The Week of March 29, 2010

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I AM SO SORRY THAT WE MISSED A WEEK OF POSTING, BUT MY CAMERA WAS NOT UPLOADING PICTURES AND I HAD TO GET A NEW CARD. WE ARE BACK IN BUSINESS NOW AND HOPEFULLY WE WILL HAVE WEEKLY PICTURES FROM NOW UNTIL THE END OF THE YEAR. WE HAVE BEEN LEARNING A LOT ABOUT PRESCRIPTIONS AND NON PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS. THE CLASS HAS GONE OVER THE LEARNING TO READ THE CAUTION LABELS FOR PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS. WE HAVE HAD NUMEROUS DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE DANGERS OF NOT FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS WHEN TAKING ANY KIND OF MEDICATION.

THE CLASS HAS BEEN WORKING HARD WITH THE WEEKLY VOLUNTEERS THAT COME IN FOR ART FROM MRS. CASIO'S CLASS. WE RECENTLY MADE NAME MURALS AFTER DOING TRACINGS FROM THE OVERHEAD AND THEN FILLING IN WITH PICTURES THAT WERE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE STUDENT'S PERSONALITY. THIS PAST WEEK THE CLASS MADE BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLIES AND THEN DECORATED THEM WITH COLORS GATHERED FROM OUR CLASS COLLAGE OF COLORS. THE ART PROJECT SUPPORTED OUR SCIENCE LESSON ON THE LIFE CYCLE OF THE BUTTERFLY.

WE HAD A REAL TREAT WHEN WE GOT TO GO TO THE DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLE AND GET PHOTO (GOVERNMENT
ISSUED IDENTIFICATION CARDS. AFTER THE TRIP TO GET OUR ID CARDS WE WENT TO LUNCH AT THE LOCAL PIZZA HUT. EVERYONE ENJOYED GETTING TO EXPERIENCE THE BUFFET. THE CLASS DID AN AWESOME JOB AND EVEN WORKED THE SELF SERVE DRINK MACHINE.

WE DYED EGGS NEAR THE END OF THE WEEK AND EVEN HAD A RECIPE FOR MAKING NESTS. THE CHOCOLATE NESTS THAT WE MADE WHERE A HIT WITH THE OFFICE WORKERS. (WE MADE DELIVERIES AND SHARED OUR FINISHED PRODUCT)

ONE OF OUR STUDENT HELPERS, TINA, WAS IN A CHIOR CONCERT ON THURSDAY DURING BREAK. WE GOT TO GO TO THE CONCERT AND ENJOYED IT SO MUCH.

WE HOPE THAT EVERYONE HAD A GREAT EASTER BREAK111

The Week of March 1, 2010

This was an exciting week in B8. We were introduced to the importance of the 911 phone call. Everyone in the class was given a scenario and then given a chance to decide if they should call 911 or not. We used a real phone and all loved showing the skill of dialing the correct number for emergency help. During Health this week the class was also introduced to the Hiemlick Maneuver and given chances to practice it. We had a special treat on Friday when Mrs. Ashworth, a nurse from the County Office, came to do a demonstration with our class. She brought a "dummy" for each member of the class to practice with. The class also got briefed on how to do CPR.

This week we were also able to compete and hang the March mobiles that Mrs. Casio's Art Class have been helping us make. Now that they are finished we decided to hang them throughout the classroom. We now have Lions and Kites everywhere you look.

This week in cooking we learned a little bit about frying as we made sausage and waffles. Everyone was impressed at how perfect the waffles turned out. Our classroom smelled just like a fine Diner and the breakfast was awesome!!!

WE had awesome pictures and I do not know why they would not import!!!! Let's hope we get it straight by next post.

The week of February 15th

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This week was a fun week in B6. We had fun on Presidents' Day discussing several of the past Presidents of our country. The students enjoyed a Power Point presentation about Lincoln and Washington. We located the Capital and saw a file on the White House. In health this week we worked with the nutrition labels and were able to search for the sugar content in items that we selected from the store. One of the math groups is currently working on learning the meaning behind multiple buying and how to figure the price. The other math group is working on Numeral symbol representation as well as using worksheets that show the missing number. The class also had fun competing with the name it game this week. This is a game that will reinforce identification of coins and the values. The class loved playing it and the retention of skills previously mastered was present. In Science we had a powerpoint presentation on Clouds. The students were shown slides and we discussed the type and labeled the group of clouds. The art class came down to the room and worked with us on making Olympic Torches. Needless to say these were a hit! We are so fortunate to have Mrs. Casio's class come to our room and help us during art.

Lifeskills involved cleaning the room and practicing table setting as well as mopping. We are working with the folding of towels and hope to be able to increase everyone's neatness on this skill. The best thing that we did this week in Life Skills involved cooking. The students were so interested in the Egg in a Mug recipe. Everyone made their own egg and there was a lot of talk about making these at home. I sure hope that this skill is reviewed at home so that it will be easier for the students.

