A Very, Very Busy Day!

Hi Folks! My favorite celebration day so far has been the doctor day. I was surprised when I got to school, because it looked like a real doctor's office. There was a real diploma, saying that I was a doctor, and there was a waiting room with magazines and music.

The best part was getting the charts and schedules ready. We had 8 patients lined up.
Nurse Penny helped me measure the patients because I wasn't tall enough.
Daci and Sarah were my favorite patients, because they actually didn't wiggle as much as the adults did.
I checked ears, heartbeats, eyes, blood pressure, and a lot of other things. Almost everyone had their left ear infected. That was not a problem because I had medicine to give them. (But it was actually treats!)

It was a very, very busy day. I hope we can do doctor day again!

By: Allison Story

What We Do, We Remember

Allie was excited to learn in her morning message that she would be writing a friendly letter, and actually putting a stamp on it and mailing it! She decided to write to her Grandma Wrey and tell her what she has learned about the fascinating "paper wasps."

One day last fall, while exploring Fairy Woods with Allie, she found a paper wasp's nest. We did some research and found that the paper wasp chews bits of wood off old fence rails or fallen trees. She bites the wood chips into tiny pieces to make paper. The wasp uses this paper to build the nest. She may build her nest under a bridge, on the edge of a building, or on the wood that she used to make the paper. We were excited to find the very fence rail that the nest came from! Allie remembered all of this information clear from last fall, and wrote a very informative, and friendly, letter to her grandma. I may not be quoting this perfectly, but I believe Maria Montessori said, "What we hear, we forget, what we do, we remember." I couldn't agree more.
Today Allie learned the 5 parts of a friendly letter: 1)Date 2)Greeting 3)Message 4)Closing 5)Your Name. She also learned how to properly address an envelope.
With a lick of a stamp, and a trip to the mailbox, the letter was on its way.

Penny Roberts

Friday February 12th, Celebration

Today Allie was the teacher, which made me the student. Allie's Morning Message said that it was Fun Friday.
After about 15 sheets of math, several spelling tests, and multiple trips to the principal's office, I wasn't convinced about the fun part!

The best part about being the student, was listening to Miss Allie read stories to me with great enthusiasm. Hmmmm.....how many sheets of math should I give her on Tuesday? Any suggestions?

Penny Roberts

Allie's Spelling Program

The first thing Allie does when she gets a new spelling list is spell the words on the board with letter magnets. I tell her which magnets will be used in the words, she finds them, and then puts them at the top of the board. She always has one red letter, which is a vowel, and the rest are blue consonant letters. I tell her the first word. Today it was PIN. She finds the letters and makes the word. Then, I tell her she will have to change one letter to make the next word, in this case, WIN. This continues until she has spelled all of her words, which, by the way, she does really well. Today her words were: pin, win, kin, king, ring, rink, pink, sink, sing, ping, wing, wink, wings. We talk about the chunks in the words and she tries to come up with other words with the same chunk. Today the chunks were "ing" and "ink". We then move from the board to paper. She copies the words several times, then takes a practice test to see if there is a word she might need more help with.
The next day I try to use some of the words in her Morning Message. I love Morning Message because it not only reinforces the spelling words, but exposes her to many words that she wouldn't see in her little readers. She can easily read words like: wonderful, mysterious, fabulous, the days of the week, etc., because she sees them daily or weekly. Finally, I use the words in dictation sentences and then she takes a spelling test. When she has received one hundred percent two days in a row, she then moves on to the next list. Allison loves to take a red pen and write her own 100%. She's a terrific speller!

Penny Roberts

MYSTERIOUS MONDAY

I came to school today and saw my morning letter. It was different than usual because it said, "Mysterious Monday." Mysteries are my favorite so I was excited!
I followed the clue on the board and went to examine the quilt on the sofa. That was the last place Teacher had her phone. I couldn't see the phone and everything in the room looked normal except there was a plate with cake crumbs on the table. I asked Teacher about it and she said she ate cake while she was quilting and got her hands messy. So I asked her where she washed her hands. She said, "The powder room." (Which is my little bathroom.) I decided to make a list to keep track of the clues.
Next I checked my bathroom and it had a note from Sophie on the mirror. Hmmmmmmm....another clue. It said, "I love you mommy." Then Teacher remembered that she took cake to Sophie because she saw the sweet note. In Sophie's room there was the same kind of plate with the same kind of crumbs. Finally, Teacher remembered that Sophie wanted her to take the cake plate back to the kitchen, but instead, Teacher put it down because she saw dirty laundry.
I hurried down the stairs and saw Daci. I wanted to play with her but I had to get on to solving the mystery.
I quickly ran to the laundry room and saw the phone right on top of the washing machine. Mission accomplished! So that's how the case of the Forgotten Phone was solved.

By Allison Story