Friday, September 25, 2009

After morning meeting, we reviewed short i words on a website. Some of the words were easy. Others were hard to find. Then we had our spelling test. This week was a little tricky because it was the first time we had 2 spelling lists going on at the same time! Children who got the sentence correct were able to choose something from the bucket of prizes. Children who didn’t get the sentence correct were still positive and thought to themselves, “Next week I’ll try again.”

While we were outside during snack recess, the fire alarm went off. We had to line up and wait quietly outside on the opposite side of the building.

During Reader’s Workshop, we made a list of Reader’s Workshop Do’s and Don’ts. Here are the things to do: keep your books out and in front of you, choose interesting books, read quietly, think about your book, reread, use EVERY minute to read, take care of your books, stay at your seat, and enjoy your books.

The don’ts: talk during private time, interrupt!, distract others, rip the books, go to the bathroom, take water breaks, get up out of your seat, play with books, take books that aren’t for you, and waste time. Everyone turned and talked to their partner to share the do and don’t that they were going to focus on before starting to read independently at their seats.

During gym, we went outside to play on the equipment. Nancy, Meaghan, Sarah, Adam, and Sasha played with the animal figurines. Hunter played on the monkey bars with his friends. Lauria and Drew played on the monkey bars too. The class also played a game called Surprise Animals. Coach Hudson calls an animal. Everyone has to act like that animal.

We learned about sorting today. Drew reminded us of a fancy math word called “attribute” that he learned from Bakugan. The word sort means a group of things or people that have something in common. The attribute is what they have in common. We used the Smartboard to sort objects in different ways. First, Dylan A. sorted the objects by color and shape. Then Sasha sorted them by size. After that, everyone took off a shoe and made a pile. We took turns sorting by 1 attribute. Anthony sorted them by black and not-black. Meaghan did laces and no laces. Eesha did shoes that tie and shoes that don’t tie. Jacob sorted them by shoes with letters and shoes without letters. Finally, Ms. Stern let us choose partners to work with “treasures.” The partners worked to sort the objects by 1 attribute.

Dylan A. got to hold Buddy the Bucket Filler for the second time today! He even earned a marble for the whole class during P.E. As a result, he is the very first person to take Buddy home for the weekend. Happy bucket filling at home, Dylan and Buddy!