Fig Pudding

We finished our reading of the book Fig Pudding last Friday and in celebration we tasted some stollen and created memory boxes to share with the class. The kids had a great time with the activity. Next up on our holiday reading list...A Season of Gifts.

Halloween Fun

 We took a break from the daily reading activities in class to go on a "Halloween Scavenger Hunt" and the kids loved it. My favorite rule for the activity was NO TALKING. It was bliss.

The kids learned all sorts of interesting and festive information about the holiday and can't wait to do another hunt near Thanksgiving.

Candy Corn Sight Word BINGO

 I just love my 3rd grade reader's at the end of the day. Last Friday we took some time out of our normal reading activities to play "Candy Corn Sight Word BINGO" and they were ALL smiles. It was good practice AND it was fun to win and eat our game pieces at the end.

The Adventures of Humphrey

 Humphrey has been very busy since we kicked off our One School, One Book this year. He hides in a different location in my room each day and the students are loving finding him and having him take part in our lessons.

Where will he hide next?

Close Reading & Humphrey

 In my larger 5th grade group we have started Module 1: Unit 2 and a big part of that is getting back into Close Reading like we did in the 4th grade. Students did a great job rereading and looking for words they didn't know. Then they found the gist of the paragraphs. I'm very proud of their hard work.

We continue to read The World According to Humphrey as a school wide project and our students are LOVING it. I like to hide my Humphrey daily within my classroom and the students have the best time trying to find him and coming up with ideas of how he travels from place to place.

No Talking

 We are fully engaged in 5th grade ELA Module 1: Unit 1 and as a supplemental read we have been reading the book No Talking by Andrew Clements. It's overall theme is about our right to speak and in this books case, not speak. We have been learning all about our "Human Rights" and this book has been a perfect example of how we can communicate without actual words and sometimes when we talk less, we think more. We engaged in a little experiment last week where we had an entire conversation with a partner with no words, we wrote out all of our questions and responses. The students LOVED it and learned a ton about their partners.

Next up, Unit 2...Esperanza Rising and The Great Depression.

Welcome Humphrey the Hamster

Today we start a three week reading activity here at GES and we are all SO excited to welcome Humphrey the Hamster into our Guardino family.

The entire school will be reading the book The World According to Humphrey and competing for all sorts of prizes for school wide comprehension knowledge. All staff and teachers were also given t-shirts that say "Reading ROCKS at Guardino Elementary".

We look forward to reading a GREAT book and having some fun here at GES.

Chocolate Fever

 For some reason this picture will not flip in the correct direction.

Anyhow, we just finished reading Chocolate Fever and I promised my students their favorite chocolate treats as a present for excellent effort with the book and all of the written activities we did with it.

They enjoyed and I am very proud of their progress. Our next book will be Fourth Grade Rats.

ELA COMPLETE

Last week was the completion of the NYS ELA in grades 3-5 in our building. I promised my students that at the end of the exam I would give them all giant lollipops that a friend who owns a candy company had given to me. They were SO excited to not only be finished with the exam, but of course to get candy.

I'm proud of them all and very excited that it is over for this year.

Intermediate Book Assembly

 On Friday afternoon I held our Intermediate Book Assembly. This year the book chosen was called Each Kindness and it was a book based on the idea of bullying, the way we treat each other and regret. It was the perfect book for this school year and once we read it as a group we talk about ways that we can treat one another better, kind words or actions we can use and about if we enjoyed the ending of the book.

 I was extra proud this year because out of ten classrooms, 6 of the readers come to me daily for reading.

Until next year...be KIND to one another. It matters.

Because of Winn Dixie

 We concluded our reading of the book Because of Winn Dixie this week and then had our "Winn Dixie" party while watching the movie. We had all of the same menu items as in the book, including Littmus Lozenges. The kids took notes on a Venn Diagram comparing the book to the movie and we plan to start a writing piece at the end of this week.

 Mrs. Charlton's homemade Littmus Lozenges

With all of the test prep this time of the year, this is EXACTLY what the kids needed.

Integration

 My fifth grade students are reading the book Because of Winn Dixie and they had the opportunity to write their very own "Top Ten" lists just as the main character in the book did. Students had fun exploring themselves and then typing them up on the computer. I truly enjoyed getting to know my students a bit further as well.

 Our lists will be hanging in the hall until the Art Show, come check them out.

Silly 5th graders

Thank You PTO

 We held our Primary Book Assembly this week and it went off without a hitch (phew). Each child in grades kindergarten through second grade were given the book Llama Llama and the Bully Goat and one reader from each classroom helped us read the book as a whole group. The readers did wonderfully and the students seemed to enjoy their new books.

We are so fortunate to have such a wonderfully supportive PTO. Thank you.

Next up...the Intermediate Book Assembly in March. Students in grades 3-5 will share and then be given the book Each Kindness.

I've got to get started on the preparations for that assembly soon. :)