Busting Bullies

This week and last at the Bridges' Bay, we have been working on our Bully Buster Glog. A Glog is just an online poster where we can showcase students' ideas and work. Check out the poems, songs, and skits that we wrote along with Ms. Sasso's First Grade Class. We are bully busters my friend!

Mrs. Bridges' Class Tries Something New!

We just can't get enough of the Book of the Month!!! We loved Leslie Helakoski's books so much that we paired up with Ms. Correia's First Grade Class to respond to Woolbur. Woolbur is the tale of a unique sheep who tries things that no sheep has every tried before. When asked why, he simply replies, "isn't it great?" and continues on leading the pack in a learning adventure :). We responded to this book by creating alternate endings and then our responses were turned magicially into a book of our own using Issuu.
Isn't it great :)!

Open publication - Free publishing - More group response

Our First Class Poem

Flowers are growing
in the meadow the wind is blowing
Summer will be soon
The eggs are about to hatch
We hunt them in a grassy patch
Summer will be soon
Icicles are melting
From our ceiling
Summer will be soon
Birds are singing
Sticks to their nest they are bringing
Summer will be soon

Our first try at Poetry!

Flowers
by Charisma
Alot of flowers are blowing
alot of beautiful flowers are growing too
I love flowers that the best thing of all
alot of flowers are very beautiful
Alot of flowers are very cute
Spring is come
and so is Easter
Eggs
by Katie
Eggs are hatching in the Spring
To be a pet and love to sing
the Chicks are here
Rockstar
by Javon
Tuesday, Tuesday
I play my guitar
I am a super rockstar
Saturday, Saturday
I play my drums
I use my thumbs
Winter
by Brenda
Winter is almost coming
we can build a snowman
polar bears are outside
they take care of their babies
the mommy will get some food
she has to feed the babies
they are cute when they are little
Eggs
by Trevor
Eggs are hatching
to make more chickens
which are apart of
nature
Cooking
by Chris
my mom cooks chicken soup
and carrot soup
and beef soup
when I am sick
she takes care of me

P is for Poetry

We have begun our poetry unit here at the Bridges' Bay and what a beginning we have had! Last week, when we met with our First Grade Reading buddies, they taught us how to write an acrostic poem. They even created one for each of our students. We learned that poems don't always have to rhyme and use lots of describing words called, "adjectives". Stay tuned for more work from this unit!

Kindergarten Has Gone Green!

Last week, we celebrated on Earth Day by each student planting their own seeds. Through class discussion, we decided what our plants would need to grow. Some of us decided to place ours by the windowsill and others around the room. We all decided that water was necessary, since we learned this with our "magic seeds". We will continue to watch and see if and what our seeds will grow into. Some of us may need to change what we decided would be the best growing condition, so can all be green! We are helping the Earth one plant at a time :).

Awesome Assemblies

Over the last two weeks, we have had some incredible assemblies at our school. Two weeks ago, we were introduced to Leslie Helakoski. The author of March and April's Book of the Month. We were so excited when she read them both to us!
Last week, was Arts Extravaganza and we were amazed by Barry the Magician, Fletcher Middle School's Band,an awesome violinist, and much more! Check out some of our memories from these events :).

Welcome Leslie Helakoski!

On Friday, we will have a very special author visit our school, Leslie Helakoski. She wrote our March Book of the Month, "Big Chickens". In honor of this exciting visit every class was asked to respond to her book, "Big Chickens". Each of our students shared what this book reminded them of.

Getting Ready for First Grade with First Grade Reading Partners!

Are you ready for First Grade? We are getting closer each day. On Tuesdays at the Bridges' Bay, we pair up and read! This week, we continued this ritual with a new twist, a partner from Ms. Sasso's First Grade Class. We took turns with our partner with a shared reading and gathered back to share on the carpet. We are excited to start this new tradition in these last few weeks of school.

Chets Back in Texas!

Over Spring Break, Chet hit the trail back to San Antonio, Texas with C's family and what a great time he had!

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On an Egg Hunt

Last Thursday, we started off our Spring Holiday Weekend with eggs galore! Thank to all the parents that sent in extra eggs, they made our hunt eggxtra great!
We talked about traditions that we might have during this season. Some families dye eyes and hunt for them and others hunt candy filled eggs! We did both :). We dyed eggs and hunted for the candy. We made our bunny bags to help us get ready to hunt.

