Ring in the New Year with Kindness!

Hello families!
We hope you are having a wonderful start to the new year! We are looking forward to a fantastic 2015! 

Mrs. Browning's class has been hard at work planning for their Random Acts of Kindness assembly - this goes along with their classroom charity: randomactsofkindness.org. The students created their own interpretation of a pay it forward kindness circle. They performed their assembly yesterday for students, parents and teachers. We are very proud of the enthusiasm they showed for their charity and the fabulous job they did on their performance. Thank you to Mrs. Lutter for all you did to make our assembly a success - you rock, lady! Also, a big thank you to Mary Joynt and Kami Cleary for the fantastic pictures and video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=f6enB-HP2jE

 The money that Mrs. Browning's class received from their donation basket (thank you to everyone who donated - it was AMAZING!!) will be donated to a special community member. Please help us support the Blue Ridge Middle School 8th grader fight brain cancer. Check out her donation page and help her family reach their $10,000 goal.

http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/help-sara-fight-brain-cancer/264121

In math, the students are reviewing time and learning how to collect data and create their own graphs. We will be moving on to fractions, money and measurement throughout the rest of the 3rd quarter.

In social studies, we are exploring ancient Egypt. The students are writing using hieroglyphics and investigating other ways that the ancient Egyptians have contributed to the world today - clocks, calendar, papyrus, etc. Mrs. Browning's LA class, thank you for all of the supply donations. We are looking forward to creating pyramids out of sugar cubes, a sarcophagus, and many other fun projects that are fun and enhance our learning.

In science, we are studying different animal habitats - arctic, desert, ocean, pond, woodland forest and rainforest. The at-home project for this quarter is to create your own habitat. You can make up your own or construct a habitat that we are learning about in school. It can be built in a shoebox, on poster board, and more - the sky's the limit. Be creative!

Thank you again for your generous holiday gifts. We are fortunate to have the greatest families at MCCS. It is a joy and a privilege to teach your children everyday :)

Cheers!
The Green Team
Mrs. Browning, Ms. Morgan & Mrs. Emmel

Native American Regions, Weather, Telling Time and More...

Hello families! We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! The kiddos were excited to celebrate with family. We really enjoyed hearing about their breaks.

In social studies/language arts, we continue to explore the Native American Regions - Great Plains, Southwest, Eastern Woodland and Northwest. Check out these great pics of our learning...

In math we are transitioning from addition and subtraction to telling time. However, we will continue to reinforce addition and subtraction skills and vocabulary. For telling time, you can reinforce this skill at home by using the vocabulary (minute hand, hour hand, half past, quarter after, o'clock, etc.) with your child. You can also use daily/nightly activities to track the time. It is important for students to understand that AM indicates morning (waking up, brushing teeth, eating breakfast) and PM indicates afternoon or evening (getting home from school, eating dinner, going to bed). While you are doing these activities take a moment to have your child read the clock (analog and digital). We will be concentrating on reading the clock to the hour, half hour, quarter hour and five minute (counting by fives). You can also ask your child story problems. For example, if you left the house at 7:00 AM and it took an hour to get to school, what time did you arrive?

In language arts our students are immersed in word study, guided reading and writing. Please continue to remind your child to use good reader strategies at home while reading unfamiliar text (look at the pictures, get your mouth ready, read on for meaning, look for smaller words or familiar word patterns within a word). Also, question before, during and after reading for deeper understanding. We are also focusing on story elements - setting, characters, problem, solution, and non-fiction text features such as labels, table of contents, bold print, captions, etc. While writing we are emphasizing the use of proper capitalization and punctuation and word spacing within a sentence - this includes editing and revising their own writing pieces.

In Science we are investigating weather and its affect on plants and animals. We created our own anemometer to measure wind speed using a wind scale. We also constructed and used a weather vane to determine the direction of the wind. We recorded our findings in our science journals.

Here are a few fun Thanksgiving/fall pictures!

We wish all of our families a very happy and safe holiday season. 

The Green Team!
Mrs. Browning, Mrs. Emmel & Ms. Morgan

Wayside Farm Fun and More...

Hello families! We have so many great pictures to share from our field trip to Wayside Farm, our in-class science experiments (our personal fave is of Ms. Morgan - see last pic below), pajama day, Halloween, the Green Frog's Da Vinci assembly, and more. 

The past few weeks we have been experimenting with air and weather in science. Ask your little meteorologist about air pressure, clouds, wind and temperature. In social studies we are studying geographical features and learning about Native American cultures. In math we are manipulating, comparing, and applying addition and subtraction concepts. Please reinforce the language at home - count on, add, all together, combine, plus, take away, subtract, count back, etc.

In language arts, we are using the writing process to help us brainstorm, organize and publish our thoughts. Check out the bulletin board outside Mrs. Browning's classroom with fun facts about our trip to Wayside Farm. We accessed and organized our thoughts by creating webs. Then we drafted sentences based on the ideas in our graphic organizers. Next, we edited our work. Finally, we typed, printed and illustrated our published pieces.

Who said learning can't be fun?! 

 

Cheers!
The Green Team :)

We Are Excited for Quarter 2...Welcome Back!

Hello families! Welcome back from our two-week intersession. We are so happy to see all of our little faces excited and ready to learn. Wow, we had an exciting month. We ended our first marking period, enjoyed speaking with parents about student progress during conferences, and participated in a successful DaVinci day and night. Our students worked very hard creating their portfolios to share with their parents in student-led conferences - way to go! They carefully selected the first-quarter work they felt most proud to share. This demonstrates how much growth they've shown in just 9 weeks.

Here are a few pics from DaVinci day and night. This includes the completion of our "giving tree." Thank you to the parents who spent weeks assisting our students to create the tree. They are very proud.

The Giving Tree

Oobleck - Is it a liquid or a solid?

In Quarter 1 Science we explored the concepts of motion, matter and magnets through inquiry and scientific-based methods. We applied our learning during project days to create recycled toys - this was a hit with the students. This quarter we will be focusing on earth patterns, cycles and change, where we will investigate and understand that weather and seasonal changes affect plants, animals, and their surroundings. We will also investigate and understand that plants produce oxygen and food, are a source of useful products, and provide benefits in nature. Enjoy pictures of our air pressure experiments from this week. This includes creating our own parachutes.

Experimenting

Air Pressure and Compressed Air

 

In Quarter 1 Social Studies we participated in real-life social situations that taught and reinforced citizenship, community, goods and services, natural, capital and human resources, and making choices to solve economic problems. This quarter we will continue to develop map skills, including locating the United States on world maps, locating the regions of Native Americans on United States maps and understanding the relationship between the environment and the Native American culture. We will also locate the equator, the seven continents, the five oceans on maps and globes, and selected rivers.

We are very pleased at the success of our Language Arts and Math blocks. With the assistance of our specialists, this change has allowed us to more effectively differentiate instruction within a narrower range of learners, and lessen class sizes. Thank you, families, for your flexibility as we continue to individualize instruction to meet every student's needs.

Our first field trip to Wayside Farm, where your child will be immersed in fun STEM-based activities is quickly approaching. Look for pictures next week. This field trip is based on the Virginia Science Standards. What a fun way to use fall themes to teach hands-on science concepts. Thank you to the parents who volunteered to chaperone. Your time is appreciated! 

Also, thank you for continuing to send in snacks and classroom materials. We are truly grateful to have the best, most supportive parents.

Cheers!

The Green Team