Week 4: Sticky Note News

Week 4 was super busy with getting into our "Reading is Thinking" Unit.  One of the best things you can do at home is use our Sticky Strategies!  If you have sticky notes around the house try this: As the kids are reading have them jot their thoughts down while reading.  Examples could be:

• Predictions
• Connections
• Funny parts
• Is the character doing what I would do?
• Opinions

This can be done with any genre, from poetry to fiction to informational!  Get STUCK in a good book! :)

 Adrian filling out his stickys!

 Jiselle holding up her "sticky" book after reading Bad Kitty.

Everyone worked really hard getting their thoughts down on their stickys.  At the end of the week we glued our stickys in our reading journals for a grade: "Reading is Thinking."

Week 3: Reading while Thinking!

Week 3 started getting into our curriculum so I had less time to snap photos. But here are two fun activities we did this week.

1) We introduced Spelling-Word Work games.  The kids roll the dice and each number has a specific task that the whole table must complete.

 1) Write a sentence with that word.

 2) Draw a picture of your word.

 3) Write a synonym for your word.

 4) Write an antonym for your word.

5) Write the definition of your word.

6) Write the word three times.

The kids seemed to have a fun time with our big dice and spelling words!  (The spelling test grades were good, too! Just saying) :)

2) The other activity we introduced this week has to do with our 

READING IS THINKING unit!

To begin our lesson we used our THINKING BUBBLE to share our thoughts while we read aloud various books for the week.

Brandon 

Jayla 

Nicole 

Merrick

Two of the books we used for our READING IS THINKING bubble...

My week ended on a positive note!  One of my old third graders/Spanish student and dance partners from the Talent Show brought me a special morning treat!  I miss her so much but I just love seeing all my old students in the morning!!  Thank you, Em!  Talk about Rule 5: Keep Your Dear Teacher Happy! :)

Week 4 coming soon!

Week 2: Super Citizens, Buddy Reading, and Boosterthon!

Week 2 was a very fun week!  We used a lot of time to get going in our Reading/Writing Workshop schedule.  I'll try and post our schedule for you on here soon.  Enjoy our video!

1) We began our library check-out days with Mrs. Casas.  She showed us funny videos of our principals showing us good ways to use library behavior.  Then we got to check out our two books.  

Library days will be Tuesdays each week!!

2) We worked on finding Just Right Books.  We did this by reading: 

The author, Jackie Mims Hopkins is a former Cy-Fair librarian and we just love her book!  For those students who attended Lamkin last year we got to meet her.

3) We began practicing our reading skills by partner reading.  By doing this we have a chance to focus reading out-loud with FLUENCY.  We focused on:

• Stopping at periods and commas
• Reading with expression (especially when we see question marks and exclamation marks)
• Reading at a quick speed like we are having a conversation

We first watched Tim Tebow read Green Eggs and Ham on YouTube here.

4) After the AMAZING Boosterthon on Friday, we spent our whole day learning about the magnificent Helen Keller.  We began by watching the Animated History series video on www.discoveryeducation.com.  Then I brought in books from the public library with Braille.  These picture books had the Braille words and on the corresponding page had the words that the kids could read.  They loved reading through the stories in this unique way.  Then we read the picture book of Helen Keller's life: 

And we wrapped up the day answering 10 multiple choice questions about all the information we had learned during the day.

Thanks for another wonderful week with your kiddos!!