Our last two day's of school were spent learning about Croatia and Denmark. Miss Diana, who is from Croatia, shared holiday traditions from her country. Mrs. Karsbaek, who's husband is from Denmark, shared holiday traditions with our class, too. Friday morning we read The Polar Express and watched the movie. Then we compared and contrasted the book and the movie. We also cleaned our chair pockets, threw out our old crayons, wiped down our tables, and prepared for our return in the new year. Then....it was time to party!!! Happy Holidays everyone and don't forget to READ....READ.....READ!!!!

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Today we traveled around the world to Poland, China, India, Israel, and Japan. We learned about Diwali, Hanukkah, Chinese New Year, and more. So far we have learned about Eid, Antarctica , Germany, and other holiday customs and cultures. Tomorrow we will learn about Las Posadas and more. We have also worked on map skills as we receive our holiday cards from across the country.

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Mr. Jangles was listening in on all our travels around the world. Today we traveled to Antarctica, Australia, and Germany. Sumehra was our child of the day and did a wonderful job reading. Thanks! We took our math MAP test today. Results will be coming home in January. Tomorrow we will really "travel" as we move to other classrooms to hear about different holiday traditions. Thank you to the parents who are able to come in tomorrow and share. As we wind down for the holiday break keep in mind the BEST gift you can give your child if the love of reading. If there is ONE gift that is a MUST on everyone's list....it should be a book!

Apparently our friend the elf, Mr. Jangles, likes math as much as he does reading! Today he was making polygons on geoboards! Jasmine was our child of the day and read Little Bulldozer. Thanks, Jasmine! Our passports were stamped for our 1st stop on our trip around the world to learn about holiday traditions. We read books about American traditions and created a "keepsake" for our suitcase of collectibles from our trip. Tomorrow we take off across the ocean. We also read three cards from schools across the country and labeled our map of North America as to where they came from: Texas, Pennsylvania, and Alabama. As we complete the online project of exchanging holiday greetings and as we complete our Holidays Around the World, we are also learning map skills. Homework that is due on Friday: Gingerbread Science experiment and math problem solving worksheets. Reading Log and Math Fact Log will be reviewed on Friday but are due complete with holiday vacation reading/math fact practice in January when we return from break. Tomorrow students take their math MAP test. Be sure and get a good nights sleep and eat a healthy breakfast.

Amal was our child of the day and read a very funny book: My Sloppy Tiger. Thanks, Amal! Mr. Jangles enjoyed it as well. He loves to read! We took our reading MAP test today and then worked on our "suitcases" for next week's Around the World trip. We will be "visiting" countries all over the world to learn about holiday traditions. We will find the countries on the map and learn map skills as well. Our passports are ready and we are ready to go! Have a great weekend and read a good book!

Mr. Jangles, our Elf on a Shelf, loves to read. He made a mess of our counter to get to the books! That's ok...anything for a good read! Emily did a wonderful job as the child of the day. We really enjoyed the story she read to us! We read two more Gingerbread stories (The Gingerbread Man and The Gingerbread Cowboy) and started making comparisons of our books. We also continued writing our Gingerbread stories. During math workshop, we worked on coordinate graphing by making a gingerbread house! Tomorrow we have library after all! We also have our reading MAP test in the morning. Get a good night sleep and eat a healthy breakfast and you will be all set....ready to show how smart you are!

Mr. Jangles is keeping an eye on everyone and reporting to Santa each night. I wonder where we will find him tomorrow? Ali was our child of the day and read The Three Little Pigs. Thanks, Ali! We read The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers, focusing on the literary elements. We also read Gingerbread Pirates. Tomorrow we will start comparing and contrasting the Gingerbread books we have read so far. We also began writing our own gingerbread stories. Tomorrow we do have library after all. Be sure and return your books so you can have two new books for the holiday break.

Thank you, Angelina, you were a GREAT child of the day. I really liked how you read the book, The Magic Fish....you really got into the characters and it helped us all understand what was happening. Keep reading!!!! We read The Gingerbread Girl and identified the words that created the most vivid mental image; then we drew our mental image. We will read another Gingerbread story tomorrow and then compare and contrast the two books. We are also keeping track of the story elements we are reading in each of the Gingerbread books so we can identify the common elements. We will also be writing our own Gingerbread stories. We also worked on fluency, but remember....this is a season of "Secrets!" We also finished our unit 4 checking progress in math. Library will be on Friday of this week, so don't forget your books!

