Thankful Celebration

We had a lot to be thankful for in the Seal Class. Each student wrote about their friends and what they did that made our class so special.  We shared these at our feast.  We even had a toast!

"I would like to make a toast"

What we want to be when we grow up.....

a doctor

a pastry chef

a librarian 

an astronaut

a veterinarian

a scientist

and Celtics team mates.

Thank you Mr. Rocha for being our mystery reader!

Newsletter November 16

We have been so excited about the Seal Class Musical!  Everyone has their parts and some costume ideas.  If you have any questions regarding your child's costume, please let me know. 
We are also looking for any child sized tool belts that we could borrow.  Thank you!


A copy of your child's report card will be coming home in their folder.  There are no grades for the first quarter.

We are learning about:

• author's craft and how to use it as a model for our own writing
• h pals (ch, ph, sh, and th)
• frames and arrows   
• retelling                                                                         

                       

Some activities we did:

• made symmetrical turkeys
• played Scoot with coins 
• learned how to connect with the characters in our books
• began writing across many pages in writer's workshop to make our own books

Thank you in advance for all of the Thanksgiving donations.  I am sure the class will enjoy our "feast".

Upcoming Events:

November 21-23  No School   Thanksgiving recess
November 29        Martha Speaks  Portsmouth Music Hall
December 4          2:00  This Old Gingerbread House  performance for SMS students cafe
December 5          6:30  This Old Gingerbread House performance for families and friends  cafe

Volunteer schedule:
Monday       November 19   Erin Pompeo
Monday       November 26   Chris West
Wednesday  November  28   Claire Ellis and Elisa Barney

Friday          November 30   Kelly Lord (9-10)

The Seal Class is blogging!

We have exciting news... we have officially become bloggers!
Come read all of our adventures as we post throughout the year.

Blogging allows students to publish their work for an authentic audience.

Furthermore, students can explore other Kidblogs and respond with comments or questions. An important thing parents should know about our Kidblog site is that it is totally moderated by me. No post or comment will show up on the site unless I have personally previewed and approved it. An equally important thing for parents to know is that because of the moderation set up, our Kidblog site is visible to everyone. Our students will have a real worldwide audience, and I am sure that comments will be coming in from everywhere. 

Lastly, the students are well aware of their responsibility and safety on the Internet. I could tell from our discussion they know to never use the Internet without permission. Moreover, the students understand they can only use first names in their posts. Again, I will approve all posts and comments for appropriateness and user safety. 

You can access our Kidblog right from our Seal Class bolg. Follow the link to our favorite sights!

The students are so excited to have their very own place to write and have it be read. Please spread the word about our blog to friends and relatives from across the country. This is an opportunity to connect people from all over the world!

November 9, 2012

It was wonderful to meet with so many of you yesterday at our parent/teacher conference.  I am looking forward to continued sharing next week too.


We are learning about:                                                 

• Veteran's Day
• spiders
• telling time to the half hour
• number bonds
• fact families
• blogging
• the sound short o makes in words like shop, owl and pot
• how to change our voices to match the characters in our books
• our nations' symbols

Some activities we did:

• celebrated Veteran's Day with a whole school morning meeting
• played what time is it?
• created November is.. books
• began practicing for the musical
• wrote persuasive papers to help decide what parts we wanted in the class play 
• began looking at different authors to help us with our writing
• played sight word bingo
• painted bald eagles

Poem of the Week:  This Pretty Spider

Upcoming Events:
November 12  No School Veteran's Day
November 14  Early Release parent/teacher conferences
November 21-23  No School Thanksgiving recess

December 5   This Old Gingerbread House  Musical  6:30 in the SMS cafe

Highlights from the fall festival

Veteran's Day

SMS will celebrate Veteran's Day tomorrow, November 8.
Wear your red, white and blue!

Tomorrow is also an early release for parent/teacher conferences.