It's Spring...We've blossomed!

I have large trees in my backyard and what seems like overnight, they have leafed out and have come to life.  In the same way, seemingly overnight, my crew has grown and blossomed into almost second graders.  Over the break they all grew at least an inch and each one of them seems more grown up.

You may not find comfort in hearing this!  I know as a parent sometimes my childrens' growing up made me happy and sometimes very melancholy as they headed towards becoming more and more independent from me.

Regardless of how we feel about their maturing,  it is all good from their perspective.  In these last weeks I'm pulling back more and more when I know what they ask for help with can be tackled on their own.  Struggling and persevering are such great challenges for each of us and they help us grow as people.

I'm doing my best to help grow your children.  And our wonderful IA teachers do the same at REMS.
What our crew did during this week's belaying was amazing and thrilling to watch.  They all took on personal challenges and they were so very pleased with themselves when they persevered.

Hooray for them!  Enjoy these pictures of this week's P.E. action.

New Expedition! Dirt and Worms

We all love a good mystery, don't we?  To introduce our new expedition to the crews we kept them in suspense, merely telling them they were going to do some scientific observations in dirt.  In small groups, manned with popsicle sticks, the children poked around and peered into the tubs of soil....and then 
SQUEALS AND OOOH'S AND AHH'S!  WORMS!  What fun!

In the weeks to come our worms will live in a worm farm in our room.  We will make observations in our worm journals and we'll learn how earthworms help make our soil rich for growing food.  (by the way, worm "droppings" are called "castings" not "poop".  I'm going to refrain from saying the "p" word at the risk of loosing the crew daily to such discussions!  Ahh...first grade.  That kind of talk is inevitable and hilarious to them.  

Second to this we will learn about soil and how our earth's resources are limited.  

Enjoy the pictures from our first day with the worms!

 

ASM

What fun we had at ASM today!  The children really enjoyed themselves and all of us came away happy and pleased with our performance.  I totally teared up watching them during our sharing time.  They are truly amazing little people and I'm so proud of each one of them!  

A special shout out to Bella Ford who was too sick to come to school today after practicing her list of b-day names so hard over break and to Macy Key for stepping in as her under study at the last minute.  Those birthday names were tough to tackle without practice! (where were all of the Jones' and Smith's when we needed them!) 

Here are a few pictures to enjoy!

They talked us into a goofy photo at the end.:)

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

Winter Voyage 2012/Camp Elim

Where we are as readers...

Hi Crew,

Thank you for making the effort to leave your busy lives on Friday.  Every child had someone special in the room supporting them.  I was amazed and so very happy for the kids.  They were just beaming weren't they?  We really enjoyed our first Reader's Theater experience.  In the upcoming months we will give this another go.   And the singing...such joy.  Such community.  We are happy.

                                               Reading Lesson:  Revisiting Just Right Books

Yes, the kids were spellbound when I pulled out these magazines.  I'll do anything to drive home an important point with them! 

 I gave the crew this reading lesson on Friday.   At this point in the year many of the children are really taking off into longer books with less picture support.  Since the winter break we've been working on "thinking" skills such as wondering, questioning, "making a movie in your head" while we read, and the higher level thinking skill of inferring. 

One of my fears is that now that a child can "read" many words without help,  they sometimes forget to "think" and comprehend along the way.  If no one is with them to chat about the book and check on this, a child can begin to think that reading is just reading all of the words in a book and that's the end of that! This is one of the reasons that I'm reminding them that they should be reading to or with someone for their nightly homework and that reading "just right books" is so important to their understanding of the story.

The above lesson went like this:

1.  5280 magazine:  "I know Tim Tebow is so popular right now, that I just had to buy this magazine and read up about him.  But I know so little about football"....  (then I read the heading of the article and a few lines, stumbling on words along the way).  "Well, I can see that I am not able to figure out what this is trying to say.  Too many words that are tricky for me.  And I don't know enough about football. I guess I'll have to read it this weekend with my friend who knows a lot about football." 
2.  Better Homes and Gardens:  "Let's see.  Here is an article about how to get your child to like reading.  Oh, I do love reading and I am a mom." (I read some lines fluently and shared what it said).
"Yes, I can read this smoothly and understand this article.  It is a just right read for me".

Lesson take-away: My background knowledge and interest in a book might help me read something new.  But if the words are too tricky, that might not be enough to help me understand my reading.  I need to know if a book is an independent book for me or if I need someone to read it with me. If I don't understand what I'm reading I need to do something about it!


Have a great week ahead!
Mary Beth

Getting ready to perform....READER'S THEATER

                                    Very Serious Readers At Work!

                                      A joyful group, ready to go!

                                    We have books with the scripts built in.

                                First we read the stories that go along with the script.

                        A script with a princess...lots of giggles from this group!      

                          Wait till you hear our realistic barnyard noises!