December Highlights

 

We are learning about place value and two-digit numbers in Math.  The students each made a Place Value Tree (from TpT!) completed with ornaments!

 

 

A closer view

 

 

As part of our Christmas Around the World Unit, we had some plum preserves on crackers to get a taste of the plum pudding that is often made in England during the holidays.

 

 

The children loved it!

 

 

Since evergreens are the symbol of Christmas in England, we made Christmas trees to add to our suitcases.

 

 

In Language Arts, we are learning to write Expository paragraphs.  This week, we are learning all about Reindeer.  Above is the book I made as a reference for our writing.  Each student will be bringing home a copy later this week.

Today was the 70th day of School!  Zero the Hero brought us a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer craft!  I think they turned out great! 

 

 

Thank you for stopping by!

 

~peace~

Mrs. Dryzal



We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

 

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  

News from Room 23

 

 

--Due to the 3-day school week, we will NOT be having a Spelling test.  We will begin with Lesson 13 immediately following the Thanksgiving break.  Look for the word list to post this coming weekend. 

 

--A 1-hour Early Dismissal will take place on Wednesday, November 27th.  Students will be dismissed beginning at 2:25 p.m..  School will be closed November 28th through December 2nd.  Classes resume Tuesday, December 3rd.

 

 

--We are joining the Football boosters, the Key Club, Builders Club, K-Kids and the cheerleaders to put together a district-wide and Key Club  food drive.  Students are asked to bring a non-perishable food item into their homeroom between now and Tuesday (Nov. 26).  The Homeroom that brings in the most food will win a pizza party on the day before Christmas break.  All donations will be distributed by the St. Vincent DePaul food bank.  There is a strong need for condiments such as ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise.

 

 

--We are working on Addition and Subtraction Facts in Math.  Please practice basic facts with your child at home to increase their fluency with math facts.  Printable flash cards are available here: 

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/math/addition/flashcards/

 

--Wishing you and your families a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thank you for all you do for your children!

 

 

~peace~

Mrs. Dryzal



Miss Ash's Volcano Lesson

This picture slideshow personalized with Smilebox Miss Ash is a senior education student from UPJ and has been observing and participating in our class for the last eight weeks of school.  This is a slide show of the lesson she taught today in Social Studies class about Volcanoes.  Miss Ash is also a GJSD graduate and will do her student teaching in January.  We will miss her and wish her all the best! ~peace~ Mrs. Dryzal



Spelling List Unit 10

Lesson 10 Words

 

hop

 

top

 

mop

 

hot

 

pot

 

got

 

on

 

box


 

Due to the Act 80 Day on Friday, our Spelling test will take place on THURSDAY, November 7th.

 

~peace~

Mrs. Dryzal

Halloween 2013

 The Boys

 The Girls

 The Parade

 The Parade

 More Monster High Twins

 Getting Ready to March

 

Spider Man and our Yellow Ninja Turtle holding our classroom sign.

 

Thank you for all of the treats and drinks for our children!  We had a really nice afternoon!

 

~peace~

Mrs. Dryzal



Red Ribbon Week 2013

 

West Side Elementary invites you and your children to support the nation's oldest and largest drug prevention campaign. This year West Side will participate in a Red Ribbon Theme week. We encourage your children to participate and support a drug free lifestyle:

 

October 28th Smile for pictures and wear you best. Forever you will have a picture of the drug-free you!!!

 

October 29th Don't let drugs put you to sleep-wear pajamas

 

October 30th Drugs have met their match/don’t get mixed up with drugs-wear mixed matched attire.

 

October 31st Give drugs a scare-wear a Halloween shirt or orange and black

 

November 1st- Trojan Pride runs deep in our veins- wear Trojan Pride attire

 

Each day your child participates they will be entered to win a prize. A girl will win a make up kit and a boy will win a Nerf football. The drawing will be held on November 1st! Children will be given red ribbons-please wear them proudly all week long!

 

 ~peace~

Mrs. Dryzal

 

40th Day

 

Yesterday we celebrated the 40th day of the school year.  As part of our activities, we made "40" pumpkins.  I think they look really cute!  We also counted coins to 40 by 5's and 10's, filled in our ten frames, made 40 tally marks and drew 40 items.  Zero the Hero even made an appearance! 

