Book Orders Make Great Gifts!

Well the last book orders before winter break came out yesterday (seems so weird to talk about winter break already!!) and I forgot to write on them that they are due November 29th. There are a TON of great products this month and a lot of great ideas for Christmas gifts in there! If you go to www.scholastic.com and sign into book clubs as a parent using our classroom activation code (J2J6H) you can order online even which gives us free books each time! On the classroom page you will see recommended titles as well as a classroom wish list in case you're interested in supporting our classroom library this holiday season! Thank you so much for your orders!

Note: If you're interested in having a book ordered as a gift, I recommend ordering online and sending me a quick email that it's a gift. That way I know to hold the book and set up a secret meeting time when the books come in! :)

A Break from Posting

Not that I've been super regular lately with posting but there will be a slight interruption in posting on my behalf. I just moved this weekend and amidst everything I'm in the chaos of unpacking AND I don't have internet hooked up just yet. Thanks for hanging in there with my during the interruption! :)

Sand Art and Verbs

Well today was a SUPER fast day!

Today was one of the first days where I feel like the lightbulb went off with most of the students. They are finally getting into the routine we've been working on all year and are getting into such a great rhythm that they can come in from recess, look at the schedule and get straight to work! It's so exciting to finally see we are at that place! I was so proud today!

In art today, we did some sand painting to go with our Rocks and Minerals science finale. We used the Grand Canyon as our inspiration and really got some great results!

Since this week is a shortened week (no school Friday for Veteran's Day) there is NO SPELLING. Instead we are focusing on action verbs which are always lots of fun! We did our introduction today about what action verbs are and starting tomorrow we will learn the three tenses that our verbs can take - past, future, and present. It's always exciting to see what everyone comes up with as their sentences. :)

Today we also started our author study on Kevin Henkes. We are going to be focusing on one author for a couple of weeks to find more books that we are interested in and learn to improve our writing through reading other author's work. Kevin Henkes is one of my favorites and has such great stories that have really positive messages. We read Chrysanthemum today - ask your student what it was about!

To start off the spirit of Thanksgiving we also started our expository writing about why we are thankful. It was really interesting to hear what the students were thankful for! Some started off with the "essentials" in life like food, clothing, housing, etc. while others took a totally opposite approach and were thankful for video games and Blu-ray DVDs! What a difference!

Behind Schedule... Once Again!

Goodness, Gracious, Oh MY!

I am behind schedule on posting AGAIN...

I dare say that you're all used to it by this point and are hoping I get my act together pretty soon. Let me tell you, that makes two of us! :) I am definitely ready to get back into my blogging routine and keep in touch more often! With the party this week and conferences coming up soon I have been on overload but the excuses stop here!

This week we have a LOT of great things coming up in our shortened week (reminder that Friday there is no school for Veteran's Day).

This week we will talk about VERBS! I love the actions words because we get to ACT it out! How fun is that?!

Junior Achievement is finishing their last two lessons with us for social studies which is bittersweet. We have LOVED having Devin and Cole in our room teaching us so much about social studies but it's a great launching point for our social studies unit starting next week!

This week we are also starting a new kind of writing - expository writing! Expository writing is non-fiction writing meant to inform or explain. We are going to be writing about why we are thankful since Thanksgiving is right around the corner (can anyone else not believe how fast this year is flying by??).

With so much going on this week I hope we all get plenty of sleep and are ready for a great week ahead! See you all tomorrow morning!