Winter Fun

Our word of the day today was "call". It was a rule breaker with a twist, because the "a" said the sound of "short o". We know this, because it is part of the "ball of -all". It was a popular word family. The word call is a verb. In science today, we sorted winter vocabulary words into five groups - animals who like winter weather, activities in winter, how to travel in winter, what I wear in winter, and months that it snows. In math today, we worked on place value. We practiced writing two digit numbers and sorting the tens and ones. We used tens and ones blocks and mats with a partner. We also did a math worksheet. We are doing well. After lunch and recess, Mrs. Myers read us a story called, Frog in Winter. We listened for the main idea and supporting details. It was so easy. We recorded our answers on a paper. Then, we had reading workshop. At phonics time, we read Chicken Soup with Mice and Rice. We brainstormed words in the -ice family. Then, we told -ice family riddles. We also read, The Wild Toboggan Ride. Then, we brainstormed words on the "sled of -ed". After music, Mrs. Myers read the top 10 similes for winter that we wrote yesterday. We also had centertime. Today the art center was open. We are making a 3D snowman. Where is all the snow???

Winter Week

Our theme this week is winter! The weather is definitely cooperating. The word of the day today was "been". It is not the word "bean". It was a rule breaker, because the "ea" said the sound of "short i". The homonyn for this word was "bin". In math today, we practiced place value. Our new vocabulary words were "number, digit, place value, tens, ones, hundreds". We used rods and cubes on the board to make numbers. We wrote on our wipe-off boards. We also drew rods and cubes on our wipe-off boards to match the numbers Mrs. Myers wrote. At the end of the lesson, we practiced counting cubes into sets of ten. Then we counted our "tens". In language arts today, Mrs. Myers read the story, Three Snow Bears, by Jan Brett. We compared this story to the traditional story of the Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Then, we met with a partner and shared three things that were the same and three things that were different. Then, we had a quick reading workshop time. Today we got new centers. In the sentence strips center, we were connecting verbs to verbs with endings. We drew on the back. At the games center one, we had to match a snowman's hat to a word family picture. When you record, you have to write two more words from the family. In games center two, we sorted snowballs with pictures into short vowels words and long vowel words. We circled the correct word and colored the pictures. The last center was the writing center, we had to fill in missing sounds in a story. We drew a picture to match the words. Art center will open tomorrow. In writing workshop, Mrs. Myers read Stella, Queen of Snow. We practiced adding style to our writing. We listened for similes in the story. Then, we wrote winter similes of our own. We learned to use both the words "like" or "as" to write a simile. We also did journal writing today. We ending with two winter movies - The Snow Plow Patrol and A Snowy Day.

Yummy Gingerbread

Our word of the day today was "water". It was a rule breaker, because the "a" did not make it's sound. It was a noun. In math today, we worked in groups of four. We worked with some of Mrs. Lauber's boys and girls today, too. We traced one member of our group on large, brown paper. Then, we decorated it to look like a gingerbread man. After recess, we learned how to measure the gingerbread man using an inch ruler. We even learned how to use two rulers to measure long things. We measured the gingerbread man's head, hand, buttons, nose, mouth, and some other parts. You can see how big my gingerbread man was when you look in my mail today. After lunch and recess, we read a new Jan Brett story, Gingerbread Friends. We stopped three times during the story and Mrs. Myers had us predict what would happen next. We wrote our prediction down and then drew the "clue" we used to make our prediction. Next was reading workshop. Mrs. Myers finished reading with everyone today. At centertime, we had "make-up" day. For our fun Friday choices, we used the computers to make a gingerbread man, decorate a gingerbread house, and read a gingerbread story. We also could play a dice game to build a gingerbread man. If you visit Mrs. Myers' teacher page, we can play the games at home from her links page. At writing workshop time, we worked on the writing our gingerbread adventures. Mrs. Myers helped us get to our "WOW" ending. During writing, we took a break and made gingerbread. Mrs. Myers gave us each a cup of gingerbread mix. We added water and stirred it with a popcicle stick. Mrs. Myers cooked them. After phys. ed, we ate the gingerbread. Most of us liked it! We liked the gingerbread theme! Next week's theme is snow and snowmen. We hope it snows this weekend!

