We were all disappointed that the weather did not permit us to have Super Goober Day on Friday, but we made the most of our week together.
Students took a spelling assessment, and we were so proud of how they are growing in their awareness of spelling
patterns. Our spelling groups may change a little of the next few weeks to provide students with spelling instruction tailored to their needs. We are excited to see our “Putting Dead Words to Rest” bulletin board finished. The children really enjoyed looking up overused words to find their more exciting “cousins” in the thesaurus.
We are continuing our study of explorers. Students enjoyed learning about Spanish settlements in North America, as well as finding out more about English explorers. Students were reminded to read captions, diagrams, and maps when reading factual texts. We discussed what we have learned thus far, and the children practiced answering written comprehension questions. The children were particularly interested in the fact that most of them never found what they were looking for, but they made other great discoveries in the process.
We had fun in mathematics by using nonstandard measurements, such as candy corn. I think we enjoyed the activities, but the children agree that having standard units of measurement are very important. Can you imagine a place where everyone measured everything in any fashion that they wanted? We all laughed thinking about this notion.
Our Bunnicula book club discussion was excellent. Students made connections between the text and their own lives. We each chose a character in the book that we felt was a kindred spirit. We have quite a few Harolds, Chesters, and even Bunniculas in our midst! Many students felt they were calm like Harold. They were people who waited and watched before jumping to conclusions. Some students felt that they were like Chester. They liked to tell people what they should do, and they sometimes believed things before gathering evidence. We also had several Bunniculas! Some students felt that they resembled Bunnicula because of their love of veggies, possessing the ability to be an escape artist, or being night owls. We have one more week to go! We are looking forward to an exciting book club meeting next week.
In writing workshop, students finished their monsters and completed their amazing manuals to explain how to take care of their creatures. They also completed their love letters from a spider to a fly. The fly doesn’t stand a chance against our creative writers! They wooed her with flattering words. Our plan is to transform our letters by using digital storytelling. Our collection of letters and illustrations will become Miss Fly’s digital scrapbook. Stay tuned…
We also discussed the craft of writing, and students wrote amazing character sketches. Kate DiCamillo, an amazing author, was our inspiration for this project. After reviewing her journal entries (some of which inspired her to write Because of Winn Dixie), students realized that authors like to observe the people, animals, and places that many people overlook. By “noticing,” we can learn to craft our own characters based on our experiences. Mrs. Sard and I were very impressed by the hard work that went into these character sketches. They have become a new artifact in our writing workshop folders to be used in a future story. Students have been commenting on the cool breezes, the crunchy leaves underfoot, and the early evenings of fall. Students used this season as a springboard for writing poetry, and they eagerly created their own fall leaves to decorate the windows.
Students had a fantastic time carving pumpkins and saving the seeds for roasting. Mrs. Sard roasted our seeds for us, and they were delicious! The aroma of “pumpkin guts” filled the air, as we cleaned out our pumpkins to prepare them for carving. While small groups worked on the larger pumpkins, the rest of the class decorated their own mini pumpkins. Students also had an opportunity to decorate their own mini-pumpkins for a class fashion show! We were thrilled to see the variety of pumpkins they created!
Tags: Mrs. E's Blog by carrie.edmison
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