Exploring at the Zoo

Whew, what a great week we had! Last week, we enjoyed the cool weather as we journeyed through the Jacksonville Zoo. The animals were lively and exciting to watch. We didn't bring good old Chet this time, but we did have some very special travelers with us! Thank you to all the family members that came with us! It was so special to share this trip with you :). We had a great time exploring the zoo, eating our lunches, getting to use our five senses to observe animals up close, and journey home. This field trip was a great way to begin the season and build our schema for living things. We just have to use our senses and we can learn alot!

Eric Carle Interview

Even though we have said goodbye to Eric Carle, his books are still among our favorites. Here is an interview with Eric Carle discussing the 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Our class entered a coloring contest a few weeks ago celebrating this anniversary!
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Hello Pattern Books

As we end our Eric Carle Unit, we keep with us some of his books as mentor texts for a new unit, Pattern Books. We have seen before that books have patterns in them. We noticed this when we read the book, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?". We noticed that there was a question and an answer pattern. We also noticed with our own books in our bags that we had "question and answers" too! Ask your student about what kinds of patterns they have found in the Eric Carle's books as well as their own book-in-a-bag! We will be writing our very own pattern books this week and as we return from Spring Break. Check out our "published work" outside of our classroom and inside!

Goodbye Eric Carle!

We have had so much fun studying Eric Carle!

Responding,Retelling, and Celebrating all of his great books.

Check out our Celebration Day!

Over the River and to the Hospital We Go!

Today, our class visited Wolfson Children's Hospital. We were graciously escorted to see the sign-in desk, Roxy the pharmacist's robot, the Kid's Care Van, and the emergency helicopter. Our students learned safety tips from the staff as well as the procedures that would be taken if they had to visit the hospital. We all came away having learned something new about hospitals, what to do in an emergency, and staying happy and healthy! Many of us said our favorite part was seeing the Kid Care Van (kids' ambulance). Who could blame them, we got to see inside this van and take a picture with the crew!

A Bit of St. Patty's Day Fun

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We be catching some wee leprechauns this week at the Bridges Bay. Our traps in hand, we be the finest leprechaun catchers in the land! Our celebration day was full of leprechaun fun. We set out our traps in hopes to catch us a leprechaun or two. We kept getting notes from Lenny and Lisa Leprechaun. Our PE coaches even warned us that they had seen them planning to trick our class! As we kept an eye out, we sang leprechaun songs, made leprechaun puppets for Reader's Theater, wrote notes to Lenny and Lisa, sorted and graphed Lucky Charms, and even got some fresh air with a Compound Word Clover game outside! At lunch, those tricky leprechauns had tripped our traps and trashed our room! They were kind enough to leave us some gold :). Check out this slide show from our celebration day :0).

Reader's Response

In Reader's Workshop, we have been learning about the different ways to respond to text. We have learned that we can tell our favorite part and why, explain what the book reminded us of and why (text-to-self connection), give our opinion of the book, and/or explain how a book reminds us of another book (text-to-text connection). The following is a video clip of student responses made during Individual Reading Time. The students would then use these responses to further respond during Writer's Workshop. Stay tuned for more work from this unit!

Chet Knows How to Take a Vacation!

Where has Chet been lately? Try North Carolina on a ski trip with L's family.
How fun was that? VERY COOL! Over President's Day weekend, Chet had the opportunity to check out the snow at Sugar Mountain. What better place than Sugar Mountain to learn how ski! Mrs. Bridges' husband learned how to ski on that very mountain. I bet Chet had a blast and good thing that he has his fur to keep him nice and warm.
Chets' next stop will be back to Texas for Spring Break! Check out the pictures of Chets trip to Sugar Mountain below:

Is 50th Good Enough?

The right action of all of us is made up of the right action of each one of us. Unless each of us is determined to meet the duty that comes to us, we can have no right to expect that others will meet the duties that come to them.? ~ Calvin Coolidge

No one can deny that we are living in trying times. All around the country, our friends, relatives and acquaintances are suffering. On Monday, your friend was laid off. Last Friday, you heard about your relatives living without power and water as their homes are buried in ice. Two weeks ago, your neighbor left with his unit for a tour in Iraq. Your spouse is worried about their job security. Discount stores are advertising entire store clearance sales. We are all hurting in some way. If we are not yet hurting, we are just waiting for it to trickle down to our house, our job, our bank account. We know it is coming.

