Bubblicioius!

The past few weeks in writing have been all about word choice (replacing boring words with specific nouns, strong verbs and descriptive adjectives), and to celebrate our love of descriptive adjectives, we wrote poems about a forbidden school treat, gum.  I copied three random poems below, and if you imagine the gum they're describing, it's quite hilarious...

Gum

By Gavino

Gum

Gum

Gum

Smoky gum

Moldy gum

Everlasting bitter gum

Cheesy, buttery, juicy gum

Those are just a few

Stale gum

Spicy gum

Oily, oniony, farty gum

Salty, spoiled, sugary gum

Peppery gum, too.

Gingery gum

Garlicy Gum

Don't forget burnt gum

Last of all, best of all

I like Bazooka gum!

Gum

By Lizbeth

Gum

Gum

Gum

Bubbly gum

Fresh gum

Oily, fishy, juicy gum

Sugary, old, rotten gum

Those are just a few.

Peppery gum

Wet gum

Moldy, cheesy, foggy gum

Brittle, gooey, rosy gum

Slimy gum, too.

Cheesy gum

Bright gum

Don't forget smooth gum

Last of all, best of all

I like swirling gum!

Gum

By Jordan

Gum

Gum

Gum

Screaming gum

Cranky gum

Sweaty, atheltic, dirty gum

Hairy, stinky, poopy gum

Those are just a few.

Curly gum

Dangerous gum

Annoying, dancing, girly gum

Nasty, disgusting, hard gum

Chewy gum, too.

Ear wax gum

Brainy gum

Don't forget tasty gum

Last of all, best of all

I like bubble gum!

More gum activities coming soon (and TONS of pictures!)

:)

Happy Birthday to...

the lovely and talented Brenda! :)

AR Book Finder

Ms. Cooper, Bruce's mom, found a great resource for finding AR books, www.arbookfind.com.  You can search by title or author to see if the books your child is reading qualify for Tic-Tac-Toe Reading.  Remember, most books are AR books, but some are not.  If your child is dying to read a book that's not an AR book, we can work something out so it will count for the reading log too.  The first Tic-Tac-Toe Reading is due next Monday, September 26. If you have any questions, please email me! 

Happy reading! :)

Reading Rockstars (Part Two)

The best part is most of the students didn't even notice me filming them :)

Reading Rockstars (Part One)

I am SO INCREDIBLY PROUD of my students' AWESOME reading skills!!  This is something we've been working on since the first day of school, starting with 3 minutes and working up to 20.  If they can be engaged in their reading for 20 minutes, they can read forever.  My favorite thing about our independent reading time every day is someone always asks if we can read longer.  :)

This full video was too long to post, so I'm splitting it in to two.  This is Part One of Reading Awesomeness.  Excuse the video quality; it was taken on my phone.

I'm Back!

After a VERY busy couple of weeks, I'm back :)

Here's what we've been up to while I've been neglecting the blog...

 Earning coupons through the behavior chart.  

After finishing the day on pink five times, students can choose from my box of coupons.  These six lovely students chose a coupon for picnicking outside. :)

 Celebrating Brenda's birthday with delicious fruit kabobs, thanks to her mom! :)

 Decorating our class bulletin boards after studying parts of speech...

 

 (common and proper nouns, verbs and adjectives)

 Wrapping up our matter unit with a solid, liquids and gases picture book.

 DOMINATING the AR contest between homerooms!!  Each time students get a 100 on a test, they get a sticker for the chart.  Best quote of the day yesterday: "This isn't even a competition!"  It's true.  We're at least 25 100's ahead of the other classes :)

And finally, making these lovely Picasso-inspired portraits.  

I can't wait to catch up with you all next week during conferences.  If you haven't signed up for your time or received the doodle email, let me know so I can resend the link.

Happy weekend! :)

More Kings and Queens!

This post is dedicated to all the DLR (Daily Language Review) Kings and Queens.  This may not be the most exciting part of our day, but it is critical for writing growth.  The following pictures are celebrating the last three weeks of kings and queens...

 Queen Rachel and King Gavino

 King Gavino (again!)

King Chase, King Quinton, Queen Jasmine and (not pictured) Queen Arlette

Look for DLR to come home in your child's Thursday Folder every week.  Since we go over all the answers every day and the kids are essentially getting "free" answers, their grades should be very high (90 or above).

I look forward to celebrating more kings and queens, and hopefully all students will have the chance to wear a crown at least once this year! :)

Barebones and Subject/Verb Agreement

In writing, we started the year with a basic grammar review - nouns, verbs, sentence structure and subject/verb agreement.  Students have been practicing writing perfect sentences, and by that I mean they have a capital, period, subject and predicate in every sentence.  This is imperative when moving on to more complex writing skills.  You can support your child at home by having them write barebone sentences about daily life.  Example: Mom cooks.  Steaks sizzle.  Dog barks.  You can also ask them to find the subject or predicate of a sentence in a book they're reading.  Everything we do in writing from this point on will be built upon these skills, so it's extra doubly important they fully understand them.  

They've also been working on subject/verb agreement.  Here are a few pictures of the kids matching nouns and verbs with subject/verb agreement...

 Marisol, Lizbeth, Caron

Quinton, Jasmine, Nixcia, Maya, Gavino

 Grace, Bruce, Connor, Chase, Emily

If you're wondering about reading and math, we're doing that too, but students will start their permanent classes on Tuesday.  And we'll focus on social studies after our matter unit. :)

Coming soon...adorable superhero paragraphs.  My students (your children!) are SO creative!!

Solids, Liquids and Gases...Oh My!

It's been all about matter in science lately.  We've done Smart Board activities, watched videos, listened to songs, drawn diagrams, matched vocabulary words to make a bulletin board, practiced moving like the molecules in a solid, liquid and gas, and created a non-fiction book using magazines and newspapers, all in preparation for more experiments.  Take a look...

 Marisol

 Joslyn

 Emily

 Gavino

 Edna

 Rachel

 Solomon

 Connor

 Emily

 Brenda

 Caron

 Rachel

 Our new bulletin board, thanks to my little scientists :)

 A matter diagram in their science journal

 A flip-chart showing what the molecules look like inside each state

 solid, liquid, gas

The students pretending to be molecules in a solid, liquid and gas.
They move slowly in a solid because they're packed so tightly together, faster in liquids and fastest in gases.  They're a little silly because of the camera, but you get the idea :)

More picture of their non-fiction books coming soon!  We finished them today, and they turned out really well :)

Happy Labor Day weekend!

Happy Birthday to...

the neatest Nixcia in fourth grade!! :)