Friday, May 29, 2009

Today we tie dyed our Field Day shirts. The first step was to put rubber bands on our white t-shirts. Then, when we were finished, we put the shirts into the red dye. Nolan thought it was pretty hard putting the rubber bands on. The last “x” was the hardest! Some of us had sore fingers after we were done. After they soaked for a while, Ms. Stern took them out and removed the rubber bands. Everyone kept wanting to see their shirts when they were done. There were white circles left on the shirts! Zoe thought they looked really cool because the middle of the circles were red and then white and then red again. Ms. Stern brought the shirts outside to dry while the class was having snack recess.

We had music in the morning today. Ms. Cassetta’s class went on a trip so they went at our regular time.

We read 2 more chapters in The BFG. The first was called The Marvelous Ears and the second was called Snozzcumbers. Snozzcumbers taste horrible! They are as big as a kid and they look like cucumbers, except they are black with white stripes. The Big Friendly Giant (BFG) has very large ears. They work so well that he can hear animals and even insects talking from very far away. He is even able hear dreams that fly around in the air like bubbles.

During Reader’s Workshop, we read the fiction books in our book bags for 35 minutes. We are alternating days. Mia noticed it’s a pattern: non-fiction, fiction. During Writer’s Workshop, people are working on their non-fiction books. Most people have created their headings and chapters and gathered their facts. Now, lots of kids are combining their facts with their features.

Towards the end of the day, groups of children got to go to the library to exchange their books. Rebecca, Kevin, Sophia, Zoe, Mia, and Carly chose Robert Munsch stories!

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

This morning we worked on telling right from left. We had to figure out the direction of different objects and see if they were to the right or left of one another. Then we worked on ordinal numbers. Some people thought it was easy. Others found it to be a little challenging. Zoe reminded us that our left hand makes an “L” with our thumb and pointer fingers. We also talked about our pledge hand (right) and the hand we use to write with.

Ms. Stern read Purple, Green, and Yellow, written by Robert Munsch. It is about a girl named Brigid who likes to color with markers. She promised her mom not to color on the walls, floor, or herself. Brigid decided to color on herself with markers that don’t come off until “you’re dead or later.” She decides to color herself back to normal. Earlier, Mrs. Caton (the reading teacher) read The Paperbag Princess while Ms. Stern was at a meeting. Everyone thought about their favorite character. Anthony, Darren, and Bartosz’s favorite character was the dragon. Carly’s was Princess Elizabeth. Nolan was going to write about Prince Ronald. He made a text-to-self connection because the prince reminded him of his brother!

We started to talk about a name for Field Day. We agreed that our name should be fun, go along with the theme of Field Day (so we don’t want to be slow!), be appropriate for school, and maybe have alliteration. When we were thinking of names, we had some trouble sticking to those ideas. We had to stop our discussion and revisit it again tomorrow.

Today in music, we listened to the book Dooby, Dooby, Moo and then we played instruments whenever we heard parts of the book. When the cows said “Dooby, dooby, moo” the drums would be played. When the sheep said “Fala la la la” the metalaphones and xylophones were played. The glockenspiels were played when the duck said “Quack, quack, quack.”

During Writer’s Workshop, we started to write our non-fiction facts in an order that would make sense to our readers. Some people already came up with headings for their ideas and others are still working on collecting facts. Sammy and Zoe shared their work at the end of the period.

Homework: Time

Last week we talked about telling time. Share what time you usually wake up in the morning and what time you go to sleep at night.

Also, our school day begins at 8:30 and ends at just before 3:00. Would you prefer to start school earlier or later than we currently do? (Remember, if we start earlier we would leave earlier and if we start later, we would leave later.) If you were in charge, what time would you start school? Explain your thinking behind your answers.

Friday, May 15, 2009

We read a few more Robert Munsch stories. I Have to Go! was a favorite for lots of us. Gianluca thought it was funny when Andrew wet his bed. Nolan liked the part where it took a half an hour to put on his snowsuit…and then Andrew had to go to the bathroom! Rebecca liked We Share Everything. She thought it was silly when they started fighting. Robert Munsch is Rebecca’s favorite author. He wants the reader to use lots of expression. He uses lots of bold print, exaggerated words, capital letters, italics, exclamation points, sound words, and word placement to tell the reader to say things in funny or angry ways. We listened to Robert Munsch reading some of the stories afterwards. He is a great storyteller. Many of his stories are available to listen to for free on his website.

We played Pig against Ms. Stern today. Ms. Stern won! The last two times that we played, we beat Mr. H. He said he’s going to win next time. Darren thinks he’s predictable because “he guesses that he’s going to win but he went down to the ground!”

In gym, we did centers. The centers all had to do with throwing, catching, or kicking: Cowabunga, balloons, soccer, jump rope/hula hoop, basketball, sit ups (Sean broke the school record…46 sit ups in 1 minute!), beach balls, playground balls, ball catchers, grab balls, basketball, dominoes, and numbered balls.

We worked on our non-fiction reading and writing. Lots of people now have enough facts and they are working on grouping them according to their topics. Next week we will continue to focus on making our research booklets.

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

We started our day with 14 kids. That was the smallest group Ms. Stern ever had! Two children came in late. We ended up having 16 children in school today.

Zoe and Daniel shared their books that they got at Debbie Dadey’s book signing yesterday. They both got two books. One was the same for both of them: Vampires Don’t Wear Polka Dots.

