We can't wait to see you tomorrow for our writing celebration!
Please be at school no later than 9:45. We will be starting right on time. :)
As it's looking now, we will be trying to go on our field trip tomorrow afternoon, too! Keep your fingers crossed that the rain holds off!
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Friday, June 7, 2013
We've Been Walking in the Rainforest- All Among the Trees!
The past two weeks we have been learning all about the rainforest. We studied many different animals and kept a list as we learned about each one:
We also transformed our insect mural into a rainforest scene! We studied many nonfiction rainforest books and recreated all kinds of animals to fill our rainforest.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Field Trip
Hi families,
Since the rain is looking like it just doesn't want to cooperate with us, we are going to reschedule our field trip for tomorrow. I spoke to the director of Pilgrim Hall today and we made a plan to go Thursday June 13th- the afternoon after our writing celebration! The times/details will stay the same- we will leave at 12:15 (after recess/lunch) to walk there and return to school around 2:45.
For parents that were going to come with us tomorrow, please email me and let me know either way if you can come Thursday afternoon. I know some of you are already taking off time to come to school that morning for our celebration, so I completely understand if you are unable to commit to the afternoon. Also, if there are any parents that couldn't come tomorrow, but are able to come Thursday afternoon, you are more than welcome to join us! Please just be sure we have an up-to-date CORI form on file in the office. You can email me or send in a note to let me know you would like to come. :)
Have a good night everyone!
Since the rain is looking like it just doesn't want to cooperate with us, we are going to reschedule our field trip for tomorrow. I spoke to the director of Pilgrim Hall today and we made a plan to go Thursday June 13th- the afternoon after our writing celebration! The times/details will stay the same- we will leave at 12:15 (after recess/lunch) to walk there and return to school around 2:45.
For parents that were going to come with us tomorrow, please email me and let me know either way if you can come Thursday afternoon. I know some of you are already taking off time to come to school that morning for our celebration, so I completely understand if you are unable to commit to the afternoon. Also, if there are any parents that couldn't come tomorrow, but are able to come Thursday afternoon, you are more than welcome to join us! Please just be sure we have an up-to-date CORI form on file in the office. You can email me or send in a note to let me know you would like to come. :)
Have a good night everyone!
Character Study Posters
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| Mr. Putter (from the Mr. Putter and Tabby series) |
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| Nate the Great (from the Nate the Great series) |
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| Sam (from the Sam and Bingo series) |
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| Jasper (from the Jasper the Cat series) |
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| Henry (from the Henry and Mudge series) |
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Character Studies in Reader's Workshop
We have been loving our character unit in Reader's Workshop. The students have been getting right into the minds of their characters to learn and understand more about their feelings, predict their actions, and make inferences. Each student began the unit with a bag of different books all about the same character. After reading and marking scenes, the students partnered up with another classmate who was reading about the same character. The two partners directed and acted out scenes from the book to help visualize the character better. They worked together to think about how act and speak just as the character would!
We then explored some deeper thinking and moved into a book club to get some "juicy" discussion going. Groups of four of five students all reading/studying the same character got together to talk about their character. In our mini lessons, we discussed how we can find patterns across our books. The students were so smart noticing how similar a character can act across different books! This helped us infer what a character might do based on what we had read about him/her in previous books. We also discussed places where we notice the character having strong feelings, and when those strong feelings change. This helped us get to know our character even better and helped us generate a list of character traits that would fit our characters!
To finish up our unit, each book club is creating a character board. First, we used the illustrations in our books to carefully work together and create a life size drawing of our character. These are completely student made- and they are a riot! I am totally impressed with what an amazing job each group is doing! The students are also surrounding their characters with traits to describe what each character is like. This requires group members to really discuss and agree why a character might be responsible, lazy, brave, etc. We have spent a lot of time discussing how we must find evidence in the text to support our inferences. I love hearing group members say "What makes you think that?" or "Can you give an example?" to really encourage good discussion around traits that truly describe each character!
Here's a sneak peek at groups working on their life-size drawings for their character boards. Tomorrow I will post the finished products! I can't wait for you to see them! :)
We then explored some deeper thinking and moved into a book club to get some "juicy" discussion going. Groups of four of five students all reading/studying the same character got together to talk about their character. In our mini lessons, we discussed how we can find patterns across our books. The students were so smart noticing how similar a character can act across different books! This helped us infer what a character might do based on what we had read about him/her in previous books. We also discussed places where we notice the character having strong feelings, and when those strong feelings change. This helped us get to know our character even better and helped us generate a list of character traits that would fit our characters!
To finish up our unit, each book club is creating a character board. First, we used the illustrations in our books to carefully work together and create a life size drawing of our character. These are completely student made- and they are a riot! I am totally impressed with what an amazing job each group is doing! The students are also surrounding their characters with traits to describe what each character is like. This requires group members to really discuss and agree why a character might be responsible, lazy, brave, etc. We have spent a lot of time discussing how we must find evidence in the text to support our inferences. I love hearing group members say "What makes you think that?" or "Can you give an example?" to really encourage good discussion around traits that truly describe each character!
Writing/Poetry Celebration
A note went home today regarding our Writing/Poetry Celebration next Thursday June 13th. Please be sure to take a peek at it and return the form to me as soon as possible. I am looking forward to seeing everyone. We can't wait to show you all the hard work we've been doing!
Also, it's looking like rain is forecasted for our walking field trip to Pilgrim Hall on Friday. I tried contacting Pilgrim Hall to schedule a new date (if needed), but the person I need to speak with to do so is out of town until Thursday morning. I will keep an eye on the forecast and be in touch as soon as I know more. Thanks to all the parents that volunteered to chaperone- as soon as I get more information on Thursday, I will be in contact with you!
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