Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary | Mom Congress School Transformation Contest

Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary | Mom Congress School Transformation Contest


VOTE EVERYDAY AND PASS IT ON!!!!!!!!!!

Vote for DLJ everyday! We want that track built!

Click off to the side and vote daily for DLJ. We need this 20,000 dollars for our Cathy Adkins track.

Vote and be a part of something HUGE!

Mrs. Uber

Happy Meals and Phosphoric Acid Make Mrs. Uber Ponder her Choices!

Come on, get happy?


and....


Happy Meal after five months!

This year, we tackled many health issues as a class and so many of you took your hard earned knowledge home and focused on teaching others wellness and nutrition. We used tools like pedometers to measure our steps taken in one day over a two week period and even graphed (into the thousands!!!) our progress. Perhaps my favorite thing we did this year was our "Heath in the News" project and we talked about two main things: Happy Meals and chocolate milk at school as a way to get kids to consume (to take in, eat) more calcium (good for your growing bones).
We talked about toys being banned and the marketing to your age group at the cost of your health. We talked about masking nutrients in syrups that aren't natural. You made great choices in the cafeteria and at home and showed me the results in your daily snack!

We also had a great article written about us by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and congratulations, we were featured in President Bill Clinton's CGI America annual report to the media for our use of our beloved (vocabulary word!) Paul Pierce "Fitness Breaks" videos in class.

All this being said, Mrs. Uber had a wake up call today at the pediatrician for Owen and Keira. We looked at our intake of fast foods, even those that don't necessarily have fries or toys, and were told to cut it out! Especially the soda. (Cue the jaws music da dum, da dum...da-da-dah....) Owen and Keira don't drink much of it, but this summer we went a little wild---vacation, grandma's house, you name it, soda was abundant (another vocabulary word!).

Doctor: "Do you guys know what phosphoric acid is?"

Mrs. Uber: "Um, yes it's in my toilet bowl cleaner, right?"

Doctor: "Well, it's in your Coke Zero, Pepsi and colas and if it breaks down the minerals in your toilet, imagine what it does to your body?". (I was thinking what a great "Captain Underpants" story line this could be...but I needed to focus on the conversation at hand).


So, the kids groaned and I vowed that no more fast food, no more sodas (even me!) for a while. The key is moderation but I wanted to share this with you that even I, your health conscious teacher, need to learn and be reminded what healthy living looks like.

Now, share these articles above with your parents and take a look at a Happy Meal photographed over the period of five months....Now that could be made into one 0f Franny K. Stein's monsters!


We only have a few weeks left of summer so make it fun, healthy and minds on, hands on!

Mrs. Uber

SPACE SHUTTLE ENTERPRISE

Today, we visited the Udvar Hazy Smithsonian Air Museum in Chantilly, VA. We saw this shuttle which was a test vehicle and in the Spring, the Space Shuttle Discovery will replace it.  Discovery had nearly 30 missions in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).  We also saw a P-38, which my grandfather flew in WWII. Tomorrow is my last day in the DC area, which we are planning to end with another visit to Smithsonian museums we missed and a trip to Ford's theatre.

Sojourner Truth

Women's history project subject...

Mrs. Uber and kids....

Lincoln Memorial

Tell me what number president this is and why is he memorialized?

In DC, Capitol building.

Here in the nation's Capitol enjoying history.

CAMERON South Carolina

So, this is for Cameron in our class!   

On my way to North Carolina!

Thinking of you all and will share the journey.
Have a safe holiday weekend.

William J. Clinton Foundation uses us in their annual media report!

http://www.clintonfoundation.org/buildingabetterworld/watch.php?id=8


Click the link above and watch our fitness break! Jamerson also found out that we are an "A" school, we can't be stopped!

Almost 9,000 reading minutes logged!

School Name:
DOUGLAS L JAMERSON ELEM SCHOOL

Rank:
366

Minutes:
8468



KEEP IT UP!!!!!! The top 25 schools get in the record books!

Congrats, future third graders. It was great to see you all logging your minutes at the library and the logs you're filling in at home.

Don't forget, your reading logs came home with the newsletter-fill them in too!

Summer Library Day for Mrs. Uber's Class and New Project, Grade for Mrs. Uber

I hope everyone is having a splendid summer and that you are working on your bridge project work as well as having fun!

Saturday, we had our first meeting at the Library. In attendance were: Karina, Will, Stevmoney, Cameron, Kelsey, Neida, Caden and Nevaeh!

We had fun looking over "Critic's Corner" submissions and seeing how we are progressing in Mathematics, Writing and Reading. Don't forget to update your reading log each and every day!
Practice your 3rd Grade Dolch list as well.

Next time, I know more will join as everyone is traveling and busy this summer.

This leads me to my next order of business: where is Mrs. Uber going to be next year?

Hint #1: the grade is an odd number

Hint #2: she gets to go to KSC next spring

Hint #3: She'll be giving tours as well as sharing how awesome our school is!

Leave me your guesses as a comment!

Check this link out for a project I am hoping to have funded for my class next year: UBERPROJECT


Until next time, have a great summer and I will see you July 16th at 10:00 AM.

