Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was the last day of school before Thanksgiving! Our word of the day today was "her". It was a rule follower. It was also a pronoun to take the place of a girls name. After our morning routine, we had a dress rehearsal performance of the ABC's of Thanksgiving Reader's Theater. We performed for Mrs. Lauber's class. We videotaped the performance. Right now, the video is having technical difficulties. (It's stuck inside the camera!!!). If we get it fixed, I'll upload the performance! After recess, we had a fun math lesson. We learned a new word - probability. Probability is the chance that something will happen. We made a probability line and organized events into "always" happens, "sometimes" happens, and "never" happens. Then, we divided into groups of three. Each group had a bag of turkeys, either yellow or orange, or both. We had to pull the turkey out of the bag nine times. Each time, we colored our data on a turkey. At the end, we made a prediction about what color turkeys were in our bag. Then, we looked. Most of us were correct! That's probability! Last, we wrote a sentence using the new vocabulary words on the back of our paper. Then, it was time for lunch and recess. After recess, we read the story, The First Thanksgiving. We talked about the Indians at the first Thanksgiving. Massasoit, the leader, was invited by the Pilgrims, but he brought along 90 other Indians to the feast. Then, we came back to the chart we made on the first day of the unit. We looked at the things we thought we knew when we started the unit. Most of them were correct. Then, we looked at the questions that we wanted to learn. We answered most of them from the facts that we learned in the past two weeks. Last, we made a circle an each shared a new fact we learned during the unit. Mrs. Myers was amazed at the interesting facts we remembered. Just before music class, we played a game called Overboard. We all got on a pretend boat. We had to spell a word - letter by letter. If you missed a letter, you were thrown "overboard". We did let you back on the ship, after you practiced writing the word on your wipe-off board. It was a great day! We can't wait for our vacation! See you all at conferences. Mrs. Myers will be out on Monday for a personal day. No blog until Tuesday! Happy Thanksgiving!

Feast Day

Our word of the day today was "some". It was a homonym for the math word "sum". It was a rule breaker, because the "o" said the sound of "short u". The -um family was very popular. We made a long list of words. In math today, we practiced growing patterns. We made three Indian growing patterns on our vests to wear to the feast. We used symbols, just the Indians. Check them at home tonight. See if you can tell the name of each pattern. After lunch and recess, we read the story, The First Thanksgiving. Mrs. Myers wrote a list of Thanksgiving words on the easel. We had to tell her which two words did not belong. We weren't sure how the words were related. After the story, she told us the most of the words were nouns. A noun is a word that names a person, a place, or a thing. We found the two verbs on the list and crossed them off. We looked for other nouns in our word of the day sentence. Then, we sang a new song about nouns. We added it to our song and poetry folder. Last, we did a paper where we sorted nouns into person, place, or thing. Then, we had reading workshop. After that, we practiced a dress rehearsal of our reader's theater for tomorrow's performance. At movie time, we watched a movie about Thanksgiving and Plimoth Plantation. We learned a few new facts. At the end of the day, we put on out pattern headbands, our necklaces, and our vests. We went to share our cranberry bread with first grade at our feast. We sang some of the songs and poems from our folder. We ate cranberry bread, trail mix, popcorn, and apple cider. It was so yummy fun! We were so thankful for our feast. A special thanks to Mrs. Welty and Mrs. Carlisle for setting up and helping with the feast. Thanks to all who donated paper products!

A Cranberry Day

Our word of the day today was "them". It was a rule follower. We noticed that it looked almost like the word them. It was a pronoun. It takes the place of a group of people. In math today, we practiced making and naming repeating patterns. After some practice, we went to two different pattern stations. At the first pattern station, we made Indian necklaces using beans with an AABC pattern. At the second stations, we made Indian headbands using feathers with an ABCCD pattern. We will wear both at our Thanksgiving Feast on Monday. After lunch and recess, we read the story, Cranberry Thanksgiving. It is an old story, but we loved it, because the author tricked us! After the story, we retold the story on a story map. Then, we had center make-up time, and we practiced our Reader's Theater. For Fun Friday, we played word family tic tac toe. After that, it was time to cook! We were so excited to have our cooking show. Mrs. Donner, Mrs. Kurland, and Mrs. Welty came to help us good. We were divided into six teams. Each team made their own cranberry bread. Before we cooked, we had to order the events of the recipe. Then, we put our teams in order, using these events. Next, we wrote our "grab the reader" beginning for the story - How to Make Cranberry Bread. Then, we began mixing and cooking. Next, we counted to 75 as the stirrers stirred the mix. Last, the parent helpers poured the mix into bowls. They are taking it home to cook for our feast on Monday. We want to give them a big THANK YOU!!! They even did the dishes! At the end of the day, we had phys. ed. and sharing! Please open the video attached to today's blog, if you want to view our cooking show! ENJOY!

Our Quilt of Learning

Our word of the day today was "many". It was a rule breaker, because the "a" said the sound of short e. It was an adjective. We hung the "many penny" from the ceiling to help us remember this rule breaker word. After library, lunch, and recess, we had another lesson about the pilgrims. We used the Smartboard to learn new facts. We compared the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians in how they dressed, their houses, their chores, their schooling, what games they played, and the foods they eat. We also learned all about the first winter that the Pilgrims lived in Plimoth. We learned that the Pilgrims were sick and weak as they had to build one large building to live in. In December, two people died. In January, eight people died. In February, 17 people died. In March, 13 people died. It was very sad for the Pilgrims. In March, the weather began to change. The Pilgrims met the Wampanoag Indians who helped them plant and hunt. We will continue our journey tomorrow. Then, we had reading workshop and Mrs. Myers read with some friends. At writing workshop time, we made a quilt telling all the facts we learned about the pilgrims, indians, and the Mayflower. Check it out when you visit for conferences. At the end of the day, we had center time. We also got our parts for the reader's theater called the ABC's of the First Thanksgiving. We will perform in next Tuesday. Look for a podcast.

