Charlotte's Web, Writing like Donald Crews, and Thankful Turkeys!

Here we are unscrambling some more sentences using context clues (capitalization, punctuation, and phrasing)! 

     

We have been spending some time this week investigating different styles of writing. One mentor author we have been modeling our writing after is Donald Crews, so we took a nature walk to try his technique of "free-wheeling sketches" as our source of inspiration. Our next step is to write about all that we saw, and experienced in that place. 

                    

                                                    

In Math, we have been exploring the relationship between doubles and near doubles to solve addition problems. These concepts set the foundation for adding multiple numbers, multiplication, and more complex number relationships. 

                                     

     

Miles' grandmother, Nancy Cloud, came in and shared some lovely stories with us! We love having our Mystery Readers! 

This week, Shahaf was our Star of the Week! He did a fantastic job sharing about his family, likes & dislikes, adventures with Henry, and some great riddles and jokes! 

We have a class full of Thankful Turkeys!

We have been movin' and groovin' during our Freeze Dance Competitions! These kids sure have some awesome dance moves! 

Changing perspective and taking some time to visualize success as we prepare to demonstrate mastery over a wide variety of addition strategies!

Jordan Meade won a "Henry Award" for showing such excellent enthusiasm for our "Book Character Day"! So proud! Our class also won the Spirit Award for the 3rd month in a row! Woohooo! Undefeated! 

Grant, Ella, and Madeline Shull won the "Responsibility Award" for the month of October! They were beaming with pride! 

Katie Cougevan (Dylan's mom) came in with some great stories and PENNIES! She challenged the students to try to balance the pennies on their fingers, noses, and forehead! 

Reading Groups, Spinning Webs, & Comparing Communities!

                                                 

Our enthusiastic readers applying their newly learned skills of looking up words in the dictionary (traditional AND modern)!!! These bookworms have been chomping away at the words!

We spun our own webs, inspired by Charlotte! 

                                 

In P.E. we had a blast with team relay races using bottom-boards, jump ropes, and tennis balls! 

                                             

Here's a morning graph:

We read a personal and student favorite: Same, Same, but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw! Here's a Venn Diagram we filled out to compare their two communities and cultures! 

These are the math words we have been learning and using through our recent math practices: 

Mr. Nash (my fiance) was our Mystery Reader this week! He shared "Creepy Carrots," and "Tell Me A Scary Story... but Not Too Scary!" 

Our visits to the library are always a great adventure!

Computer Lab, Mother May I, & Pirates!

Our turtles are best friends!

We went to the computer lab for our first time this last week! We spent time familiarizing ourselves with the mouse and keyboard, and even explored Google Earth!
The students took turns being "sister" or "brother" "may I?" We are working on teamwork, following directions, and cooperation! The kids are doing great!
  We had 100% participation in our Spirit Day as Pirates! 2nd month in a row winning the Spirit Award! Woohoo! It was a 4 way tie with Mrs. Davis (2nd Grade), Mrs. Bower's (1st Grade), Mrs. Tealdi (1st Grade), and our class!

The students were also busy sewing and decorating pumpkins as we prepare for Halloween and Dia Del Los Muertos!

Community Quilt, sentence scrambles, & More!

Here's our Star sharing her favorite stories!

During Family Meeting we played a game called "Sentence Scramble"! The students were put into teams, and given words to build sentences as a team-building exercise! 

Students designing our "Community Quilt"! 

We also constructed a list of Special Places in Davis, CA so that we could create a Community Quilt! Here is the list we have come up with! Over 45 places in 20minutes, and the kids were still coming up with more places! 

Students working on some crafts during recess! Friends teaching friends how to finger knit. 

Mr. Kim was our Mystery Reader this week! He shared with the kids a little bit about growing up in Korea and what he loves about these stories! 

Every morning we have a Family Meeting where we build community through getting to know one another, asking questions, and playing games! This week we tried a new game called, "Scrambled Sentences!" Students meet in table teams with a set of words they need to organize into a complete sentence. Once the teams have reached a concensus, the teams post them in the pocket chart, and we read them as a Family! This provides a great opportunity for us to discuss any challenges teams may have had, and answer any questions. 

This week we wrote reflections on what we learned over the month of September and drew Self-Portraits so we can look back and see how we have changed throughout the year! Here are a few highlights: