It's been too long.. IM BACK!

I know, I know.. it has been quite a while since I have posted.  I have just been so busy with the kids that when I get home, I am exhausted.  Well, I'm back and will begin to update more frequently.  Here is what has been going on in the Zakar's.

Last Friday, we celebrated the 100th day of school.  YIPPEE!!! All the kids had to bring in a collection of 100 things and sort them by 5's, 2's, or 10's.  As I am sure you can guess, most of them sorted by 10's.  We talked about why so many kids decided to do it this way and we came to the conclusion that sorting by 10's and counting by 10's is the fastest way.  I wish I had pictures to show all of the great 100's day clothing that came in, but of course, I forgot my camera on this day!  So, I will explain some of the great ideas.  I had one friend with 100 angry birds made of red pompoms glued on his shirt.  Another friend had 100 googly eyes, and a bunch of the kids wrote their numbers up to 100 on their t-shirt.  I have to say, my 100's day piece of clothing was awesome.  Since we have done a lot of talking about juicy words in school, I decided to write 100 Juicy Words That Describe My Students. I used some awesome words, and they were not all positive.  How could I leave out IMPULSIVE, ROWDY, LOUD, RAMBUNCTIOUS, SILLY? What do you think? Creative?

During the day we had some hundred day activities that the kids could choose from.  Some chose to write 100 words they know how to spell and some wrote a 100's Day Newspaper Article.  All in all it was a fabulous day.

This week, we talked about how we are 101 days smarter.  We even did a brain check to see how big they have gotten.  All the kids agreed their brains have grown a ton!  Reader's Theater is a fantastic way to practice fluency and I know from last year, my kids LOVE putting on plays.  So right now we are all in a play.  There are 4 plays.  These are the scripts from each play.  Everyone has a part and they have been practicing, practicing, practicing.  They have even designed their own masks and have made some props to use.  We will be putting these plays on within the next week.  I will be video taping these plays and posting it for families to view!  I am sure they will do a fabulous job!

Last week the Secret Math Agents began giving us mini math missions to complete in the morning.  The kids are asked to complete a math problem and then they have to put it in the Math Agents Mailbox.  These math mini missions help keep our brains fresh.  Here are some examples of what they have left us.  Just today we started a brand new unit in math.  This is the first unit in the second half of the math program.  The kids were very excited today as they got their new math journals.  One friend even wanted me to email the agents to thank them for bringing a new journal!