Mice!

A mouse that was found in our room!

He caught him!

Hmmm....

Our teacher is tricky...

Yum!

So I might have misled the class into thinking that they were going to eat mouse.  My mom volunteered on Friday and was able to bring us a delicacy!  

And if you haven't figured it out yet, it's a chocolate mouse!

Learning in our Room

I loved that these two boys grabbed the iPad to use the dictionary application to learn the meaning of rectangular!

Book Club

I love reading!  In my outside school life, I am in a book club and it's one of my favorite nights of the month.  I wanted the class to enjoy the same, so we had one!

Not only do you need a book (City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems), you need food!

I cannot wait to continue book clubs next year with the class (after we wrap up our non-fiction study).

Important Items Only...

Yes, folks, it's my purse and the contents (minus the phone that I am using to take a picture).  We are going to focus on what's important as we read (mostly informational text).

The scenario was another teacher and myself walking after school...what items do I need to have?

Their ideas...

My wallet...so no one steals it.
My watch...so I know what time it is.
My water...so I can get a drink.
My sunglasses...in case it's sunny outside.
My Kleenex...enough said.
My key card...so I can get back in.
My granola bar...in case I get hungry.

What you see above the smaller pile is what wasn't necessary.

I'm excited because this photo will help build our determining importance unit for the rest of the year!

Using her resources!

In our class, we have literacy and math stations.  I am always up for the class helping create and modify stations.  One student helped me sort the hundred chart puzzles pieces that had fallen out of the envelopes.  She thought it would be a good idea to label the envelopes.  Her math station partner got out his binder where we track our behavior and they used the color chart to spell the color words correctly.  Amazing!  Here she is with her work...

What Thinking!

I am sometimes blown away at how students can take apart numbers mentally and then come up with the correct answer.  Here's a sample...this is his third take (love that he kept trying to figure out the best way to explain it to others).  I love that he shared his thinking with numbers!

http://www.screenchomp.com/t/bJ8ee8FQFeQ

Enjoy!

Using strong vocabulary

I am hoping that students share some of the words we use and learn about in class.

We talked about the presidential election a few weeks ago.

Today, one of our students wanted to choose what game we played at the end of the day.  He said, "Hey, we could have an election!"

I let him run the election...check it out!

 

What did we eat?

Can you guess what we ate?

 

It was a pomegranante!

 She liked it!

 

Our faces show what we thought of it...



Hard at Work!

During our stations time (literacy and math), students have the opportunity to share thinking on ScreenChomp.  One of our students took advantage of this time.  Check out her math work!

Writers hard at work!

I hope you enjoy!  Some of the students chose to share a page or two from their writer's notebook.

Reader's Theatre

I divided the class into four groups and gave them two scripts.  Yes, we will work on volume next time, but after practicing for four days, I was pleased!  Enjoy!

 

 

 

New website

I am adding a new site under our Sites We Visit...let me know what you think.  Here's also a link here to try it out.

KB - Konnected Kids

Let's try this again...

Parents, thanks!  I have had several comment about not being able to comment.  I changed the settings and hopefully you will be able to from now on.

Thanks again...I am hoping that through this blog, I am able to show you more of what happens in our class throughout the year.

Planning Away

We are studying personal narratives.  I know I shouldn't be shocked when students actually do what I teach, but sometimes, I truly am...

In the beginnings of our personal narratives books that we are studying, we discovered the author will often tell who, where, and when in the first few pages.

Check out Justin's plan...

Justin's planning for his beginning

Research!

"I love research!" exclaimed Jack today!

Our new research project is what are the differences between an alligator and a crocodile?

And on a sidenote, in our Gooney Bird book, the class explores dictionaries.

Doesn't she look so cute?  She brought her own to use today!

 

Here's the class before morning meeting trying to find the words ennui and indefatigable.  They were convinced that the words were not in there...but I proved them wrong!

Busy, Busy, Busy...

I know I haven't posted in a while, but we have been incredibly busy in our room!  We are diving into our reading and writing workshops, practicing our newly acquired math concepts, and getting to know each other.

Here are at least a few photos of the work that is happening in the classroom.

Comments wanted!!!

I love it when students are learners outside of our class.  One of my boys wrote a book last night about his trip to a zoo.  So great!  He gets what being a writer is all about.  He also brought in some animals and we had a great time talking about how we would sort them...so, readers, this is where you come into play.  How would you sort them?  Share your thoughts with us so we can see if we matched or had different ideas.

Organization

A favorite time of day for me is when students are engaged in their reading.  Every year I share our classroom library with the class.  This year, I had them explore it a little differently.  I took most of our books out and divided them up into baskets.  Then, a small group of students was able to look through the baskets this week.

