Reading Rocks

Welcome 2012!

2012-01-06T05:53:00.000-08:00

We haven't let any grass grow under our feet in 2012.

We started off our week presenting our Voki's for the book Schooled by Gordan Korman.
I was very proud of my fifth grade students for their creativity, technology skills and for the wonderful presentations they were able to give to their classmates.

Each student chose their favorite character from the book, wrote a bio, typed it into Voki, choose their character image, voice and in the end they turned out fantastic!

We would HIGHLY recommend this book, it was an amazing read.

Fig Pudding

2011-12-14T11:14:00.000-08:00

My fifth grade group finally finished reading Fig Pudding by Ralph Fletcher. It is the wonderful and yet heart wrenching story of a year in the life of the Abernathy Family; their ups and downs. I starts on Christmas of one year and wraps up on Christmas of the following year. The kids LOVED it and we had a fantastic time reading and discussing it.
During the story the 6 Abernathy kids make stollen each and every year with their grandmother. I was able to buy some stollen and bring it in for the kids to try.

Can you tell it is getting close to Christmas?

The consensus was that the stollen was pretty gross, only one student liked it, BUT they can now say they have tried it in their life!

What a fun group.

This student loved it and asked to bring the rest home.

Our next book...Because of Winn Dixie, an all time favorite of Mrs. C.

Tis the Season...

2011-11-30T07:05:00.000-08:00

...to read a good book. Even though it isn't officially December 1st we have started reading lots of holiday stories in reading class this week! This particular group of third graders read Christmas in the Big Woods.
They are thrilled to be getting into the holiday spirit!

Next on the list is Aunt Eater's Christmas Mystery.

Rules Powerpoint Presentations

2011-11-03T06:59:00.001-07:00

Mrs. Dermady's 5th grade reading group was finally able to present their Rules PowerPoint Presentations to their class yesterday. Each student was given a topic from the book and they were asked to create a slide regarding their topic. I was thrilled with the amount of effort and creativity that they showed.
Topics included; An overview of the book, describing the main characters, likes and dislikes, information about the author and the theme or message of the book.

Students added clip art, backgrounds, and were even able to personalize the font.

We were given a 3+ out of 4 score from our audience (the class!)

Way to go 5th grade readers!

The book we are now currently reading is called Schooled and it is extremely challenging, but very interesting. We dislike when class time is over because we want to KEEP READING!

Informational Text

2011-10-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

New York State has encouraged us to add 50% more Informational Text into our daily teaching so we are jumping right into it in reading class. We are currently working on a butterfly unit with Mrs. McCullouch's group of readers. They are loving every minute of it!

The Janitor's Boy

2011-10-13T07:11:00.000-07:00

Would you chew thirteen pieces of bubble gum and then smear them on the bottom of a school desk because you were angry at your dad who was also the custodian of the school?? That is the question and experiment that we had in reading class yesterday afternoon. I gave all of my students three pieces of gum, had them chew, take it out and then asked them to stick it under their desks. They looked at me like I was insane. This was our introduction into the new book we will be reading for the next month...The Janitor's Boy.
The gum was a major hit!

Put this under my desk are you crazy??

YUCK!

We can't wait to dive into this book!

2011-10-07T11:06:00.000-07:00

Homonym Bingo with 5th grade after a long week! They had a BLAST!

GORP

2011-06-07T11:06:00.000-07:00

We just finished reading The Adirondack Kids; Book 1. For our final project we made GORP (granola, oats, raisins and peanuts). We also added some M&M's for a little kick. We plan to make "Save the Loons" posters and present our GORP and posters next week for the whole class.
The kids had a blast making it and loved eating some M&M's even more at the end!

Check out the book The Adirondack Kids, it is a great 4th grade book if you enjoy the outdoors and it is even set in New York State.

2011-06-07T07:25:00.000-07:00

The funny thing is Sydney (on the left) actually has a real life twin, but for today Kira (on the right) is her twin!

See how happy they are to come to Reading Class!

2011-04-29T11:09:00.000-07:00

Farewell Matthew and Good Luck!

Fast Fact Reading Friday

2011-04-29T10:17:00.001-07:00

Today was the first monthly Fast Fact Reading Friday. Each grade level was given a different skill to work on. The primary students had different "sight words" to practice, third grade had contractions labels, fourth grade had fact/opinion labels and fifth grade worked on homonyms. As a Reading Department we thought it would be quick, fun and educational. Here are some pictures of students and Mrs. Dermady. I harassed her because she had forgotten to give her kids their labels by 10am so by 10:30am she was ready and went above and beyond the calling for the activity.