More Gingerbread

Our word of the day today was "first". It was a rule follower. It had a bossy r sound and a consonant blend. It was an adverb and adjectives. In math today, Mrs. Bashada pulled groups of students to help us practice our subtraction facts. Some groups used blocks to subtract. Other groups played "around the world". After lunch, recess, and library, we heard a new story about gingerbread. It was called, Bad Boys Get Cookie. We listened for character traits of the characters - how they look, act, and feel. We listed character traits in the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Then, we had centers. Most of us finished our fourth center. As a bonus, we worked in groups on the laptops. We used the drawing tools to create gingerbread men and houses. We printed them. There will be more bonus gingerbread centers tomorrow. We also worked during centertime to fix old centers, until they were perfect! In writing workshop today, we continued to write our gingerbread adventures. We checked our "grab the reader" beginning, when -who- where, and character traits. Then, we tried it out!. We wrote our adjectives, similes, and phrases. Then we jumped into our action. Mrs. Myers conferenced with us as we wrote. At the end of the day, we had reading workshop and a handwriting contest. For the contest, Mrs. Myers put a sentence on the board. We had to write it on our paper. Mrs. Myers will pick the top five writers. They will earn a prize tomorrow. Mrs. Myers will announce the winners at morning meeting tomorrow.

Gingerbread Girl to the Rescue

Our word of the day today was "than'. It was mostly a rule follower, because it was on the "can of -an". The "a" does say a funny sound. This word is a comparing word. It is sometimes confused with "then". In math today, we did gingerbread logic posters. Mrs. Myers read us clues and we crossed off the gingerbread person that did not match the clues. After lunch and recess, Mrs. Myers read, The Gingerbread Girl. It was a new version of the story. After the story, we wrote and drew about our favorite version of the story and gave three reasons why it was the best. Then, we had reading workshop. Mrs. Myers is still reading with us one at a time. At 1:10PM the power went off for about 20 minutes. We worked very quietly in the dark. We had a phonics lesson on soft g. This is when "g" makes the sound of "j". We sang the "soft g" song and did a paper. Ask me to sing the song tonight. Then, we had writing workshop. We worked on writing our gingerbread adventures with a grab the reader beginning and a when- who- where sentence. At the end of the day, we visited out third center. We hope it is not rainy or icy tomorrow!

Gingerbread

Our word of the day today was "my". It was a rule follower. We found that this word was on the "cry of y" on our clothesline. We also hung up "the my of Myers" to help us remember the word. The word "my" is a pronoun. In math today, we went into the hallway with Mrs. Lauber's class. We worked in groups to make pictographs out of our glyphs. We were graphing what part of the gingerbread man we eat first. We took the data and made a bar graph. Then we wrote true math statements using the word "difference". After lunch and recess, Mrs. Myers read the story, Gingerbread Baby. It was by Jan Brett. We worked in two groups after the story to write down the things that were the same as yesterday's Gingerbread Boy story. We also had a group to write down the things that were different from the yesterday's story. Then, we had a quick reading workshop. We were using our new packets. Mrs. Myers was reading with students one at a time today. We can use our Rah Rah or books at home to finish our old packets for bonus beans! Then, we had center time. We went to our second center of the week. At writing workshop time, we started brainstorming for our gingerbread adventures. We wrote similes, adjectives, and phrases about our gingerbread we decorated from home. We also drew the "when, who, where" for our story and shared it with a partner. Tomorrow we will continue writing our stories. We hope that the weather cooperates, so we can finish al our gingerbread fun tomorrow!

Happy New Year!

Welcome back everyone! We are so excited for the year 2009! Today was a day to start fresh! We were working on improving our word habits, neatness, and behavior. Mrs. Myers even moved our desks into a new shape. Our theme this week was people. It was a rule breaker, with a twist. The only rule breaking part, was the "decoration e" on the end. It was not a popular word family, but it was a noun. We were quick to see the "eo" vowel pair. In math today, we made a gingerbread man glyph. A glyph is an art project that collects data. We collected data about gingerbread and winter. Tomorrow, we will make some pictographs using our glyphs. There were very messy and fun! After lunch, we read our first version of the The Gingerbread Man. In this version, they were new characters and a new ending. Ask us how the fox eats the gingerbread man. After this, we took a tour of the new reading workshop packet. We were very excited for new activities. Our old packets are in our mail today. Finally before music class, we had a making words activity. Instead of working as a whole group, we worked with a partner to make words from the letters. Then, we shared the words and Mrs. Myers wrote them in lists of two, three, and four letter words. Then, we made the "super-jumbo-bonus word". It was the word "escapes". After music, we had a new center tour. We have two games centers. The first one is putting gingerbread boys in short vowel "ovens" to match their missing sound. The second one is a "when-who-where" retelling center. We were sorting and writing. In the magnetic letters center, we are using gingerbread men on cookies trays to make word family words for -ake, -ack, -ike, -ick. Last, at the listening center, we are listening to a video on the internet of Jan Brett reading and sharing how she wrote and illustrated the story, Gingerbread Baby. Then, we made a personal connection to the problem in the story. It was a great day back!