PDQ Wreath

Our class won the PDQ wreath contest!!! Olivia's sister and a surprise visitor brought us PDQ for lunch. The class enjoyed their chicken tenders and talking to Santa.

Winter Celebration

We had a wonderful Winter Celebration. The class enjoyed making snowman cookies, decorating a snowman frame, and making a snowman necklace. With toilet paper rolls, the class created a winter decoration. Many friends made snowmen with earmuffs! The highlight of the day was our pizza party.

Check out our cute handprint tree shirts!

Field trip

We had a great time at Publix. The class did a great job walking to Publix- not one student complained! When we arrived at Publix, we went to the bakery section and got to taste whole grain bread and turkey! Yum!! We also got to taste watermelon in the produce section and learned how to eat a mango without slicing it. The class also learned the difference between the white pricing label and the brown label. Ask your child to explain the difference. Each child got an activity book that explained the different sections of the grocery store. 

Fall Celebration

We had a wonderful Fall Celebration! We started the day with the Literary Parade, followed by crafts, pizza, and more crafts!! The class enjoyed decorating fall frames, creating their very own monster, and decorating a fall mask. Take a look at our "oz"ome day!

Sorting Matter

The class had a great time going around the classroom and finding two objects that had matter. Each table had to observe the objects, and as a team, had to decide how they were going to sort the objects. Each table had an opportunity to share their findings. 

Our Garden Visit

Last week, we used most of our five senses as we walked around the school garden. Students were given magnifying glasses to observe the wonders of the garden. We observed with our eyes, touched flowers, smelled plants and herbs, and listened to the plants as the wind blew. After our visit, we wrote and drew our discoveries in our science journals.

Fun Run!!

PTA's big fundraiser for the year is.....Fun Run. This fundraiser will help support the needs in our school for things such as new books, projectors, and other materials. Two years ago, collected funds bought new dining room tables.  A form went home last week with your child's log-in information to make pledges. Your child can earn prizes for his/her pledges. Rally up your friends and family to sponsor your child. We will run on Tuesday, September 2nd to show our support.  Mark your calendar!! 

First week of school!

What an exciting way to begin the school year!! Our "oz"ome" principal, Mrs. Phillips, rode off in a hot air balloon!!! Don't worry....it was tethered to a tree! All classes were invited to join in the fun!

Plants are living things!

Fresh from the CCE garden

Today, we had an opportunity to visit our school garden which is organized and tended by Dr. Brenda Zenk, a CCE parent, and all students.  She has helped us create a wonderful garden which actually provides fresh food to several organizations and local families.  We had originally been invited to pick some marigolds which were no longer needed.  To our surprise, Dr. Zenk was working and stopped to talk with us and share some of the amazing plants that are growing in the garden.  We actually watched Dr. Zenk pull up a turnip and carrot from the ground!  She shared some kale and pea pods with us as well.  After enjoying the garden plants, each student pulled a marigold plant and placed it inside a cup.

What does a scientist do after such an amazing Science discovery?  He or she pulls out his/her Science Journal to record what was seen and draw the marigolds with labels.

Springtime Egg Hunt

On your mark, get set, go!  We had a marvelous time participating in a class egg hunt.  Each student donated 12 eggs with candy stuffed inside.  Several wonderful parents came to spread out the eggs and help us keep count of collecting 12 eggs.  It was a delight to see several participate in this tradition for the first time in their lives.  Students ran around seeking the perfect eggs and even helped others in the hunt.  We were blessed by a visit with Mrs. Roberts who just happened to be driving by at the time of our Egg Hunt.  The students ran to her and gave her the biggest hugs and couldn't stop talking about the fun.  After the Egg Hunt, we headed inside to create other spring crafts and listen to silly stories.

Lester Laminack Visits CCE!

It is always a joy to meet an author and listen to him share his books!  Mr. Laminack is a friend to many in our school and he loves to entertain and inspire friends to write.  He challenged each of us to use a journal to write down things we see or think of to create stories.

Thank you, Mr. Laminack!

ZAP IT!

Today we spent time playing a game called Zap It!  It is a simple game made with popsicle sticks and SNAP words that have been practiced over the past nine weeks.  A SNAP word is written on each popsicle stick and 5 sticks have the words "ZAP IT!" written on them.  All are placed into a bag to be used by a group of students.

The object of the game is to pull out a stick and read the SNAP word.  If the student reads the word correctly, he or she keeps the popsicle stick.  If he or she guesses the word incorrectly, the stick goes back into the bag.  Students take turns reading the words.  The tricky part begins when a student draws a "ZAP IT!" stick and he or she must place all of his or her sticks back into the bag.

 L. had collected 4 SNAP words and then pulled out a "ZAP IT!" stick.  Even though she had to return all of her sticks back into the bag, she quickly began to collect more words as the game progressed.

There are so many fun ways to practice these high frequency words!

Challenge:  Make this game at home to add a new way to practice SNAP words. :)

Eric Carle Day and Celebration

Wearing our handmade shirts and enjoying a silly moment!

 Eric Carle Day!  We have been busy reading many, if not most of Eric Carle's books, for several weeks.  We have discovered many things about his books such as he likes to use insects and animals in his stories, he likes to share stories with children to help them with concepts like friendship as well as counting and learning colors, new vocabulary and days of the week.  Eric Carle uses his art of painting with tissue paper to add beautiful illustrations.  As we studied his books, we began to express our opinions and thoughts about the author and his stories during our Writer's Workshop.  We looked at several books to find similarities and differences and even thought of questions we would like to ask Eric Carle when reading his books.  We began to look at his books through the lens as writers as well as readers.

Our day started with playing Eric Carle bingo and ended with watching an Eric Carle movie while snacking on pancakes, making caterpillar necklaces and creating a beautiful tissue colored mosaic of a sea horse.  And we can't forget the enjoyment of a caterpillar cupcake at the end of the day.