Making Homemade Candy

My Folsom/Filiatralt group just finished reading The Little House on the Prairie Christmas Treasury so we decided to make homemade candy just like they did in the story. We had a blast and the kids loved the outcome.

I put them right to work peeling wrappers, pounding candy canes and stirring!
We had a ton of fun!

What a GREAT group!

Be a Perfect Person in Just 3 Days

Would you wear broccoli around your neck for 24 hours in the effort to become perfect? We are reading the book Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days so the kids wrote about how they would feel if they had to wear broccoli around their necks for three days and even decided to wear their broccoli necklaces the rest of the day as a test. I can't wait for them to report back to me tomorrow.

Chocolate Fever

After a month we finally finished reading Chocolate Fever and as a special treat I bought the kids GIANT chocolate bars. Hopefully they won't catch "Chocolate Fever" like Henry Green did in the book!

They were just a little excited!

Introducing...

Mrs. Charlton's Reader's

for the 2010-2011 School Year!

From Mrs. Rosbrook's Class
From Mrs. Peterson's Class
From Mrs. McCullouch's Class

From Mrs. Lamon's Class

From Mrs. Donato's Class

From Mr. Folsom & Mr. Filiatrault's Classes

From Mr. Riddoch's Class

From Mrs. Dermady's Class

Stay tuned for many fun and exciting activities that we will be engaging in, in the areas of Reading and Writing!

WELCOME BACK!

I am looking forward to a wonderful year with all of my new and returning readers.

Let the fun begin!

Thank You!

Thank you to all of my wonderful students for making this a truly memorable year. This was my 10th year working for TI and I can safely say that there is no better place to work. Have a safe and wonderful summer!

Good Luck 5th Graders

I am completing my 10th year at Guardino this school year and it will be the 10th time I have to say goodbye to a group of 5th graders as they will be moving up to the middle school. Some years I don't make as strong a bond with the classes, but this year was not the case. I have had a fantastic year with this particular group of 5th grade students. They were fun, willing try to new things and willing to work hard. They will ALL be missed. As a small celebration to them we made homemade cookie ice cream sandwiches this week. Check it out!

Randy smashed his sandwich down in order to fit it into his mouth.
Jacob broke his cookie in the process but was still able to eat this sandwich plus two more cookies.

I can make a bet that they were all on a sugar high after these sweet treats.

A little hard to maneuver.

Typical Ivey face!

Lance ate every drop and I think that he even licked the plate. Ha ha just kidding!

Finished

We finally finished the book Kickoff by Donna King. We felt that it was a challenge, but we didn't give up and we all learned a lot about friendship and the right way to treat others after reading this book. We would give it two thumbs up!

Would you wear broccoli around your neck for 24 hours? We are reading How to Be a Perfect Person in 3 Days and the main character Milo decides to test himself. On day 1 he has to wear broccoli around his neck for 24 hours. Our class decided how we would feel if we had to do it. Most students said that they would be embarrassed and that the broccoli would start to stink. Next week we will see what Milo does on Days 2 and 3 so stay tuned!

Bringing Books to Life

Last week we read a book titled The Popcorn Book. It taught the boys all about different kinds of corn, the history of corn and about different ways people have made popcorn through the years. I told them if they worked hard on all of the assignments as well as the actual oral reading of it that we would make fresh popcorn in the class. None of the boys had ever made homemade popcorn so they were very excited to see the process.

Waiting for the hot air to heat the kernels.
They thought it was so fascinating.

They all enjoyed giant bowls of fresh popcorn while they worked on a writing task.

Lonnie was looking hard for information.

Walter snacked a little and then worked a little.

It was a great experience for the boys and a fun memory too!

Mary Marony and the Chocolate Surprise

Chassatie and Damian just finished reading the story Mary Marony and the Chocolate Surprise. During the story Mary's class read the story Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Mary's teacher Mrs. Bird brought in fizzy lifting lemonade for her class so I decided that I would try and find some sort of fizzy lemonade to bring in for the kids at the end of the book. I hit the jackpot and the kids were over the top excited to try my version of fizzy lifting lemonade.

I also brought them a couple of chocolate treats to go with their lemonade.

After the treats we got down to work!

The next book that we are going to read is called Catwings.

Our Newest Addition

We welcome Christian Benigno to our class!

He is already enjoying his time with us!

