Dr. Seuss Activity

I apologize that I have not posted in so long.  The past few weeks have been a bit hectic with preparing for ISTEP and then actually giving the test last week.  I am happy to report that we had 100% attendance during testing!

This is a Dr. Seuss activity that the students completed on March 2nd. For those you that had me in 1st grade, it will probably look familiar. =)  It is just cute to *not* do again, however.  I did change the prompt a bit this year.  The posters are currently hanging in the hallway.  I will take them down next week, laminate, and send them home.  I hope that you enjoy them for years to come!

This week we are busy preparing for the IREAD test which will be on March 19th.  Make sure that your child is continuing to spend at least 20 minutes reading each evening.

Leap Frogs

The students have been working soooo hard on test prep that I felt like they needed a break.  I found these cute little leap frogs here, and I just knew that we had to make them in honor of leap day.

The frogs are actually a a glyph, so each student's frog looked a little bit different.  After the boys and girls finished making them, I gave them each a paper asking what their leap frog said about them...... snuck in a bit of writing, anyway. =)

While completing this activity,  they enjoyed some cookies and juice that I brought in.

I hope you have a terrific evening!  The weather outside is gorgeous....... I am thankful  the tornado warnings stayed away from us today, and we did not have to spend the morning in the hallway! =)

Writer's Workshop

The students are currently working on writing narratives in Writer's Workshop.  We have been discussing how the use of similies, metaphors, imagery, and dialogue helps to make writing "come alive" for the reader.  The students favorite, however, was the use of onomatopoeia.  They LOVED coming up with examples of it during our mini-lesson time.

                     Here are Olivia and Andrew hard at work on their narratives.

Next week we will be preparing for ISTEP which begins the week of March 5th.  Have a terrific weekend!

Junior Achievement

Yesterday our class began the first of 5 lessons with Mr. Chuck Kiefer.  He is employed with Humana in the IT Department, and he is a volunteer with Junior Achievement.  He will be here once each week for 5 weeks.  His lesson last around 30-45 minutes, and the the topic is "Your Community."  Yesterday the kids learned about different areas in a city (called zones.)  Then the students were placed in groups to create their own classroom zones. 

Alyvia was being a great listener.

I hope everyone has a fantastic 3 day weekend! 

Valentine Fun

Our class had a GREAT Valentine party today.  Thank you so much to everyone that helped make it a success!  Here are a few pictures from of our festivities.

Autum "blinging" out her picture frame.

Jason chose not to add so much bling =)

Lukas and his Mom in a deep conversation

The kids loved getting to play Uno

Avry's dad was in charge of the hot glue gun.  I think he only burned himself once.....

Layne enjoying some snacks

It's a Snowball Fight!

Yay!  A shiny, new blog!  Welcome!!!!!!! 

The first thing I would like to share is the bulletin board that is up outside our room.  I first got the idea from this wonderful blog http://queenofthefirstgradejungle.blogspot.com/2011/12/flashback.html and adapted it.  With the all important IREAD test coming up in March, I wanted to get the students excited about reading more books.  I decided to have a classroom "snowball" fight..... and really with the crazy LACK of snow we are having, it is pretty much the only snow we are seeing. 

Beginning the first week after Christmas break, the students each made a cute little penquin and were challenged to read chapter books.  After completing the book, the students write a short summary of the book and then are given a snowball that is placed outside.   The "fight" ends on February 29th.  At that time the top four readers will be invited to eat pizza in the classroom with me.  In addition, all students that read at least 6 books will be put in a drawing, and I will choose 2 more to join us.  The students are so excited about this, and I have gotten lots of compliments from other adults in the building.  I talked to the other 3rd grade teachers about making it a 3rd grade snowball fight next year!

So, keep reading those books!  We have a few weeks left.  I can't wait to see what the grand total of chapters books read will be!

Happy Valentines' Day!  I hope to get some pictures uploaded from out party later today!