Happy Halloween

We had a very exciting day! In computer lab, students drew themselves in their Halloween costumes, using the program Pixie. We also had Book Fair and Guests for Lunch. Thanks to all that came out. We finished the day by reading Skeleton's Hiccups and completing a related activity. Here are a few photos from our day.

We started the day with the E.T. greeting.

          

Hope you had a fang-tactic Halloween!

Harvest Stations

What a fun day! After taking our word wall assessment, we jumped into some pumpkin activities. We started with Math. We went over the quilts we created on Thursday and examined the patterns. Then students created another quilt for our class quilt. Each student had to create a jack-o-lantern using pattern blocks. We reviewed the names of the pattern blocks and how they could go together. Here are a few results...

I am creating our class quilt and will post the finished product. It already looks great! After the students created their jack-o-lantern quilt, they had to graph the pattern blocks used. The idea and worksheet came from my teacher friend Michelle.

We did work on the life-cycle of the pumpkin, but I forgot to take photos of their work.

After special we had our Harvest Celebration. Thank you to all the families who volunteered their time or donated an item for this special event. The kids had SO much fun!

We taste tested apples and graphed our favorite.

We labeled the parts of an apple.

(We had a little helper at that station.)

 

We compared the weight of a mini pumpkin to the weight of an apple.

We made a very cute pumpkin craft.

Thanks again to all the volunteers. Next week, we will continue our Harvest unit with the study of apples.

Diwali

On Thursday, we had a very special treat. One of our students taught us about Diwali. We learned that it is called the "Festival of Lights." We also learned about the symbols of Diwali.

Sharing Pattern Books

Today we completed our Pattern Unit in Writing Workshop. The students chose one book to keep in the writing portfolio. We enjoyed sharing our books with friends. This opportunity not only allowed students to share their book, but also gave students practice on partner reading and helped build community.

I modeled how the student is to listen to their partner. We also gave each other compliments. After the sharing, we met together and discussed the compliments. Students noticed that others used punctuation. Others were impressed with the pattern in the book. Detailed illustrations was another compliment.

Here are a few other things we did this week...

We worked with short i.

We used the iPad during Guided Reading!

We worked on Quilt Squares.

We're Off to See the Wizard

Wow! That was about all we could say. Friday was fun-filled from the moment we arrived to school until the moment we left. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! We could not have asked for nicer weather as we took our lunch to Sawyer Point. After lunch we enjoyed a few minutes on the playground.

We got together to take a class photo before we headed off to the theater.

The show was great! The music, effects, and actors were all fantastic. Many kids were at the edge of their seats the entire time.

After the performance, we had to wait, and wait, and wait to be dismissed. However, two of our students got to ask questions about the performance. I apologize for the quality of the photos.

You can see that all the excitement wore us out!

But we still had work to do! When we returned from our field trip, students wrote about what they enjoyed and created "The Emerald City."

It was a such a nice day together as a class. The entire week was fun as we learned about tornadoes, rainbows, and the story. I cannot wait for you to see all the work displayed at conferences.
This week is another favorite theme of mine...Harvest!