Greetings!

Well, it has been a BUSY week to say the least. Matthew's entries will be posted later this week. He has added quite a bit more detail to the entries so it should be exciting. I also tried something new this week which I may continue. In addition to a Roving Reporter, there was also a Roving Photographer. Several students were allowed to take photos (during special activities). It was very interesting and enlightening to see the classroom from their perspective. These photos will be available at the end of the year for your enjoyment :)

I am including a picture of our pumpkin that we carved this week. We carved this pumpkin for the Annual Pumpkin Seed Project hosted by
http://www.technospudprojects.com .
The students had a blast! We counted 423 seeds in our pumpkin. The average of all classes that participated in the project was 403 seeds per pumpkin.

Well, I must be running.

Have a super weekend and keep checking back!
Thanks,
Mrs. Cowan

Wow! Today was certainly a busy day. Matthew was writing constantly today so his reports should be interesting. We look forward to reading them.

We did a very interesting lesson today in Math. We estimated the number of seeds in a 5 pound pumpkin. We then cut the pumpkin up and counted the seeds. The kids had a BLAST! The guesses ranged from 4 all the way to 21,000,000! As we counted, we discovered that most of us estimated FAR from the actual. There were only 423 seeds in that pumpkin. That was a surprise to say the least. We will now be submitting our results on-line to
http://www.technospudprojects.com and compare our results to other classes all over the country. Check it out if you have the chance.

We also took a walk around the school to observe the weather. There is quite a bit going on with the weather today. It was fun just to hear all of the different descriptions of the weather.

Well, I must be running. Check back later this week for more updates.

Thanks,
Mrs. Cowan

Greetings one and all!

I hope you have had a nice and relaxing weekend. Please allow me to give you a run-down of the week's activities. We have quite a bit planned for this busy week.

First of all, we will begin working on some new reading vocabulary words. The words are ancient, crazy, curious, entire, flexible, scarce and stingy. We had been spending 2 weeks on the reading vocabulary words but have since decided to spend one week since the students have been doing so well with them. The students are using them correctly daily in both writing and speaking. Encourage your child to use the words at home as well.

We will be reading the story of "Who's Been Around the Pond?" this week. The reading strategy that we will be focusing on is to monitor and clarify as you read. We will also focus on classifying and sorting as well. This ties in to what we are doing in math which is to classify and sort data. The students will love the story!

As I have said, we are working on classifying and sorting data in math. The goal is to have the students be able to take data samples and create their own graphs. The goal is to also have the students be able to read data in a wide range of areas. We are still focusing on time and money during calendar math. As a suggestion, you may want to have your child "play" with money. For example, when shopping, give your child coins and have them give you the correct amount to equal the price of a product. They'll enjoy doing that.

In science, we will begin our unit on weather. The students will enjoy all of the activities we have planned for that unit. If you get a chance, have your child visit http://www.weather.com just to track the weather.

Monday we will be doing a very special activity for math. We will be taking part in an on-line project where the students will estimate the number of pumpkin seeds in a 5 pound pumpkin. Our class will then submit the results and they will be compared to other classes around the country. Visit http://www.technospudprojects.com/ for more information. We will also be participating in the Dr. Seuss Project. Details will be sent home soon regarding this project.

Wednesday will also be our Halloween Social. I have many arts and crafts planned. It should be fun. Please don't forget to send in the items you have agreed to supply the class with by Tuesday, October 30th. This will allow me to purchase any items we may be short.

Friday will be our Fall Festival. It will be from 5-8 pm. We look forward to having you there!

Thank you for your continued support!

Mrs. Cowan

This was our first week of having a student act as a "Roving Reporter" by detailing events that take place in our classroom. We have focused on having a clear sequence of events. We will now begin to work on adding details to the writing. Be sure to check back at the end of the week for more entries by our new reporter.


Thanks,
Mrs. Cowan

We copied our assignments in our agendas. We took our tests for the week. We did reading. We had our snack. Then we did our writing. We all did calendar math.

Shagnassy