Proud Parents!

Hi Crew,
As you and I celebrate the beauty of your child at student-led conferences, I just couldn't help celebrating  my own daughter.  Megan was chosen as her school's Apple Award winner for this school year.  I was so proud of her last night at the award banquet! She teaches 4th grade and is just in her second year of teaching.  I'm amazed at how deeply loved she is by her parents, peers and students!  She teaches mom lots about classroom teaching!  Trust me, once a parent always a parent...and how lovely it is to watch your child grow into a beautiful adult.  Heart-melting.

We have SO much to celebrate every day in our crew.  I am usually in the middle of it and I often forget to grab the camera.  But I was able to take a snapshot of our crew this past week! The children are very excited about studying non-fiction.  We are making non-fiction convention notebooks as we learn about the look of non-fiction and how we go about reading it vs. how we read fiction books.

As soon as I say "It's time to do some animal research", the crew whips into a frenzy of learning!  I hear about ten children at a time call "Ms. Mary Beth!  Did you know that..."  They just can't contain themselves! What fun!  What engagement! Together we are researching using books and websites like Creature Feature by National Geographic and Kid Rex, a kid friendly search engine.  This week we will begin writing our All About books with the help of graphic organizers.

THE 29 FOOT ANACONDA...
is finally finished.  One of my reading groups read a book titled The Encyclopedia of the Rain Forest.
That inspired us to think about how long an anaconda can actually be.  This group decided it would be fun to create their own snake.  It was a great project that included using measurement, perseverance and working as a team.  Great job kids!  I'm trying to figure out where we can safely display this in our school.  Look for it to be up somewhere this week!

Don't you just love the "I'm done" sign? That was Sam's thought:)

Last week before Spring Break!
We are all ready for some more time outside and for some time to rest.
I hope you all have a wonderful time with your families.  When we get back we will only have 8 weeks of school left and those weeks will fly by.  Please find time for your child to read and write over the break!  
Joyfully, Mary Beth