Halloween Slideshow

Halloween in 202!

We had a fabulous day in the classroom learning, while still having a bit of fun for Halloween. We read, "Say Boo" a precious story of a young ghost who could not say Boo. The children practiced using vivid vocabulary words to describe his feelings. We no longer say, "sad" or "bad". The character is now frustrated or gloomy. Please encourage your child to use more descriptive traits and feelings at home.

Then, we did some famous Miss Evanko word unscrambles. It was great to see that some of you really had a knack for figuring out the mixed up Halloween words. These can be quite challenging and your wheels were turning! Here are a few for fun. :)

nadyrnocc chitw talochoec tobocer

Finally, it was time for some goodies and crafts. We had a nice little snack with homemade rice crispies. The students created some spooky q-tip skeletons, worked on a word search and did a picture hunt. Below is a slideshow of the exciting day. I hope you all had a safe and wonderful Halloween. Sleep off that sugar!

Contraction Courage!

Have no fear! Contractions are here! We have been practicing how to combine two words to create a smaller word. This is an important skill as many children confuse plurals with contractions. We even learned a catchy song to sing about contractions! Contractions make our lives much easier when we write. Just pick up a book and start reading and you will see just how often you read a contraction. Below are some games and activities for contraction practice. See you next week super heroes!

Contraction matching and fill-in
Write the contraction
Quiz me!

Our Literacy Pumpkin!

As an annual event at Chets Creek, each classroom decides on a pumpkin to decorate based off of a book. Our class chose, "Boom Chica Rock." This story is very similar to Chica Chica Boom Boom but instead of letters, it involves numbers. The students worked very hard on painting, cutting,and creating the pumpkins. Thank you to the three mothers who came in to assist our kids in the process. Also, thank you parents who donated supplies and pumpkins. They turned out FABULOUS!

In an Inference read for lots of clues!

This week we have been discussing inferences. Inferencing is when a reader has to make an educated guess based off the clues in the text and their background knowledge. This is a deeper and more complex reading skill as the answers are not there for us. Readers have to think about their lives and their experiences to help.

story clues+ what we know=INFERENCE

For example, if a character got back their test and sunk deep in their seat and frowned, we would make an inference that they did poorly.

Here are a few sites that explain this skill and allow you to practice. You'd be amazed on how much you infer in your daily lives! Most of us make inferences without even realizing it.

Inference Riddles
What can you Infer?
Story with Inference Questions
Inference About Characters

We've got Worms!!!

No no, don't call the doctor, we are studying dirt and soil in science! Students have been learning about the importance of worms on the Earth. As good scientists practice observing, we have been observing a worms behavior in the habitat we built in class. So far, we have studied their appearance, seen them create burrows in the dirt, nest under the leaves and dig far into the soil. We have used our Science Notebook to record our hypothesis and findings.

Today in class we visited an amazing worm website that taught us more about the worm. Did you know that worms have 5 hearts? Who knew they were so loving! We learned new science vocabulary words and heard an interview from a worm himself! Pretty neat! Take a peek..... Worm Website

Here is another great informative site .. Worm Facts From a Worm

Maybe next time it rains go out searching for this amazing creature and ask your child some facts they have learned. :)

The Power of the Red Pen: Editing-Revising

As my wonderful skilled Writers finish up their narratives, we discussed the power of editing and revising. This step in the Writing Process is so important as they polish off their stories.

During this process, the students were taught basic editing marks. Then, they were reminded of the types of errors to look for: punctuation, spelling, and selecting the most precise word choice. They were also reminded to look for ways to improve the story by adding adjectives and similes. Students were put in pairs to practice fixing a pretend story with many errors! Here are a few samples of the mistakes they were able to find and correct.

They knew the beginning of
sentences and titles start with capital letters, 'i' should ALWAYS be capitalized, sentences don't start with 'and, but, or so', use different transition words, you begin a new paragraph when the setting changes or a new speaker talks, and also added adjectives and similes. What a difference editing and revising makes! Great job Writers! Now, we begin the final step: Publishing our hard work. :)