One More Day!

Our word of the day today was "two". It was a homonym word for "to" and "too". It was a rule breaker, because the "w" was a decoration and the "o" said "oo". It was a adjective. After lunch, we read the story, A Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett. We compared this new story to the Polar Express. We can finish the venn diagram for bonus tonight. Then it was reading workshop and guided reading time. Finally, we had writing workshop time. We finished our fantasy train ride stories. At the end of the day, we had a special treat. We watched the first half of the Polar Express. Please remember to wear pajamas. Bring you slippers, so you have sneakers for phys. ed. We can't wait for our Polar Express party!

Board the Train

Our word of the day today was "look". It was a rule follower. We learned a new rule about "oo" as a vowel diphthong. It can say a different sound than "the boo of oo". The "ook" family was popular. In math today, we estimated how many bells were in our estimation jar. There were 65. Elle, Anna, and Abby were the closest. Mrs. Myers was too. We all had a smart guess, because we all guessed over 40 using clues from the jar. After lunch and recess, we did a poetry activity. We sequenced a poem about Polar Express by thinking about the events in the story. Without even looking at the poem, we had all the events in order, except for two. We practiced reading the poem. Last, we highlighted the consonant digraphs (sh, ch, th, wh) and our verbs with endings. (ing or ed). Then it was reading workshop time and guided reading. After that, we had a BIG writing workshop project. We filled out a GO organizer to brainstorm the events in the beginning, middle, and ending of our stories. We added similes and content using our senses. We will finish our stories tomorrow. They will hang in the hallway with our awesome Polar Express train designed by Mrs. Pressley. We also have boarded the train with our window sillouettes. At the end of the day, we had center time. Mrs. Myers opened the art center. We are doing a three day crayon resist of our favorite illustration in the Polar Express book.

A Fantasy Train Ride

Our theme this week is the Polar Express. Our word of the day today was "time". It was a rule follower, because it followed the CVCe pattern. It was a popular word family. We listed the words on the board. It rhymes with the contraction "I'm". In math today, we introduced the concept of subtraction. We brainstormed what we thought we knew about it already. We learned the words "minus" and "difference". We also learned that subtraction is like going "backwards" or "taking away". We learned the most important rule of subtraction - Start with the BIG NUMBER FIRST". In groups, we learned to subtract using bells. Mrs. Myers gave us jingle bells and bowls. We made equations by starting out with the big number of the jingle bell set. Then, we took away a smaller number of bells and hid them under our bowl "cave". We counted how many "were left". It was fun. At the end, we got to work with a partner to be the teacher or the learner. After lunch, we finally got to hear the story The Polar Express. It was so magical. After that, we compared a real train ride to the fantasy ride on the Polar Express. We used a venn diagram. We recorded some answers for you to see in our mail tonight. Then, we had reading workshop. At writing workshop time, we learned a new part of style. It was called similes. We learned that we can make a better picture in our reader's head by adding similes to our stories. A simile describes a noun or a verb by adding an adjective or adverb and a noun. (The hot cocoa was as rich and thick as melted chocolate bars). We listened for similes in the Polar Express story. We wrote our own similes at the end of the lesson. We will use them in our "Fantasy Train Ride" story on Wednesday. At the end of the day, we had a center tour. Our new centers are Polar Express centers. In the games center, we are sorting consonant digraph pictures onto train cars and putting contraction words on Santa's reindeer's bells. In the writing center, we are writing a letter to a character in the Polar Express. In the sentence strips center, we are matching nouns and adjectives from the story. Tomorrow, we will have the art center opened!

More Fantasy Stories

Our word of the day today was "into". It was a compound word. It was a rule breaker, because the "o" said the "oo" sound. After recess, we had math with Mrs. Lauber's class. We used the Smart Board again to practice our number sense on the hundred's chart. We practiced counting, finding numbers, adding on ten, and ordering numbers using less and greater. You can try the same activity at home on your computer, by visiting my links section. After lunch and recess, we read the story Probuditi, by Chris Van Allsburg. It was really a fantasy story with a surprise ending. We worked in groups on GO maps. We really practiced telling the "when-who-where" so it sounds like a story and not a list. Ryan showed us how to add motions to our "when-who-where" to help us remember where to look on the green triangle of the GO map. Then, we heard a second Chris Van Allsburg story. It was called, Zathura. It was a sequel to the story Jumanji. Many of us have seen the movie and were excited to hear the book. It was also a fantasy story that could never happen. Next, we had reading workshop time and guided reading. Then, it was writing workshop time. Some of us tried to write holiday stories about things happening at home for the holidays. Others tried to write a Chris Van Allsburg style story that had lots of fantasy. We even tried to write a story like Jumanji and Zathura. Mrs. Myers is still typing our autobiographies. At the end of the day, we watched a movie. Have a great weekend. Check out the newsletter and Polar Express Party invitation in our mail. Next week's theme is The Polar Express.