Third graders had to either tell what contraction the two words created and spell it correctly or break apart the contraction and tell what two words it came from.

Fifth graders had to tell the difference between the two homonyms.

I am so happy that our first FFRF went so well!

Mary Marony and the Chocolate Surprise

2011-04-14T08:57:00.000-07:00

We just finished reading Mary Marony and the Chocolate Surprise. We read, wrote and discussed the book. Since the kids worked so hard they were rewarded with a giant chocolate bar containing a golden ticket just like in the book. They were so excited their eyes bugged out of their heads!

Good work Chassattie, Torrie and Griffin!

Making Progress

2011-04-08T07:34:00.001-07:00

We have been working diligently on ELA preparation and basic skills. Times have been challenging, but we haven't given up and today two of my students from Mrs. Peterson's Class finally got a 100%. I was so proud of them and quickly awarded them with some Smarties for my smarties!

2011-03-17T08:53:00.001-07:00

May you be poor of misfortune,

rich in blessings,

slow to make enemies,

quick to make friends,

but rich or poor, quick or slow,

may you know nothing but

happiness from this day forward.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

How to Steal a Dog

2011-03-14T07:57:00.000-07:00

We are currently reading How to Steal a Dog with my group from Mrs. McCullouch's Class. We are about halfway through and we just created our own "Reward" signs for Willy, the dog who is missing in the story. The group worked well in teams and created terrific posters.

Great Job Kids!

Shiloh

2011-03-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

Mr. Riddoch's students and I just finished reading the book Shiloh and we are now currently watching the movie. The students are taking notes as they notice similarities and differences between the two. I am very proud of them. In the thirty minutes that we have watched thus far they have taken a ton of notes.

They even brought in their own stuffed dogs to watch the movie with us. As the movie concludes the students will be writing a compare and contrast piece using the notes they took from watching the movie. I can't wait to get started!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

2011-03-02T07:52:00.000-08:00

Today is Read Across America Day and it is also Dr. Seuss' birthday so we are celebrating with lots of his stories and reading as much as he can to honor him!

Brain Pop Jr.

2011-01-27T06:46:00.001-08:00

I am utilizing a program called Brain Pop Jr. with many of my classes to teach smaller skills. Today we read the book The Pain and the Great One and then watched a short video that taught us refresher skills on contractions. The girls from Mrs. Rosbrook's Class really enjoyed it and then we worked on a practice sheet of contractions. They did so well and I am so proud of them!

Top 10 Lists

2011-01-11T10:33:00.000-08:00

We are right in the middle of reading the book Because of Winn Dixie. We just finished reading Opal's list containing ten facts about her Mama. We then created our own Top Ten List of interesting facts about ourselves.

It was a very fun activity and we all learned some interesting facts about each other!

Book Presentations

2011-01-05T11:52:00.001-08:00

After all of the holiday craziness wore off we were finally able to present our project for the book Hotel for Dogs. The kids did a fantastic job and their classmates gave them all 4s for their project! Way to go kids, I am very proud of your work and effort!

We will now read the book Rules!

Making Homemade Candy

2010-12-17T04:27:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-13T11:11:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-09-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-09-07T06:10:00.000-07:00

WELCOME BACK!

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

Let the fun begin!

Thank You!

2010-06-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-11T11:45:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-05-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-30T08:20:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-28T11:17:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-04-28T06:10:00.001-07:00

Last Day of the ELA!!!

We Are READY!

2010-04-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-09T11:39:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-17T08:47:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-03-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

Connor has the spirit!
So do Lonnie & Walter!

In Review...

2010-03-15T09:52:00.001-07:00

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

2010-02-26T05:41:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-02-23T08:26:00.001-08:00

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

2010-02-03T11:51:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-02-03T08:43:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-03T08:37:00.000-08:00

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!

Chocolate Scavenger Hunt

2010-01-28T10:07:00.000-08:00

We just finished reading the book The Chocolate Touch so I set it up with Mrs. Harrington to have the kids engage in a chocolate scavenger hunt in the library. They had a blast and then they were able to take some online quizzes from the book and play some chocolate games.

A little stumped and can't seem to find the next clue!
Reading the clue very carefully.
Where do I go next?I can almost reach my final treat!
"Sweet" victory!
This is a very fun website with games and quizzes for just about every chocolate themed book out there!
The kids were very proud of themselves after taking various quizzes from the book.