Michael was our child of the day and read One Smart Chick. He's really working on reading with fluency! Great job, Michael!

When we came into the classroom today we discovered we had an ELF!!!! He's here visiting everyday and reports back to Santa each night about all the wonderful things the boys and girls are doing. The class decided to name him Mr. Jangles and will be writing about him each day in the ELF ON A SHELF Journal.

We learned about point of view in our integration time as we read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. During math time, we learned about the partial sum algorithm. We finished unit 4 today as well. Friday students will be taking the winter Reading MAP test. Next week we will take the math portion. All students need to do to prepare is get a good nights sleep (like always) and eat a healthy breakfast...like always!

End of the week fun!

Colin and Giovanna rounded out the week as our child of the day readers...thanks!!!



We finished up our study of visualizing as a reading strategy today...of course, we never really stop...we are always visualizing! We also learned two more ways to organize our writing in addition to writing a traditional beginning, middle, and end and ABC order: writers can organize their writing by using the days of the week and by a series of cause and effect.

This week in math we worked on adding two digit numbers by rounding and estimating, then solving for the actual sum. Monday we will learn about partial sums addition. We also worked quite a bit on problem solving.

Only two more weeks till holiday break. Next week we will be comparing and contrasting Gingerbread Stories and beginning our study of maps. We have made 29 holiday cards to send to school across the country and we will be receiving 29 holiday cards from schools across the country as well. When we receive our cards we will look at where the school is on the map and work on understanding maps.

We will also begin our study of holiday traditions around the world.

Have a GREAT weekend!

Wednesday Wonders!

Samantha, Jacob and Frank read to the class so far this week. It was wonderful to hear such fluent reading!!!!





We are finishing up our study of visualizing this week. We have learned that we use our senses to create a movie in our mind. We have also learned that by visualizing we can remember the details of the story.

We are working on organization in writing. We are learning different ways to make our stories clear. We have used graphic organizers to write a clear beginning, middle, and end. We have also learned that we can organize our stories using the ABC's!

In math we are working on problem solving, addition algorithms, estimating, and rounding. Ask your student what a roller coaster has to do with rounding. Ask them to draw you a picture to see if they can explain.

We will finish up visualizing this week and then will use the holidays to study traditions around the world, mapping, and more! It will be a busy last two weeks before break.

Hallway 3 sent home a note this week about parents coming in to share about different cultural traditions that families celebrate. Please consider visiting our classroom on Dec. 14 to share your families traditions and help us learn about different cultures.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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The Week Before Thanksgiving...

...and all through the school it was NOT quiet! The students worked very hard on learning about visualization, working on a readers' theater (The ABC's of Thanksgiving) to practice fluency, learning about organization, using patterns to solve problems, learning more about addition and subtraction strategies...just to name a few things we did. And don't forget...we even went to a play: A Christmas Carol at South Elgin High School. Phew....I bet they want a break!

I hope everyone finds time during the vacation week to read a book. READ everyday! I just finished one book today and I have a stack waiting for me to begin....not to mention my Kindle! So many books...so little time! I can't wait to hear what everyone read when we return.

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Monday and Tuesday

Ali was our child of the day on Monday and Branden on Tuesday. We are taking a break from videotaping as we work on fluency. In fact, students each have a part in the ABC's of Thanksgiving Readers' Theater as we work on reading with intonation.



Yesterday after specials, we worked on spelling strategies and then began our math workshop where we worked on problem solving.

Today we read about the 1st part of the Pilgrim's voyage and drew pictures to visualize what was happening. Then we worked on our readers' theater parts. After readers' workshop, we watched a video of the trip to build schema about the 1st Thanksgiving.

Our writing lesson today was "writers write with a clear beginning, middle, and end." We are earning about the writing trait of organization.

During math workshop we worked on problem solving again.

We also had a mystery reader: Ali's mother! Here are a few pictures!

A Week in Review!

Enjoy!

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Monday Musings!

I'm trying to stay caught up as best I can, so here is today's real reader: Jake T.

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One of the reading strategies we continuously work on is reading with fluency.

From Reading Rockets:

Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. Their reading is smooth and has expression.

Children who do not read with fluency sound choppy and awkward. Those students may have difficulty with decoding skills or they may just need more practice with speed and smoothness in reading. Fluency is also important for motivation; children who find reading laborious tend not to want to read! As readers head into upper elementary grades, fluency becomes increasingly important. The volume of reading required in the upper elementary years escalates dramatically. Students whose reading is slow or labored will have trouble meeting the reading demands of their grade level.

