Updates!

The December Newsletter and set three of the sight words study list has been posted.  Please see the tabs along the top of this blog.

More Feast Photos!

Turkey Trot and Walkarhon

Room 101 participated in Pine Glen's first ever Walk-a-thon!

We lined up along the route and cheered on the Turkey Trot runners!  It was great to see our siblings, friends and former students running so fast!  

All walk-a-thon participants were awarded ribbons for joining in the fun!

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Writing Letters!

In addition to lots of outside fun activities and science experiments we did some math and practiced our letters.  We learned Kk today and practiced writing all of the letters Mrs. Parnell has taught us thus far. 

Exploding Pumpkin!

What a fun way to start the day!  We witnessed Mr. Papadonis and his exploding pumpkin experiment!

This is how the pumpkin looked after the explosion!

Room 101 had a front row view for the experiment!.............We were prepared with papertowels in case it was messy!

Here is the explosion in slow motion!

Ready for our Feast

Room 101 ventured outside for some photos today!  Tomorrow is expected to be cold and wet.  Please dress for the outside activities we have planned!

Lunchtime!

We dressed as Pilgrims and Native Americans before heading to begin our celebration.  We sang songs and ate together on our special placemats.  It was a great day!

Thanksgiving Singing

Contributions welcome!

As you know our life skills program has incentives that are awarded to students each day.  We are slim on supplies at the moment.  Any time you have extra birthday party favor supplies or small school supplies (stickers, erasers, pencils) that you would like to donate, we are happy to accept.  Thank you!

Spanish chocolates

The first dance we learned is called Spanish Chocolates.  It is performed when the Nutcracker Prince takes Clara to the Kingdom of the Sweets.  It involves lots of counting to 4(in our head) to keep up with the music.  We snap, side-step and spin!

Nutcracker dancing

In addition to reading about the Nutcracker, we make books, discuss it, write about and listen to the music.  We will read various versions of the story and make comparisons and connections.  One of the highlights for us in studying the Nutcracker ballet is dancing!  We learned some of the dances we will see in the performance next month.  Today was our first lesson and everyone did a wonderful job!

The cold weather us upon us.

Winter brings the inevitable battle of getting students to put on all the winter gear before going outside.  With a class full of students and only two of us, there is often a student who manages to get out the door for the bus, or worse recess, hat-less or mitten-less.  Please know that we are reminding everyone to wear their belongings and are helping them to dress as much as we can.

Your reminders at home are appreciated as we all want warm, healthy kids!  Please continue to work on all self-help skills so children can put on and zip their coats as well as change winter shoes and pull on mittens and gloves.

Decisions, decisions!

Native American or Pilgrim?

Students presented a mini fashion show so we could see what our options were for our upcoming feast.  Boys and Girls decided between being a Pilgrim child or a Native American child.  We will dress in our outfits next Tuesday!

Miss Zanotti Visited our Class

Ms. Zanotti, our new guidance counselor was in to visit today.  She introduced herself and talked about her role at Pine Glen.  Ms. Z carried a tool box full of things that help to explain what she does.  Be sure to ask your child about the contents and what they represent( tissues, a bandaid, a heart, games, a phone and a squishy ball).

Ms. Zanotti posed with students from room 101 after she shared her tool box.

Clapping Syllables in our Names!

Breaking down our names is a great way to practice our understanding of syllables!

Using Syllable Cards

Teacher says a word and the students hold up a card that represents the number of syllables. This was a fun game!

Confidentiality Meeting

From Mr. Lyon's blog:

Confidentiality Meeting

I will be hosting a confidentiality meeting on November 13, 2014 at 8:15 am.

All parent volunteers are required to have an updated CORI form on file at Central Office and also attend a Principal’s Confidentiality Meeting to be eligible to chaperon field trips and volunteer.  

Native American Wampum

Making our wampum involved pattern work.

We must concentrate and be patient.  The stringing takes a long time.


November is a busy month.  We have begun to make our Native American costumes.

Math 1:1

We are working on comparing numbers 1-10 in addition we are solidifying our counting abilities and making sure we make a 1 to 1 correspondene when counting.

Treats for our troops

The first donation from room 101 arrived today!

The following is taken from Mr. Lyons blog:  Pine Glen is once again joining other Burlington schools in collecting wrapped Halloween Candy for our troops overseas.  Over the last few years we have been able to send over 6000lbs of candy to troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Please join in again and donate some of your Halloween candy or pick up and an extra bag at the store and help us send a little Halloween cheer overseas!  Soldiers love getting cards and letters from kids back home.  If you would like to send a special message to a soldier overseas, please put your letter in the Orange Collection box along with your candy and we will make sure it gets to a soldier! 

We learn to write thank you notes as part of our writing program.

Our letters thanked veterans for being brave and keeping us safe.

We tied Veteran's Day into math and writing.  On Monday we compared the quantities of candy each student collected on Halloween.  We all agreed that everyone had lots of candy.  Mrs. Parnell shared information about the Treats for our Troops.  Some students have chosen to share of their candy with the soldiers.

On Wednesday we learned more about Veterans when we read our Let's Find Out magazine.  Then we practiced writing thank you notes.  The notes will be sent along with the candy donations.