Whoooo is that?

Last week, we learned all about owls, bats and other nocturnal animals. One morning, we completed a predictable chart with facts we already knew or had just learned about owls. Each student wrote his/her own sentence. The only part that was on the paper was the word "Owls". They came up with the rest of the sentence on their own. We worked as a team to help each other stretch out any words we did not know. After we completed the chart, we touch read our sentences for a couple of days. By Friday, we were very familiar with our sentences! We created an owl puppet and cut the words in our sentence apart, mixed them up and put them in the correct order before gluing them onto the puppet. They are on display in our hallway for all to read what we have learned about owls!

Writing With Describing Words

During writer's workshop this morning we discussed how a sentence can be written in a way that can help the reader picture what the writer is writing about in further detail using describing words. We focused on using color words in sentences today. We first read through a couple of my journal entries and decided in order to give the reader a better picture as to what I was writing about, I needed to add a color word to describe the various objects I was writing about. For example, one of my sentences said "I like the flower." As a class we tried to picture what the flower looked like, we all had different ideas. We then changed the sentence to "I like the red flower". When we changed the sentence to add a color word to describe the flower it helped us as the readers picture what the flower looks like. Below are sentences we wrote together using color words, as well as an example of one of my student's writing entries in his journal during Work on Writing today. He was beaming with pride that he used a color/describing word to help the reader visualize what his pumpkin looks like.

Music & Movement

Every day we get up and move during our "Music and Movement" time.  Below is a video of the class enjoying one of the songs we dance to during the week.

PEP

PEP is an exercise activity we do as a class each day. It is to encourage a healthy lifestyle and to keep our students moving and active throughout the day. Our P.E. teacher, Mr. Z, creates these exercises to music on a tape that the class and myself exercise to each day. I choose one or two “peppers of the day” each day and this reward is given to students who worked the hardest.

This video is of students in gym class climbing the BIG net. This net is a challenge for kids to overcome their fear of heights as well as using their bodies to climb such a long distance. They will have chances throughout the year to see if they can get higher than they did the last time!