Marvelous Monday!

Welcome back from Spring Break! Let's hope we have some warm temperatures now!



Simi was our child of the day and she read The Emperor's New Clothes. She said she chose this traditional tale because she thought it was funny! She did a GREAT job reading it, too! Listen to her read later tonight or tomorrow on the website.

We have started a new feature: Survey Question. We pull fair sticks to see who asks the question. It's up for two days, then we discuss it, pull another fair stick, and another question goes up. Meghan was the first one chosen and she wants to know favorite animals. All the kids know to go on the blog and VOTE!!

We began our study of determining importance as a comprehension reading strategy this week. We read the book The Art Lesson and talked about what was the main idea and what details supported that.

We also read a book about geography and watched a video from United Streaming about the continents. I will be modeling for them how to gather facts and write a non fiction report as they learn about the continents, the oceans, and our earth. They will then use the same process to write their own non fiction report about the weather.

Don't forget tomorrow is Picture Day!

Have a great evening!

Thursday Tales

Grier was our Child of the Day and she picked the book Suddenly to read. Listen later tonight on the website video as she reads. The students really enjoyed it. It is a GREAT book and she did a wonderful job.

Anjali had a story publised today: The Valentine's Day Party. It's already on the website on page 2 of Student Writing.

Natalie had to go to the PRINCIPAL today!!!!! Her story about her rabbit Katie was so wonderful I just had to have her read it to Mr. Burger. Everyone's writing is really improving and I'm quite impressed with the words they are using and the structure! They are really working hard!

Have a wonderful spring break. Check out the website and keep kids engaged in math. Work on the virtual manipulative site. And read.....read.....read.....read....read....read....read....read....READ!!!!

Wonderful Wednesday

Isabella was our child of the day and did a GREAT job reading the book How The Leopard Got Its Spots. Enjoy it later tonight by going to the classroom website.

She also has a story on the website that we published today: At the Lake. I'm sure you will enjoy it and long for summer!

Tomorrow is a switch day and we will have a Friday schedule. Be sure your child has shoes for p.e.

Have a great night!

Tuesday Tales

Nicole was our Child of the Day and did a great job reading Jim Aylesworth's Country Crossing. Listen later tonight on the website as she reads.

While on the website, take a look at student writing, page 2. Grier has ANOTHER story published. Listen to her choice of words. Amazing!

We are finishing up our questioning unit as a reading comprehension strategy this week. We are writing a class book on "The Secret Shortcut to Liberty School" based on the book, The Secret Shortcut by Mark Teague.

Seniors learned about equivilent fractions today. Keep them on the virtual manipulatives site next week. Geometry is hard and those that can manipulate the shapes are doing much better. First graders worked on rules of attributes.

Have a great evening.

March Mystery Readers

Check it out....March Mystery Reader Videos have been added to the website. Click on the link for Community for Learners, then Mystery Reader. Enjoy!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Antonio read A Quiet Morning for Mom and did a great job. He chose this book because it reminded him of when he was a baby. Listen to his reading later tonight on the website.






Alisha was Child of the Day on Thursday and Neel was Child of the Day on Friday. You can hear their wonderful reading later tonight on the website also. Enjoy!



We also had a mystery reader: Grier's dad. He really had the kids laughing (and a little dancing!) What a GREAT book! The kids really loved Skippy John Jones!

Be sure and check out Meghan's story on the website. Click on Community of Learners, then click on student writing. When that page appears, click on student writing, page 2 and there it will be. Enjoy!

I shared all the books I bought while at IRC. They were really excited about reading them. In writing, I shared the book The Secret Shortcut and we are writing our How To book on how to get to Liberty School using a secret shortcut. Should be interesting!

During math, I reviewed the math homefun with them. This was NOT supposed to go home last week while I was gone, but if you started it, that's ok. I showed them how to access the website and how to get to the activities, as well as what to do. It is really important that they manipulate those shapes in order for them to understand fractions. Spend time next week during break on that same site.

Can't Wait to See You!

Community of Learners!

I'm back from my reading conference will lots of GREAT things to share with you to help you be better readers and writers than you already are!

I also wanted to share with you that I got to see AVI: the author of the book Poppy that many of you read. It was wonderful. I also bought many, many, many, books for our classroom library....and a very special surprise for you!

See you Monday!

Wonderful Wednesday

Blake was Child of the Day and he read the story Miss Rumphius...one of my favorites! He chose to read this because we can all make the world a more beautiful place and this is the fictional story of one woman and how she made a difference! Listen as Blake reads this beautiful story by going to the website later tonight!

As a reminder, I will be at the Illinois Reading Council Conference in Springfiled, tomorrow through Saturday. Our substitute teacher is Mrs. Nagle and the kids are excited about seeing her again. (Although, I hate to admit it, it was kind of nice to see Gabrielle's sad face when I told the class I would be gone!)

As a result, though, there will be no blog postings until Monday. I will videotape the child of the day for Thursday and Friday when I get back. I want everyone to have two videotapes, then we will take a break till the end of the year.

Kyle published his story today. Click on the website address to the right (Community of Learners). Click on Student Writing. When that page comes up, click on Student Writing, page 2.

There are quite a few ready to be published on photostory, but they will have to wait until I return Monday.

Have a great night...and great rest of the week!

Tuesday Tales

Natalie was our child of the day today. She read the book The Best Guess which fit right in with our data day we had last week. She did a great job reading and you can hear her video later tonight by going to the website.

In Reading we finished asking our questions about the book The Lotus Seed. Tomorrow we will go back and try and answer some of our questions. Yesterday in writing we started our how-to books, and today, we read some of then and tried to follow the directions. We learned we need to clarify what we mean!

