Picture re-take is this coming Monday October 22nd!

'Max's Words'

I will try to make a long story short about a new project that we are getting ready for in our classroom.  Our Reading Specialist, Ms. Blangger, let us borrow one of her books titled 'Max's Words'.  We absolutely loved it!  The main character in the story, Max, started cutting words out of magazines, newspapers, etc.  He then had the brilliant idea of putting these words together to make a story.  As a class, we decided to try and do the same thing as Max.  We are going to add old newspapers and magazines to one of our Literacy Stations "Working with Words".  After a couple weeks (when we have plenty of cut-out words) we are going to start creating our own book!!  We are asking for any donations of old reading materials that we can cut up! (so please do not send anything with your child that you want back in one piece:)) Thanks parents!!

Story Time

One of our Literacy Stations is "Story Time".  In this small group activity, the students choose a picture card and create their own story and illustrations related to the card.  This is a great example of how these 5 friends worked together to create their story.  They were so proud of their work (and I was so proud of them)!

Science

Our focus in Science is how Scientists use "Tools".  I showed the class a picture of an Astronaut using a tool.  They dictated to me what they thought the Astronaut was using and why.  I wrote down what they said...word for word.

Behavior Chart

We have 8 friends that have already received a RED clip!  Remember...every time a student lands on purple "AMAZING" for the day, they get a star sticker on their clip.  If they get 5 star stickers on their clip, they then move to a red clip!  Some friends are already working their way to an orange clip!  Awesome job!

STAR STUDENT OF THE WEEK...JOSHUA!

Open "Mic" Friday

We have started yet another fun activity in our classroom called Open "Mic" Friday.  Throughout the week, each student is encouraged to choose their absolute best writing piece and put it in our Open "Mic" Friday folder.  Once they add their writing piece, they highlight their name on the checklist so that I know they added a sample of their writing.  Every Friday, I will choose a certain number of students at random to read their stories over the microphone in front of our class.  This activity will begin to build their self confidence, writing skills, and reading fluency!! These writing samples will then be added to their Writer's Portfolio.  During Parent/Teacher conferences I will show you their work so you can all see your child's improvement in their writing. 

Writing Assessment results are getting sent home today!  They are already improving their writing skills.  We are continuing to practice our writing strategies everyday!!  These include Capitalization, Punctuation, Spelling, Spacing, etc.

Learning Subtraction

It was the students' turn up on the document camera...they came up one at a time to create their own subtraction sentence.  Their work was displayed on the board for all of us to see!  We are SO ready for our test on Friday:)  Great work friends!

STAR STUDENT OF THE WEEK

                                                                           Valerie

"Rewards"

We have a fun new "reward" system that we are starting!  At the beginning of the year, each group (there are 5 of them) voted on their own group names.  We now have Blue Group, Rangers, Winners, Cool Group, and Texas Rangers.  At the end of every day, the group with the most points (for great teamwork) gets a star by their group name.  Every Friday, we count which group has the most stars.  The winning group will now chose a Coupon.  As a class, we created 10 different coupons to choose from.  I encouraged all students to think of something fun that they would like to be able to do in the classroom that they normally wouldn't get to do!  Here are our Reward Coupons....* Take your shoes off during Silent Reading and sit wherever you want!  * 5 names in the basket!  *Bring an object from home and show it to the class!  *Bring a book from home and read it to the class!  *Sit in the front row for morning meeting!  *Start on BLUE everyday next week!  *Choose whichever Literacy Station you want to work at all next week!  *Write/Draw about your weekend and share it to the class!  *Display all of your writing/drawings for the week on our classroom bulletin board!

Star Student

We have had several students become "Star Student".  The way a student gets to be Star Student is when they go above and beyond throughout the course of the entire week!  We have 2 baskets labeled "I saw you doing something good" and "I saw  you stretching your brain".  I add a name to one of the baskets everytime I see this happening.  Every Friday afternoon we have a very SUSPENSEFUL tally of everyone's names.  The friend with the most names gets to be Star Student for the following week!  Some of their responsibilities include: line leader, morning meeting helper, sharpen pencils, pass out papers, reporter, and many many more!!