Your child?s school is not immune.

Duval County expects to suffer from a $150 million budget deficit for the 2009-2010 academic year. All the facts tell us there is NO WAY to ?trim the fat? and balance this budget crisis without affecting the classroom. In short, your child's school will suffer.

Guidance and Media services could be reduced!
Valuable resources like Art, Music and PE may be cut!
Essential supplies and materials could disappear altogether!

It is important to understand that this problem, this CRISIS, is not limited to Duval County alone. This fiscal crisis is statewide. The state of Florida was ranked 47th out of 50 states in tax revenue prior to the passing of Amendment One, which served to further reduce our state taxes. Regarding the total amount of funds allocated and spent on education, the state of Florida is ranked 50th in the nation. I ask you, does this represent your priorities? I doubt it.

Article IX, Section I of the Florida Constitution guarantees that:

"The education of children is a fundamental value of the people of the State of Florida."

"It is, therefore, a paramount duty of the state to make adequate provision for ? a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education ?."

Are our legislators upholding the requirements of our state constitution?

As voters, we share a heavy burden. It is our responsibility to educate ourselves with accurate facts. It is our responsibility to make our voices heard. It is our responsibility to act.
It is our responsibility to advocate for our children. It is our responsibility to fight for their rights, for today and for their future. If not us, then who? If we do not meet our duties, we cannot expect others to meet theirs.

I urge you. Educate yourselves. Research the facts. Go to the source. Ask questions. Speak out. Make demands. Do not accept it as fact because others believe it to be true.

Ask yourself, is 50th good enough for your child?

If the answer is NO - contact our state's legislative delegation and ask for immediate help from one of these short term solutions:

1. One cent increase to the sales tax of Florida for just 3 years. It generates ten billion dollars over 3 years to plug the education funding cuts!

2. Please give flexibility to the school districts in the areas of categoricals, (SAI, Class Size, Instruction Materials, Reading, Safe Schools).

3. Please suspend unfunded mandates on the districts. (Examples: Transportation, Testing & Curriculum Requirements, Safety Nets, and Staffing Requirements.)

4. Please give flexibility of capital funds?so they can be used for General Revenue.

Ask them to find long term solutions to the critical funding situation in Florida and urge them to make public education a priority so that even our children's children can benefit from a right guaranteed them by our state constitution!

Have You Seen My Cat? (Eric Carle) A World-Wide Journey

Have you ever wondered how long it took the little boy in the story, "Have You Seen My Cat?" to find his cat? Well, we did! We pretended that the boy started his journey and ended it in Jacksonville, Florida. He started his journey at the Jacksonville Zoo where he only found a lion and ended right back where he started searching. In the meantime, he found a Bobcat in Mexico, a Puma, Jaguar, and Panther in South America, a Cheetah in Africa, a Tiger in India, and a Persian Cat in Persia (modern day Iran). Below is a sample of the map that we used to follow his journey.

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Introducing Eric Carle!

This week, we began an Author Study of Eric Carle. Eric Carle has written or illustrated over 70 children's books. His most famous, "The Hungry Caterpillar" has sold over 29 million copies worldwide! Eric Carle is most famous for his illustrations done with a special collage technique. Truly, Eric Carle is one of the most beloved Children's authors!

To begin our work as readers in this study, we have begun to record our responses to Eric Carle's books in a Reader's Response Notebook. Your student has learned that there are many ways to respond to an author's work. The can re-tell the main events of a story, give their opinion and explain why (even if they do not like the work :), and/or recommend the book to others. The following is a piece written by a student, giving her opinion about the Book, "Have You Seen My Cat?".

In weeks to come, we will connect moments in the text to moments in our own lives, events in other books, or in the world. Stay tuned for more student work from our study of Eric Carle!

