Crush Cancer Updates!

WOW! What an amazing Roberston Family we have!  We are NOW 1st in ALL of the Frisco teams for Relay for Life Fundraising!!! Here are the totals on our coin drive for Relay to date.

Kinder- 238.91

1st-178.76

2nd-186.63

3rd-114.24

4th-110.44

5th-95.52

GRAND total- 924.46

There is still one more week to donate any loose change that you might have. Our race in our own classroom continues of the Boys vs. Girls! Which team is going to be the winner of our secret prize??

Beetle!!!!

So as I was cleaning the room last week, I checked in our meal worms. I was determined we had lost all of them, but low and behold as I was about to dispose of them, this guy came crawling out :-) We had one beetle survive and the kids loved checking him out :-)

Let's Crush Cancer!

Let's CRUSH cancer!!!

Team Robertson Rocks is READY to CRUSH Cancer!

WHEN: Monday, February 27th- Friday, March 9th

Starting today at morning drop off and dismissal or change can be sent in with your child.

WHO: Robertson Families and Teachers

WHY: To get our Robertson Families and teachers involved in the  COIN DRIVE

for the American Cancer Society  (Frisco Relay for Life)

HOW: Teachers will be holding CRUSH bottle's in the car lanes to make it easy for you to donate.

Your child can also bring money with them to school.

There will also be a bottle in the office.

THANK YOU, thank you, thank you!

With out your help this isn't possible-

We love to have you join our team!

Go to the link below and sign up as a participant with no FEE (it's already been paid).

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?team_id=1011777&pg=team&fr_id=40801&fl=en_US&et=4mXtFshLpOOpgEwaazrp-w&s_tafId=867477

Technology at Work

Today we took some time to work on the Mac Books to type up our information about our Biographies. It was a peaceful and fun time for everyone.

Mealworm Transformations

We didn't have many mealworms to start with, but last week we still had two. One of them is still in the larvae stage and the other is in the pupa stage. Ask your child if they can show you which in is which.

I'll be honest, the thought of having a beetle in the room kind of scares me (not a big fan of critters).

Visualization and Actions

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

The kids are all reading a play this week for guided reading. Each student has a part in one of four plays. We are encouraging the kids to not just stand up and recite their lines, but to create ACTION with their words in the story. I think they got a pretty good laugh when I was trying to do some demonstrations of acting out one of the plays.

So enjoy the plays as a family at home, get brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandma and grandpa, cousins, etc. involved. Create your own family plays and enjoy being a different character from a story. I am really looking forward to seeing all of the kids perform their plays on Friday. Today they did a great job of writing down some actions they should see themselves doing, and I hope they come home as excited. I did tell them they could create props or costumes if they wanted to. Nothing over the top, something simple, and fun to portray their characters.

The most important part.....HAVE FUN!

Reading Highlights

We had a very busy but a fun time last week. The kids are all getting back into the swing of things after our winter break. We were able to laugh, have fun, learn, and be serious at times.

This week in reading we had a good teaching moment, as we were reading the story "Junkyard Wonders" by Patricia Polacco. I was able to see the kids minds open up, and envision the message that it had hidden inside. The story is about the author and her life and being in a classroom that other kids called the "Junkyard" because they were different. The story reminds us that although we are all different and go through different journeys in life we are still all unique and wonderful in our own ways. It was a great story on teaching us about self confidence and believing in yourself. One part of the story has one of the characters pass away, and it was an awe striking moment for me as a teacher to quickly see the kids emotions and understand the depth of the story. They had lots of questions, but were able to relate it back to the life cycle and understanding about different diseases and such that may cause one person's life to go more quickly than another. The story ends on a very wonderful note and helps encourage the students to push their limits and never give up, even if someone says differently.

Throughout the story we were working on the skill of visualizing as well. If you have a chance, read a story to your child without showing them the pictures, and ask them to describe or draw what they are seeing in their minds. This helps them to become better readers and become even better chapter book readers as they continue to grow into longer and larger books. We have had fun making pictures and visualizing what we are seeing when we hear things. This week we will continue this skill as well, and continue discussing the importance.

Here is a quick review of some of our reading highlights this year (things the kids should be able to describe to you, if you ask them).
~ Summary (B,M,E Charts)
~ Questioning (B,D,A Chart)
~ Visualizing - (mental picture)
~ Inference (what we THINK will come next, happen, or what isn't being told in the text, but you understand on your own.)
~ Prediction (what you think is going to happen, and then the story telling you in the text or pictures)