Today we played Blurt and he had so much fun he was sweating!

Bud, Not Buddy

Mrs. Dermady's class, the students that I service from her class and I are reading and excellent book set in the time of The Great Depression called Bud, Not Buddy. We are about a quarter of the way into the book and already the students have learned many important facts and terms that relate to that time period in history. We are truly enjoying the book and can't wait to continue with it. Bud, the main character is an orphan who travels with a suitcase full of items that are extremely important to him. Bella, Anthony and I created suitcases and brought in small items that are important to us. We shared them and spoke about our lives. It was very interesting to see the different sides to the students and what they think is important in their lives.

Last Day of the ELA!!!

We Are READY!

We have practiced and prepared for the ELA on Monday for months and months so today we kicked back and played some ELA games to rest our minds for the big test day!

Good luck to all of my fabulous 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students who have worked so hard to get ready for these exams! I know you all will do wonderfully!

Only 5 days until the big NYS ELA Exams begin! We are all very excited to get them over with and to be able to enjoy the remainder of the school year with no more reading tests looming overhead!

Catching Up

It has been a long time since I reported on our Reading classes so here is what we have been up to...

Chassatie & Damien ~ We just finished a small unit on Tall Tales. We read Mike Fink, Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyon. We talked about fantasy versus reality and Chas and Damien had a great time reading all three stories and looking through the picture books.

Devon, Walter & Lonnie ~ I think we have mastered Guided Reading Level L and we are MOVING UP! We will start reading Level M books when we return from vacation!

4th Grade: Pheobe, Abby, Kira, Sarah, Taylor, Calie, Brianna, Nicholas, Sydney, Shannen, Matt, Hunter, Bradley, Natalie & Connor ~ We have been working on ELA skills tirelessly for the past few weeks and we only have one week left until the big test. We are all very excited to get this test over with and get back to truly reading. We will start a unit relating to Science after the ELA test!

Anthony & Bella ~ We just finished reading Sunny Holiday and after vacation we will start a unit on The Great Depression and we will read the book Bud, Not Buddy.

Hailey, Camryn & Kaitlyn ~ I have been pushing into Mrs. Peterson's classroom a great deal this past month helping to prepare the third graders for their ELA. We have been working on listening skills, note taking and editing.

Lance, Ivey, Jacob and Michael ~ We have been working on ELA skills for the past few weeks, but after vacation we are reading a fairly new book by Andrew Clements titled Lost and Found.

I hope that you all have a fantastic vacation and come back well rested because we are almost at the home stretch for the ELA test and I hope that you all do extremely well on it!

Game Day!

We have been working tirelessly to improve our reading so we took a break today and played a game! Devon and Walter raced each other to the vowel finish line!

Wordle

Mrs. Lamon's group is reading the book Sunny Holiday. We are about half way through the book and we created our own wordle based on a theme from the book "Free All Year". We brainstormed all of the things in our life that are free all year and then created a wordle from www.wordle.net. The kids had a great time brainstorming and then creating their personal wordle. You should try it too!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Connor has the spirit!
So do Lonnie & Walter!

In Review...

We have been very busy in our Reading classes lately. Let's see what we have been up to!

DeMay/Donato (Group 1) ~ In the last two weeks Damien and Chassatie have been reading folktales and looking for all of the elements of a folktale. Some of the elements that they looked for were repetition, magic, transformation, good vs. evil, etc. They really enjoyed the folktales and we have now moved on to mysteries. We are reading Flatfoot Fox this week.

DeMay/Donato (Group 2) ~ The boys are reading at a Level L at this point in the year so we have been reading many books at this level. We have also been working on sight words and basic fluency words. Each boy has their own tailored set of words that they are working on knowing. They are very proud of their achievements.

McCullouch ~ We are in the middle of the book Fourth Grade is a Jinx. This book has turned into a mystery and the girls are doing a lot of writing and making predictions as to what they think the outcome will be.

Lamon ~ We started reading a brand new book last week. The book is titled Sunny Holiday. It is the story of a girl whose family does not have a lot of money, but money doesn't matter to her. She can always find the best out of any situation. It is very lighthearted and fun to read.

Riddoch/Aubertine ~ We are just finishing up the book The Hundred Dresses. It has been a very good book to teach about bullying and how to correctly treat your friends. We will be going back to ELA practice once we finish all of the activities that go along with this book.