Magic E/ Bossy E Video :

Bossy Bossy E

This week in Skills Block, we have focused on words that follow the Silent E or Bossy E rule. We know that when silent or bossy e is on the end of the word such as "lake", the vowel "a" will say it's name. That bossy e on the end of the word will make the other vowel say it's name. A great resource for practicing this rule is found at Starfall.com and can be accessed by following this link: http://www.starfall.com/n/skills/silent-e/load.htm?f.There are also many other great resources on the main "Learning to Read" page: http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/load.htm?f

Reading from Around the World

Reading is a daily adventure here at the Bridges Bay. As you are reading with your student at home there are many online resources that you can use to support your student's journey. Just today, I found a great link that will expand our horizons as online readers. Check out the International Children's Digital Library at http://en.childrenslibrary.org/. This website contains free online books from all over the world and in many languages (many of which are bilingual). If you find a great one that you think we should share with our class, please let me know!

February Book of the Month

February's Book of the Month has warmed the hearts of teachers and students here at Chets Creek. "The Impossible Patriotism Project" reminds us to thank those that make sacrifices for our country everyday. Our class has responded to this book by first sending a postcard to our troops through http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1280.html. Anyone is welcome to select a student made postcard through this website and send it via the web to our troops as a thank you :).
Each of our students at the Bridges Bay have also created their own postcards which we hope to send to one of our faculty member's family member in the service.
Included are samples of our students' work. It is always so important to say, "Thank you"!

V is for Valentine

What a great day we had last Friday! We were joined by Mrs. C, Mrs. K, Mrs. W and Mrs. G for a morning of Valentine Centers. Thank you to all the parents that donated supplies for our day as well as a big thank you to the parents that ran our Valentines' Day centers. We made Valentine necklaces, cupcakes, books, and cards for our families and we had a great time! Thank you for all the beautiful valentines and gifts that were brought for our students and teachers! We were all hearts at the Bridges Bay :).

Celebrating President's Day!

I hope everyone had a fantastic three day weekend! Last week, our students learned about the importance of a president's job as well as two very important presidents (George Washington and Abraham Lincoln). Students were asked to describe what they would do or what it would be like if they were president. This VoiceThread contains just a few of our students' work.

Hurray, Hurray it's the Hundredth Day!

One hundred days of learning fun here at the Bridges Bay and we just couldn't help but celebrate! Each of us has grown by leaps and bounds and we are getting ready for First Grade! We celebrated our 100th Learning Adventure Day by decorating ourselves with 100 things, ribbons, bugs, buttons, pins, and even our school mascott. We counted to 100 in many ways, with our snack, writing numbers, and even collecting groups of ten.
To top it off, we even got to meet Zero the Hero in a special Kindergarten Assembly. He taught us about what it was like 100 years ago, but before he began we all counted to 100 of course!

Dental Health Month

In honor of Dental Health Month, we were visited by three tooth fairies. Well actually, they were dentists and one of them was M's mom! These ladies graciously visited our entire grade level, bringing with them goodie bags filled with toothbrushes, dental floss, and toothpaste. Even our Kindergarten teachers received their very own tools to dental health!

We learned about healthy foods for our teeth, important facts about even the drinks that we consume, and how to brush! Each student got a chance to brush a puppet's very realistic teeth in order to learn first hand the right way to brush.
A big thank you to our own tooth fairies and hurray for Dental Health Month!

P is for Passport

At the Bridges Bay, we are getting our minds, "Ready to Read" with our January book of the Month, "P is for Passport". In Reader's Workshop, we are working on learning tools or strategies to help us become better readers. One of the strategies that we learned was to "Warm Up" our brains before reading. We were to preview the cover of the unfamiliar book we were reading by predicting what we thought the book would be about. We used the pictures on the cover as well as the title.

Students previewed our January Book of the Month, "P is for Passport". They responded by recording what their thoughts were when they looked at its cover.
Students' responses to our Book of the Month can be found in our class library.

Sight Word Centers

Each day at the Bridges Bay, our students complete Morning Work. This usually means practicing our WOW words lists using magnetic letters, writing sentences with colored pencils, or copying these words with dry erase markers and boards. Each student is working on a individualized list. You received an updated copy of your student's list today. Your student should be working five words at a time and should atleast be able to read List Two. Thank you to all of the parent(s) that are working with their students at home with our WOW words making match games, flashcards, and more!