Pete the Cat

Pete the Cat has been helping us learn all week with his positive attitude and catchy songs. We read all the Pete the Cat books by Eric Litwin and found out just how cool Pete is. Pete helped us in writing when we labeled his parts. When we write, labels give the reader more information. Then we used sticky notes to brainstorm describing words about Pete.

Click here to listen to Pete's song

Pete visited in math and helped us graph our favorite color. We then analyzed our graph and found that most students' favorite color is red and the number of students who like green is less than the number who like yellow.

We can't learn about Pete the Cat without practicing our color words. During reading and center time we practiced writing, spelling and reading all the color words.

Pete's attitude was with us all week: no matter what happened, we kept working and singing our song!

Mango

Meet Mango our marvelous mascot who loves to munch on mananas.  Yes, you guessed it he looooves the letter m.  His birthday is even on the first Monday in March!

Mango helps us throughout the day with our reading, writing and math.  He especially loves to rhyme, count syllables and occasionally forgets the beginning consonant in our name...oppps.  He can be silly or serious but he definitely is a magnificent addition to our classroom.

Family photo
Baby Mango, Mrs. Mango, & Mango



iLove iPads

 

We are definitely lovestruck with the iPads!  Every morning (usually by more than one student), I am asked "Are we going to use the iPads today?", to which I respond with an enthusiastic "Yes!".  The answer never changes but the question remains. That's okay though because I know the boys and girls are just in love.

So far we have used the iPads as digital white boards to practice forming our letters, numbers and number words.  We learned how to use them to get on IXL for extra math practice.  Many students have been using the iPads during center time and visiting IXL.  Today in math we used the iPads and made our own number bonds.  We're now ready to get some apps!
   

Klipfel Kash

Money! Money! Money! 

Students have been hard at work earning Klipfel Kash.  Klipfel Kash can be earned by following the classroom rules and showing outstanding behavior.  Students might earn a dollar for including a friend, being kind to someone else, showing excellent manners, having a clean desk or simply following the directions.  You just never know when you're going to earn some Kash.

 

On Fridays students take a visit to the Klipfel Konvenience Store to spend their hard earned money.  It's always fun to see who's a saver and who's a spender.

Heart Maps

Writer's Workshop has begun in our classroom. Students filled in heart maps with topics that they love. These ideas will serve as "seeds" for future writing pieces. 



 Our heart maps show what is close to our hearts: people, places events and memories.

Our heart maps are done so we chose one "seed" to draw a detailed picture of.  We labled our picture to give the reader more information.  Now we're going to use these pictures with a caption to practice going through the writing process.

Technology

I tell the boys and girls I don't just like the Smartboard, I LOVE the Smartboard!  The boys and girls are loving it too!  So far we have used the Smartboard for getting to know each other, practicing our letter formation, calendar work, writing, reading, math and the list goes on and on and on.


Adding money to our piggy bank during
morning calendar.

Practicing the letter "q" with the creative pen.

  Using the Smartboard for morning calendar.

Playing hang mouse on the Smartboard.
Check out http://www.spellingcity.com/Klipfel/
 to play hang mouse at home but don't wake the cat!



We not only love our Smartboard but we really LOVE the iPads!!  Today we finally got them in our classroom!  First, we used it as a white board and practiced writing (with our finger-of course) different letters we've been learning.  Some other highlights were taking a picture and making it our background and writing our name using multi-colors. We even learned some iPad tricks which take just a little bit of Miss Klipfel magic.

 

 

School Rules

NO, DAVID!  As a class we've read David Shannon's hilarious books about one trouble making boy.  We then used David's naughty behavior to discuss the rules of our classroom. Students came up with their own rules and put their "John Hancock" on our class constitution.

We the students of room 116 pledge to follow these rules:

 

No bullying. Ariana

No standing in front of the Smartboard.  Allison

Ask before you leave the classroom.  Aidan

Keep your hands to yourself.  Jacob

No touching the computer.  Maxwell

No yelling.  Rayan

Include other people.  Nicholas

No running in the hallway.  Brady

No running in the classroom. Kurt

Try to be nice to other people that you know.  Kaitlin

Hands and feet you yourself. Liam

No jumping in the hallway.  Emma

No screaming.  Mia

Raise your hand.  Ana

You have to be quiet while someone is talking. Rebecca

Use our walking feet.  Kenna

No yelling.  Riley

No shouting out. Andrew

No playing with the animals only reading. Olivia

 

1st Day!

We had a wonderful first day of school! We enjoyed getting to know each other and I loved hearing all about your summer vacations. Come take a peek into our classroom...

 

 

My personal favorite part of our classroom is our library area. It is the perfect spot to snuggle up with a good book and share a story with a friend (or monkey).