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Joanne Clapp

Ms. Clapp 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Clapp like to do lots of things together. One of their favorite past times is to let their students pie them in the face at school functions...Aww..now ain't that cute?

Did you know that November the 5th is Guy Fawkes day? Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night is an annual celebration on the evening of 5 November. It marks the downfall of the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605, in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including the infamous Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliment in London, England. This famous day is celebrated in New Zealand as well as most other Commonwealth nations with the lighting of bonfires and fireworks.

 

 To learn more about New Zealand, click here.

 

 

DAILY FLASH
  
On Monday the 16th of November:  
 
Today we started out the day with our usual writing in the sight word journals. Today we had to write about something or someone we play with. After our journal entry was complete we went down to a special art session with Ms. Primack. We are nearly all caught up with our special project.
Once we had finished our session with Ms. Primack we came back up to the classroom so that we could do our new jobs for the week.
Our class is getting very good at doing the jobs and helping out our peers if they are stuck or if their partner is absent. Of course we still go over the jobs very quickly to make sure the work was done correctly.
Now it was time to go into reading work stations. This is our second to last day with the current independent stations. On Wednesday the independent stations will change as will the teacher with which the regular reading groups work with.
After reading work stations it was time to go to our special class with Ms. Sullivan…yes that is right we had media.
The weather was positively perfect for outdoor recess in PJ’s. In fact it was almost hot! It felt very weird to be playing outside in our pajamas.
The story tin today was “I Know an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Pie.” This was actually a song about a woman who ate too much food at Thanksgiving time. This story is in the reading area now for the students to practice story order.
For math today we learned a new station. At the new station we had to draw four cards from a pile and place them in order from least to greatest amount. Then we had to record our results on a worksheet. The other stations had a numeral writing activity, name comparing, and name ordering. We can tell you what we do there.
After snack we visited our favorite time of the day…centers!
 
On Tuesday the 17th of November:
 
Today we started out writing in our journal stating what we would like to write about. Some of us like to write about dolphins, football, princesses, cats and dogs. We are getting very good at writing and using the word wall to complete our sentences.
After our sentences we went to work doing our jobs. We checked our work and started out the day with math. We worked at our math stations rotating every 15 minutes.
We actually finished early so we read our story In November by Cynthia Rylant. This is a story about the things that generally happen in November. Birds migrate, the trees are bare of leaves, farm animals start to hang out in barns and families get together for Thanksgiving.
We had our special class of music with Ms. Gates.
Once again we were blessed with lovely weather for recess. We are going to make the most of these lovely days while they last. On our way into the classroom we stopped by to look at Pumpkin Jack. He is looking very decomposed; soft, squishy, brownish/orange and black in lots of places. Some of us commented on how the seeds could possibly grow from such a mess. Mrs. Clapp really hopes this long term project works out.
The story tin was a fable about how a little boy did not take his chores seriously. We talked about how colonial children had to do chores to help out their families when the Mayflower first brought the pilgrims over to America.  
Now it was time to write about one thing we are thankful for in our lives. Mrs. Clapp was surprised by some of the things we wrote about…we must really like our new sight words.
Next we worked on some personal projects. Some of us made laptop computers (very creatively out of two sheets of paper), some of us made handprint turkeys, and some of us made rockets.
Snack was full of lively discussion about what people are doing for thanksgiving and also what they think we might be doing on Friday.
Many of us finished in our centers early today and selected to go to the reading area to look at the books and retell story tin stories to our peers. We make great story tellers.  
   

 

On Wednesday the 18th of November:
 
Today we came into school with crazy hair and funky looking clothes. It was interesting watching what would walk through the door next. Ms. Clapp looked very normal today (she has a kindergarten meeting right after school) so she was boring.
We wrote in our journals about things that we saw on the way into school. Some of us wrote about seeing trees, the P.E room, cars, and classmates. Ask us what we wrote in our journal.
Jobs went very smoothly; by Wednesday we really have the hang of own job. The survey asked if we were going out of town for Thanksgiving or staying in town. There was even a section for the “I don’t knows.” Most of us are going out of town.
We read/sang the book I Know an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Pie, by Alison Jackson. The pictures were very funny and made us laugh. At the end of the book we discussed about what foods we eat at Thanksgiving and what was eaten at the first Thanksgiving. Then we used environmental print (grocery shopping flyers) to find pictures and words that our old ladies could eat. Then we had reading work stations.
Now it was time for art with Ms. Primack. We finally finished our plate project. It looks really awesome.
Of course after art it was time for lunch and then recess. We made the most of today’s recess since it is supposed to rain tomorrow.
The story tin was not a story tin today. It was a story book…not a regular book. This is the “Book of Jo.” Ask your child to see if he/she can recall the story we read from it today.
After the story we went to math stations to complete the tasks for this unit. Tomorrow we will start the new unit which leads into two dimensional and three dimensional shapes.
Snack was very chatty today…Mrs. Clapp thinks we are getting excited about Friday.
Then we went to free choice centers. This is our last day with these centers. There will be new centers tomorrow.  

PARENTS/GUARDIANS: Ms. Clapp will be gone in the afternoon to attend a science workshop at the Baltimore Zoo.

 

On Friday the 20th of November:
 
The started out like any other regular day with the students happily writing in their sight word journals. Today we wrote about the things we like to do at center time. There was a variety of answers, “play dress-up,” play with the blocks,” play Playmobil,” etc. Ask us what we wrote today.
Then it was time for community gathering. We got to watch two skits about the character trait of the month; responsibility. Then we watched the new safety patrol members get sworn in. Next we had a crab crawl race for school spirit week. It was very loud and crazy with the classes all crawling across the gym relay style.
Now it was time for P.E.
After P.E we came back to the room and the fun began! What a great turn out of families. We did some very cool things. We got to make marbles out of clay, we got to decorate a fabric square for the class quilt, we got to make butter (which we forgot to eat, so we will have it on fresh bread on Monday for snack), we got to make a ball toss game, and finally we got to play marbles.
Once we had a turn at each of the stations we had lunch with our families. A BIG THANK YOU GOES OUT TO ALL THE FAMILIES FOR THE WONDERFUL FOOD! YOU ARE THE BEST!
After lunch we had a chance to run outside on the grass.
When we came back into the classroom we had a special guest. Ms Pam. Is a member of the astronomy society and she talked to us about the stars and planets. She showed us a picture of the constellation Cassiopeia. Then we got to make our own viewing tube of the constellation Cassiopeia. We should have it in our backpack.
Now it was time for snack.
Once we finished snack we packed up and got ready for project electives.
What a busy fun filled day. We should be good and tired.