Wednesday Wonders!

Leighton read a wonderful book about one of my favorite subjects: CATS! He did a GREAT job reading this non fiction book, proving that CATS RULE....DOGS DROOL!!!



We celebrated Neha's birthday today. Happy Birthday!

We learned today that when we visualize as we read we use our imaginations to become part of the book...to be the character...to put ourselves in the place of the characters and stories. We learned that when we visualize as we read we can remember what we read.

In writing we learned about the BIG ENDING!!! We read The Great Fuzzy Frenzy and saw how the ending combined lessons learned and starting all over again.

Take a look at Joshua's story on our WIKI: I Was Brave! Click on the link to the right (either student writing or the WIKI).

2nd graders did a chapter 3 checking progress activity and 1st graders practiced skip counting using the calculator. We also talked about how the calculator is always right...it's what we put in that is wrong! I heard a lot of "it's not working right" but we talked about how no it's working right...it's doing exactly what you told it to do. We discussed how we don't use the calculator very much in 1st and 2nd grade except to practice things like skip counting, because when you look at an answer on the calculator you have to KNOW if it is right or wrong. And the only way to know that is to use pencil and paper and practice. The calculator is only as good as the person who puts in the information.

Tomorrow we have art. Have a GREAT night and don't forget to READ, READ, READ!!!!

Tuesday Tales!

It was a very busy day!!!

We began by listening to Jacob read Shortcut! What a voracious reader he is! We loved this book!



We then began working on our Holiday Card Project. This is a project we are doing with about 40 schools across the nation. We each make holiday cards and send them to each other. We got three cards in today. We will use this as we learn about geography and map skills.



Each student has a map of the United States where they record the state and the city of the school that sends us a card. We looked up the three schools using Google Earth (a school in NY, PA, and TN) and then zoomed in on their location. Here's a photo off the computer with the schools tagged that we looked at, including Liberty.



In addition, we began making our cards to send out. We will send each school a personal card, but then invite them to visit our blog where we will have a photo story of individual greetings made by each student. We are still working on this and hope to have it up before Monday.

Speaking of photo story, click on the student writing link and go to our WIKI to hear a story that Jacob wrote. He really wants a hamster!!!!

We also worked on our reading comprehension strategy of visualizing. In writing, we learned more about endings. By reading the book Imogene's Antlers, we learned that we can end our story by starting all over again!

During math workshop we worked on a coordinate graphing activity. The students are making Gingerbread Houses using coordinate graphs. (Think: the game, Battleship!) This is a fun way to learn a skill they will need later in the year using the addition/subtraction grid and in geometry.

1st graders also learned more about frames and arrows. 2nd graders practiced making change.

Have a GREAT night and don't forget to READ...READ....READ...READ!!!!

Monday Marvels!

Be sure and check out the U-46 district website homepage. Our resident hero, Joshua, has been featured throughout the Thanksgiving break.

Hayden was our child of the day. We enjoyed listening to Dr. Suess's ABC's. Thanks, Hayden!



Bradley shared some seashells that he picked up from the beach in Cocoa Beach, FL. He shared about his trip to Cape Kennedy and meeting an astronaut. Tomorrow I will be able to share an autographed postcard by the same astronaut, Winston Scott. Bradley sent it to us and it came in today's mail. Thanks for sharing, Bradley...it sounded exciting!



We learned our new word wall words today: made, down, my, did, over. Practice spelling them by using the SpellingCity link.

We began our new reading comprehension strategy today of visualizing. Visualizing is creating a mental image or a movie in our mind as we read. It is an educational fact that there is no comprehension without attaching new information to existing schema and creating a mental image as we read. This is an important strategy to help us remember what we are reading.

In writing, we reviewed leads and then we read the book, Shortcut. We looked at how the author left an echo with the reader by ending the story with a decision being made. We will work on endings all this week.

In math, 1st graders learned about frames and arrows...which is looking at patterns. 2nd graders reviewed frames and arrows with two patterns and then worked on making change by counting up.

We also went to the library.

Have a GREAT night and don't forget to READ, READ, READ!!!!

NovemberMysteryReader 11/24/09 at OneTrueMedia.com

Enjoy our November Mystery Readers!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Life in a TeePee

Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thursday Thrills

Our child of the day, Bradley, read a non fiction narrative about the Survivors of the Titanic. It was wonderful! Such fluency! He is also writing a report about the Titanic that I can't wait until he finishes. It's great so far, and he is working on the ending right now. GREAT JOB, Bradley!



Today we worked more on making meaningful connections. I read There is a Nightmare in my Closet and we shared our connections. We discussed which ones were coincidences and which ones helped us to understand the book.

In writing we learned about setting leads. For example, here is the lead sentence in Stellaluna:

In a warm and sultry forest, far, far, away, there once lived a mother fruit bat and her new baby.

We reviewed the leads we have learned about this week and then went back to our writing to give it a try.

We had art and our ELL enrichment time this afternoon. Tomorrow we have P.E. and music.

Tomorrow we will have a substitute teacher. Students will work on a Thanksgiving activity. There will be no blog posting on Friday.

Have a GREAT night and a wonderful Thanksgiving break. Don't forget to READ, READ, READ, READ......and then READ some more!

Wednesday Wonders!

Our Child of the Day, Shivam, helped us build our schema about spiders. We enjoyed learning about Daddy LongLeg Spiders....Thanks, Shiv!



Today we did a new phonics activity, making and writing words. This was followed up by learning that when we read we make meaningful connections. I read Hazel's Amazing Mother and we talked about our connections. We learned that saying things such as, "I have a blue dress, too" or "It reminds me when I went on a picnic" are the reminders that help us...those are coincidences. We have to tell our brain to stop thinking about that and get back to the book. We then looked at the meaningful connections and how they helped us understand the character, the setting, or what was happening in the story.

In writing we learned about quotation leads. Sometimes to hook the reader, the writing has someone speak first. As an example, Grandpa's Teeth begins with: "Help! I've been robbed!" We then went back to our writing and tried to change our leads to make our stories more exciting.

After lunch and recess, 1st graders worked on adding using the number line. 2nd graders worked on telling time. During the independent time they played math games. During our whole group time, we worked on problem solving, probability, and number sense.

Tomorrow we have art.

Have a GREAT night and don't forget to READ....READ....READ!!!