Tomorrow we will start working on our "chocolate" book reports while we have our "chocolate" party. Stay tuned...

Prepping for the ELA

2010-01-27T11:15:00.000-08:00

We are slowly starting to prepare the students for the big ELA given in May. You may be thinking that May is a long time away. You are very correct, but there is a lot of ground to cover for these tests. Today I started working with a small group of third graders on punctuation marks. We discussed the various marks and when to use them. Then we practiced this skill with a hands on approach. Check it out...

The girls had a lot of fun finding and inserting the correct punctuation marks in the sentences as well as after abbreviations.

2010-01-22T10:03:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Lamon's group is reading Tales of 4th Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. In this book the main character Fudge can be quite a pest, so his older brother Peter decides that he needs to "Fudge Proof" his room so that his little brother doesn't ruin things in his room. I asked my students to tap into their creative sides and create their own "Fudge Proof Rooms". They did a great job!

Welcome 2010

2010-01-07T06:42:00.000-08:00

We are back to school and hard at work for the new year! Here is a little glimpse into what we are up to this month...

9-9:30am (Donato/DeMay) Chassittie and Damian are currently reading The Chalk Box Kid. After each chapter we are engaging in activities that mirror questions from the NYS ELA that we are preparing for. They both seem to be enjoying the story of a very talented little boy.

9:30- 10am (Donato/DeMay) The group of boys have moved up to a Guided Reading level of K and we are reading all sorts of books at this level. This week we are reading Keep the Lights Burning Abbie. It is about a young girl who is left in charge of a lighthouse while her father travels to town.

10:15-10:45am (McCullouch/Diabo) The girls and I are reading The Canada Geese Quilt. It is a story about the relationship between a girl and her grandmother. It deals with growth and change and realizing how strong you can truly become when you put your mind to it.

10:50-11:20am (Lamon) Calie, Nick and Briana have just started the book Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing. We are definitely getting some laughs while reading this book. The two main characters are brothers who don't see eye to eye and who often get into trouble because of it.

11:30-12pm (Aubertine/Riddoch) My largest group of the day is currently reading and oldie but a goodie...The Chocolate Touch. We will engage in a ton of fun activities with this book and ultimately have a chocolate party at the end.

1-1:30pm (Dermady) Bella and Anthony have just started to read the book The Tiger Rising. This is an excellent book that deals with friendship, heart ache and forgiveness.

1:35-2:05pm (Peterson) The girls and I are reading an old book, but one that I have never done before...Mary Marony and the Chocolate Surprise. After reading it to myself I knew that these girls would love it. It is funny though, I was going to have a little chocolate party for this group as well, but Hailey is allergic to chocolate so I will have to come up with another plan.

2:15-2:45pm (Filiatrault/Folsom) My 5th grade group and I are currently reading my favorite book of ALL time...Because of Winn Dixie. I have created the best unit for this book full of fun activities and ultimately a Winn Dixie movie party at the end.

As you can see we have started out 2010 with a BANG! We are not letting any grass grow under our feet and we are having as much fun as possible in Reading class! Stay tuned for pictures and updates throughout this entire month!

Season's Reading's '09

2009-12-22T06:56:00.000-08:00

Monday was Guardino's traditional Season's Readings day and the kids were very excited for a day filled with good stories and craft projects. For the past 8 years I have been having the kids make a very unusual reindeer. We make him out of a coat hanger and stockings. Take a look...

I was still able to see some of my daily faces intertwined in some of the Season's Reading's Groups!

The kids had to do a lot of tracing, cutting, gluing and glittering!

The finished product!

Top 5

2009-12-21T09:06:00.000-08:00

At the conclusion of our reading of the book Fig Pudding my group of 5th graders were assigned to bring in their "Top 5" special items. Then, they had to write a description and present their items in front of the class. This was an excellent opportunity to get to know my students a little better and to have them practice their public speaking skills. I was very impressed with the outcome.After vacation we will start reading Because of Winn Dixie!

Ornaments Take 2

2009-12-17T10:19:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday we attempted to make homemade play dough ornaments and failed miserably! I felt so horrible because the kids were so excited. So I put my thinking cap on and found a different homemade ornament recipe and we tried once again today AND we were successful!

We took turns reading the recipe, measuring, pouring, stirring...

Connor helped with the cinnamon.

Sydney measured and poured some ground cloves.

Who knew you could get so dirty in reading class!

