Through the Eyes of Olympic Athletes

Hi Room 203 families! 

In honor of Digital Learning Day today, we "hit the slopes" using an awesome iPad app called Visa 360 Cam which allows us to see what it's like to be a Winter Olympic athlete. Featured athletes had a camera attached to them, allowing app users to see through the eyes of the athletes. 

The kids LOVED it! We discussed what it means to be an athlete and how to be a good sport, relating back to one of our 7 Habits of Happy Kids--"Think Win-Win." Check out the video below for a peek, and make sure to download the Visa 360 Cam app and try it yourself. :) Thank you so much to our awesome Instructional Technology Facilitator, Kimberly Eggett, for leading this Digital Learning Day lesson! 

Through The Eyes of Olympic Athletes from Ms. Wertheim on Vimeo.

Chinese New Year Lion Dance

Hi families! Yesterday we celebrated Chinese New Year right here at Claxton! Our celebration began with a morning filled with Chinese New Year stories and activities, and in the afternoon we went out into the hallway for the Lion Dance Parade. The celebration wrapped up with an assembly in the gymnatorium where students were able to watch another lion dance and have a question and answer session with the dance teacher. Check out our video below to see the excitement!


Chinese New Year Lion Dance from Ms. Wertheim on Vimeo.

Gung Hay Fat Choy! (Happy New Year)

Happy Birthday, Dr. King!

This week we will be doing several Martin Luther King Jr. activities. Last week I showed students a picture of MLKJ and they brainstormed their "wonderings." This week students will be doing research about his life to answer those wonderings. Jamie Allbach (the fabulous CLX media center specialist) will be coming in to co-teach with me as students use iPads and Big Universe to conduct research. Be sure to check back later this week for some of the highlights from our MLJK activities. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this powerful quote which I believe in, 100%. Character education in my classroom is just as important as intelligence education. :)

Photo Credit: Teach for America 

Happy Monday! Thanks for stopping by, 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Room 203 families. This semester is off to a great start! This week we reflected on 2013 by writing about memories, lessons learned, and favorite moments. Then we learned about S.M.A.R.T. Goals. I believe that goal-setting is very important, even at a young age. Each student set a goal for the year and wrote down the action steps they will take to reach their goal. They also drew pictures of themselves achieving their goal to help them visualize it happening.Next time you're at Claxton, take a look at our newest bulletin board: "Swing into 2014 with S.M.A.R.T. Goals." I'm very proud of all my kiddos!

Mark My Words: Step-By-Step Videos for Fundations Marking

Want extra practice marking words for Fundations? Check out the new step-by-step videos I made with Educreations. These are great to review with your child before Fundations Unit Tests.  *Shout out to Ms. Adams for showing me how to create these videos :)

Marking Closed Syllables

Marking Closed Syllable Exceptions

Marking Words With Suffixes

Marking Multisyllabic Words

Marking Vowel-Consonant-E  (v-e) Syllables

Hour of Code

Today our wonderful Instructional Technology Facilitator, Mrs. Eggett, led an amazing lesson about coding! 90% of schools do not teach Computer Science, although it is an essential skill for this Digital Native generation. Claxton has 250 students participating in the Hour of Code this week.

Students learned about how computer programming works and even had the chance to code on their own, via an incredible website: Lightbot! (Kids are welcome to play this game at home!)

This Hour of Code initiative aims to educate students about computer science and spark their interest in potential computer science careers. They loved it! Learn more about Hour of Code at http://csedweek.org :)

If your child just can't get enough of coding, here are a couple fun and educational sites to practice coding: Tynker and Code.org :)

Spreading Holiday Cheer

Today we went on our very first field trip of the year! We had the honor of delivering holiday trees--decorated by students and staff at Claxton--to the residents at Care Partners Adult Day Care. Not only did we bring the gift of the trees, but we also brought the gift of music. Students performed holiday songs that they've been practicing in music class. The residents at the center loved it! They were clapping and singing along. :) Here are a few pictures from the day!