Teacher Scott's Polar Bears: December 2009

Happy New Years!

Happy New Years everyone,
This week we learned about about how many in math class. For example: 34 is about 30, or 58 is about 60. We also practiced counting to 300 by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's. For an added visual aid we put together 300 blocks to see just how long it would be. In reading class we started reading a new story, " Mister Bones-Dinosaur Hunter" in book 4. In science class we red about animals. We learned about what all animals need to survive, and how some animals are the same and how some are different. In grammar class we started studying verbs and reviewed nouns. And finally in art class we made firework paintings for New Years.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year...see everyone next year!

Merry Christmas!

Everyone has been doing a wonderful job this week in the Panda class….

On Monday morning we leaned about greater than, less than, and equals to in math class. This is review for most of the students, so everyone was able to pick it up pretty quickly. In the afternoon we went to the Far Eastern Hotel to see the large Christmas tree and the gingerbread house.

On Tuesday we went to the Taipei Discovery Center. The exhibits weren’t the interesting for the kids, but the movie at the Center was definitely worth the trip. A must see for any tourist visiting Taipei.

On Wednesday morning we reviewed different math concepts in math class (addition, subtraction, greater than, less than, and equal to) In the afternoon we started making Santa decorations in art class.

Thursday morning we watched A Shrek Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas for a little holiday treat…In the afternoon we finished the Santa Clause decorations in art class.

Albert has gotten much better at doing math. He’s able to pay attention more, and has done a very good job improving his addition and subtraction skills.

Kyle enjoyed seeing the Christmas decorations at the Far Eastern Hotel this past Monday.

Estella had trouble this week in math class. She usually does very well as long as she understands the concepts we’re studying; however, if the work is a little to challenging for her, she doesn’t try very hard to figure out how to solve the problem and always asks me to give her the answers…I’m trying very hard to get her to not give up so easily with challenging work, and I hope she can see that it can be very rewarding to figure things out with a little more effort.

Claire made a nice Santa Christmas decoration this week.

Rain has been doing very well with his class work.

I’d like to thank Irvin for the wonderful Christmas present!

Hanna is very thoughtful and helpful of the other students in class. She’s always very eager to offer help!

Devon is doing great…Keep up the good work, Devon!

Hello

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone had an enjoyable time at the Tree House Christmas show. I'm very proud of the amazing job everyone did on Wednesday night. They all worked so hard, and I think their effort was clearly shown!

Now that the Christmas show is out of the way it's back to work...so far this week we practiced reading some old stories from week's past and started writing Christmas stories in writing class. In addition we also made snowmen in art class. For an added bonus we watched UP on Thursday. A few kids were a little frightened ( Estella ) but for the most part everyone had a wonderful time...

Estella has been much better this week about tattle talling. She's been more respectful of her classmates as well.

Kyle did a wonderful job on Wednesday. He used to be so shy on stage.... but he was very brave the other night

Claire is doing great! She's still very slow eating though...

Devon has been doing very well in class. He still needs to improve his reading skills though.

I hope Irvin has a nice vacation this weekend. We missed you this Friday!

Hanna made a great snowman on Friday. She's a very talented, creative girl.

Albert and Rain have been talking a lot in class. I've talked to the two of them many times, but they continue to talk. I hope they can be better next week.

Christmas Show

We have less than one week to go until the 2009 Tree House Christmas Extravaganza! In preparation for next weeks upcoming event we spent more time rehearsing this week. When we weren't singing and dancing, we also found some time to do a little classwork. On Monday we did a Christmas themed addition worksheet for a little math refresher.On Tuesday Estella, Kyle, and I made a Christmas wreath to hang on our classroom door.On Wednesday we re-read a few stories the kids read when I was on vacation, and also watched the cartoon version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. On Thursday we learned about proper nouns in grammar class, and finally on Friday the kids did phonics and practiced writing original sentences without my assistance. I was pleasantly surprised how well they did!
I look forward to seeing everyone next Wednesday!

Claire has been doing very well in class, unfortunately she's been incredibly slow eating lunch this week.

Kyle has been good ( as usual ) His writing is improving, and he was able to write some creative sentences on Friday. He's doing an excellent job. way to go, Kyle!!!

Rain has been very sensetive to the other kids recently. He's cried a few times this week because he was fighting with Albert and/or Devon. The three of them are very close friends but thet are very jealous of each other if one of them isn't getting as much attention as the other two.
We had a long talk the other day, so hopefully things will be better next week.

Irvin has been a little naughty this week. He's been very slow doing his classwork, and he has also developed a bad habit of talking back to me and the other students. I've tried to talk to him about this and I really hope he will stop doing this as soon as possible.

Albert had a fun time watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Estella hasn't been behaving very well recently. She has been very rude and has also been talking back to me as well. She's shown a lot of attitude and will choose to argue and question me over almost anything I ask her to do. She's also been tattle taling on the other kids. I've tried to talk to her about not worrying about other students...hopefully she can behave better next week.

Hanna is doing great! Her handwriting is improving, she's able to read very well, and she has also done very well with her writing.

Devon has been doing well. He still needs to work a little bit harder on writing sentences though.

My trip home....

Hello everyone,
I missed everyone during my vacation....It was nice to go home for Thanksgiving, but ti's also nice to be back. I can't believe I left a little bit after Halloween and it's already time for Christmas! We've been hard at work preparing for this year's Christmas show on December 16th...it's been a fun-filled, jam-packed week of rehearsal, rehearsal, and rehearsal. It's nice to see how much they have all improved in such a short time. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the show!

I'd like to share a few photos from my trip....