We learned the word "knead" and how to do it!

The class really enjoyed this project and will each bring home 2 beautifully scented ornaments next week!

Be on the Lookout For...

2009-12-15T10:38:00.001-08:00

Two sections of my fourth grade classes have been given this writing prompt so stayed tuned for some interesting stories about talking Christmas trees!

Adirondack Kids ~ Chapter 15

2009-12-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

Mrs. McCullouch/Mrs. Diabo's class finally finished our reading of the book The Adirondack Kids and I asked them to write their own 15th chapter since the book left us with some questions. Each girl did a very good job and their creativity amazed me!

First, we wrote a rough draft and then edited it.
Next, we typed our stories up on our Writer's Express.
Lastly, we uploaded our writing to the computer, checked it over and printed it out.
We couldn't forget to take a group photo with our finished products.
One sample of a finished product!

After Christmas vacation we will be reading The Canada Geese Quilt.

Fig Treat

2009-11-20T11:53:00.001-08:00

My Folsom and Filiatrault group is reading the book Fig Pudding. I explained what fig pudding was, but they decided that it didn't sound very appetizing so one of my students decided to bring in fig newtons as a treat for the class instead. Today we enjoyed our treat while we continued reading Fig Pudding.Have a GREAT vacation and I will see you all in one week!

What Have We Been Up To?

2009-11-18T11:09:00.000-08:00

It seems as if November is just about over and we have been busy reading, writing and reading some more! All of my groups have been working extremely hard and are very excited to have one week off from school. I look forward to meeting many of you at conferences next week. I will be at most to all conferences on Monday, November 23rd and Tuesday, November 24th. Here is an overview of some of the activities and books we have been engaging in.

* Donato/DeMay (Group 1) We finished reading and writing about the book Molly's in a Mess. We are also in the process of finishing our writing pieces titled "I am Thankful". They turned out GREAT!
* Donato/DeMay (Group 2) We continue to work on Level J books to improve our oral reading and writing skills. We have read Pack 109, Mr. Putter and Tabby and Bears Bargain in the past 2 weeks.
* Mrs. McCullouch/Mrs. Diabo ~ We are in the middle of the book Rescue on Bald Mountain from the Adirondack Kid series. The girls are really enjoying it and learning all sorts of information about areas that are close to us geographically.
* Mrs. Lamon ~ We just finished reading The Courage of Sarah Noble. This book gave us plenty of opportunities to write. At the end of the book the students pretended that they were Sarah and they wrote amazing letters to a friend back home, telling them about their journey to
their new home. I was very proud of their final products!
* Miss Aubertine & Mr. Riddoch ~ We are in the final stages of our unit on lighthouses. We are currently reading the book The Light at Tern Rock. We hope to finish this book the week after Thanksgiving vacation and then move back into some ELA prep.
* Mrs. Dermady ~ Right now we are in the middle of the book The Lemonade War. We are a little behind because out of the two students in this group, one of them was absent for almost 2 weeks. Both students are back and healthy so we are cruising through the book now!
* Mrs. Peterson ~ We have been very busy! We finished the book Song Lee and the Hamster Hunt, completed a writing task about our favorite pet, wrote a piece on what we are thankful for and finally we are almost done with the book titled A Thanksgiving Story.
* Mr. Folsom & Mr. Filiatrault ~ We have added some new friends to our group for the months of November and December as we read the book Fig Pudding. We are about halfway through the book and enjoying every minute of it.

Friday Treat

2009-11-18T11:05:00.000-08:00

A friend of a friend works for a candy company and is always giving me random types of candy so I then in turn share them with well deserving classes. Last Friday my 5th grade group from Folsom & Fili got a special treat and were VERY thankful!

More Thankfulness

2009-11-16T05:18:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Peterson's Readers are very thankful too!

We Are Thankful...

2009-11-13T08:26:00.001-08:00

Many of my groups have been engaging in writing pieces based on the theme "We Are Thankful". They were asked to brainstorm all of the things in their life that they are thankful for, put it into a piece of writing, edit it and then write out a final draft. It was very enjoyable to read and get to know the students a little better by seeing what types of things that they are thankful for in their lives. Mrs. Lamon's group has finished their writing pieces and they are proudly displayed in the hallway for parents to view at conference time. I have more groups that are still in the process of finishing up this task so stay tuned!

One more week until Thanksgiving Vacation!

