Fig Pudding

 We completed our reading of the wonderful and heart warming holiday story Fig Pudding this week. The kids loved every minute of it and couldn't wait to get to class to see what would happen next. Since we only had a short window of opportunity to work on our book projects we kept them simple and created character posters. I was extremely impressed with the creativity and effort displayed in such a short amount of time. Way to go 5th graders.

 This was also an excellent opportunity to practice our public speaking skills with a microphone.

The next book on our agenda is The Homework Machine in January.

Happy Thanksgiving

We try to use the Smart Board whenever possible and the kids truly love it.

We have been very busy in all classes getting ready for conferences and now Thanksgiving vacation. Here are a few of the things we have been up to in the past few weeks.
3rd grade: Each group has been working on their oral reading fluency and writing skills along with various phonics activities and we have also worked on nouns. After vacation we will work on verbs.
4th grade: We just finished reading some folktales and we have now moved on to a unit on owls to go along with their science unit. When we return from vacation we will continue to owl unit. We are reading books such a All About Owls and Owl Moon.
5th grade: We just finished a wonderful book called Rules by Cynthia Rylant. It dealt with characters that faced challenges such a autism and being paralyzed. Students loved the book and were very happy with the ending. When we return we will start Fig Pudding to put us in the holiday spirit.

I'm not sure who is more excited about Thanksgiving vacation, the kids or myself?

Reader's Theatre

 We just finished reading a folktale in one of our 4th grade reading groups so we decided to have a little fun and read the play that went along with it. The students really enjoyed reading different characters and swapping parts. I even made them stand up while they read for the full effect.

What's up next...Common Core ELA Review. Doesn't that sound fun? I bet I can make it fun!

Rules

 We finished our reading of the book Schooled by Gordon Korman and as a book project we created Voki's. Each student chose their favorite character and then created a Voki character based upon it. They are located to the right side of this post for your viewing pleasure. The students had a great time writing their character drafts and then creating their Voki's using all of the new technology we are implementing in the district. We even travelled down to their classrooms to present our Voki's to the entire 5th grade. The kids had a blast reading and then using technology.

The next book on the agenda is Rules by Cynthia Lord. We will also be creating a technology based book project so stay tuned.

Cause & Effect

On Friday we reviewed the topic of Cause and Effect. We are realizing what an amazing tool The Smart Board is to reinforce skills and it can make learning interactive and fun too!

Read for the Record Day!

Students came ready to read Lady Bug Girl and the Bug Squad today! We are so thrilled that our friends at The Scoop in downtown Clayton purchased these wonderful books for our ENTIRE school.

Thank you a million, there will be many smiling children in the building today!

Working on our Vowel Sounds

 We utilized the Smart Board again this week to review our vowel sounds and some phonemic patterns. The kids are really enjoying the Smart Board and I am enjoying getting my feet wet by trying out new and different activities in class.

What will we do next??

TGIF

 Another week has come and gone and we are in full swing in reading class. We are covering topics such as Native Americans and homeschooling with our fourth and fifth grade students and we are working on sight words, fluency and writing complete sentences with our third grade readers. Today we played Sight Word Bingo with one section of third grade readers. They had a blast and even thanked me for letting them have some fun.

 At the end of our fifth grade class we broke out the Smart Board and practiced our homonym skills. I was very impressed with my students and their knowledge. Using the Smart Board was a quick way to reinforce some skills and the kids had a blast playing our quick game.

Have a fantastic weekend and rest up for another fun filled week!

Read for the Record ~ October 4th, 2012

Join us once again for Read for the Record Day here at Guardino Elementary School. Each and every student will receive the book Lady Bug Girl and the Bug Squad compliments of our friends at The Scoop in downtown Clayton!

AIS Technology!

It has been installed and I even learned how to turn it on this week....it's our new Smart Board!

With all of my 4th grades class this week we used the Smart Board to review "main idea" and complete a graphic organizer and written review sheet on the subject area. The kids loved it and can't wait to use it again!

Welcome Back!

I am very excited to get classes started for all of my 3rd, 4th and 5th grade reader's. As soon as I get everyone tested this week we will start as soon as possible.

We have a ton of new nonfiction, informational text and literature to explore this year!

I look forward to working with you all!

Farewell 2011-2012

It is very hard to believe that this school year has ended. I had the most amazing classes once again and the hardest working readers ever. I great big farewell goes out to all of my fifth grade students. It was a great three years with most of you and I know you will ROCK the middle school. Don't be strangers and visit often.
To the rest of you...enjoy every single minute of the summer and I will see you in September.
KEEP READING!

