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February 28, 2015

March Character Development: Honesty

Here are the books that we will be using to explain the concept and importance of honesty in our classroom!

The Weird! Series
Three stories told from the perspectives of three different children: one who is bullied (Weird!), a bystander (Dare!), and the bully herself (Tough!). Each title shows readers, through the texts and the expressive ink illustrations, what each child feels. 


The Empty Pot (An Owlet Book)
When the Chinese emperor proclaims that his successor will be the child who grows the most beautiful flowers from the seeds the emperor distributes, Ping is overjoyed. Like the emperor, he loves flowers and anything he plants bursts into bloom. But the emperor's seed will not grow, despite months of loving care, and Ping goes before the emperor carrying only his empty pot. The emperor ignores the beautiful blossoms brought by the other children and chooses Ping, revealing that the seeds he handed out had been cooked and could not grow.

Princess K.I.M. and the Lie That Grew
Kim wants the kids at her new school to like her, so she tells a teeny, tiny, bitty lie. She says her name is really "K.I.M."--for "Katherine Isabella Marguerite"--and that she comes from a royal family!  Pretty soon all the students know there is a princess in the school.  Kim wears her golden tiara from dance class and a big fancy ring she won at the arcade.  Her little lie grows and grows. When a classmate invites her to a birthday party, Kim says she can't go because her grandmother is coming to visit. But she had told the kids her grandmother was a queen. Now they all want to meet the queen. Kim is in a real bind; her lie has grown too big and it's about ready to explode!

Don't Worry, Douglas!
Douglas the big, brown, lovable bear is back! His dad gives him a special gift, a new woolly hat! But then something terrible happens. Douglas's hat gets caught on a tree and turns into one long string of spaghetti! How will he ever tell his dad?

Being Frank
Frank follows the motto, "Honesty is the best policy." He tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Frank never lies to his schoolmates, he always tells the truth to adults, and he’s always honest with police officers. The balancing act of finding tact, that fine line between telling the truth and telling too much truth, is the main theme of this story, and it's very funny—although not necessarily to his friend Dotti whose freckles remind Frank of the Big Dipper, or to the teacher who hears that her breath smells like onions, or to the principal who is told that his toupee looks like a weasel. No one is quite as impressed with Frank’s honesty as he thinks they should be. He is sweet and straightforward, and, well, very frank, but with everyone annoyed at him, Frank is now honestly unhappy. He decides to visit his confidante and pal, Grandpa Ernest, who has a history of frankness himself. With a few lessons from Grandpa, Frank begins to understand that the truth is important, but so is not being hurtful.

Edwurd Fudwupper Fibbed Big
Fannie Fudwupper's big brother, Edwurd, spends his time cooking up big fibs full of phooey and letting them rip. But one day, Edwurd tells such a whopping lie that the army, the air force, and the dogcatcher are called to reverse the damage.

February 27, 2015

Sticky Notes During Reading

 We've started adding sticky notes to our reading time to help us remember what we want to share with a partner.  I use the Reader's Workshop bundle from Kim Adist and Michelle Scannel found here .





February 26, 2015

Math Stations

Here are a couple math stations we've been working on!


One of our biggest goals is to start having kids use "math talk" while playing partner games.  I made these speech bubbles so the kids could pretend to be cartoons throughout the game.  We are working on the words less and more this week.  During a game of matching towers with 1 less and 1 more than their partner's tower, the students filled in the blanks of
 " ___ is 1 more than ___."
 "___ is 1 less than ___. "
After they filled in the blank, both partners read the speech bubble! 


Another fun station we used this week is called domino islands.  I write the numbers 0-20 across the table in white board marker. We turn the numbers into islands and the dominos are the boats.  The kids add the two sides of the domino together and drive their boat to its island. 

February 23, 2015

February 13, 2015

Vowel Sound Class Books

We are spending each week focusing on one vowel to master.  There's a song that we sing for each one that goes for example:
E makes 2 sounds
E makes 2 sounds
Ä• and Ä“, Ä• and Ä“,
Ä• as in ___________ 
 Ä“ as in ___________
Ä• Ä• Ä• , Ä“ Ä“ Ä“

Then we make a class book where each student picks a word for each vowel sound. 






February 12, 2015

Pig Coin Counting

Our Children of the Nation's fundraiser came to an end.  The students got to smash the pig piñata and sort all the money inside.  We were so lucky to have 8th grade help us and count our money! 




100th Day Activities


We did so many fun activities today that the kids were convinced that I had planned 100 things to do. 

I gave each student a "100 dollar bill" and we planned what we would buy with it.  The kids then wrote and drew about it for a class book.




"A Football"                                    "A Brown Husky"

 "A Turtle"                                                 "A Seal"
"Dolphins"

100 Bead Necklaces


100 Self Portraits




100 sticker hats
100 Words


Estimation Jar of 50, 100 & 150 items 



February 11, 2015

Oldster App


We used an app today called Oldster to age our faces to see what we would look like at 100 years old.  It's a little creepy but mostly silly :)

We sent them home with a little souvenir picture too! 


100th Day Fun

We had so much fun today during the 100th day of school! The kids could choose to come dressed up like they were 100, they looked adorable.  



This "old man" face is hilarious!

Mrs. Albrecht and I