to measuring line segments. Overall the lesson pulled together pretty well.

This afternoon our life-skills teacher, Mrs. Balls, read us a book and talked to us about sharing. She asked them to name things that were hard to share and some things that were easy to share.

Cal said it is easy to share his brother's playdough, but hard to share his XBox 360.

Jason said it is easy to share his toys and games, but hard to share his food and T.V. (typical guy)!

Rylee said it's hard to share her baby brother.

Destiny said it would be easy to share an apple with Mrs. Ward.

Another student said it is easy for her to share her sister, but not her doll.

Great Friday

Fun Room Friday was today and these were our Top Readers! For Show and Tell Rylee's mom brought her baby brother, Boston. He's a month old. What a cutie. All the kids loved him and thought he was adorable. They gave wonderful compliments to Rylee and her mom about Boston.

Scotty also had some exciting news. During the reading test he said, "Hey Mrs. Ward my sister got a new puppy, wanna smell my shirt?" I said no thank you but trying to persuade me he said, "it smells like puppy fur".

200 Points!

Cal made it to 200 A.R. points today!! That is really amazing, especially for a first grader!

He has read and passed tests on 414 books this year!!! It took 11 pages to print off all the books he's read.

When I asked him why he liked to read he said, "because I get out of the treasure chest".

His favorite types of books are nonfiction because you get so much information from them. He even read and passed the test on this 5th grade nonfiction book.

As a reward Cal has chosen to spend some extra time with Coach Fortner in P.E. Way to go Cal! We are all proud of you.

Some Things Aren't Meant To Be Shared

My students are really great about sharing.

Each day they share books, pencils, erasers, and other items. But some things are not meant to share. Scotty got this edible necklace from the prize box. He was really enjoying it as he was reading to me. Then he says, "Mmm, Mrs. Ward, this is good. Here try some" and he puts it in my face. While it was very kind of him to want to share I politely said no thank you.
Another student sneezed really hard this morning and covered his math paper with snot. I decided he didn't need to share that paper with me.

A former student of mine shared some cotton candy with his 2nd grade teacher. When he gave it to her he said, "I'm gonna need that bowl back when you're done because that's where I keep my frog". Again...not meant to share.

Some of your children also share lots of interesting stories from home that you would probably not want them to share. Don't worry though I've got a first grader too that shares way too much with her teacher!

Time to Celebrate

Fun Room Friday is here and nearly everyone made it to the Fun Room this week. When students earn at least 2 points a week for Accelerated Reader they are rewarded with Fun Room on Friday. Some students even earn crowns to wear for the afternoon.

Our Top Girl Reader this week was Rylee. We had a tie for Top Boy Reader. Cal and Drew earned those crowns. Scotty was Honorable Mention this week because he has been working very hard and his reading has really improved! To celebrate they did a little dance you might enjoy.


We also do a little chapter book cheer each time someone in the class passes a chapter book. This is what it looks like:

Top Readers

Our top readers for third quarter were Cal, Lance, Drew, Alli, and Bryce.

They ate pizza in the room. LOTS of pizza. Cal had about 6 pieces plus breadsticks. I think Lance had 4 pieces and about half a box of breadsticks! They ate and ate and ate.

During math Lance said he didn't think he could eat dinner tonight and Bryce asked to go to the nurse because his belly hurt. Cal said he was really full but it didn't slow him down because I actually caught him dancing before math started!
Each top reader was able to choose their favorite high schooler to come eat with them. Bryce said no thank you and only wanted to eat with his poppy. He did tell us stories though of how his Poppy ran in high school. I'd like to see that Lonnie!

Skyler came over for Cal, but of course all the kids love Skyler.

Alli chose Jacoby. She talked his leg off during the entire lunch and I overheard one conversation that involved tooting. Jacoby was a good sport though and seemed to have a good time.

There was a misunderstanding among the rest of the high schoolers so there were a few that didn't make it, but that just meant more pizza for the rest of us!

Congratulations to all of you wonderul readers!