Tuesday, March 9, 2010

We reviewed our spelling rule this morning. We learned that when there are two vowels together, the first one does the talking and the second one does the walking. It means that the first vowel says its name and the second one is silent. We watched a spelling rap video about it.

Then we played some games together on the Smartboard. The games can be played by anyone online by clicking here.

This morning we got to observe and handle mealworms!

They felt smooth but they tickled our hands a little bit when they moved around. Dylan was scared at first because she was afraid they might bite. By the end of science, she was sad to see them go. Eesha was also scared at first. She only picked up the smaller one because it didn’t look as determined to crawl on her as the others. She named him Speedy. It kept racing around the plate! Stephen noticed that the mealworms would stay near one another. Some of them looked like they were fighting. After we had a few minutes to get used to them, we had to stop thinking like kids and begin thinking like scientists. We made observations and predictions. We also drew a picture and asked a question. Most of us are very excited to observe the mealworms again soon.

We read another book by Mem Fox. It was called Harriet You’ll Drive Me Wild. Harriet reminded us of lots of different people that we know in our own lives (including our siblings and even ourselves)! We concluded that she doesn’t intend to get into trouble, much like Junie B. Jones or Amelia Bedelia.

When we went to the library we played Magic Mirror on Kids Keys. We practiced using the keyboard to type like grownups. It got a little confusing figuring out which finger to use. Dylan A. liked typing the same keys more than once. Everyone who returned their books also got to choose new ones.

We played Star Wars in P.E. The coaches pick a Jedi. The Jedi stands on a dot and saves people who get hit by a ball by touching them with their light saber. If the Jedi is off of the dot, and s/he gets hit with the ball, the other team gets a point. Everyone else is throwing one of the many balls at the other team. If you are hit with a ball you have to sit down until a Jedi saves you. Eesha and Adam were the Jedis for our class.

After P.E., we talked about Mem Fox. We are reading many of her books to get to know her better as readers and writers. She is from Australia. We looked at the city of Adelaide on Google Earth. It’s VERY far away! We learned a little bit about her and her family. Many of the ideas that Mem thinks about when writing are the same things that we concentrate on, too. So far we have read: Koala Lou, Harriet You’ll Drive Me Wild, Sleepy Bears, and Zoo Looking. We know that she writes about things that have happened to her, important people and events, and she writes with her audience in mind. Together, we started writing a story about the Rockland Read In, so that our readers would feel the peaceful, cozy feelings that we had on that special day. Tomorrow we will begin writing our own stories.

Please don’t forget to add to our Things That Are White blog entry. We are going to be having a competition with Mrs. Jacobs’ class to see who can come up with more white items. Remember to post your ideas in the comments section and to use only first names or initials. Get those brilliant minds thinking!