Turkey Day

Our word of the day today was "these". It was a rule breaker, because the "s" said the sound of "z". It had a CVCe pattern, though, so we used our magic "e" wand to show how it changed the first vowel. We practiced more turkey songs today. We have so many songs to sing at our first grade feast on Monday. After music, lunch, and recess, we practiced sorting facts and opinions about turkeys. We listened to a statement and decided with claps if it was a fact statement or an opinion statement and added the facts and opinion feathers to our fact and opinion turkeys. Then, we went into the hallway and used the Smartboard and took a quiz with Mrs. Lauber's class about turkey and Thanksgiving facts. We knew 13 answers out of 20. We know lots of facts about turkeys. We learned some new facts and turkeys, too. We learned that Benjamin Franklin tried to change our national bird to the turkey. Abraham Lincoln tried to change the date of Thanksgiving. We learned that Minnesoda produces the most turkeys. We learned that Israel eats the most turkeys each year. Then, we had reading workshop and centers. Mrs. Myers is still reading with us one at a time. At writing workshop today, we learned to write a poem called a cinquain. We had to choose a focus related to Thanksgiving. Then, we listed adjectives, nouns, verbs, and synonyms for our poem. We will take the poems home tomorrow for you to read. At the end of the day, we had a guidance lesson. Miss Anderson taught us about the green circle. We will share all about it at home with our HOME work.

The Long Jouney

Our word of the day today was "so". It was a rule breaker with a twist. The "o" said his name, with out another vowel helper, but we see this happen in other words like... no, go, ho. This word is a homonym for the word "sew". It is also an adverb. After our morning routine, we had lots of Mayflower learning. First, we used the Smartboard to hear about the Speedwell. It broke down because it had a leak. It was from Holland, but met the Mayflower in England. They tried for a month to fix it, but they couldn't. Then, we saw the names of all the pilgrims who sailed on the Mayflower. Some had funny names like wrestling, love, oceanus, remember. They were named after things they liked to do or virtues. After recess, we continued to use the Smartboard. We saw the different parts of the Mayflower and look a interactive trip across the Altlantic Ocean using the internet. We got to touch and press things on the Smartboard to see and hear new facts. At lunch, we really enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner. We had to cancel "eat lunch with the teacher" because it was the holiday meal. We will use our passes tomorrow. After lunch, we learned about the laws the pilgrims made when they landed in Massachusetts. It was called the Mayflower Compact. Only the men could sign it. The girls were mad. Kids couldn't sign it either. That wasn't fair. We also learned that the pilgrims weren't trying to land in Massachusetts. They were trying to sail to Virginia. After the pilgrims landed, they still had to stay on the Mayflower, because they had to build a place to live. Then, we took a break from the Mayflower and had our own centers and reading workshop. Mrs. Myers is reading with us one at a time. Then, it was writing workshop time. Mrs. Myers shared stories from last week. We heard the content of Annabelle's, Ryan's, and Ian's stories. We practiced that good content means - characters, setting, problem, and solution, lots of events, and adjectives! Then, we wrote in our journals. Last, she shared Madison's story. She taught us how to use commas in a series of names and how to tag our quotations. WOW! We will hear more stories tomorrow. At the end of the day, we had art class.

Parent Visitation Day

We were so excited to have all of the parents and grandparents in our classroom today! It was great to show you all of the different things you have been hearing about all year. We hope you enjoyed your visit. If you have any questions about what you saw, please let me know!

Our word of the day today was "then". It was a rule follower, and a word on the pen of -en. We read the whole word family aloud. We also learned that this word is not a homonym, but it has a cousin who looks almost like it AND sometimes sounds like it, too. It is the word "than". We learned that "then" tells something is happening next. The word "than" compares two things. Soon, it was time for math. We were excited to collect data using an art project. It was a turkey glyph. First, we filled out the data sheet. Next, we visited the stations of the art center. Last, we made a pictograph on the carpet and told true math statements about it. We will make another pictograph with different data on our turkey tomorrow. Look for it in the hallway at conferences! After lunch and recess, we read the story, Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving. We retold the story on a GO map. Many of the parents were there to help us. Then, we practiced telling the "when, who, where" of the green triangle on our GO map. Then, we went to see our second grade computer buddies. We practiced typing using the typing game. We are really doing a great job of keeping our hands on the home keys. Then, we taught our second grade buddy a fact about a turkey. We typed the fact and changed the font and size. We will use these facts to make a class book! After that, we came back to our classroom for making words. We used the letters to make three letter words in the -ow, -ay, and -ar families. Then, we had the super-jumbo-bonus word. It was Mayflower. Madison had the word first! Then, we went to music class. At the end of the day, we played our making words detective game. Then, we had a new center tour. In the games centers, we are sorting the question and telling sentences onto different turkeys and then practicing writing question sentences. In the other games center, we are finding the missing short vowel sounds. In the magnetic letters, we are making short vowel words from pictures. In the sentence strips center, we are sorting Thanksgiving words into alphabetical order to the third letter. We don't have an art center this week. We will be working on neatness in our centers and proofreading for extra beans!