Allsburg Fantasy Day

We started reading a new Chris Van Allsburg book, called Bad Day at Riverbend. Ask me about the surprise ending. We learned that Chris Van Allsburg's writing style is the genre called fantasy. Our word of the day today was "him". It was a rule follower. It followed the CVC rule. This word is a pronoun for a boy's name. After recess, we had book exchange. Then, it was time for math. Mrs. Myers showed us a hundred's chart on the Smart Board. We practiced using the different rows and columns. We raced to find numbers. We practiced finding greater, less, and it between numbers. We also learned how to add 9, 10, or 11 on the hundred's chart. We counted by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's. We will used the Smart Board tomorrow to do some different hundred's chart games. If you are interested, please visit my hundred's chart link on my teacher page. After lunch, we read our second book, The Sweetest Fig. It was really fantasy. Ask me why! We retold the story on a GO map in our groups. Then, we went to Mrs. Weikert's class to have computer time with our second grade buddies. We typed an acrostic poem called FROSTY. We used each beginning letter to start a focused sentence about Frosty. We also had time to practice our typing program or visit some other school links. Back in our classroom, we had writing or reading workshop. We had a choice, while Mrs. Myers met with us to type our autobiographies. At the end of the day, we had phys. ed. and read Junie B. Jones.

A special congratulations to Anna's Yankanich's family on the birth of a new daughter. We were all so excited to hear the news. We would like to collect some data about our own births. Please send in our birth weight and length tomorrow for a data collection activity.

Biographies and Autobiographies

Our word of the day today was "like". It was a rule follower, because it followed the CVCe rule. It was a popular word family. We wrote the word in the family on "the bike of -ike". We had library, lunch, and recess. At library, we read the book Jumanji, by Chris Van Allsburg. After lunch, we read the story, The Z was Zapped. It was an alphabet book, full of alliteration. Alliteration is when all the words and sounds in a sentence begin the same. After the story, we worked with a partner, to write an alliteration sentence. Check it out in tonight's mail. Then it was time for reading workshop and guided reading. Some of us have a book to share at home tonight. Then, we started writing workshop. We finished our autobiographies. We will be typing them tomorrow with our second grade computer buddy. At the end of the day, we played more letter and sound games. Mrs. Myers taught us the game, "What's Missing". There were nine words on the board. We practiced reading them. Then, we hid our eyes and Mrs. Myers hid a word. When we turned around, we had to write the word that was missing. We did this with one word missing, two words missing, and three words missing. Then, we played the game with our own key ring and a partner. Try this out at home. Just a reminder, used book exchange is tomorrow!

Chris Van Allsburg

Our theme this week is the author, Chris Van Allsburg. Our word of the day today was "make". It was a rule follower, because it followed the CVCe pattern. We used our "magic e" wand. The -ake family was very popular. We wrote many words on the "cake of -ake" for our clothesline. We also read the story, Jake Bakes a Cake and listened for the -ake family words. After recess, we had music, lunch, and recess again. After that, we read our first Chris Van Allsburg story. It was called Two Bad Ants. We practiced predicting using the clues in the words and the pictures. We had a predicting partner who we shared ideas with. We were great at using the clues, just like a real detective. Then, we had reading workshop and Mrs. Myers took two groups for guided reading. Then, it was time for writing workshop. We brainstormed on an organizer for our autobiography. We used a hamburger organizer. We also brainstormed our "Grab the Reader" beginning and our "WOW" ending. We will write our stories tomorrow. At the end of the day, we played two word and sound games. The first was called "Word Ladder" . We practiced changing one letter in each word on the ladder to make a new word. We went all the way down the ladder twice. The second game we played was "HEART". We played three rounds with word wall and clothesline words. We even used all the words in our room for round three. We had three finalists - Grace, Thomas, and Elle. Elle was our winner today! We had a busy day. More Chris Van Allsburg tomorrow!