UVM Women’s Basketball have teamed up with the UPS Store to promote literacy. We have been pen pals with Kristine Lalonde, #5 sophomore point guard from Ontario, Canada. On Friday, the UVM Women strutted their stuff in the MBS gym before visiting our classroom. Krisitine read us Salt in my Shoes, a story about Michael Jordan. We shared with Kristine our favorite sports and asked her what perogies were (her favorite food). She then surprised us with tickets to the UVM Women’s game on Jan. 23rd. The children are very excited to go to the game and to continue writing to their new friend, Kristine.
Students began to research the tribe they chose within the region of their choice. Before the holidays, children chose their top 3 regions of interest (Eastern Woodlands, Southeast, Plains, Southwest, California, or Northwest). We then divided the children into groups with Mrs. Bonfigli’s children. Each group did some research and chose a tribe within their region to study and present a project. This week, the children used the internet via netbooks and books to take notes on their tribe, make a materials list, and begin to plan out their trifolds and village scenes.
We went outside this morning and wrote about trees using 4 of our 5 senses. The children picked a tree to write about. They looked, listened, smelled, and touched the tree. They then used adjectives to describe what they sensed. We will be using this writing to publish Fall poems later this month. Here’s a sneak peek into our writing time.
We had a wonderful day to pick pumpkins at Mazza’s pumpkin patch. Whether big or small, everyone found just the perfect pumpkin for them.
At the end of our Human Body unit, the children worked in groups, in partners, or alone to make a photostory of some aspect of the body. Photostories involve images (downloaded from Google images), music, and voice narration. Hope you will enjoy the kids great work!
Our biography project presentations are underway. We are about halfway through the presentations and they have all been wonderful. We have learned about George Washington, Thomas Edison, Harriet Tubman, David Beckham, Jackie Robinson, Tom Brady, Helen Keller, Mia Hamm, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, and Miranda Cosgrove so far with many more interesting people to come. The children have also been glogging and posting on the wiki about people they have read about during our biography unit. Please ask you child to share these websites with you. There are links from my webpage on the MBS website. Enjoy these picture of projects we’ve seen so far…
Today the children participated in the Vermont Young Writer’s Project. The children in our class chose from two prompts to write about: “I had the surprise of my life when I opened the door and saw…” or “I’ve never seen such a deep shade of purple…”. A special website was created to host writing samples from children in VT and NH. We will also be publishing this writing to our wiki. Two selections will be sent to the Colchester Sun and others may appear in the Friday newsletter. Please feel free to check out the amazing writing on the website. Be on the look out for Jackson, Megan, Ruby and Lauren’s pieces.
We are reviewing area and perimeter, as we have found this is something all children need some more help and practice with. Here’s a great rap that might help them remember…
The class wiki is up and running. Our wiki will specifically focus on literacy. Today, some children entered a response to a biography that they’ve read in class. The beauty of the wiki is that children are able to read each other’s posts and make appropriate and kind comments. You are welcome to read the posts with your child; however, only the children (right now) are allowed to comment. Here is our wiki address…your children know their login and password. Enjoy!
This week, all children met with either Mrs. Bonfigli or I in our word study groups. Children worked on sorting their words with us to learn their word study pattern for the week. We then reviewed the classroom work that the children will be doing independently and the homework. Remember there is no homework that comes back to school, the purpose of word study homework is to continue practicing your child’s words. Linked below are the two websites which the children can use to practice their words:
http://www.spellingcity.com practices their words using fun games-look under your child’s word study teacher and the day of the week they get their words
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com children can practice their words using dialog bubble to make a fun comic strip
