November flew by in our class. We learned more about the historically accurate first Thanksgiving. The students enjoyed making puppets to make and act out a play about the first Thanksgiving. We also learned about the annual Presidential turkey pardon. Students participated in The Great American Smoke Out by making posters to illustrate the dangers of smoking and what people can do instead of smoking. In math class, we worked on patterning and graphing. We used holiday themes to add to the fun of our learning. We made our second annual Thanksgiving dinner in out classroom. Thank you to all of the parents who generously send in food items so each child could cook a part of the meal. Next week is the annual OCS Holiday Concert. There may be some disruptions to the schedule. We will try to make it go as smooth as possible. We learned about Hanakuh this week. The students enjoyed playing Dreidle and waching some interesting movies about this Jewish holiday. We will be making a holiday cookbook in class during the last week before theholiday break. Please send in two or more recipes by December 13. We may be able to prepare some of the treats in class before the break. We are working on adding money in math class. Some students will be adding with paper and pencil. Others may use a calculator to add the amounts. We will be adding up the cost of all the things they want for Christmas. They are also typing and mailing" their Christmas list to Santa. They really love finding the things they hope to get. ;)

October Fun

We have been having a lot of fun in school this month. Our class has been making some fun creations for Halloween. The students carved shrunken apple heads to celebrate the holiday. We also made ghosts out of cheesecloth and glue in response to the story The Teeny Tiny Ghost. We will have pictures posted next week. Students are finishing up their unit on measurement in math class. They have enjoyed measuring different objects in the classroom. In social studies, the kids are learning about the affects of smoking and drugs on their body. They are also learning about how to deal with bullying. Our science class is learning about space. We will be making a booklet about the planets. Conferences have been scheduled for each child. A form with the date and time is going home this week. Please call or e-mail if there are any changes.

Back to School Night

Back to School Night was very successful. It was nice to see our OCS parents visiting our school. If you were unable to come, please feel free to contact me at any time with any questions you may have. Last night was the last night for the book fair. There will be another book fair in the spring. That is the By One Get One Free book fair. You may always order from a scholastic book order. I can certainly get you a book order form from your child's reading level if you are interested. Next week, our science class will be making applesauce in the crock pot. We love this activity because our classroom smells so nice. Yankee Candle has nothing on the real thing. ;) Our social studies class is learning about important social skills. We continue to practice them throughout the day.

First full weeks of school

Welcome Back!

We have a lot of exciting things going on in room 214 and at OCS. Students are doing a great job of being independent middle schoolers. They are opening and closing the locks on their lockers. They developed a new set of class rules and everyone signed his name that he will follow the rules.

In Language Arts Literature classes, students are working with our new writing program called Units of Study. They are working on expressing themselves through their writing. Students are also working sounding out words and constructing words using letter sounds. Each student has a spelling list. He will keep his list in his homework folder. I will not publish it on here, but you may e-mail me if the list is misplaced.

In Math class, we are completing a beginning of the year assessment. Students will then go on to work on his individual math goal for the week. I will let you know when there are tests coming up. Homework will be written in the communication book.

Our science class enjoyed making a mini scientist and cooking play doh last week. This week we will be focusing on science safety. Then we will begin to study astronomy.

5th grade science: please see Mrs. Kimball's blog.

End of the school year

As we approach the end of the school year the students continue to learn new things in each class.

In all subjects, each student is learning about the same MARE area as his grade level peers. They are working on activies to enhance their knowledge about the kelp forest, open ocean, islands, coral reef, and polar regions.

They will be partipating with their grade level peers in Ocean Week activities. hey will act as teachers to impart their knowledge onto other grade levels.

Ahh testing . . .

NJASK testing is starting next week. 7th and 8th grade will be taking the reading/language arts, math, and science portions of the test for four days. The 5th and 6th grade will test the following week. They will not have a science portion of the test. 3rd and 4th grade will be the last to test. Only the 4th grade will have a science part.

Welcome Spring!!!

The students are all really ready for Spring to arrive. I think they are even more excited for the Spring break from school.

Social Studies: Over the past couple of weeks, students have learned about Ireland and St. Patrick's Day. They loved making soda bread during science class last week.

They will continue to learn more about famous women in history and how the contributions of these women affect our lives today.

Students continue to work on life skills. Some are enjoying playing Community Skills For Life on the computer.

Science: Students are learning about the four basic cloud types. We are hoping to be able to recognize them by using a new tool we're making in class this week.

Writing: Some students are really working hard at keyboarding skills. This is a very important life skill. Others are working on writing about things that interest them, writing persuasively, and writing how-to essays.

Reading: All students are practicing reading at their independent reading level using Reading A-Z.
Some students are using flash cards with pictures on one side and words on the other. Some are using the computer based reading software to continue to build and practice reading skills.

Our 8th graders are reading a book called Torn Threads about two sisters trying to survive the Holocaust in Poland. They are working on using context clues to decipher the unknown vocabulary. They are also summarizing each chapter and answering comprehension questions.

Math: Some students are working on recognizing larger numbers, adding smaller numbers, and telling time. Others are adding two digit numbers with regrouping or subtracting larger numbers with borrowing. While others are working on multiplying and dividing fractions