Odds & Ends

Early last week your child brought their dairy farm diorama project home with them.  Each diorama had to include a cow with an udder, a calf, a barn, a silo, and a pasture.   Students all worked very hard on these projects and they turned out great!

Our current dairy farm bulletin board...

Living & Non-living bulletin board...

Clifford projects students made during our Clifford book study...

On Thursday we had a visit from one of the librarians from the Roseville Public Library.

She shared a few stories with us and talked to students about getting their own library cards.  A special form will be coming home in this week's Wednesday folder with more information!

All week last week we worked on writing fiction stories with cats as the main characters.  First students created rough drafts where they brainstormed their characters, setting, and the beginning, middle, and end of their stories.  When they finished their rough drafts they had a chance to share their stories with their classmates.

On Friday, students worked hard creating their final drafts that are now on display in the hallway outside of our classroom.

Buddy Project & Cows

Yesterday we had a chance to meet with our 6th grade buddies for the second time.  We started by reading the book All the World by Liz Garton Scanton.  Then we had a group discussion about being thankful/grateful.

Next students worked together with their buddies to create a quilt square that showed something that each person was thankful/grateful for.

Here's what the quilt squares looked like when they were all done.  They turned out great!

On Monday, we learned that there are many different types of farms.  We then spent time learning specifically about dairy farms.  Yesterday we learned more about cows.  Students followed step-by-step directions to draw their own cows and then we worked together as a class to label our drawings.

Here's our whole class with our special cow hats!

Healthy Eating & My Plate

Earlier on this past week we spent time learning about the differences between healthy foods (foods we can eat anytime) and not so healthy foods (sometimes foods).  Students used ads from Cub Foods to make healthy and not healthy food posters.

 

 

 

Then on Thursday we continued learning about eating healthy using MyPlate.  Students spent the afternoon creating their own MyPlate projects.  First, students put together their plates and then added three foods to each section.



If students needed an idea for their project they could look in one of our food group books.



 

On Friday we played a fun game called MyPlate Blast Off.  Your child can play the game at home using the link below:

MyPlate Blastoff Game

There are also some other great resources on the MyPlate website:

MyPlate Website

Our Short Week

Even though this past week was a short one -- we were still busy and did lots of hard work!  We continued learning about labeling at the beginning of the week.  On Monday we created our own class book with labeled pictures.  First, students worked diligently to draw a picture of whatever they wanted.  Then, they spent time adding labels to their pictures.  They did a great job!  

 

 

We finished up our two week unit on the five senses this week.  Here are students testing out their sense of smell trying to guess what was in the mystery jars.  Smells included: coffee, cinnamon, syrup, pepper, garlic, pencil shavings, pine needles, onion, orange peel, BBQ sauce, chocolate syrup, and mint.

 

 

On Wednesday our class had a chance to meet our 6th grade buddies for the very first time.  Our buddies are all in Ms. McCormick/Mrs. Wendlandt's 6th grade class.  Several of our buddies were in my class when they were in kindergarten!  Students had a lot of fun completing a fall scavenger hunt and playing on the playground with their buddies.

 

Reading groups, Labeling, Five Senses, and Fall Fun!

This was a big week for our class!  We started practicing our reading group and center time.  Each day when we meet for reading groups students will move through three different rotations.

For one rotation they will work at independent learning centers which include a: reading center, writing center, phonics center, listening center, iPad center, math center, science/social studies center, and an art center.

For another rotation students will work on seat work at their tables.  Usually this seat work will have to do with our letter of the week.  When finished students will be able to read a book from their table's book bin.

The other rotation students will work in will be up in the front of the classroom where they will either receive reading instruction from me or work on some sort of literacy activity as a small group.

In writing this week we learned all about labeling.  Students learned that labeling is adding a picture to a word to add/get information.  

On Thursday students had a chance to label me using post-it notes.

They also each labeled their own picture using typed out words.

Today we worked together as a class to draw a picture and then labeled the picture together as a group.

All week long we've been learning about the five senses.  We began on Tuesday by learning about our sense of hearing.  We went on hearing walk outside and through the school and then played a hearing guessing game.

On Wednesday we used our sense of touch to feel things that felt hard, soft, rough, and smooth.  Students also had a chance to use only their sense of touch to figure out the objects in many different mystery bags.

Yesterday we learned all about our sense of taste.  We started by labeling the different taste zones on the tongue.

Then we did a taste test.  Students tasted salty pretzels, bitter unsweetened chocolate, sweet M&Ms, and sour candy.

After the taste test students shared with each other about what they like best and least.

Here's our new fall bulletin board.

And lastly a few pictures of the whole class enjoying yesterday's beautiful fall weather.