During math time, juniors worked on telling time to the five minute interval. Seniors began fractions.

I encourage you to go to the website and play some of the games and activities in the links. To really help kids with fractions, click on the links for students or even homefun, and you can link to the virtual manipulative website. Pattern blocks will help children see the parts in fractions. The website is full of GREAT links for hands on learning. Please take advantage of this resource. It's there for you. Worksheets aren't going to help your child. Reading to them and letting them explore math will help them!

Marvelous Monday!

First, we want to welcome our new student,Francis,to our classroom! He was a student in Mrs. Korenstra's ELL class and has been with us for math for a few weeks. He joined us full time today and we are ALLLLLL THRILLED to have him here! Welcome, Francis!



Kyle was our Child of the Day, and as promised last time, he read another Doreen Cronin book: Diary of a Spider. What a GREAT job he did too! He really had us laughing. Check out his video later tonight by going to the community of learners website (click on the link on the right hand side of the blog) then click on child of the day 2. You will be able to hear last months story and his new reading!




We also had a mystery reader today: Alyssa's mom! She read the book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs! She even donated the book to our classroom....I wonder who will read it first tomorrow! Thank you for being our mystery reader!

We began reading the Lotus Seed today as we continued to work on the comprehension strategy of asking questions. We added new word wall words: look, also, around, think, and right. Seniors took a checking progress test in math and juniors worked on counting coins. Phew....busy day!

Enjoy the sunshine...ok...the light!

Fantastic Friday

Meghan did a GREAT job reading her book: Get Out of Bed by Robert Munsch. She wanted to read this book because it reminded her of her sister who can't get out of bed in the morning. The video will be up on the website later tonight and I'm sure you will really enjoy it!

We finished answering our questions for the book The Sweetest Fig. We learned that readers ask questions for many reasons and sometimes in order to answer our questions, we not only infer meaning but we answer them through discussions with others.

Writing was spent today trying to finish up some of our stories for publishing. Kyle, Antonio, Isabella, Nicole, and Grier should have theirs done next week so you can read them on the website.

In math we worked on the median or middle value of a set of data. We used our arm span measurements that we ploted on a bar graph yesterday. I then worked with juniors on practicing addition with the function machine.

Have a GREAT weekend!

Thrilling Thursday!

Alyssa was our child of the day and read the book The Boy Who Cried Wolf. What a GREAT job she did reading with fluency! Keep up the GREAT work! Check out the website later tonight and see a video of her reading.

In reading we finished answering our before and during questions for The Sweetest Fig. One question we are pondering and will discuss further tomorrow is why is it called "sweetest".

Our writing lesson today was on Super Sentences, which adds to our understanding of sentence fluency.

Math was whole class again today as we worked on a frequency table and then graphing our information onto a bar graph. Tomorrow we will learn about median or middle values.

We also went to music and art. Tomorrow is gym day so make sure they wear gym shoes or have shoes here.

Till tomorrow....

Wonderful Wednesday

Very, very, busy day!

Ryan was our child of the day and he did a geat job reading the book, Irma's Sandwich Shop. Look on the website later tonight and listen as he reads!

Ryan also published a story: The Snow Day. Go the website, click on student writing, then his name, and listen as he reads his story. Great job!

Today was Nick's birthday (Happy Birthday!) and he ALSO has a published story on the website. Take a look at his story, My Favorite Day. You will enjoy it!

We learned today that questions give the reader a purpose for reading. We reviewed all our questions for The Sweetest Fig, then I reread the story to them. We then began the process of answering our questions, which we will finish tomorrow. Sometimes we have to infer an answer, sometimes the answer is right there in the book, sometimes we have to use our schema (or someone else's) and sometimes we just don't know. We'll talk more about that tomorrow.

In writing we worked on sentence fluency with "In like a ______, out like a ____." class book. Interesting topics!

Math was whole class today as we began collecting data that we will use tomorrow to determine the median.

We also went to the library!

Tuesday Tales

Nicholas was our child of the day and he read the classic book Where the Wild Things Are. Look on thre website late tonight (for sure tomorrow night!) to listen to him read.

Take a look at the website under student writing. Alexis' story, My Tricycle, is there for you to view. Enjoy Alexis reading her story to you!

We finished reading the book The Sweetest Fig. Tomorrow we will go back and try and answer some of our questions.

We added our new words to the word wall (see newsletter). We continued to work on sentence fluency by learning about verbs and what makes a powerful verb.

Seniors worked on patterns in doubles and halves. Juniors measured in centimeters.

Don't forget Wednesday is library day!

Monday Fun!

Sofia was our child of the day and she read Somebody and the Three Blairs. She did a great job reading this funny book. Look on the website later tonight for her video under child of the day 2.

I was also able to redo Gabrielle's and Alyssa's videos that stopped working. Click on child of the day 2 for those, also.

In reading, we began by asking our before questions for The Sweetest Fig. Tomorrow we will finish up our during and after questions before we go back to answer them.

I word work we learned our new vocabulary words (see Liberty folder) and then worked on our word work quilt.

We read the book Crickwing today to review sentence fluency. Sentences should begin with a different word and they vary in length. Ryan, Nicholas, Nicole, Alexis and Grier are publishing stories now. I'll have those up on the website as soon as they are done.

Seniors played basketball addition today to review adding 3 numbers. We also worked on adding to the tens place first. As an example, 6+7+4=17 because 6+4=10 plus 7 more equals 17. We want them using their knowledge of place value to help them add numbers quickly and in their head....and accurately!

Juniors worked on fact families and using the addition and subtraction table to subtract.

Stay dry!