What kids can do to help themselves:
Track the words with your finger as a parent or teacher reads a passage aloud. Then you read it. Have a parent or teacher read aloud to you. Then, match your voice to theirs. Read your favorite books and poems over and over again. Practice getting smoother and reading with expression.

What parents can do to help at home
Support and encourage your child. Realize that he or she is likely frustrated by reading. Check with your child's teachers to find out their assessment of your child's word decoding skills. If your child can decode words well, help him or her build speed and accuracy by: Reading aloud and having your child match his voice to yours. Having your child practice reading the same list of words, phrase, or short passages several times; Remind your child to pause between sentences and phrases;
Read aloud to your child to provide an example of how fluent reading sounds.
Give your child books with predictable vocabulary and clear rhythmic patterns so the child can "hear" the sound of fluent reading as he or she reads the book aloud.
Use books on tapes; have the child follow along in the print copy.

Click on the link to the right (Reading Rockets.org) for more ideas to help your child learn to read.

Today during our integration time with Mrs. Maha's class we learned about how the pictures in a book can help with comprehension. We also added to our vocabulary words: humble, radiate, overlook, prevail, confident, as we read The Strong One. IN math we took a pretest for unit 4. This will help me differentiate my instruction for the next unit.

Real Readers

I'm behind on my posts!!! Here are the readers from last week:

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We had a visit from the fire department last week to review fire safety. Here are a few pictures:






We continued to work on visualizing in reading and adding details to create a movie in the mind of the reader. We finished unit 3 in math and will be starting Unit 4 (addition and subtraction) this week.

Tuesday we will have an assembly about the Wright Brothers. We will also preview the book fair and on Wednesday we will be able to make purchases. A note went home today in the WOW binder.

Haunted Happenings at Liberty!

We participated in another online project: Pumpkin Math. We estimated, counted, and measured pumpkins. The largest amount was 505 seeds...most had over 400! On Tuesday, we analyzed the data.

Of course...in the afternoon we had our Fall Party. Enjoy a few pictures:

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Real Readers!

We continued through the week working on visualization as a reading strategy. We drew pictures as we listened to Eric Carle's Mixed Up Chameleon as we listened to the story. We learned that visualizing helps us to remember the story.

We also began working on creating a lead to our stories that "hook" the reader....draws them in so the reader wants to continue. We learned one way was to begin was with an exclamation. We then tried it on our own.

In math we worked more on place value, making change, and working with money.

Here are a few REAL READERS you might enjoy listening to:

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Rockin' Readers!

Rockin' Readers LOVE to READ!!!! What do YOU Rock 'n Read to?????

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Be sure and stop in to check out our Hallway 3 Rockin' Reader bulletin board! Hallway 3 ROCKS along the TRACKS to SUCCESS!!! (Stop in....and you'll see what we mean!)

Real Readers!

Enjoy listening to Emily and Amal as they read to the class this week:

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We began working on visualization as a reading comprehension strategy this week. We have learned that our mental images are all different because our schema is different. We've also learned that our mental images change as we read.

In writing, we are learning that writers add details to their story by answering who, what, where, etc. questions as they write. We've also learned that writers write in different genre's and writers use "juicy" words to help the reader visualize the story as they read.

Our math focus this week has been on place value and number sense.

I hope every one is using their TenMarks log in information and exploring this wonderful math site to enhance math learning! And...don't forget to go to Xtramath.org to practice their math facts.

October 17-21

Another busy busy week. Are they ever anything else?

We continued to learn more about schema and how it helps us as readers. We also learned how we can take our learning and connect to existing schema and extend our learning. To help us, we first wrote what the book said, then, what it meant in our own words. Then we wrote what meant. The book says....I say....And so that means....

The students did a great job as they begin to dig deeper into text. We will continue with this as we move into visualization as a reading strategy.

In writing, we continued with our personal narratives, but we learned that writers anticipate questions their readers might have with their stories, and answered those questions as they wrote. Ali H. reminded us to SHOW, DON'T TELL!!!

In math we worked on problem solving and then Unit 3 where we began working on place value.

And...in the middle of all of this...we learned more about insects and went on a field trip to Naper Settlement as we began a unit of looking back into our past. I hope everyone enjoyed the slide show. Here are a few more pictures and videos from this week:

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