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!

Our Chocolate Party

Miss Aubertine and Mr. Riddoch's Group finally finished their reading of The Chocolate Touch so we had a chocolate party while writing chocolate book reports to celebrate the end of the book.

Chocolate milk, chocolate bars, brownies and Reese's oh my!

We will now move on to ELA practice for the big test in May. What fun!