Welcome Back 2014!

Hello Parents and Friends!

Welcome back to school! I know you have been back for a while, but this week was my first week back after maternity leave. I have LOVED getting to know each one of my students this week. We have been trying to learn all about each other all while learning new things, having picture day, trying to catch up to the other 5th grade classes and follow our daily schedule. It sure has been an adjustment for me to be back, but I have enjoyed it so much!

I wanted to start by giving you a peek in our classroom. This is where we spend our days. There are 24 of us in this room. We will learn together and grow so much together in this room this school year. I work hard to create an inviting space where we will all want to come to each day.  :)

WhaleCome. We are so glad you stopped by!

 

 

This is a peek in our room.
If you look closely you may notice the smallest Snyder child in this picture. He likes to come help me on the weekends. :)

This is one of the most used spots in our room.
We use it for morning meeting, reading groups, group work, a quiet place to read or work.
We use this corner quite a bit during our day.

 

 

This is our clip chart. Each day your child starts on GREEN- Good Day. They move up and down the chart based on good and not so good choices. There was info about this in the back to school folder. If you want to know more about how it works just ask! :)

We have 4 classroom rules:
Listen, Share, READ, Care.
Ask your child what these rules mean.

Here is our schedule, in case you were wondering what we did all day.

 

 

 

This is a great class and they have worked very hard with the sub and have all learned a little about each other, but I am trying to learn all about them too and we have been working to create a classroom culture that will make all of our days great ones. This week we did a little activity to encourage collaboration, communication and celebration (which are all key words here at LME). I gave each group a set of six solo cups and a string and rubber band apparatus and asked them to collaborate to create a six cup tower without touching the cups or rubber band with their hands. They could only use the string.

 

This seemed like a very challenging task to them. There was some concern that I had asked them to do the impossible. However, after some great communicating among the teammates they were able to collaborate to come up with some pretty creative ways to attempt the challenge. Eventually all groups completed the challenge which was reason for celebration and allowed for a great classroom discussion about working together and completing tasks.

 

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed a little peek into our short 4 day week and our classroom. We hope to update this blog regularly and eventually have the students do the updates. I am looking forward to the adventures to come with this bunch this year!!

 

LOVE,

Mrs. Snyder



What's Happening in 153?

Hello Parents & Friends of Room 153,
We have been working hard in our classroom. We have been learning all sorts of things and learning all about each other in the process. We have created quite a nice dynamic in our room and we have our routines and schedule down. We can accomplish a whole lot in one day as we work on lots of new skills. We have had some interesting classroom visitors, welcomed a new student and a student teacher since our last post! I thought it would be fun for you to catch up on the happenings around here with some pictures of our day to day.

We LOVE our new playground and love it even more when Mrs. Mays comes out to play.

S'mores the Gerbil came to visit us.

TANK the Bearded Dragon came to visit us too! We have had lots of creatures in the classroom.

Thanks to this dad for showing us all about the Bearded Dragon.

We all got the chance to get up close and personal with TANK.
 

On 9/11We learned all about the September 11th attacks on our country through an online timeline web quest. It was very interesting and so neat to see the kids explore this topic for the first time. They were so intrigued.

Learning about the 9/11 events.

They were able to see video footage from some of that day. Not many historical events have video footage and this was so interesting to them.

They worked together to find out information about the events.

More 9/11 teamwork.

9/18 Was NATIONAL CHEESEBURGER DAY!
We wrote paragraphs about our favorite cheeseburger toppings with the 3rd and 4th graders in the Village Square. We illustrated them and they are hanging in the cafeteria.

Cheeseburger construction.

Cheeseburger Teamwork.

On 9/13 our stage was put to use for the first time!! The Lexington Children's Theater came to do a production of Anansi. It was a great show and fit perfectly with our folk tales that we had been reading in class.

On Wednesday 9/18 we had a funeral. We said goodbye to the word SAID and came up with new words that would spice up our writing! It was an activity we did with the other 5th grade class and we were not sad to see SAID go.

