Season's Reading's '09

Monday was Guardino's traditional Season's Readings day and the kids were very excited for a day filled with good stories and craft projects. For the past 8 years I have been having the kids make a very unusual reindeer. We make him out of a coat hanger and stockings. Take a look...

I was still able to see some of my daily faces intertwined in some of the Season's Reading's Groups!

The kids had to do a lot of tracing, cutting, gluing and glittering!

The finished product!

Top 5

At the conclusion of our reading of the book Fig Pudding my group of 5th graders were assigned to bring in their "Top 5" special items. Then, they had to write a description and present their items in front of the class. This was an excellent opportunity to get to know my students a little better and to have them practice their public speaking skills. I was very impressed with the outcome.After vacation we will start reading Because of Winn Dixie!

Ornaments Take 2

On Wednesday we attempted to make homemade play dough ornaments and failed miserably! I felt so horrible because the kids were so excited. So I put my thinking cap on and found a different homemade ornament recipe and we tried once again today AND we were successful!

We took turns reading the recipe, measuring, pouring, stirring...

Connor helped with the cinnamon.

Sydney measured and poured some ground cloves.

Who knew you could get so dirty in reading class!

We learned the word "knead" and how to do it!

The class really enjoyed this project and will each bring home 2 beautifully scented ornaments next week!

Be on the Lookout For...

Two sections of my fourth grade classes have been given this writing prompt so stayed tuned for some interesting stories about talking Christmas trees!

Adirondack Kids ~ Chapter 15

Mrs. McCullouch/Mrs. Diabo's class finally finished our reading of the book The Adirondack Kids and I asked them to write their own 15th chapter since the book left us with some questions. Each girl did a very good job and their creativity amazed me!

First, we wrote a rough draft and then edited it.
Next, we typed our stories up on our Writer's Express.
Lastly, we uploaded our writing to the computer, checked it over and printed it out.
We couldn't forget to take a group photo with our finished products.
One sample of a finished product!

After Christmas vacation we will be reading The Canada Geese Quilt.

Fig Treat

My Folsom and Filiatrault group is reading the book Fig Pudding. I explained what fig pudding was, but they decided that it didn't sound very appetizing so one of my students decided to bring in fig newtons as a treat for the class instead. Today we enjoyed our treat while we continued reading Fig Pudding.Have a GREAT vacation and I will see you all in one week!

What Have We Been Up To?

It seems as if November is just about over and we have been busy reading, writing and reading some more! All of my groups have been working extremely hard and are very excited to have one week off from school. I look forward to meeting many of you at conferences next week. I will be at most to all conferences on Monday, November 23rd and Tuesday, November 24th. Here is an overview of some of the activities and books we have been engaging in.

* Donato/DeMay (Group 1) We finished reading and writing about the book Molly's in a Mess. We are also in the process of finishing our writing pieces titled "I am Thankful". They turned out GREAT!
* Donato/DeMay (Group 2) We continue to work on Level J books to improve our oral reading and writing skills. We have read Pack 109, Mr. Putter and Tabby and Bears Bargain in the past 2 weeks.
* Mrs. McCullouch/Mrs. Diabo ~ We are in the middle of the book Rescue on Bald Mountain from the Adirondack Kid series. The girls are really enjoying it and learning all sorts of information about areas that are close to us geographically.
* Mrs. Lamon ~ We just finished reading The Courage of Sarah Noble. This book gave us plenty of opportunities to write. At the end of the book the students pretended that they were Sarah and they wrote amazing letters to a friend back home, telling them about their journey to
their new home. I was very proud of their final products!
* Miss Aubertine & Mr. Riddoch ~ We are in the final stages of our unit on lighthouses. We are currently reading the book The Light at Tern Rock. We hope to finish this book the week after Thanksgiving vacation and then move back into some ELA prep.
* Mrs. Dermady ~ Right now we are in the middle of the book The Lemonade War. We are a little behind because out of the two students in this group, one of them was absent for almost 2 weeks. Both students are back and healthy so we are cruising through the book now!
* Mrs. Peterson ~ We have been very busy! We finished the book Song Lee and the Hamster Hunt, completed a writing task about our favorite pet, wrote a piece on what we are thankful for and finally we are almost done with the book titled A Thanksgiving Story.
* Mr. Folsom & Mr. Filiatrault ~ We have added some new friends to our group for the months of November and December as we read the book Fig Pudding. We are about halfway through the book and enjoying every minute of it.

Friday Treat

A friend of a friend works for a candy company and is always giving me random types of candy so I then in turn share them with well deserving classes. Last Friday my 5th grade group from Folsom & Fili got a special treat and were VERY thankful!

More Thankfulness

Mrs. Peterson's Readers are very thankful too!

We Are Thankful...

Many of my groups have been engaging in writing pieces based on the theme "We Are Thankful". They were asked to brainstorm all of the things in their life that they are thankful for, put it into a piece of writing, edit it and then write out a final draft. It was very enjoyable to read and get to know the students a little better by seeing what types of things that they are thankful for in their lives. Mrs. Lamon's group has finished their writing pieces and they are proudly displayed in the hallway for parents to view at conference time. I have more groups that are still in the process of finishing up this task so stay tuned!

One more week until Thanksgiving Vacation!

Riddoch & Aubertine's Lighthouse Unit

We are currently in the middle of a unit of study about lighthouses. We just finished reading The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge and we are currently reading a mini play based on the story. The students are very excited about this play and have been practicing their parts very hard. Check out some pictures from one of our rehearsals...

Starting on Thursday we will begin reading The Light at Tern Rock. It is a chapter book about a family who takes over the duties and responsibilities of the lighthouse for the keeper so that he can spend Christmas with his family. I think the students will really enjoy it.

Parent/Teacher Conferences are right around the corner. I look forward to meeting most to all of my students parents during those two days!

3rd Graders

In our 3rd grade groups we have been doing a lot of work with word decoding and word recognition. The students are working very hard to figure out tough words AND to remember them in their reading.

Happy Halloween!

Friday was a little crazy with all of the sugar in the building and the kids anxiously awaiting their Halloween parties and getting their costumes on. I took the opportunity to let the kids have a little fun, BUT I snuck some learning in too! Check out what our morning groups accomplished!

Mrs. Demay's morning group played a Homonym game and enjoyed a Halloween popcorn ball!

Mrs. McCullouch's group played a game called BLURT! The kids love this vocabulary building game and it really gets them thinking!

Mrs. Lamon's group played Scrabble!
Miss Aubertine and Mr. Riddoch's classes played Spelling Racer!

There were no afternoon classes on Friday because of classroom parties!