Character Counts with Dan Wardell

IPTV Kids Club celebrity Dan Wardell visited SLES today to kick off our Character Counts initiative. Dan is a dynamic storyteller to involve and excite all 850 of our little tornadoes! Visit his website to learn more about Dan.

Thanks for coming to SLES Dan! We hope to see you in Storm Lake again soon!

http://blogs.iptv.org/blogs/dantastic/

Water Treatment Plant

Waste Water Plant

This is the lab where the workers "do" great science. They test the cleanliness to make sure it is ready for the lagoon.

This is the clean water, ready to go to the lagoon. The kids are looking through a grate to see the flow.

Everyone walked the catwalk. The kids were amazed at the color of this water in comparison to the clean coming out the other end.

P.I.E. Field Trip

What a beautiful day to be outdoors. Our P.I.E. friends planned a wonderful tour of the water treatment plant (3 million gallons pumped out each day!) and the waste water plant. We watched how Storm Lake's water is cleaned and ready to flow from our faucets. We also saw how bacteria is used to clean our waste water from our homes. The kids were amazed at how it starts off brown (eeew gross!) and changes to such beautiful clear water ready to hit the lagoon and head down Outlet Creek.

Symbaloo

The following link is our new classroom symbaloo site. It contains sites that we use in the classroom daily and great educational links for home use.

http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/langnermixture

Are you following?

I am hoping to increase our following this week! Consider this a race. The first 4 parents that respond to a blog entry, your child will receive a surprise at school. I will check the blog each morning! Your kids are aware of the "race" I am sure you will be encouraged!! You will need a google account in order to respond and become a follower.

To get started:

1. Go to www.google.com

2.Click on Gmail on the toolbar at the top of the page

3. Set up a new account!

Tornado Fans In the Stands

Little tornadoes gathered together last Friday, so proud to be greeting the Tornado cheerleaders and varsity football players. Cheers! Dancing! Hollering! Our Tornadoes may not have won their game, but they are winners in our eyes. What kind kids to come and spend time and model great behavior for our little ones. Three of the current cheerleaders are former students of mine. A shout out to YOU girls!! What amazing people you have grown up to be. I am proud of you!

Something Smells Fishy

Today students recieved arm bracelets labeled with their cooperative group job. Each child played an active role in the set-up of their science experiment. Children have watched the teachers sneak in and out of the book room...wondering....What's in there? What's that smell? What will our new pet be?

The following pictures show you step by step how kids set up their experiments within small groups. They were so careful and proud to each recieve their own goldfish.

After cooperatively setting up their tanks, students worked alone to write observations about their goldfish and draw a detailed pictures showing body parts. They are creating fantastic science journals they will be so proud to share at confernces with their family.

Button Up!

Math skills worked on today: estimation, counting, grouping, sorting. Do you have extra buttons at home you would be willing to donate to our classroom?

Be A Reader!

The following links will take you to great storytelling and books to read online. A great way to support your child's reading at home!

Storyline Online-My favorite! Streaming video of famous actors reading well-know children's books

http://www.storylineonline.net/

Online storytime at Barnes and Noble. Check back for new books often!

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/storytime/index.asp

PBS kids-Games, stories, videos!

http://pbskids.org/

Magic Keys-children's storybooks online

http://www.magickeys.com/books/

Big Universe Learning-Amazing nonfiction literature for children

http://www.biguniverse.com/

Science

These 3 items will be used in science class this week.
What do you think we will be learning about?
What will the needs of our project be?
What questions do you have after seeing these items?
When you touch these items how will they feel?

Small Group Reading

Small group reading time is 10:45-11:45 daily. We have 2 groups running in our classroom. One group is working on word patterns, writing and fluency, the other is having guided reading.

Game Show

We have had a great day! Math class found us reviewing the 200 chart. Moving by 1's and 10's was our focus. Students enjoyed art and p.e. for specials. All classes have started small group reading instruction. There are 9 different teachers students are seeing! Lunch was yummy....salads & fried chicken. It was a beautiful afternoon for recess. To end our day Miss Schmidt had an exciting game of Jepardy to review our study on communities. Whew! Your children should be tired tonight!

Happy Feet the penguin begins swim home

Check this out....

I rediscovered this website this morning. Great math practice. Enjoy!

www.ixl.com

We Built This City!

Our cities contain neighborhoods and businesses that provide goods and services.

Interviewing a Professional

This week our students had the opportunity to interview a professional that provides services to a community. They used resources available on http://www.scholastic.com/. They learned about goods and services provided to a community by many different jobs.