Gingerbread Houses

On Friday, our class had a gingerbread decorating contest. We divided the class into three teams. Each team had their own gingerbread house kit to complete. Students helped the teachers design and decorate their house. Everyone had so much fun!

The finished products:

 

 

 

Team 1: Ms. Capps, Richard, James, Cayden, and Tyler

 

Team 2: Mrs. Christy, Jayda, Zoe, Bailey, and Anthony

Team 3: Miss Massey, Thomas, JD, Gabriel, and Gabe

'Tis the Season

December Newsletter

Newsletter november

Book Exchange

Dear Parents,

       I hope that you enjoyed Thanksgiving break with family and friends. The holidays are approaching fast. This year will be celebrating the holidays by exchanging books in the classroom. The book fair will be held at Watt Hardison on December 6th through the 13th.  I am asking that students bring in $5.00.We will be drawing names. Your child will be able to select a book that they want to give to that student. Mrs. Morris, Mrs. Capps, Mrs. Christy, and I will wrap the student’s selection. On December 20^st, the day of our holiday party, we will exchange presents.  We will also be having breakfast foods for the students. Students will be able to go to their general education classroom for that holiday party as well.  If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Happy Holidays!

Miss Massey J

Fishy Friends

 

The new addition to the classroom! :)  Students were so excited to now have a larger fish tank in the classroom. We have five fish in our tank. Different students came up with the fishes names. There names are: JoJo, Nemo, Gunner, Spot, and Hiss.

A Visit from Chuck E.

 

 On Friday, our class received a surprised visit from Chuck E. Cheese. Chuck E. was visiting Watt Hardison to encourage everyone to support the PTO by coming to Chuck E. Cheese that night. Students were so excited that he came to visit!!!!

Gardening

We were so sad that our pumpkin seeds we planted did not produce any pumpkins this year. We hope that next year we will have better luck. Since it is getting cold outside, students helped to remove the flowers that had wilted and died from the garden. Once we removed the flower, we planted bulbs to grow tulips and daffodils for the spring.

 

October Health Theme

    In October, our monthly health theme was proteins. Each week we talked about how proteins help make our body strong, then we made a protein related snack. During this month we made: Chucky Monkey Protein Shakes, Deli roll-ups, cheese and bean quesadillas, and silver dollar protein pancakes. Students always love making snacks on Fridays, but this month their favorite thing to make was cheese and bean quesadillas and protein pancakes.
     It was simple to make cheese and bean quesadillas. All we needed was tortilla shells, refried beans, and cheese. Students helped to make all the quesadillas by scooping out the beans and placing them on the shell. Cheese was added, then an adult cooked the quesadilla on a grille.

 

     Silver Dollar Protein Pancakes were also a big success in our classroom.  To make these pancakes our recipe called for: 4 egg whites, ½ cup of rolled oats, ½ cup of low-fat cottage cheese, ⅛ teaspoon of baking powder, and ½ teaspoon of pure vanilla extract. Students helped read the instructions and measure out the ingredients needed for the pancakes. Each student in the class also assisted in mixing the ingredients together. Once our mixture was ready, an adult cooked our pancakes on the grille. Once finished, students added a little bit of sugar-free syrup to their pancakes. Since this was a different type of pancake that the students were not used to eating, I was surprised to see that so many of the kids enjoyed them! This was a great way to end our month of protein!

 

November health theme is Whole Grains. If you have any ideas for a healthy snack that we could make, please let us know! :)

In the News....

Newsletter november -

Nerd Day

To kick-off Red Ribbon Week, it was Nerd Day at WHE. We sure made some cute nerds!

 

Red Ribbon Week

    
     Get excited because Red Ribbon Week is just around the corner! This year, Sumner County's theme is "A Healthy Me is Drug Free."

     Things to keep in mind for Red Ribbon Week this year...

     During Red Ribbon week we will be dressing for a different theme each day. I encourage you to help your child dress up throughout the week. I know I am super excited about this!! :)

     We are also collecting non-perishable foods for CEMC. We will be doing this until Friday, October 25th. We already have a crate full of can goods in our room. Thank you to all who have donated so far!

Themes for next week:
Monday- Nerd Day
Tuesday- Duck Dynasty Day
Wednesday- Wear Red Day
Thursday- Sports Day
Friday- Wear Halloween Costume or Wacky Tacky Day

Thank you in advance for all of your help in making Red Ribbon Week a success!