Today, we sorted them based on what they thought went together and then we placed them into baskets. 

The class finally got to spend some time in our library...whew!

New Additions

I have added a new behavior chart where students can see how they are doing through the day.  The large cup to the right is a new location for students to place their questions that they write during the day so I am not interrupted when I am conferring.  The basket to the left is filled with pencils for students' birthdays.  

This is our buddy reading area.  I purchased new baskets to contain these books to keep them away from our library.  

Our library!  I moved the shelves this year and the library looks HUGE!  You can see our books in bins on the floor.  We'll be going through the Queen Bee's book boot camp this week!

Argh, my messy desk!  I am working through all of the piles of papers that occur the first week of school.  I'll post a photo next Friday and hopefully you'll see a difference!

I moved our calendar so it's closer to our meeting area.  I  am hoping to have a math meeting and be more intentional of using our math talk here.  

Fair is not always equal...

We shared "One time I got hurt..." stories to practice turning and talking in our writing workshop.  My friend (who we will be pen pals with) shared this idea with me.

As each child talked with their partner, I walked around and gave them a bandage on their hand.  Most kids were a little curious and finally started to giggle as each child received the same treatment.

However, not everyone had stories about the same type of injury. 

I am hoping that as the year goes on, students will learn that I will not be giving everybody the same "bandage".   Each child needs their "bandage" where it serves them best.

We're back!!!

School is back in bloom!  I have a new colony of bees and apparently they like school so far...

I couldn't seem to get the photos to rotate...sorry!

Readers' Theatre

We were fluency fanatics last week and talked about expression, tracking, paying attention to punctuation, throwing our eyes and watching our speed.

Here are our videos.

Pop, Poppity, Pop!

A Beary Unsual Pet

Pirates' Adventure

Around the World

We went around the world and you can too!  This video is short, but powerful and the students really enjoyed watching it.

Enjoy!

Oh boy!

Some of my favorites from reading sentences with -oy...

My brother annoys me, destroys my stuff, and he enjoys picking on me. - Grant

My name is Troy and I am coy and I like soy. - Wyatt

My name is Joy and I am a boy and I enjoy annoying Roy and Troy.  - Nicole

This little boy had a toy that got destroyed. - Max

I'm a boy and I like toys and sometimes I'm coy.  - Zeke

I destroy my brother Roy's toy. - Anny

Math Video

Class, since I can't be there, I wanted to show you how I look at number patterns.  And I created it on Screen Chomp!  Work hard today!!!

Click here for the video!

Fun Site

We were looking at different types of simple machines.  I found this website!  The class seemed to enjoy a sneak peek at it.  Enjoy!  It allows the students to find simple and compound machines and asks them questions about the purpose of the machine.

Glamo and Camo

We decided to have some fun!  Glamorous sequins and camo! Here are our participants!

Having some fun...

Sorry for the delay in blogging...I have blogging over on my personal blog daily for a slicing challenge and while the class has been very hard at work and I've documented it...I just haven't blogged it.

Hoping to catch you up over our break.

Here's a quick video of us taking a physical and mental break this week!  Super fun!!!

-ain sentences

The winners are:

I like to explain in Spain and I am vain in the rain.  I live on Main Street.  - Josephine and Landon

Wayne went to Spain.  He had a big brain.  He was vain.  Somebody said explain.  - Kylie

What is a gar?

This week, our word family is the -ar family.  I had a boy a few years ago tell me gar was a word.  I, knowing the truth, told him it wasn't.  He proved me wrong.  I introduced the word this year.

What you see in the video is the class grabbing dictionaries left and right to figure it out...do they know yet?  Nope!  Maybe after reading this post, they will...(by the way, it was hat day.)

According to the dictionary, a gar is "any of various fishes with a long body like that of a pike and long narrow jaws" (from wordcentral.com)

Math Station Fun!

One station I am creating is a story problem station.  Students will be able to write and create some problems from a selected object and flash card.  The class LOVED the activity and even more after two girls shared their problem.  I don't let them use my name in videos, so they refer to me as Queen Bee.

Enjoy!

The kids helped cut out objects for our story problems...had to laugh at their label!



What our paper looks like.  If you want a copy, comment and I'll e-mail you it.

Sorry for the jumping girl at the end...can you tell she was happy?

"Sum" Fun

We are loving Sumdog.com!  Here is proof!  My students can battle each other and they were engaged throughout the entire time!  Thoroughly impressed!  They are even on this website at home!

And the winners are...

