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!
 

Lean on Me

HI!
What is this craziness?  Well, it is actually our crew working on a team building activity in preparation for our Winter Voyage.  You probably have tried this once or twice in your life!  Everyone takes a seat on the person's knees behind them.  We tried this for our Morning Meeting activity on Friday and discovered that we have to tighten up our circle the next time we give this a go.  The kids enjoyed this!  We are a great team. 
Mary Beth

Tidbits

Hi Crew,
Many thanks to all of the parents who helped make our Valentine Party fun for the children.  They had a wonderful time.  I appreciate your efforts.

No regular math link page for homework tonight but the children were asked to practice their math fact triangles.  We will have our next math test next week most likely on Wednesday.

As you know we are doing a lot of practice with counting coins.  As it goes in first grade, some of us have lost track of some of our coins that were sent in at the beginning of the year.  It would be helpful if you ask your child what they might be missing in their coin baggies.  They need 20 pennies, 10 dimes, 5 nickels, and 2 quarters.  Thanks for your help on this.

Finally, a cute picture of Sam today with Integrity our classroom bear.  We have begun a new journal after filling up the first one we started in August.  It is so exciting to see the progress of the children's writing.  I'm so proud of them.
Mary Beth

Crew News 2/12/12

Highlights from last week...

• Realistic Fiction! I kicked off this new writing genre study by reading some realistic fiction featuring a boy named Andy Shane and his bossy classmate Delores Starbuckle.  The kids absolutely loved this read aloud. (Andy's class has morning meetings too!).  And yes, if your child came home singing "Walk Like an Egyptian" it was because Delores Starbuckle danced to it in  her desire to land Egypt for her class project.  So...at closing circle I played the song and we did the dance together.  Oh, first grade joy! 

• Math. The quarter...Just when we've grasped counting D, N, and P's in math, the children now have to learn to count the quarter!  We chanted "25, 50, 75, 100" and learned that the quarter is the BIG coin.  Best to learn what the front of it looks like because the mint has changed the backs of quarters too! (they obviously have never had to teach money!) PLEASE PRACTICE WITH COINS AT HOME....AND CONTINUE WORKING ON ADDITION FACTS IF YOU CAN! They really enjoyed learning rainbow addition facts and our Friday's problem solving in Math Exchanges was awesome. 

• Phonics.  Continued work with the long and short vowel combinations of words and th, wh, ch, sh (which surprisingly can show up in the beginning, middle, or ends of words!)  We continue to work on personal spelling lists and words from our word wall. 
• Writing.  The students made a plan for their personal narratives and learned about problem, solution and plot. 
• Expedition. We have been talking about how people earn, save and spend money. We wrapped up our Financial Literacy unit with the children writing a financial goal.  They wrote a  goal which included something they wanted to save up for, how much they would save, and how they would earn the money.  VERY cute to read about, especially how much they plan to save!   
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!