Remember that next Friday we wil be going to the special olympics!!! We have been keeping up with the winter games and everyone is excited about this

Week of February 8, 2010

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We had a fun filed week again this week. Everyone is working so hard during journal time. Students are aware of the special thing that they are to strive to improve on as they copy the journal each day. At wrap up time we review the daily journal and look to see if we met our goals. We are working on our weather unit for the remainder of this week. We have studied climate and worked at reading maps from various internet sites and from the newspaper. We all understand how changes in weather can change our plans. Everyone saw how first hand weather can make us miss school. With such a short week we did spelling lists based on our dolch list. Each student has their own Dolch Book for nightly review. Practice of these words nightly will help with mastery. We were able to celebrate the birthday of Jessica this week. Jessica turned 18 years old this week and we celebrated with chocolate iced cupcakes. Gym time this week has focused on the class getting prepared for the Basketball Olympics that will take place next week. Class members are working to improve all three areas: dribble, free throw, and passing. During life skills we have worked with folding, and hanging clothes. The class is doing a fantastic job of sorting laundry and measuring detergent correctly.

February 1, 2010

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This has been a busy week in B8. We have worked on reading the nutritional labels from various cans and boxes that we selected from our mock grocery. This is a new skill so we will be working on it for a bit longer. I was however pleased at the way that the students were reading the price of various grocery products. We also practiced restocking items once we had read the labels. We concentrated on discussions about serving sizes and also worked with measurements. This week we began making Valentines in art class utilizing some therapeutic movements that involved rolling tissue paper and then using the wrap to glue the tissue to the valentine. We also had a surprise visit by Mrs. Casio's art class later in the week. Several of her students worked one on one with the community based class in the creation of Valentines for friends.
We studied Emotions and learned how to read various expressions that people use to let us know what they are thinking. The class worked in pairs as they selected pictures from magazines that showed the expression their group was assigned. The class then glued the pictures into categories on a huge poster to hang in our class,
During our cooking class this week everyone worked on setting the microwave to 30 seconds in order to melt chocolate used in the delicious Strawberry Fudge that we made. We hope to share the fudge with teachers on our hall as a Valentine Treat. The class also had a discussion about the benefits of using plastic utensils rather than glass. We worked at measuring and reading fractional cup measurements.
One group did a reading story this week about beginning blends in words such as (sm, sp, sk, sl) The group loved reading the new story about Dee and her Skates. The other group is finishing the Book Call of the Wild.
The Civitans will be selling Cookie Bags during lunch next week with the sales benefiting St. Jude. This is a monthly community involvement project. Members of the class will work making change and counting money as they work shifts to help in the selling of this product next week during lunch.

January 19,2010

This was a fun week! We are experiencing problems with uploading pictures this week! I sure hope this gets fixed soon. Believe me I am working on figuring this out. In the area of Daily Living Skills we vacuumed our living area and discussed how to use the drapery attachment for cleaning. We worked with the Pledge for cleaning and did a review sheet over identification of cleaning products. We worked on setting the microwave by making chocolate mug coffee cakes. The class loved these and we are getting better at setting time on the microwave. Everyone did an excellent job this week on sorting clothes into piles of light and dark. Our next skill is hanging items correctly on hangers. The class is learning to hang items and then button the second button. Science was a very visual experience using the overhead and various computer sites. We worked on identification of various weather words used with the Commercial Appeal weather map. We will be so ready to see snow if it ever appears on our forecast again.

Friday was a different day in B-8. Mrs. Fields had to attend a meeting at the county office and Mrs. Hill was out due to her husband having surgery. The class went on as usual with a substitute armed with 3 typed pages of notes. The class did lots of fun activities focused on the fact that we have now been in school for 100 days. Students brought in items to count and worksheets to review writing to 100 were also used.

Do not forget that we have an exciting trip to DeSoto Industries planned for this Thursday.

The week of January 12, 2010

We had a great week back after a much needed break. I must admit that the first two days of our return involved getting everyone back into the routine. It is amazing to me how much slower the class runs when we are not running on our very timely schedule. I am thankful to say that by Friday the class was running as smoothly as it did prior to the break. That being said... we had some fun times this week. We decided in keeping with the snow theme that is everywhere in our room, that our art activity this week would involve snow. The students took coffee filters and made their own unique snow flakes and then did an interest inventory to post by the snowflake on the new bulletin board. If any of you come into the building be sure to come by our class and check it out. We had a fun science lesson this week involving us using the Commercial Appeal site and the projector. The objective was to familiarize the students with symbols that are used to represent various weather conditions. The students enjoyed working with the projector but we need to work a little more in this area. I can't wait until the students can locate their state on the map! On Thursday we did our usual cooking lesson to incorporate measurement. The focus was on measurement of liquids in the units of 3/4. We also reviewed the food groups and talked about the category of pasta. The class was able to recall six different types of noodles! One of the stories that we read as a group was about the importance of recycling. The class was very attentive and did okay with (5w questions.) In the area of math we have several concepts being worked on: one of the groups is working with time and the concept of adding and subtracting, another is working on simple word problems that involve adding or subtracting. There is another group that is working on symbol number correspondence. All the spelling groups did okay but due to the short week which will be followed by another short week, I am going to use the same words and pull in a couple of previously taught words. Friday we had a blast as we attended a school wide Pep Rally.

Our big news is that on the 28th we will be traveling to Hernando to tour Desoto Industries as well as the Haven Home. I am excited about this opportunity to show my class a group home environment. Thank you for returning the permission forms in such a timely manner.