February 11, 2013

Fantastic February- The Literacy Edition!  

February started out truly fantastic in Room 13!  The children continue to be hard working, kind, and truly dedicated to learning.  

Reading Workshop

This month, we began our author study of Suzy Kline.  We are so excited for her author visit next month.  We kicked off learning about her books by reading Horrible Harry in Room 2B in both the classroom and in the Library with Mrs. Tedesco! This week, we zoomed in on Character Traits.  We learned about internal and external character traits, and how they are both used to describe a character in detail! We challenged the students to produce three star (***) "Stop and Jots".  

Here is the rubric for a three star post-it: 
* = identify a character trait
** =  identify a character trait and provide text evidence
*** = identify a character trait, provide text evidence, and include how this makes you think or feel!

We are so impressed with our *** work! GO READERS!

Writing Workshop
Our Biography Unit continues to be interesting and informative.  Now that our interviews are complete, the writing has begun! This week, we learned how to organize our writing into paragraphs and vary how we begin our sentences!  No one wants to read a writing piece that says he, he, he, he, he!  We truly appreciate the time the children and their families took to interview their special person and record some very interesting and important information about his/her life.  As always, the home school connection is truly appreciated.  Thank you to all the amazing parents! 

Landforms in the Making!
Clay, Diaramas, Posters, and a Wordsearch...OH MY!!!!!!!!! 
Who could ask for anything more? Check out the pics below of our architects in action!

Scientist of the Week
Last week, Logan truly sparkled with her amazing Glitter Globe experiment! Thank you to Logan for showing us that the glitter did in fact "stick" to the globe!  Check out Logan's jewels below!

Valentine's Day Celebration
In addition to all the exciting things happening above, we also had our Valentine's Day Celebration this week. We loved all the creative mailboxes made for this special day. Everyone enjoyed delivering their cards and treats around the room. Team Marsen loved reading all their "loving" cards from our students. Thank you to Mrs. Silverman and Mrs. Woo for helping celebrate with us.

Principal for a Day

Congrats to Ajer for winning "Principal for a Day"! We are so proud of everyone in the Cantiague Community that helped raise $5700 dollars to help our adopted school on the south shore that was destroyed during Hurricane Sandy. We know the money will help purchase materials needed for their students' education.  Principal Ajer is going to have a great day today, walking around the building to make sure that Cantiague students and staff members are safe, responsible, kind, respectful, positive and super stars!

We hope all of you have a wonderful break next week! Enjoy the time spent with friends and family!