 



Our Hallway Display

 

 

Thank you for stopping by!

~peace~

Mrs. Dryzal

Writing, Writing and More Writing

 

We have been very busy in first grade!  We completed our explanatory writing unit with a final project about how to eat an Oreo cookie.  First, we took a tally of our favorite ways to eat an Oreo.  Then we followed the writing process by mapping our steps using the transition words of first, next, then and last, writing our drafts and publishing our work in an Oreo shaped book. 

 

 I used this free writing project from Teachers Pay Teachers:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/How-To-Eat-an-Oreo-Writing-Project-594322

 

Then we learned about Inference.  We used a Mystery Box activity from http://theinspiredapple.blogspot.com  The students used the clues around the room to solve the mystery of what was inside our box. 

 

Several students guessed crayons....

 ...and others guessed gumballs were in the box.  Students recorded the clues and guesses on the paper I modeled after the one at The Inspired Apple. 

 

 Crayons were in the box! 

 

 

Next, we made Frankensteins with a free pattern from Leslie Ann on Teachers Pay Teachers.

 

Students then made inferences about Frank's favorites using their knowledge of Frankenstein.

 

Thank you for stopping by!

 

~peace~

Mrs. Dryzal

 



Spelling List Lesson 8

Unit 8 focuses on the short e sound.  Here are our words:

bed

led

met

get

pen

 

ten

 

yes

 

 then

peace,

Mrs. Dryzal

Spelling Lesson Seven

 

 

Our spelling test will begin this week.  Please remember to practice the list words each night with your child.  The word lists will be sent home every Monday and testing will occur every Friday.  I will list the words on the blog each week as well.

 

Lesson 7

short a

 

 

at

 

bat

 

cat

 

an

 

man

 

ran

 

and

 

am

 

 

You can print the list by clicking here.

 

 

Have a great week!

~peace~

Mrs. Dryzal

Recognition

At tonight's school board meeting, the sixth grade teachers were honored with an Academic Growth Award for our work with the 2012-2013 sixth grade class in Reading.  Although I am no longer teaching at the middle school, I am very honored to be recognized for the achievement of our students and the work that I did while at the teaching there.   

Receiving my plaque from Dr. Zahorchak and Mr. Lucas

The Sixth Grade Teachers, Administration and GJSD School Board



Thank you for stopping by!

~peace~
Mrs. Dryzal








 

Johnny Appleseed Week

 

 

On Johnny Appleseed's birthday, Miss Ash read the book pictured above to the students.  Then we did a descriptive writing project about an apple.  We webbed how the apple looked, smelled, tasted, felt, and sounded when we bit into it.  Then did a cloze activity filling in the blanks with words from our web.  After that, we tried two more kinds of apples and created a tally chart of our favorites.  Granny Smith apples won with 15 votes!   We also made a bar graph. 

 

 

 

On Friday, we made Crockpot Applesauce.  During homeroom, the children watched as the apples were peeled, cut and added to the crockpot. Then we added sugar, cinnamon, and a bit of water to the pot.  We stirred the ingredients, then the apples simmered on medium for 4 hours. 

 

 

Before we tasted our treat, the students and I did a shared writing of how to make applesauce.  We wrote then illustrated our sentences.  The students really enjoyed the applesauce as you can see...

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

~peace~

Mrs. Dryzal

Community Helpers-Police Officers

 

Today we learned about another community helper, the Police Man and Police Woman.  We read a story from here and then made these Police figures.  The students then had to write one thing they learned about this important community helper. 

 



 

Thanks for stopping by!

~peace~

Mrs. Dryzal

Open House 2013

 

Open House was held on Wednesday night.  I was so happy to see so many families visiting our classroom.  It was nice to meet all of the parents and my student's siblings.  Above is a photo of our Super Stars work board with writing we did on the first days of school.

 

 

Above is our "School is Cool" display for Open House.  This craft and writing activity is from Miss Kindergarten and is available at Teachers Pay Teachers for FREE!  Click here for a link.

 

 

I love the sunglasses and...

 

 

...the hair!

 

Parents were greeted with a treat of mints....

 

...and students received a magnet with their initial for their super first grade work.

 

 

 

I also left paper for parents to write a note to their child for the next day.  This paper was also from TpT as part of an Open House package.

 

~peace~

Mrs. Dryzal