Monday, February 9, 2009

We are practicing making meaningful connections that help us understand the stories. Last week we focused on text-to-self connections. This week, we’re thinking about text-to-text connections by thinking, “Does this story remind me of another book I’ve read?”

We shared our first Flat Stanley today! Flat Darren arrived safe and sound from Ireland. He stayed with his cousins. They went to a rugby match, school, on his uncle’s farm, and even to the beach! We discovered that some things are different and others are the same between Ireland and the United States. Isabella learned that the way we write the weather is different. Our temperature is measured in Fahrenheit and in Ireland they measure in Celsius. The temperature there was 2 degrees, which meant the same thing as today’s temperature of 36 degrees. Nolan learned that it rains a lot but there isn’t too much snow. The children in school there have to wear uniforms. We discussed how some students in this country wear them. Ms. Stern’s old students in New York City had uniforms that they wore to school! The pupils are in school for about the same amount of time as us and they have similar vacations.

Today was Kevin’s birthday. Kevin’s dad read us a book called I STINK! It’s about a garbage truck who loves to eat garbage and lots of dirty, stinky stuff. Gianluca thought the story was funny. After we read the book, everyone ate their birthday cupcakes. Bartosz’s favorite part was the Oreo in the middle!

At P.E., we played Tunnel Tag. It’s when you tag someone if you are holding a red Frisbee. If you get tagged, the way to get free is by having someone crawl between your legs.

We are getting closer to our publishing party. We only had 2 more days to work (today and tomorrow). For our celebration, we are having some invited school guests come in to listen to us read our stories. Some people colored. Others worked on fixing up spelling. A few people even began working on their title and covers.

Please feel free to leave comments or questions. Please feel free to leave comments or questions. I am working to make it a more interactive tool to bridge the school-home connection. Suggestions are always welcomed!