We worked together, took turns, cracked eggs, measured oil and water, stirred and stirred, greased the pan, poured in the batter, took them to the oven, and TA-DA….brownies 🙂  We enjoyed them along with our popcorn and video for November’s PBIS reward…it was a pretty yummy afternoon!!

We had an awesome day making muffins and butter and enjoying our mini feast this afternoon.  A huge thanks to Sophie’s mom for coming in to help us make muffins this morning!!  Daoud’s mom surprised us by dropping off Tim Horton’s donuts for us (super exciting) so a big thanks to her, as well!!  I am so thankful for my amazing group of students and for your support and participation – you truly are the best 🙂

Mrs. Elsersy kindly offered to take our coins to the machine last weekend.  Here is a little note from her:

I’m always amazed at the generosity of the Howard Elementary parents, and this class is no exception!  I’m happy to report that your class collected a whopping amount of $271.55 for the Pennies for Pasta collection which raises funds and awareness for Leukemia and Lymphoma.  Thank you for support!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

• There is a lot of snow on our playground and we love it, but we need to make sure that we are prepared to enjoy it.  We DO go outside even when there is snow.  That means your child should be coming to school with boots, snowpants, hats, and gloves, along with their coat.  Please make sure to pack extra shoes for the classroom – we take our boots off and leave them in the hallway, so everyone needs their regular shoes for inside the classroom.

• Tomorrow is our feast.  If they want to, your child can bring in a drink to have during the feast.  Thank you to everyone who sent in feast items 🙂

• We are totally awesome – for a lot of reasons – but, today we are especially awesome because we reached our 24th brownie point!!!!  What does that mean???  It means we get to make brownies as a reward for our super behavior!!!  Since we are already making muffins tomorrow, brownies will wait until Monday and go along with our PBiS reward of popcorn and a movie.

Here is social studies Jeopardy.  They will play with Ms Philips in the morning tomorrow, but they can get a head start if they want to 🙂

Unit-2-Review

• Math homework was a counting money worksheet.  Don’t forget spelling is due tomorrow.  Plus, we have library check-out.  Fridays are busy 🙂
• Pasta for Pennies – Tomorrow is the last day to bring donations to school. We accept pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and even dollars! The classroom that collects the most money will receive a pasta lunch from Olive Garden and the money will be donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
• The testing window for social studies snuck up on us.  We need to take it on Monday.  Here is the study guide to help you.

SS Unit 2 study guide

 I know Ms. Philips is working on a Jeopardy game so I will post that when it is ready.

• There are a few websites you can use with your child to help them practice the skills that are tested on the NWEA/MAP test that is given a few times a year.  The activities and games are based on the RIT score your child received.  You can find the RIT score (it is a 3 digit number) on the graph that I shared with you at conferences.  Once they have mastered those levels, they can challenge themselves by moving into higher RIT bands.

Dearborn NWEA Practice

Reading Practice

Math Practice

          Another great resource that students can use for practice is Khan Academy.  I have a few parents whose students practice on this website daily and they love it!

•  Next Tuesday afternoon, we will be enjoying a small Thanksgiving feast together.  The plan is to make cornbread muffins in the morning and then shake, shake, shake some whipping cream into butter to go along with them.  We will pair that with a few other simple ‘feast’ items, but we need your help.  Below is a list of items that we need to have our feast on Tuesday.  If you can help by sending in an item below, please comment on this post so I can plan accordingly.The items we need are:
  • 5 boxes of Jiffy Corn Muffin mix
  • 2 pints of heavy whipping cream
  • 23 apples (maybe split this between a few people?)
  • 2 containers of caramel dip
  • popcorn (already popped please!)

  The students will go to lunch like every other day.  This is an afternoon snack 🙂

• There will be no spelling words or new books for reading groups next week.
• THANK YOU to all of you for making conferences go so smoothly!  I am so lucky to have a classroom full of wonderful, hard working students with such supportive parents behind them 🙂
• Last, but not least 🙂  Here are a few pictures from today…

• Math homework tonight 🙂
• Late start tomorrow!
• Order forms for Howard shirts came home a few weeks ago.  I believe the orders are due this week.  If you don’t have an order form and would like to place an order, let me know and I will find one for you.
• Check under your couch cushions….we need all the change (or dollars) we can find.  Pasta for Pennies donations are due on Friday.
• We have a math test coming up on Monday, November 23rd.  It is all about money and time.  Here is the pretest so you can use it to help your student study.  Unit3math

November has been jam packed!  Just a few updates:

• We had a case of pink eye in our classroom, so keep an eye out for that since it’s super contagious.
• If you are order from the Scholastic book order, please complete that online or return the form to me by Monday.  If you are interested in ordering online, our code is MK4VL.
• Conferences last night were awesome!  It was so nice to meet everyone and I appreciate you taking the time to come in and chat 🙂  I am looking forward to next week.  Everyone should have gotten a confirmation note already about their time…if you haven’t, please send me an email.
• The Pasta for Pennies collection is going on.  The money we raise will support cancer research.  We are also in competition to win lunch from Olive Garden for our classroom.  You are welcome to put pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters in the collection box – or even dollars 🙂  They boxes should be returned by the 20th.
• Late start is this Wednesday, November 18th.  Students do not start school until 9:30.
• Our turkeys are AMAZING!!! Everyone put great effort into their disguises.  I love them!!

• I sent a few book order flyers home today.  You can order by  filling out and returning the order form with a check  in an envelope, OR you can go to scholastic.com and order online with our classroom code (MK4VL).  If you order online, you can order any of the books on their website instead of just the ones in the flyers I sent home.  This is a great opportunity to add to your child’s home library or even let them have some new books for their personal book box at school!
• Don’t forget that Turkey should be returned to school in his disguise on Monday.  I have lots of turkeys returned so far and they look amazing!!
• Conferences start next week on Thursday, November 12th.  I have sent almost everyone’s confirmation note home already – if you haven’t gotten it yet, and you don’t see it by Monday afternoon, please send me an email.  Report cards will be shared at conferences.

Don’t forget library books should come back tomorrow 🙂

these amazing turkeys that were turned in today!  Please don’t panic, turkeys are not due until Monday, November 9th – I just wanted to share the ones that came in today 🙂

Also, just a reminder that we will check-out new library books tomorrow since we have only a 1/2 day on Friday.  Please help your child make sure they bring their books back.