-Miss Massey :)

Special Events

Fourth grade took a field trip to the Hermitage on Friday October, 18th. Zoe and Mrs. Capps walked around the toured the museum. Zoe enjoyed being with her fourth grade peers.

Thursday, October 3rd, the class attended an a fire assembly in the gym. We learned how to be safe and what we should do if there was a fire. After the assembly, the firemen came to the classroom to visit. Students loved having them in the room. We even got to take a picture together! :)

Ready for Fall

 

Time Flies!

  Its seems like just yesterday 6 smiling faces walked into my classroom for the first time. Now three years later, our classroom family has almost doubled.

Newsletter oct -

Vegetable Soup

To close our vegetable theme this month, students made vegetable soup. The class discussed how you should always have an adults help when trying to make something. To make our vegetable soup we needed: 1 large can of tomato juice, 2 cans of Veg-all (drain water), 1 can of corn (drain water), 1 chopped up potato, salt and pepper. (We also added hamburger meat to our soup).  The students helped open the cans and pour in the ingredients. Students also counted out loud to see how many cans they needed to add to their soup.  Once the soup had been prepared, Miss Massey placed the soup on the crockpot so it could cook while the class began their work.

Instead of going to the cafeteria for lunch, the class had a special picnic outside by our garden. We ate our vegetable soup with grilled cheese. It was really good! The class enjoyed being outside!! :)



 

Getting Ready For Fall

 

Our garden is looking beautiful! This week we planted mums for the fall season. Gabe and Nurse Kathy enjoyed helping and sitting outside in this nice weather.

Friday, September 20th

 

These pictures are from Friday, September 20th when the class made ants on a log.

September 16th-20th

 

     

Miss Ball brought her dog, Duke, in last week. Duke is currently being trained to be a service dog for children with special needs. The students in the class did not know what to think about Duke at first. The class had mixed reactions. By the end of the day, students were enjoying having Duke around.  Duke will continue to visit our classroom throughtout this semester.

As part of our vegetable theme this month, Miss Ball helped students make ant on a log (Celery with peanut butter and raisins). Students preferred to eat all of the peanut butter and some of the raisins, rather than eat the celery.  This week we will be closing out this months vegetable theme by making vegetable soup and having a picnic lunch on Friday. I am very excited about this!!!

 

 

*** I am pleased to announce that Miss Ball, our teacher candidate from Austin Peay, will not be leaving us October 18th. Instead, she will complete her second placement here at Watt Hardison. Miss Ball will be with us until December 6th. We are very happy to have her as part of our classroom family!***

 



Starting off the year....

The 2013-2014 school year has already started off to be an exciting yet busy time. Since the first day of school we have added 2 new assistants , 4 new students , and 1 student teacher to our classroom family. Mrs. Brooke Capps and Mrs. Melissa Christy will be helping your child make progress on their academic goals, as well as, helping them participate during related arts with their general education class. Gabriel (3rd grade) and Thomas (4th grade) joined us at the beginning of the school year. Isela (5th grade) and Cayden (Kindergartner) will be joining our class this week. Miss Casey Ball, a teacher candidate from Austin Peay State University, will be with our classroom until mid- October. We are super excited to have these students, teachers, and their families as part of our group.

We have already been working hard on our goals for the year.  I can see progress being made. Students have really enjoyed having classroom jobs. Jobs for the classroom include: attendance helper, story helper, fish feeder, table cleaner, gardener, dishes washer, line leader, calendar helper, classroom assistant, and snack helper.
As attendance helper, students go from room to room and ask the teacher or students for their attendance please. Non-verbal students use a large red recorded button to make the same request. By doing this job, we are working on making eye contact, appropriate mannerisms, and completing a task. Students also love watering the garden. At the beginning of the school year we had one bed of pumpkins and gourds and another bed of flowers. We have sadly lost the pumpkins and gourds but the flowers are blooming and doing great! Students are so excited when they learn what their job is for the day.

Each month we have a different theme. Then on Friday we complete an activity about the theme. Last month our theme was fruits.  We made fruit dip, smoothies, apples with caramel, and strawberry shortcake.  This month our theme is vegetables. We have already made mashed potatoes and green bean casserole.  When we do these activities we talk about the appropriate way to cook. (i.e. washing hands, getting ingredients out,  having adult supervision and help, reading and following directions, etc.) Students like being able to pour and mix ingredients.

I cannot wait to see what this school year holds. I am very sorry that I have not updated our website in almost a year. I will try to be better at this. Please let me know if you have any ideas for our monthly theme or if you would like to come volunteer (i.e. read a story or lead group activity). Our door is always open! :)