On 9/20 we brought in our Native American projects!
These kids did some amazing work!!

We loved learning about this longhouse.

This rattle and Hogan were awesome too!

This totem poll was a great example of a symbol of the region of the Northwest Coast.

We had jewelry, tools, and weapons too!

We also played some Native American inspired games.

 Meet Mrs. Cudd. She is our student teacher from The University of the Cumberlands. She is a great addition to our classroom and has jumped right in with our day to day instruction. She will be with us for 4 more weeks.

Mrs. Cudd and her pink twin!!




A Peek at Next Week:

Math: We will be reviewing division strategies and learning to divide numbers with two digit divisors.
Reading: We will be reviewing our tests from this week and begin working on Non Fiction Text Features and Structures.
Writing: We will continue work on narrative writing.
Social Studies: We will wrap up our Native American Unit and begin our Exploration Unit.
STEM: We will continue to work on our STEM plant projects.

9/23- Book Fair Opens!
9/24- Family Night! Lots of fun things planned- you won't want to miss this!
9/25- Mrs. Snyder's Birthday!!!
9/27- GrandDay- Grandparents and Special Friends are welcome to come enjoy lunch and the book fair with their students. There was an RSVP flyer for this. If you need more information please ask!


Thanks so much for stopping by. As always we are glad you are interested in what we are up to and we hope you come back again to see what is new. Have a GREAT weekend.

Mrs. Snyder

Teamwork Towers

This week we worked quite a bit on learning all about each other. We are working on building our classroom community and the more we are comfortable working together the better we work. We are learning to accept each other and know what everyone brings to the team. We did a few fun games to help us learn to work together but one of those games really stuck out. The teamwork tower required everyone working together for a common goal. There could be no "hogs" (someone who does all the work) or no "logs" (someone who does nothing). Everyone played a vital role in getting the job done. It was not an easy task. It forced us to be patient with one another, listen to each others ideas, pay attention and stay focused on the task. All of these skills are needed each day when we work in small groups to complete a task.

I had no idea that this little game would open up so much conversation and allow us to really build those bonds as a team. As soon as they got started I noticed just how well they were doing and I grabbed my camera and started snapping away capturing the teamwork in action. They really were cheerleaders for one another, very kind to each other and celebrated each others successes which was amazing to watch!

First, I gave each team six red Solo cups, and a rubber band with four strings tied to it and told them they would have to build a six cup tower like the model I had without touching the cup OR the rubber band. They looked confused and I got worried. I then gave them 3 minutes to discuss a plan of action without touching the materials. They had to talk it out and decide how they would attempt this task. They huddled up and shared lots of fun (and some funny) ideas of how they would make it happen. Once the timer went off they began. The conversations were great but the work was even better. (This is when I ran to grab the camera!)

It was not easy. They had to try many strategies until they perfected their method. One group finished quicker than the rest, cheered loudly, and begged to try it again.  Eventually three of the four groups had made a tower but one group was still struggling. They refused to give up. I stopped everyone and we had a conversation about the fact that this year there are going to be things that come easy to some of us and prove challenging to some of us and we are not going to stop until everyone reaches their goals. We talked about how we were not going to make people feel bad for their differences and how we would work to make everyone know that they are part of the team and it does not matter what time you cross the " finish line" as long as you cross it. They then offered a few words of advice to the struggling team and that also opened up conversation that we learn in different ways and we will be able to learn from each other this year too. Eventually we wrapped up the conversation and the final team completed their tower. The class cheered as the top cup remained steady and all towers were complete.

It was a great team building lesson and it made me so excited to call this bunch of kids mine for the year. They did great work and made me so proud. The conversation allowed for us to learn even more about each other and I think it really helped add a little extra to the overall feeling of community in room 153!


Thanks so much for stopping by!
Come back again and see what else we are up to as we make our way through a fun filled year of 5th grade.


(**Note, this was an activity I found on Pinterest. I made it my own version, but the idea was not original.)
Mrs. Snyder