At last week's Monday Morning Meeting, Mr. Liner and Ms. Dickens announced QAE's year-long theme ~ Mistakes Are Welcome Here! Each month, we will explore a character trait tied to our theme. For the month of October, we are looking for BRAVE! Mr. Liner and Ms. Dickens shared with us that they found brave in Dr. Seuss' book, "The Lorax", when the Lorax said, "I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues." Speaking up for someone who has no voice is important. If we do not do this, we risk losing something important. They challenged us to pay attention to bravery this month, noticing it when we see it. We spent the week finding brave in some books we have already read together, as well as some new ones. Mr. Elliott visited our class and read us a book called "Nasreen's Secret School". The book was about how girls in Afghanistan have to be brave to go to school. Mr. Elliott told us about how he and the Coe Elementary community helped these brave girls learn, and how he traveled to Afghanistan, which we think was very brave! | We are capturing the brave we notice on our class truffula tree, which we will be sharing with the school at the end of the month. We will continue looking for brave in books this week, and we will also take time at a class meeting to talk about bravery we are noticing at school. If you find examples of brave at home, please share them with us by commenting on this blog post! |
PBL ~ How Are We The Same? How Are We Different?
Last week, we continued to focus on what effective speaking looks like. The students all rewatched their gallery walk video and then filled out a speaking rubric for the first time.
In art class, the students are working with Ms. Amsel to create self-portraits that capture their unique features. They will also be creating artwork that teaches us about their families, homes, favorite activities and favorite foods. These art pieces will be showcased on an All About Me presentation board that each students will be putting together in a few weeks. This week, we will use flag pins to mark where in the world our families have lived on our classroom library world map, noticing similarities and differences. I will also be helping students become familiar with their E-Folios. We will work together to write an author's bio and talk about how this website can be used to share who we are and what we are learning with others. |
Readers Have Superpowers!Last week, we started our 2nd Readers' Workshop Unit ~ Readers Have Superpowers! The students received their school reading bags filled with A/B pattern books. We practiced reading these books back to back and hip to hip with our reading partners, and learned to do a book walk to get our brains ready to read. | Writers' Workshop ...In Writers' Workshop, we shifted from writing teaching books to writing true stories about things we have done or things that have happened to us. This week we will continue to tell these important stories, adding details about where they happened, who was there and what people were doing. |
Wrapping Up Letter Of The Day!
Each day, we spend a few minutes after lunch studying our letter of the day ~ thinking about how to write the letter, making the letter with our bodies, generating a list of words that start with that letter and finally acting out things that start with the letter. The kids have loved this routine, especially the Zoo phonics animals we introduce for each letter to help students connect each letter to the sounds it makes. They love singing the zoo phonics song, which we will learn the end to this week!
Several students have asked me to post the video I have played for them of my students last year singing the ZooPhonics song, so here it is. Stay tuned for a video of your kids singing it - coming soon!
Several students have asked me to post the video I have played for them of my students last year singing the ZooPhonics song, so here it is. Stay tuned for a video of your kids singing it - coming soon!
Mark Your Calendars!
QAE Events for Kids and Adults...Friday afternoon, October 17th Jog A Thon! 1:00 - 3:00 pm Tuesday, Oct. 21st Family Game Night 6:30 - 8:30 pm in QAE Cafeteria Friday, Oct. 24th 1st Kindergarten Writing Celebration! 9:35 - 10:00 am in QAE Library Thursday, Oct. 31st QAE Halloween Parade @ 2:00 pm Classroom Halloween Party @ 2:35 pm | QAE Events for Adults only...Thursday, Oct 23rd QAE / Dwankhozi Partnership Information Night 8:00 - 10:00 pm @ Mulleadys Pub (RSVP [email protected] Friday, October 24th PTSA Oktoberfest (Adult Social) 6:00 pm @ St. Anne's November 22nd - 25th Parent/Teacher Conferences If you have not scheduled a conference with me, please send me an e-mail so we can do so! |