Dermady ~ We just finished reading the book Rules. Bella, Anthony and I LOVED the book. It taught us about autism, friendship and differentiality. It is an excellent book. Bella and Anthony are now working on a project to go along with the book to present to their classmates.

Peterson ~ There has been a slight change in the girls schedule. I will be pushing into their classroom on Wednesday's to teach ELA practice to the whole class. I will see the girls in my classroom all other days. We are finishing up the book Lily and Miss Liberty.

Folsom/Filiatrault ~ We are coming to the end of the book Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key. The students have really enjoyed learning about ADHD and how Joey deals with it.

Text to World Connection

My group of two students that come from Mrs. Dermady and I have been reading a new book titled, Rules. We have been discussing vocabulary and learning many new words and terms. One of the words is broach. When we were discussing it, Bella said that her mom had some broaches at home. One week later after vacation and after I thought those words would be a distant memory for my students, Bella brings in a box of broaches. I was so pleased and impressed with her text to world connection that I had to praise her and take her picture for the world to see.

Welcome Back!

I hope that you all had a fabulous winter vacation and rested up for the weeks ahead! Here are a few of the books and activities that we will be engaging in for the upcoming weeks.

9-9:30am ~ Damian & Chassatie
* We are working on note taking skills for the listening section of the 3rd grade ELA and then we will be moving on to Folktales.

9:30-10:00am ~ Lonnie, Walter & Devon
* We have moved to Level L in our Guided Reading lessons. We continue to work on phonics skills, fluency and comprehension.

10:15-10:45am ~ Mrs. McCullouch's Reader's
* For the next month we will be reading Fourth Grade is a Jinx. It is the story of a girl named Collette and her mother becomes her fourth grade teacher. The girls in this group are really enjoying it so far.

10:50-11:20am ~ Mrs. Lamon's Reader's
* We are continuing our practice for the ELA. This week we are working on note taking skills that pair with the listening section for the test. I am modeling many activities for the students to get them used to the layout. I will slowly start to back off and let them do more on their own. Wish us luck!

11:30-12:00pm ~ Mr. Riddoch & Miss Aubertine's Reader's
* We are continuing our practice for the ELA. This week we are working on a Part 3; Writing section for the ELA. We will read two different stories and then combine them in an essay at the end.

1:00-1:30 ~ Mrs. Dermady's Reader's
* We are reading the new book titled Rules. It is about a family with two children; one of which is Autistic. It has been a great opportunity for my students to learn about Autism and they are loving the book!

1:35-2:05pm ~ Mrs. Peterson's Reader's
* We just started reading the book Lily and Miss Liberty. It is a book set back in time when the Statue of Liberty came to America. It is about how the families who lived in NYC raised money to build the pedestal which the statue is placed on.

2:15-2:45pm ~ Mr. Folsom & Mr. Filiatrault's Reader's
* We are currently reading Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key. It is the story of a boy who has ADHD. The students are fascinated with Joey and with his disability.

Please feel free to contact me at anytime to chat about your child's progress!

Presentations

Mrs. Dermady's group just finished reading The Tiger Rising and they came up with the best presentation idea. I was more than thrilled with their creativity, final product and presentation skills.

There were 30 chapters in the book, but the chapters didn't have titles, so the kids thought that a good idea would be to come up with a catchy title for each chapter.
They each had special speaking parts during the presentation and they handled themselves in true 5th grade fashion.
The next book we will be reading is titled Rules by Cynthia Lord. It is about a brother and sister; the brother is Autistic. We are very excited to get started on this book because it is NEW!

Winn Dixie Party!

Mr. Filiatrault and Mr. Folsom's Group just finished reading Because of Winn Dixie and in true Mrs. Charlton style, we had a party that mirrored the party that the characters in the book had. We also watched the movie and will be writing an essay comparing the book to the movie.

We decorated the room in the theme of "dogs" just like Opal did for her party.

I also created my own version of Littmus Lozenges.

Students tasted the strawberry, root beer and melancholy.

We call these two the Dewberry Boys from the book, but we couldn't convince them to shave their heads for the party!

We feasted on egg salad sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, Dump Punch and pickles just like Opal and her friends ate in the book.

We also took notes while we watched the movie.

Today we will finish the movie and start our essays tomorrow!