We had a SUPER FUN week!

This week we...

• made a model of plywood. 
• went on our very first field trip to the fire station!
• had show-and-tell.
• earned 3 green cones at lunch.
• had computer lab and library!
• are learning subtraction strategies!
• got to paint in Art. 
• are continuing Daily 5!
• got to learn SPARKLE WORDS! Ask your kids what these are!
• continued to read Robert Munsch stories!

I will be starting Fall Conferences on Wednesday, October 5th. Please sign up for time on the conference form that was sent home in the kids' orange folder. Time slots will be given on a first come, first serve basis, so please return the form as soon as possible with your top 3 choices listed. THANKS! :) I look forward to meeting with all of you.

A BIG thank you to the families that donated the money for writing paper and to those who donated goodies for the fire station visit. We had a GREAT time at the fire station! 

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND! 

Fire Station Visit

We liked the Fire Truck!

We got to spray the hose!

We had show-and-tell!

 

We had a FANTASTIC week!

This week we...

• experimented with wood. Did you know that wood floats?! BUT we made it sink! 
• are reading Robert Munsch books! 
• had a guest reader come read to us! 
• learned addition strategies! 
• Filled up our marble jar! Ask your child on Monday what they earned! We will be voting on a reward! 
• had a birthday in our classroom! 

NOTE: The stomach virus is going around our school. We have had several kids out with it in our class and our neighboring teacher was out with it today. Please make sure you wash their water bottles this weekend and have them wash wash wash their hands! 

We will be going to the fire station next door on Friday of this coming week! We will be asking for donations of goodies to take to our firefighters to show our appreciation. Please look for a note home in the kids' folders on Monday! 

Experimenting with wood!

How many paperclips will it take to sink the wood?

Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

The kids say: 

This week we....

• held our hermit crabs!
• 4 of our friends moved to a new class, but we get to see them at recess!
• it started RAINING!!!! 
•  had a "shelltastic time" meeting our hermit crabs. 
• learned about solids and liquids. 
• got to do Daily 5
• almost filled up our marble jar! 
• went to the library AND to computer lab! 
• got to use the computers!

IT WAS RAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got Hermit Crabs!

A student's family has kindly shared their hermit crabs, Bubbles and Freedom Crab with us! Right now, only Bubbles will come out to talk to us. Freedom Crab has burrowed in the sand to shed his exoskeleton and get a new shell. He should be out to greet us in the next 6 weeks I am told! :) The kids are very excited to have a class pet. They kept asking for rats (since I understand many of the 1st grade classes had them last year). I just could not bring myself to have a pet rat in my room (even though I do love animals...there's just something about rats that screams "I do NOT belong in Miss Hawthorne's classroom!")

Meet "Bubbles"

The Hermit Crab Habitat

Newsletters!

If you have missed a newsletter that has been sent home, here they are!

Meet Miss Hawthorne

A little bit about me:

Fun Facts about Miss Hawthorne: 


1. I am an Aggie Class of 2009! WHOOP!
2. I went to EVERY Longhorn softball camp as a child. (My parents are UT alums) 
3. This is my 3rd year teaching. I taught Pre-K and Kinder at Palm Elementary in Southeast Austin for the past 2 years. 
4. Pink is my favorite color. 
5. I love dinosaurs.
6. I have 2 dogs (Isabelle and Chester). 
7. I play slow-pitch softball for the city (I am currently on the injured players list due complete ACL reconstructive (knee) surgery in April. Should be back playing in November!) 
8. Both of my grandmothers, my mom, and 2 cousins are teachers. 
9. BBQ and TexMex (Chuy's) are my favorite foods! 
10. I was adopted. 
11. I played "teacher" as a child, and this career has been my passion since before I can remember. 
12. The Notebook and Remember the Titans are my favorite movies. 

Isabelle

Chester

My parents and I in NYC!

My brother, Brian, and I bowling!

What is my teaching philosophy? 


I am a strong believer that ALL kids can learn. It is my job as their teacher to facilitate their learning at their highest level. Not every child is learning on the same level, and that is OKAY! I am here to help students get to where they need to be and to push them to achieve MORE. How do I do this? I am constantly assessing your children in the classroom. These assessments come from informal observations and formals tests (TEMI (math), DRA and TPRI (reading)). I use these tools to determine what specific skills your child needs help mastering and those are the skills that we focus on. Once a skill is mastered, we move on to the next one. Now, as you know, I am only one person and there are 24 students in my classroom so how do I get to every student?!? I am magical. No, just kidding. I put the students into small groups of students who are needing help with skills similar to theirs. This allows me to isolate the skill and help the students master it to continue to build on their foundation of learning. Groups will constantly be changing based on skill levels. What if your child has mastered all of the 2nd grade skills that we are teaching? I push them to achieve higher at the more advanced level. Children do not learn if they are not challenged. We talk every day about the need to do our best, but also about the idea that no one is perfect. It is OKAY to make a mistake in my classroom. This is how we learn in society; this is how we learn in our classroom. If we make a mistake, we assess the problem, learn from it, and fix it. There is a lot of pressure these days on kids to be "perfect". This is just an unattainable goal. We set small goals in class and practice to master concepts independently. I am a very independent person myself, therefore my class runs independently. My students are responsible for their own learning in that they choose from a variety of concepts to work on (Daily 5) and are expected to work independently on specific concept building tasks to the best of their ability while I am working with a small group of students at my table. I always tell my students that every activity and handout has a purpose. I will never give work that is "busy work". I am hands on and involved in every child's learning process while they are in my classroom. I am very excited to watch your children grow academically (as well as socially and emotionally) over the course of the year! 

We have a new blog!

I am excited to introduce our new blog. I will be posting our newsletter on the site along with other important information and dates. My vision is to update our blog every Friday with the help of your kids! I will be sending home a permission slip to post pictures of what your kids are doing in class on the site. If you would rather pictures of your child remain off of the site, please check the "no" box on the permission form, and no pictures of your child will be uploaded. If for some reason the permission slip has disappeared from your child's folder or is lost, I have attached another form for your convenience.