Twins Day

Today was my final day in our TV studio at school for the year so I had the idea to make it an extra special viewing and grabbed both sets of twins from our fifth grade to have a "twins day". They thought it was very funny and we almost didn't make it through the broadcast without a case of the giggles. It came off without a hitch and what a memory I helped to make for these two sets of wonderful twins. Next year we will only have one set of twins in the fifth grade so I'll have to get thinking about what I can have them do.

The original group of 10 fifth graders I was assigned to this year from Folsom/Filiatrault. I treated them to a special farewell ice cream at The Castle this afternoon. At the end many tears were shed as we ended our final class together for the year. What a great group of kids.

It's that time of year again...time to try and stay cool with freeze pops, time to wrap things up and time to say good-bye to my 5th graders. I have truly enjoyed my extra large group of 5th grade reader's this year and I may shed some tears at graduation next week. I wish them all the very best of luck in the middle school and hope they come back to visit from time to time.



Coming to an End

 In three weeks I will have to say farewell to these wonderful faces after working with many of them for the past three years. I'm definitely getting pretty sappy about it. They are wonderful students who have grown a tremendous amount over the years. They will all be missed greatly.

 This young lady has enough spunk for a whole room and she always makes me smile.

We will definitely make the most of the next few weeks together.

GORP

 We just finished reading The Adirondack Kids so we decided to make GORP (granola, oats, raisins and peanuts) for our book project. We great big thank you to all parents that helped by providing supplies. We were able to make enough to share with all three sections of 4th grade.

 The kids had a BLAST helping out and bagging all the GORP.

What a great group.

Taking Advantage

 Last Friday we took full advantage of the beautiful weather and we went outside to read in the sun. We are working our way through the book Number the Stars and learning a great deal about World War II.

I only have a few days left with these amazing fifth graders so I am enjoying them while I can.

Best of Luck to all of my hard working students this week as you take the ELA! You have all worked so hard and I'm very PROUD of you.

CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO AND ROCK YOUR TEST!

Congratulations to the Bucket Fillers of the Week.

Thank you for working extra hard, being kind, courteous and respectful students.

Keep filling and no dipping.

Hard Working ELA Prep Kids

 I have been pushing into each of the fourth grade classrooms for the past five weeks and those kids have worked EXTRA hard getting ready for the big test coming up in three weeks. They can take notes for a Listening Section, write a bulleted essay for the Reading Section and they are able to use Tier 2 words in their writing.

As a special THANK YOU to them we made Easter S'Mores with different colored marshmallow Peeps and worked on an Easter story with ELA questions.

 Who ever said Reading was boring? Not with Mrs. Charlton in charge.

 Eating while reading. Such a great combo.

A great big thank you to all of my fourth graders for working so very hard.

We all appreciate your dedication.

Check Out Our Latest Technology Book Projects!

We just finished reading the fantastic book Leepike Ridge and created "bubbl" flow charts from bubbl.us

 Bailie Gokey ~ 5th Grader

 Isaac Murray ~ 5th Grader

Mason Ingerson ~ 5th Grader

I am overly impressed with these students creativity and drive. I gave them basic training on this website and they ran with it. I am so proud of these students.

We ARE a Bucket Filling School

 Yesterday was a dream come true not only for me professionally, but for Guardino as an elementary school. We had an assembly that revolved around the book Have You Filled Someone's Bucket Today? It is an amazing book that focuses on how we should treat each other. It has a positive message for people of all ages. Every student at Guardino was given a copy of the book which were donated by Mr. and Mrs. DeMay (retired TI teacher's) and one student was chosen from each classroom to read a page from the book in front of the entire school.

 The students were so excited to have a book of their very own to take with them.

 Jessica Bourcy introduced the book for us.

 We put the entire book on a Power Point projector.

 Principal Clark spoke about the importance of manners, respect and how we treat one another.

 Our special guest reader's.

Thank you to everyone who made this day possible. It was wonderful.

Toondoo

 My fifth grader's just keep amazing me. We just finished a book titled Slob by Ellen Potter and for our project we tackled creating a Toondoo from the website http://www.toondoo.com/

 Students were able to choose a challenging vocabulary word from the text of our book and to then create a cartoon strip that had characters from the book as well as content to teach the vocabulary word. They did a fantastic job and they amaze me more and more as the year progresses.

At the end of this book we also had to say farewell to Kelsey. She has outgrown our group and will no longer need AIS services. I am so proud to let you go, you deserve it.