Mouse & Mole Sequence

 We just finished reading Mouse and Mole and The Christmas Walk in class so we are now working on putting all of the story events in order as we work on a sequence activity.

The boys had a lot of fun during this hands on activity. Let's hope they can put them in the correct order next. Stay tuned...

Using Up the Halloween Candy

 The day after Halloween was a great opportunity to use up some of the Halloween candy in my classroom AND by reviewing our sight words. Let's put both of those ideas together and play Sight Word BINGO. The kids had an utter blast using candy corn as their game pieces and nibbling on a few pieces along the way.

My third grade students are now pros at sight words.

Farewell 5th Graders

 Farewell to the spunkiest, most thoughtful and best working 5th grade class in years. Many tears will be shed on graduation day as I have to say farewell to you all. I will miss you so very much.

My wish for you is to continue to be the best students you can possibly be. Great things will happen in your futures.

Reading in the Sun

 The end of the year is fast approaching so final book reviews as well as "How To" writing pieces are well under way. Today we took full advantage of the beautiful weather and read outside in the sunshine.

 We love Reading Class.

In two weeks we will complete our books and start our projects. I'm even reading a brand new book and loving it. Check it out, it's titled Wonder by RJ Palacio.

Encouragement

It's  been a rough week all around here at Guardino so when a very special 5th grade student gave me these notes it completely uplifted my mood. We do our very best with these wonderful students on a daily basis and no test in the world will judge us on that.

Intermediate Book Assembly

 It has certainly been a busy start to 2013 as I prepared for two school wide assemblies. Today marked the second and last assembly and I am happy to say that it went off without a hitch. The students read wonderfully and I couldn't be more proud of all involved. We were able to include our new Superintendent Mr. House as a guest reader as well as Mr. Kortz our guidance counselor.

Thank you to the PTO for their generous contribution as well as all of our students for clipping thousands and thousands of Box Tops that help fund events like this one.

Now we search for great books for next years assembly!

Bubbl Presentation

 My 5th graders did an AMAZING job presenting their bubbl projects. They spoke clearly and loud and they were so excited with the final product. I am thrilled that they enjoyed this project so much and that they showed such enthusiasm.  

The next topic we are covering in class...the dreaded ELA prep. For the next four weeks we are going to become the best at comprehension and writing that we possibly can be.

Look out New York State we are ready to meet your rigor.

Bubbl Projects

We read the book Leepike Ridge and then created bubbl.us projects combining technology with our comprehension of various aspects of the book. We are thrilled with the way our final products turned out and at how much we learned throughout the book. Take a look and check out the book, it is a fantastic book. Simply click on each bubbl to view it larger and more in depth.

 Alexa's bubbl

Alivia's bubble

 Amber's bubbl

 Jeron's bubbl

 Megan's bubbl

Noah's bubbl

Sam's bubbl

 

Here We Come NY state

New York State Ed is laying HUGE emphasis on students being able to locate "details from the text" in their writing, reading and speaking. It has gotten to a point where I feel like I say it in my sleep I say it so often. I challenged my 4th graders to make me a headband. So low and behold my wish was granted and instead of saying those 4 little words a hundred times a class I can now just point to my head.

Primary Book Assembly

 On February 13th we held the Primary Book Assembly and were able to give each and every primary student at Guardino the book Penguin and Pinecone: A Friendship Story. It was a lot of work putting the assembly together and getting the books, but it was SO worth it. It was a wonderful feeling to see the students with the books in their laps, reading along together. The book put forth such a positive message about friendship that I feel blessed to have been able to arrange to give it to all of our students.

 One student from each primary classroom was chosen as a reader and was brave enough to come up and read into the microphone. They all sounded so grown up yet looked so little.

 A GREAT big thank you to Mrs. Mellon and Mrs. Hoselton for being guest readers. We thank them greatly.

 If you are in our building check out the many penguin displays in our hallways too.

Thank you to the Guardino PTO for allowing this assembly to take place and to all of our students for the thousands of Box Tops collected to purchase these books.

Our Intermediate Assembly will take place on March 13. Those students will be given the book The Wishing Tree. Stay tuned...

COMING SOON...

Informational Text

With our huge focus on informational text our students are learning all sorts of different topics in reading class. This week some of the topics covered were severe weather, muscles and marsupials. Students really enjoy learning these life experiences. This particular fourth grade class studied weather this week. We learned the four building blocks of weather and made informational posters to support what we learned. Students then presented them to their peers. Way to go 4th graders!

Vocabulary in Motion

My fifth grade group has been reading The Homework Machine and one of our vocabulary words was catapult. The students had many questions about the word and ironically one of our own had built one at home and was willing to bring it in to give us a demonstration. It was a great way to connect real life to the book. Thank you Noah for our special demonstration.