Another Broken Arm!

Look what Paige showed up with this morning! She fell at church on Sunday and broke two bones near her wrist! The boys and girls are loving her colorful (red/pink) cast. She took a Sharpie outside with us on the playground for the boys and girls to sign her cast! I am just thankful that it did not happen at school!!!

A Taste of Spring Weather!

We could not resist going outside today. The weather was perfect. The boys and girls had so much fun. I think they forgot what the playground had to offer! Shhhh.... do not tell, but we stayed out a few minutes longer than we were suppose to!

Thanks for your prayers!

Daddy had his first chemo treatment this morning as well as radiation. Everything went well, but it was a long day for him. He is tired, but doing okay! Please read our family blog for updates. Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers.

Weekly Progress Reports

It is amazing how quiet my room gets when I pass out their graded papers on Monday. Really, you can hear a pin drop for about 5 minutes. Look how serious they get! The mood really changes at this moment every Monday! I am glad they are so concerned about their grades! Amanda is proud of her papers!

Busy in WORKSHOP!

This week in workshop the children will be responsible for writing their spelling words 3 times in cursive, complete a newspaper skill handout, research the moon, play multiplication games, and read and answer questions about Mars. They each visited one station today!

Space Stuff

Look at some cool things that have been brought in during our Space unit!

Keep bringing things in! This is an easy way to earn CREDITS!!!

Watching the Inauguration

We were able to watch Obama take his historic 0ath today, but it had to be on this! Of course, none of our televisions work at Julian Harris, so we had to settle for this. I was determine that my class see this important event. I told them when they are my age, they can tell their children exactly where they were when they saw the first African American take office as President of the USA. I told them they could also throw in to their children that they had the sweetest, prettiest, and nicest third grade teacher ever! Just kidding! I will be satisified if they just mention my name.

Lots of updates on Daddy!

Please continue to pray for my daddy as he enters a long, stressful week. He will go through many tests, appointments, and even surgery. My sister working hard to keep family and friends updated with family blog. Please read and keep praying!!!!

Workshop in Action!

If you have anything at home that has to do with space, please encourage your child to bring it in and share it with us. Austin brought some interesting cards about the planets on Friday. The boys and girls get credits for bringing items in during this reading unit. Here are this week's vocabulary words.
The children will be reading a folktale this week. Please encourage your child to read this story nightly since we are minus one day this week. This test is Friday.

During workshop this week, the boys and girls will be researching a planet of their choice. I have enjoye their enthusiasm about this unit. It is fun for me as well because it is a new one for me.

The store was back in business on Friday!

The boys and girls were excited to go shopping on Friday. Thanks for all the items that have been sent in to make the store so successful! Also, you volunteers are awesome! We could not do it without!

Tomorrow

Just wanted you to know that I will not be at school tomorrow. It is not because of my dad, it is for Smith's dental appointment. I was scared you guys would think something happened. Anyway, Smith has an appointment at 10:20 in Huntsville tomorrow. I decided to take the day off and take him. Mrs. Tonya, who was Joshua's aide last year in my room, will be my sub. She knows me and how I do things. I think things will run pretty smoothly esp. since they have art for 1 hour tomorrow. Have a wonderful day! Please do not hesitate to call or email me if you have any questions and/or concerns. Thanks for sharing your children with me!

Remember Friday is test day! Study! Study! Study!

American Symbols

Since we have returned from Christmas, the children have worked hard on researching American Symbols. I pretty much handed this project over to them to do independently. They used the internet, books, videos, books on tape, and much more to help them. They did really well!

I am sorry I have not posted much lately, but Mrs. Coon is having trouble getting back in the groove of things. I will try to do better, I promise! Just know, we have been really busy in the classroom. We are learning bunches!!!!

Pray for Daddy

Daddy went to Birmingham today because of a lump he had discovered on the other side of his face last week. The doctors here believed it was just a swollen saliva gland, but after it continued to grow and get harder, they sent him to Birmingham today. Yesterday marked his halfway point of radiation, and things had gotten really rough. His mouth has been killing him. A matter of fact, he choked yesterday morning when he trying to eat some scrambled eggs for breakfast. Therefore, he started taking pain pills yesterday. However, I just got word that his doctor in Birmingham thinks this spot is cancer. They are running test and doing a biopsy as I speak. The bad part is that we will not know anything until Saturday. The waiting is what kills him. Anyway if it is cancer, they will do surgery and stop the radiation. After the surgery, he will have to start radiation all over again, but on both sides this time. I can't imagine how he is going to this because one side has been absolutely miserable for him. I am asking to pray for my daddy, our family, and his doctors.

Welcome BACK!

Since it is only a three day week, we will be doing things a little out of order than usual. Since we are at the end of a reading unit, I am going to use this week to focus on multiplication, catch up on social studies (American Heroes and American Symbols), and work on writing (descriptive paragraphs).

There are no tests this Friday. Our normal schedule will resume next week with all tests on Friday. Just for a heads up, there will be a timed multiplication test next Friday on our 0's, 1's, and 2's. It will consist of 50 problems and the children will have 6 minutes to complete it. They have these facts written down in their BEE Books behind the math tab.

I will be sending home a newsletter and a new list of spelling words on Monday. I will be sending home graded papers as well. Don't forget REPORT CARDS will be coming home THIS FRIDAY!

Happy Birthday, Amanda!

On January 4, Amanda celebrated a birthday. Since we were out of school on her birthday, sweet Mrs. Barbara brought cupcakes for the class today. The children enjoyed picking the letter they wanted to eat! Thanks, Amanda, for letting us celebrate with you today! Happy Belated Birthday!

Arranging Chairs: Multiplication Arrays

Today we worked on multiplication for about an 1 1/2 hours, and the children loved it! They were pumped and everyone participated with enthusiasm! This kinda of reaction to a lesson, makes any teacher want to dance and sing!!!! Today I asked the children to pretend to arrange 12 chairs for a class play in the gym. Each row had to have the same number of chairs in it, and you had to use all 12 chairs. I made sure I pointed out that there was more than 1 possible way to arrange the chairs, and some ways might seem ridiculous. It was great to see the concentration on their faces! They worked and worked and worked!

After we figured out how to arrange 12 chairs. The boys and girls had to figure out all the different ways we could arrange 18 chairs.

The boys and girls were very eager to share their answers with the rest of the class. I could not believe how that got into these problems.

After we discovered the different ways to arrange the chairs, we wrote multiplication sentences for each array. Then, we figured out the factors of 12 and 18.

NOTE: Tonight's homework is to arrange 24 chairs.