"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

I am excited to say we are officially kicking off our Navigating Non-Fiction unit of study in Reader's Workshop!  During this unit, we will learn reading strategies that focus specifically on comprehension of non-fiction texts.  This unit of study will focus on coding non-fiction texts for main ideas(s) details (VIP's), disconnected details, and questions the reader has while reading.  In addition to coding, we will also focus on text features, navigating electronic tools/websites, and noticing how/why the author wrote in a specific sequence.  We will be busy from now until Winter Vacation navigating our way through the wonderful, real-world of non-fiction!  Our unit kicked off today with a non-fiction picture book, Antarctica.  All week, we will continue to read books on the topic of Antarctica...which will connect nicely to our next Science unit, Habitats.

Pumpkin Characters!

Check out the pumpkin characters we created for the pumpkin book project!

Wow, our class did a fantastic job creating characters out of pumpkins! 

Some of our characters include: Junie B., Harry Potter, Wilbur, Molly, Captain Underpants, Pinkalicious, Geronimo Stilton, Spiderman, Greg (Diary of a Wimpy Kid), Baby Mouse, Gooney Bird, Curious George, and more! 

 

Math!

I know I have not done a Math post yet...but we do math everyday, of course!  In Unit 4, we are working with Base Ten Pieces to build numbers and partition (break apart) numbers.  Check out this great website that includes many Math Manipulatives! 

We will also be working on Telling Time and Elapsed Time.  Please ask your child to read analog clocks often!   

"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

As we finish up our character trait study this week, today we finished Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry.  This was such an enjoyable story that included a special main character, Gooney Bird, who was full of unique character traits. These traits include: unique, interesting, mysterious, creative, and friendly.  Gooney Bird told her new class stories about her life, including how she got her name and how she traveled from China on a magic carpet!  Ask your child how these stories could possibly be "absolutely true" as Gooney says!  By the end of this week, all of your children will submit their own blog about a wonderful character they are reading about in their Book Clubs!  Look for those blogs in our Kid Blog!

 

"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend and read some good books!  My family and I enjoyed the beautiful weather and spent most of our time outdoors!  On Saturday, we went to the UConn homecoming football game.  This was exciting as I am a two-time UConn alumni, for both my Bachelor's Degree and 6th Year Certificate.  On Sunday we enjoyed time raking leaves and jumping around in them.  On Monday, we went to the park and of course, fit in lots of good reads!  Here is Camryn exploring our shelf that I filled with fall and Halloween books!  Brooklyn's favorite is Jerry Pallotta's Who Will Haunt My House on Halloween?  Be sure to check out his really neat website, too! 

Camryn choosing a good book!  You're never too young to start reading!

Floating M's in Science

Step 1
 

Step 2: Observing

Step 3: Floating M's!

In our classroom we are studying the process of the Scientific Method!  We just conducted an experiment called "Floating M's" to practice the steps of the Scientific Method.  We developed a problem question, formed a hypothesis, completed the experiment, analyzed our results, formed a conclusion, and wrote a brief reflection.  Check it out!

"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

...And speaking of reading...today Mr. Nozik kissed a pig!  He kept to his promise and kissed Penny the pig.  Penny was too shy to come into West Hill, so we all went outside to witness this event!  While Mr. Nozik did keep to his promise, Penny soon got impatient and the event ended.  Congrats to all students who participated in the Summer Reading Challenge!  Today in school, we read the John Updike poem, "October."  We counted the syllables in each line of the poem, each stanza, and finally the entire poem.  As a class, we added up 81 beats in his poem and noticed his pattern.  Ask your child about the syllable pattern!  We also noticed how John Updike used imagery and a metaphor to help us picture the month of October!