For our word family, students were challenged to write a sentence (or two) that used as many words as they could from our family.  Here are the ones I thought were quite creative...

That brick is thick and very slick.  I better catch Nick because he's really quick. - Jake and Max

I'm Rick.  I'll pick up a brick with a stick.  - Leah

Nick saw a slick stick that had a tick on it.  The tick made a tick tock sound so Nick quickly flicked it off. - Nicole

Nick went to the brick to kick a stick and lick a thick wick and pick up a thick chick and I got sick. - Grant and Herman

A little work needed...

I am reading a new book to the class and after asking them some questions, I have a little work ahead of me.

Gooney Bird was talking about presidents.  She named William and Ronald.  I asked the class if they knew who she was referring to.

William Shakespeare was one choice.  Ronald McDonald was the other.  Woah!  Opposite ends of the spectrum.  I had to smile and mentally note their names.

And to those of you who love US history, it was William Henry Harrison and Ronald Reagan.

Math Stations

Well, I am diving head first into math stations.  I will come up with more as we go along, but for right now, we have Twister, computers, pattern blocks, tangrams, geoboards, and our money bin.  iPads will come (long story there) and I will be searching for new sites to add for math.  Be on the lookout!

On a sidenote, sorry for the videos not being able to be seen.  I am working to correct this.

Writing Workshop

You probably read quite a bit in reading workshop today.  You might have really enjoyed your buddy reading today.  As you were working, thinking went on in your head.  Since I can't be there today, I'd still love to know what you read and what was going on in your head.  You are going to write me a letter telling me all about your thinking!  I know...some of you are excited and some of you just groaned inside. 

Here are some questions to help you get started...

• What book did you read?
• What happened in the book?
• Did you like it or not?  Why or why not?  Use a BECAUSE!
• Were you inferring?
• What tricky words did you find?
• Did you learn something in your book?
• What lesson did the author try to teach you?

You will turn this letter in TODAY and you need to do your very best and edit it when you finish it.  Please DO NOT put it in an envelope and work on the spacing of the letter...remember under, under, under!

I'm excited to read your letters!

Happy writing!

Student Poetry

Every morning we have stations.  This is a time where I can differentiate and work with small groups on various topics in reading and literacy.  During this time, students are off in their own activity of their choosing at their station. 

At our poetry station, two of our students wrote their own poem.  Enjoy!

Math Fun

Math on the iPad

Playing Kaboom (Thanks to Pinterest!)

Playing Coin Twister (I made this one up.)

Money War

MLK Day

Today we discussed what civil rights are and what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for.  After we had read a book and talked, I had the kids write in their notebooks about what they want for the world.

Here are their thoughts:

"His words meant a lot (lot was underlined) to the world." - Grant
"When I grow up, I want the world to be a better place.  I do not want to trash on the grass." - Kylie
"I have a dream to live in a world with peace and justice and no bad people." - Leah
"My dream is that people get along no matter what color.  No wars." - Jake

Pretty big dreams!!!

Word Fun

Each week we have a word family as part of our spelling test.  I try to have the students play with these words throughout the week.  They are required Friday to write any five that they can spell correctly.

Here is Josephine's sentence where she used as many as she could from the -ay family.  Downside...she beat me!

I like to play in gray hay and my parents say to stay and lay in the gray hay.  I say, Okay, let's see a display.

Writing Workshop Lesson

Today, as you look at your letter and my letter, what do you notice?  Do you see those red marks on my letter?  What are they called?

Yep, commas!

Writers place commas in the date, the greeting, and the closing.  They aren't stopping, so there's no reason for a period.  By inserting a comma, the writer pauses.

Check your letter.  Check again...did you put a comma in the date?  Did you put a comma after who you are writing to?  Did you put a comma after your closing?

In all of your letters from now on, place those commas!

Also, feel free to write me a letter and tell me all about your day.  Or, feel free to write to another teacher and tell them how much they mean to you.  We'll be delivering them on Monday, so write on!!!

Happy writing!!!

Where in the world?

Where were we today?  Well...we traveled to New York City and Mount Everest.  How?  Through books and websites.  Thanks to The Curious Garden by Peter Brown, we found a website about the Highline. 

After lunch, we traveled to Mount Everest by Google Earth and by Wonderopolis. 

The kids were amazed and it provided great lessons for us to learn and read about.

Before and After...

Wyatt took a giant risk today!  He chose to revise his writing and used Gail Gibbons as his inspiration.  Noticing her frames for text and her setting for the pictures, he revised!!!

What do you think?

I wish you could have seen his face after he shared his after picture with me...huge smiles on his part!