Calvert Bear Plays Tic-Tac-Toe!

Calvert Bear played tic-tac-toe at this friend's house over the weekend. He even had time to draw a picture! What an incredible adventure he's having!

Chinese New Year

A native of China, Mrs. Zhang joined 6D on Monday and celebrated the Chinese New Year with the class.  She taught the students that this year- 2012- is the year of the dragon. Each year of the Chinese lunar cycle is represented by a different animal.  She brought in many Chinese books to share, and even showed the students special garmets that her son used to wear when he was young.  Both were intricately designed and came in vibrant colors, like red and gold. When reading the Chinese New Year's books to the class, her son recited the Chinese translation- it was AMAZING, and not to mention beautiful to hear! I was so impressed by this student and his language abilities. Take a peak:

After listening to the stories, we made Chinese lanterns- in red, of course!

Thank you, Mrs. Zhang!

Ice Hockey

This morning I visited a student playing ice hockey.  He did a fantastic job on the ice! 

There's a pretty cool piece to his story- this boy could not ice skate at the start of this season.  Yet, with persistance and hard work, he is now close to scoring his first goal!  INCREDIBLE! 

Bingo with Gallagher Services

In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday, Calvert School hosted a day of service.  A variety of community projects were offered, including bingo with friends from Gallagher Services.  Fun was had by all!

Carol wins bingo and earns her "bingo tiara"!

Students learned how to write the letter H last week!  They traced over the upper and lowercase versions of this letter on index cards with their fingers, before retracing with googly eyes. This was a great way to reinforce how the letter is formed while also reiterating the proper letter formation language.

Lastly, the students traced over the cards (eyes closed) reciting the letter formation language orally.  Nice job, 6D! 

Go, Ravens!

Calvert School celebrated the Ravens with a dress down last Friday!  The students looked so festive in their purple and black! 

Mrs. Chung Visits 6D!

Mrs. Chung visited 6D last week and read some hilarious stories to the class.  They loved this time and left the school day craving more!  Thank you, Mrs. Chung!

Calvert Bear

Calvert Bear visited this student's home! He drank chocolate milk, played football, and even helped with some family chores (like taking out the trash). I didn't know this little bear was so helpful!

South America Map

In preparation for the Sixth Age semester-long geography unit on the continents, I made a large-scale map of South America.  When students from each homeroom visit me, they will learn about this part of the world.

I created a flat paper version of South America...

...and cardboard cut outs of each country.

  What a fun learning tool!

Silly, Serious, or Smiles?

I took photos of my students this morning because I felt my blog needed a boost.  I told the students they could make a silly, serious, or smiley face. Aren't they great?

Mrs. Veale Visits 6D!

Mrs. Veale visited 6D this week.  She read many wonderful books to the class.  Thank you for stopping by, Mrs. Veale!

Calvert Bear

Calvert Bear had a fabulous time over winter break with this friend! Calvert Bear had fun on the train to New York.  He liked seeing the Rockettes and eating popcorn- he actually sat inside of the popcorn bucket in the theatre!  He liked his dinner at home- he even had to time to play the piano AND he received a personal invitation to watch this student play her violin!

S-T-R-E-T-C-H Spelling

Stretch spelling, sometimes referred to as inventive spelling, is when a student exercises their knowledge of phonemes, the letters of the alphabet and their confidence in the  alphabetic principle to write words.
Although I believe it is important to correct a child's written work, I also think it's essential to allow a student open-ended opportunities to use their current writing knowledge to increase their confidence in all they can accomplish.

Yesterday morning my reading students arrived with excitement, eager to share news of their recent winter breaks.  I, too, was excited to hear about their travels, new toys, and holiday adventures- so I sent them to their journals, pencil-in-hand.

Each student was encouraged to draw a picture, highlighting a special event. After, they wrote at least two sentences describing this event in words. I was very impressed with their hard work. As you can tell, many students have a solid understanding of phonemes, sentence structure, punctuation, and general spelling rules. They did a fabulous job of utilizing stretch spelling in their writing. Bravo!