Mrs. Uber

Must See Movie: Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer

For the past few summers. Owen and Keira choose a book series to read and then we watch the movie for a "compare and contrast". This summer, we chose the Judy Moody books. This movie is terrific and just as fun as the books! Boys, you might have read the "Stink" series which is based on Judy's brother, James "Stink" Moody.
The books are fun and a nice read for your summer break. So, check the books out from the library and then cool off in a movie theater later to see the action yourself, on the big screen!
I

Awards Day! Second Grade: I have been honored to teach you!

Almost big third graders!
Proud teacher!
Mrs. Uber with Zaniyah, Josh and Katelyn.
Handing Will's award to him for outstanding achievement in math!

Again with my honorees for art, engineering and trailblazing!
Everyone did an amazing job this year. Remember, we meet on June 18th to read, write and problem solve at the library.
Don't forget to log your Scholastic minutes daily!

Last Day Fun

To my class,





I am going to miss you over the summer but know I will see you at our summer gatherings. I am anxious to see your success next year as third graders. Read every day to avoid the "summer slide".





Below are some pictures of our day so far. We've played Chess, Mousetrap, Stratego and Candy Land.

Collage of our Bennie Visit!

I am so proud of you! Scholatic Summer Reading Challenge starts off with a bang!

School Name:
DOUGLAS L JAMERSON ELEM SCHOOL

Rank:
289

Minutes:
5300



Guys, you make me proud...keep it up.

Remember, if we are one of the top 20 schools, we get into the World Record Book!

Keep it up and keep winning prizes through scholastic!


Have a great weekend everyone!

Bennie Niles Visits Jamerson!

Inspiration in our Hometown

We are in the process of writing Bennie letters and telling him what a great role model he is to us. He shows us that we should never give up on our dreams and we must work hard everyday.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: We Can't Put Them Down! We also got Ivy & Bean!

As a teacher, the greatest gift I can give my students is a love for reading. The greatest gift a classroom can get is a donor who helps make that possible. Thank you Ellen Byrne, Frederick Maryland award winning artist for helping stock our library.

Lately, as I teach a lesson, I find my students pre-occupied with their heads bent down, peering into the well of their desks. Why? Because they are finishing their books! It's hard to tell them to "stop reading!".

Here are a few snapshots of the kids reading:


Josh enjoying "The Ugly Truth"...

Camron reading "The Last Straw"...

Will is reading "Captain Underpants".

Katelyn reading "Roderick Rules".

I love teaching these students and I am sad to have the summer come. Hopefully, we can meet at the library a few times (TBA, parents!).

Teaching us All About Egypt

Two of my students brought back amazing projects all about ancient Egyptian times from their gifted classes on Friday. I felt it was a great time to have them teach the rest of us about what they studied and learned.


Morgan explained that in ancient Egypt, wealthier families had two leveled homes. Some even had cattle holdings and porches!

He also told the kids that after the age of 1o, Egyptian children were not longer alloud to have toys! They were put to work early!

Caden shared his poster and mummy!

Thanks guys, for the history lesson!

Poetry Corner

I will be sharing poetry written by my incredibly talented students daily.

The first one is by Neida.

"Thanksgiving"

Thanksgiving is

my special day

There is something I must say

when you sit down with

a fork ,

Make sure the plate is

full of pork!

-Neida M.

Root 4 Kids Launches Schools Contest!

Root 4 Kids Launches Schools Contest!

Click on the link and sign us up-it's easy!

If we get the most sign ups (list the school as Douglas Jamerson Elementary) we could get lots of great farming and gardening resources for our school!


So do it and make me happy!

:-)

Phases of the Moon: Oreo Style

Identifying cycles that reoccur in nature is a standard in our second grade curriculum. I really enjoy teaching Earth/Space science so I decided to introduce the phases of the moon.

Ask your student if they know what a new, first quarter, half or third quarter moon looks like.

They will tell you that they learned all this by using oreo cookies to demonstrate what we see in the night sky.

The kids had so much fun with this that I will be showing a small sampling of pictures at tonight's EXPO.

Hope to see you there!

Capacity! Full of Fun!

We are learning about capacity and having fun with performance tasks.


Josh with the measuring tools...

Amanda and Will finding out how small a mililiter is......

Happy class!

Is a pint bigger or smaller than a liter?

It was also one of our words of the week! Here, we broke up the word to spell it correctly.

Whew!

Let's Move: With Beyonce! Flashdance May 3rd!

Today, we ventured into choreography...well, we followed Beyonce's choreographer's steps to her new "Move Your Body" song and video to go with the First Lady's "Let's Move" initiative. We're trying to get total school involvement for this fun way to get fit and have fun.
Thanks to our awesome Speech Pathologist, Mrs. Tucker, we used the Flip Cam. to get the kids moving. We'll post it to the morning news next week to hopefully have flashdance participation.

Beach Day and Finding Nemo!

On Friday, we celebrated our "Cool School" status with a Beach Day.  Everyone dressed up like they were ready for the sun and surf.  We also watched Disney's "Finding Nemo" and had some delicious and nutricious snacks from Katelyn's Grandma-strawberries, tangerines and fruit snacks!
Thank you!