Ms. Stern read a few books written by one of her favorite authors, Robert Munsch. We read Good Families Don’t, Smelly Socks, Stephanie’s Ponytail, and Get Out of Bed! Rebecca thought his books were hilarious. They are all about silly ideas. Before we read Good Families Don’t, we tried to figure out what it might be. After sharing many predictions, it turned out that we were all wrong!

In math, we used clocks to practice making the time. If the minute hand is on the 12, the time is ___ o’clock. The hour hand is short. The minute hand is longer. Ms. Stern asked us to figure out the where the hands belong after a certain amount of hours passed.

There was a book fair. The books were for sale on the stage in the cafeteria. Lots of children bought books, while others chose toys and erasers. The book sale is going on until 4:30 today.

Today we talked about mealworms. We saw that the eggs had emerged as tiny little larvae. They look just like the other mealworms but much smaller. They have segments but we can’t see them. We wrote our last observations, predictions, and questions. Then we had to do a zoom in diagram of the parts of the mealworm. Last, we worked on the L part of the KWL chart. Emily learned that beetles live for 5-10 days. Carly learned that beetles lay lots of eggs. Nolan learned that beetles get darker as they grow. Bartosz learned that mealworms have six legs. Sammy discovered that mealworms turn black when they die.

Homework: Authors and Book Series

Last week we got to meet author Debbie Dadey via videoconference. We spent some time discussing what a book series is. Together, we discovered that the author (and sometimes the illustrator) is the same, as are the characters and setting. The Bailey School Kids, Junie B. Jones, Arthur, Poppleton, Biscuit, and Cam Jansen are all examples of series of books.

Ms. Stern's favorite series was The Babysitter's Club when she was younger. She used to read them all and couldn't wait for new books to be released! Please share any series of books that you have read or are currently reading. Is there a series that you'd like to try reading? Do you have any favorites or recommendations for your classmates? Make sure to read the other responses and comment if you agree.

Remember, you can meet Debbie Dadey tomorrow (May 12th) at Books and Greetings in Northvale! Let me know if you get to meet her in person!

Mother's Day Celebration

Happy Mother's Day to all of our great moms. Our Mother's Day Celebration was a great success. Either the children's clues were exceptional or the moms are incredibly smart (though it just might be a combination of the two) since every single mom correctly guessed portrait and set of clues was them! We hope you enjoyed yourselves. The children worked very hard to make it a special day. Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to spend it with us.

Here is our video explaining some of the many reasons why we love our moms:

Friday, May 8, 2009

Our day began with morning P.E. It was our last time having Gym City. It’s going to be taken down and going to TZE. Anthony and Rebecca liked going through the tunnel. Zoe , Emily, and Axl like the car wash. Mia liked getting spritzed by Coach Hudson or Coach Steingasser. There was a talking fish on Hudson Highway. Some of the other streets were Tummy Turnpike, Sitting Street, Backwards Drive, Kneeling Street, and Steingasser Street. Darren and others got to act as the police officers in Gym City. Gym City was so much fun!

Next, we videoconferenced with Debbie Dadey, the author of The Bailey School Kids series. Lots of first grade class came to the cafeteria to chat with her. We got to talk to her on a computer but she wasn’t in the room with us. She used her daughter’s laptop to chat with us from her office in her house in Pennsylvania. We learned that Debbie published 145 books. She even wrote one with her daughter. They are trying to publish it soon. Mrs. Dadey showed us her white dog, Skippy. Her other dog was too big to pick up and show us on the webcam. Mrs. Dadey used to be a first grade teacher and then she became a librarian. She decided to write chapter books so that first, second, and third graders could have chapter books to read that weren’t so hard. We found out that her books have taken anywhere from one week to eight years to write! Then she talked about a character that she created for one of her books. The girl turned into a rat because she thought she was so pretty with her fancy clothes, dangly earrings, and pink lipstick. The author did that because she made it up and anything can happen in a story. Debbie Dadey will be appearing at Books and Greetings, a bookstore in Northvale, NJ on Tuesday at 4:30. She asked anyone who stops by to let her know that we talked to her on the videoconference!

During Writer’s Workshop, we looked through our research books for 5 different features from the list we came up with. Next week we are going to combine the bulleted facts that we’ve recorded with the features we found.

We spent a lot of time working on special projects for our Mother’s Day Celebration on Monday.

Have a great weekend and a wonderful Mother’s Day. Hope to see moms on Monday at 1:45!

Upcoming Events

Tomorrow is School Spirit Day. Make sure to wear your SOCES shirt to school. If you don't have one, wear red!

Also, tomorrow is the PTA plant sale during lunch. Plants are 25 cents.

Tomorrow morning we will be videoconferencing with Debbie Dadey, author of the Bailey School Kids series tomorrow morning. The videoconference will end with a Q & A. Think of questions that you might want to ask.

Moms and Grandmas: Please remember to RSVP for Monday's Mother's Day Celebration. Hope to see you then!

Homework: Non-fiction

We are continuing our study of non-fiction reading and writing. Remember this trick that we learned about telling the difference between fiction and non-fiction:

Rule: You can only say no once.
Fiction = not true
Nonfiction = true

Non-fiction=not true can't be. There are 2 "no"s!

In the comments section below, please:
-Share the name of 1 non-fiction book that you read at home this week
-Include 3 new facts that you learn
-Identify 3 features that the book has

Facts are the true statements that can be checked (the information that you learn). Features are the parts of the book that help you get the information (ex. table of contents, photographs, captions, labels, diagrams, maps, glossary, bold print, italics, index, etc.).

Happy reading!