Riddoch & Aubertine's Lighthouse Unit

2009-11-10T09:34:00.000-08:00

We are currently in the middle of a unit of study about lighthouses. We just finished reading The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge and we are currently reading a mini play based on the story. The students are very excited about this play and have been practicing their parts very hard. Check out some pictures from one of our rehearsals...

Starting on Thursday we will begin reading The Light at Tern Rock. It is a chapter book about a family who takes over the duties and responsibilities of the lighthouse for the keeper so that he can spend Christmas with his family. I think the students will really enjoy it.

Parent/Teacher Conferences are right around the corner. I look forward to meeting most to all of my students parents during those two days!

3rd Graders

2009-11-06T07:48:00.000-08:00

In our 3rd grade groups we have been doing a lot of work with word decoding and word recognition. The students are working very hard to figure out tough words AND to remember them in their reading.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-02T05:13:00.000-08:00

Friday was a little crazy with all of the sugar in the building and the kids anxiously awaiting their Halloween parties and getting their costumes on. I took the opportunity to let the kids have a little fun, BUT I snuck some learning in too! Check out what our morning groups accomplished!

Mrs. Demay's morning group played a Homonym game and enjoyed a Halloween popcorn ball!

Mrs. McCullouch's group played a game called BLURT! The kids love this vocabulary building game and it really gets them thinking!

Mrs. Lamon's group played Scrabble!
Miss Aubertine and Mr. Riddoch's classes played Spelling Racer!

There were no afternoon classes on Friday because of classroom parties!

What We Are Up To!

2009-10-28T07:13:00.001-07:00

Here is a little glimpse in the world of reading in our classroom right now!

* 9-9:30am (Mrs. Donato and Mrs. Demay's Readers; Group 1) We are continuing to read the book Molly's in a Mess. In between each chapter we are engaging in writing activities that mirror the NYS ELA which the students will take in May. If we start preparing slowly now, by the time the test comes around we will be old pros!

* 9:30-10am (Mrs. Donato and Mrs. Demay's Readers; Group 2) The boys continue to work on early literacy skills as well as writing skills. We are reading a variety of books at their level trying to strengthen their fluency.

* 10:15-10:45am (Mrs. McCullouch's Readers) We are just finishing up writing spooky Halloween stories. Later this week we will move on and start reading The Adirondack Kids; Book 2.

* 10:50-11:20am (Mrs. Lamon's Readers) We just started the book The Courage of Sarah Noble. It is a story set back in the early 1700s about a young girl who needs to find courage within her self while travelling with her father. The kids are really enjoying it!

* 11:30-12pm (Miss Aubertine and Mr. Riddoch's Readers) We have just started a unit on lighthouses. During this unit we will read a variety of books such as; Beacons of Light Lighthouses, The Little Read Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge and The Light at Tern Rock. During this unit of study we will talk about all aspects of a lighthouse, engage in writing activities and research the Internet for lighthouses in and around our area. The students are really excited about all the new things they are learning!

* 1-1:30pm (Mrs. Dermady's Readers) About a week ago we started reading a new book titled The Lemonade War. It is a great book about a sister and a brother who are competing against each other selling lemonade. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses that helps them to sell lemonade. It is very interesting and the students are really enjoying it so far!

* 1:35-2:05pm (Mrs. Peterson's Readers) We are continuing to read Song Lee and the Hamster Hunt. The girls are getting a kick out of this book and we have started to learn how to write comments after each chapter. Writing can sometimes be a challenge so we are working on it diligently.

* 2:15-2:45pm (Mr. Filiatrault and Mr. Folsom's Readers) We have almost completed our reading of the book Soup and we will move onto Fig Pudding starting next week. We will also add 4 more students from our classroom for our next book.

As you can see our days are very busy with reading and writing and as much FUN as we can add to the mix!

Meet My Readers!

2009-10-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

I finally got my act together and uploaded my classroom website so that students and families can check in and see how much fun reading can be! I'd like to introduce my wonderful readers for the school year 2009-2010!

Mrs. DeMay and Mrs. Donato's
Mrs. DeMay and Mrs. Donato's Readers (Group 2)
Mrs. McCullouch's Readers
Mrs. Lamon's Readers
Miss Aubertine & Mr. Riddoch's Readers
Mrs. Dermady's Readers
Mrs. Peterson's Readers
Mr. Folsom and Mr. Filiatrault's Readers

It has already been a wonderful two months with these students. I am looking forward to making many memories and helping them to become successful readers and writers! Check this site weekly for updates!