 The kids laid out like they were at the beach....

 Watched "Nemo"....

Had a lot of fun soaking up the antics of "Nemo" and friends!

What a great way to end our week!

Fun Bunny Game!

Happy Egg Hunting this weekend!

Click "Bunny" to play a fun matching game involving all sorts of Easter candy.

Captain Underpants Arrived!

Today was especially exciting because we got our shipment of "Captain Underpants" books delivered.  I quickly cataloged them and leveled them into our classroom library. 

The students immediately checked them out and are immersed in the stories.  Thank you to our donor who gave us the resources through ADOPT-A-CLASSROOM (widget on the right side of the blog)!  We would love to have more series to enjoy, so if you're interested in helping stock us up on great fiction or non-fiction,  we'll happily and gratefully accept your generosity.

Above, Kelsey, Josh and Neida after checking out our newest library members!

Paul Pierce Video 3

Watch and Learn!

Paul Pierce Fast Break 2-Our Workout This Morning!

Our morning workout! Paul Pierce had us doing lunges and heel kicks! Whew! What a great way to kick off our Pedometer Healthy Living Project next week! Stay tuned to see what we do next!

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation Keeps Us Moving! New Paul Pierce in Class Excercise is Awesome!

Double Click the picture, it will bring you to our album (through Picasa) then double click again for the video to play.

Exercise

We took a break from spelling practice to get our muscles moving in anticipation of our Spring pedometer project.
Needless to say, they LOVED it.
They want to do it everyday and we will.

Plant Predictions

We planted green beans today and chose between humus and potting soil to provide nutrients to the seeds. Depending on the soil used, we made group predictions on what we think will happen. A great discussion was had about the things a plant needs to survive. We eroded sandstone and rocksalt this week and observed the results with hand lenses.

Look who's the big brother!

Baby Violet was born early this morning....Congrats Will and family!

Don't forget, read our news article!

Please click here and read all about our pedometer project!

Leave a comment and I will give five extra credit points!

Don't forget, read for at least 20 minutes a night!

OUR CLASS IS IN THE NEWS!--PEDOMETER PROJECT SUCESS!

Click here to read the article that the Alliance for a Healthier Generation wrote about our class and the project we did at the beginning of the year with our pedometers.

Read to see how our class inspired this national organization to recognize our efforts to combine mathematics, engineering and health to benefit our youth.

Write a comment telling me what you think about the article.

Way to go Mrs. Uber's second grade!!!!

We can take our tests online!

   Starting this Friday, we will be taking our spelling tests in the computer lab.  This is great news because not only will I be able to track your progress, but you will too!  At home, you can play more games with our premium membership, use the practice tests and flashcards to get yourself ready for Friday tests.  I will be sending home a parent letter giving you your username and password as well as how I will be assigning material on the website from now on.  This will also alter your weekly homework.  I will be giving much more information over the next few days, but for now, let us rejoice in our Adopt-A-Classroom community members in their generous donations and we all give you BIG Thank you!


Mrs. Uber

Great, fantastic news!

We just got funding from our Adopt-A-Classroom website from a generous donor!  We will now have all the luxuries of a premium membership at www.spellingcity.com  I am beyond humbled and excited.  Students, this means we get to take our tests online and more GAMES!  This will also allow me to track your participation.  I will update everyone when I will have access as it looks like I may have to wait.  In the meantime, we'll be thanking our donor in class through letters!

Happily your teacher,

Mrs. Uber

World Autism Day and Awareness Month are in April. Watch this video that talks about the book "My Brother Charlie".

My Brother Charlie by Holly Robinson Peete from Expanded Books on Vimeo.

I will also be linking this video off to the right of the blog for future viewing. Click the book "My Brother Charlie" to see it again.

After watching the video, think of ways we can better understand our classmates that are Autistic. What can we do to better understand Autism?

In Honor of Opening Day for the Rays, Watch "How to Stay Healthy, the Baseball Way"

Also, check out the new options on labeling my postings by reaction and then you can share them by email with family and friends!

Contest to Name Cheetah Coming

Here is a little sunshine to make this bad weather seem tolerable!  The media got to meet the little guy that Busch Gardens in Tampa is calling their ambassador of conservation and endangered species.  Do you think that the attention the Cheetah gets will remind people to care for the habitat in which these animals live? 
Think about it.
In the meantime, extra credit (5 points) if you can tell me how many weeks old the cub is right now. 
Start thinking of names for the Cheetah too-and if you write it down and tell me why you want to name it that, I will give you 5 more points!
Relax and have a fun Thursday!

New Baby Cheetah Pictures!

http://www.buschgardenstampablog.com/baby-cheetah-five-weeks-old

Nightfall..

Not a seven wonder but recognizable....what is it?

Mrs. Uber's Wild Ride

What ride am I on?

Toy Story at the Flower and Garden Festival

This was amazing and smelled like strawberries like Lotso does in the third movie.
It rained all day and night....very wet!
Thanks for commenting!