Mrs. Monroe's Multi Class

We are into the home stretch of the school year. Students are busy getting ready for Trip Around the World. We are studying Germany with a focus on how Germany is similar and different from the United States.

Upcoming events:

Students are being assessed in reading using the DRA.

Trip Around the World-June 2nd. Open house that evening from 6-7.

Field Day-June 9th

Last day of school-1/2 day of school.

SUMMER VACATION!! Encourage your children to read regularly all summer long.

It’s been a busy week back to school. The next few weeks are sure to fly by.

We began our study of Germany. Students will be gathering facts about Germany. Then we will begin projects and written reports that we will share at Trip Around the World on June 2nd.

I have been having students practice writing to a prompt this week. They will be writing for a district wide prompt in May. They prefer to write on topics of their choice but we have to do this occasionally. We’ve talked a lot about what makes a good story.

Spring picture day is Tuesday, May 4th.

The weather has certainly begun to feel like spring. The snow is quickly melting and we’re looking forward to green grass. The playground has lots of puddles and mud. We are trying to keep children out of the mud and puddles but sometimes they do come in with wet feet. An extra pair of dry socks may be a good thing to keep packed in backpacks.

We finished the habitat unit and the children made some fabulous habitat projects. I could tell that they put a lot of effort into them. Many people enjoyed looking at them while they were on display for a few days in the school. We have moved on to a unit about maps.

It was a very busy week at school. We celebrated the 100th day of school on Monday-always a huge milestone we look forward to. Students also enjoyed a healthy snack of yogurt and fruit in recognition of dental health month.

On Wednesday all multi, 1st and 2nd graders gathered in the gym for a peace gathering. Ms. Gillis led them in a discussion of the ingredients of enemy pie. Students came up with quite a list of unsavory ingredients. After that they enjoyed watching the book Enemy Pie read to them online. When we got back to the classroom we discussed why someone might appear to be our enemy but in fact is someone we just don’t know very well.

Thursday morning found students going off to visit Mrs. Prince’s and Ms. Angers’ classes while the 1st, 2nd and multi age teachers worked together to discuss reading assessments and teaching ideas. The students enjoyed spending time with other students and making some special crafts.

Friday was the day before vacation-exciting enough!-with the added excitement of Valentine’s Day. In the afternoon our students shared Valentine cards they had brought in.

Ms. Gillis challenged all students to read 20 minutes a day during vacation. I also encourage students to read every day-I will be reading too.

The weather is beautiful-it should be a wonderful vacation week. Enjoy!

This is a busy week. Yesterday we celebrated the 100th day of school. Students enjoyed math activities centered around the number 100. We also recognized dental health month by enjoying a healthy snack of yogurt and fruit in the afternoon.

On Wednesday morning the four multi age classes will join the 1st and 2nd grade classrooms for a peace gathering meeting.

Thursday morning students will visit a K and 3rd grade classroom for another Buddy Day. Teachers will meet to work together. 1st year students will visit Mrs. Prince’s kindergarten class and 2nd year students will visit Ms. Angers’ 3rd grade class.

On Friday students will have the opportunity to share valentine cards with friends before we leave for a week of vacation. It would be nice to have some fresh snow to play in during vacation. I’m sure the mid Atlantic states would love to share!

Brrr! Another cold day. Outside PE class was cancelled due to the wind chill. Miss Small hopes to reschedule the winter hiking on Thursday-weather permitting. Congratulations to Matthew-PE Student of the Month for January!!

The students have been doing a fantastic job finding facts about the animal they chose for their research project. It’s been great fun to watch them searching through books for interesting facts and then turning to a friend to say things like “Did you know…?” and “Listen to this.” Great work!

Mrs. Towers and I finished our end of 2nd quarter reading assessments and we continue to be amazed and pleased to see the wonderful readers we have. Thanks to the parents for supporting your young reader by helping him/her complete nightly reading homework. We have many photos showing our students happily engaged in reading and writing during reading workshop daily.

Buddy Day was a huge success! The 3rd graders and my students worked well together exploring the new netbooks.  I saw a lot of great sharing, laughing, and new friendships being formed.

This is my first blog. Look here for information about what is happening in the classroom. Today will be an exciting day-we will be hosting a classroom of 3rd graders this afternoon for Buddy Day. This is a time when classrooms host other classrooms so teams of teachers can have time to work together. My students will be working with the 3rd graders using the new netbooks that we have at TPS.