Arthur Character Study

Through the month of October, we have been learning about character traits. Students have been identifying the different outside traits a character has like they are tall, goofy looking, beautiful, etc. They have also practiced identifying a character's inside traits like evil, devious, and crestfallen. Not only did the students become experts at identifying a character's inside and outside traits but their vocabulary also increased. At the beginning of the month, students were identifying character traits using three letter words like mad and sad. By the end of October, students had expanded their vocabulary to include words such a suspicious and heartbroken.

To wrap up our character study unit, Ms. Vereecke created a fun activity involving Arthur characters. Students were divided into seven different groups and each group had one character from the Arthur series to study. Students were given a variety of books to research and also had an opportunity to explore the Arthur website on the PBS website. As you can see in the pictures below, everyone did a wonderful job identifying their character's inside and outside traits but also did a phenomenal job collaborating with their peers. Take a look at our hard work below...

Do not forget that Parent Teacher Conferences are this Thursday! We look forward to meeting with everyone!



It Is Almost November!?

We cannot believe how fast this year is flying by! Before we know it, there will be snow on the ground! As you can see, we have been very busy in our classroom...

At this point, we have moved from just Reading-to-Self and we have begun to Read-to-Someone. During this time, students will pick a partner and find a spot around the room to enjoy a book. There are a couple of key rules that go along with Read-to-Someone:

1.) If someone asks to read with you, you must say "Yes!"
2.) No one should be able to hear you read except for your partner.
3.) It is important to sit knee-to-knee and elbow-to-elbow.

As students are reading and also during our read-alouds, we have been focusing on character traits. It has been amazing to see our students development. Before we began learning about character traits, students would describe a character using words such as mad. Now, they have developed their vocabulary so they are able to describe a character using words like suspicious and devious. Everyone has done such a wonderful job!

We have also been working hard, learning about our community. Recently, students have studied community workers and what they do. They have been able to reflect back on the material we have been learning to decide what community worker they relate to the most. We have also been studying different rural, suburban, and urban communities. We took a field trip (courtesy of Google Maps) to Posen, Michigan and New York, New York to learn more about these rural and urban communities. We had a ton of fun and we even got to see my brother riding a tractor while we were in Posen!

Math time has been full of fun and A LOT of learning. For the past few days, students have been practicing making change by counting up. This is a very difficult concept but our students have seemed to really grasp how to make change. Today, we had fun as the students played store clerk and customer to practice this new skill.

As you can tell, we have been VERY busy! Things will continue to stay busy for the next few weeks. Here are a few important dates to keep in mind...

-November 2nd - NO SCHOOL!
-November 11th - Parent Teacher Conferences (NO SCHOOL for students)
-Novermber 25th-November 39th - Thanksgiving Break
-December 14th - Troy Historical Museum Field Trip

Friday Fun!

Today, a heated rival was created in our classroom as we used our prediction strategies to predict the outcome of Saturday's Michigan vs. Michigan State game. Students were taught what would be a good prediction for a football game like 50 points is a lot of points to score in a game. As you can see, we have A LOT of Michigan fans in our class...

        The true winner will be determined Saturday...

We also had a lot of fun today as Ms. Vereecke put the students' prediction and visualizing strategies to the test. Students were asked to listen to an oral story while practicing to predict different events in the story. They were also asked to paint a picture in their minds as to what the characters looked like, the setting, and anything else they could have imagined. In the middle of the story, the students put their thinking to work and wrote the next page in our story. Our students were working hard and came up with FANTASTIC ideas. They were able to share their ideas with their classmates during a fun "mingling" session. We are so proud of how far our students have already come in their reading and writing.

Special Stuff

In our classroom, we have two special treasure boxes. One treasure box is for birthdays or special occasions. No one knows what is in this treasure box yet! The other treasure box which is a bit smaller is for being a good pupil, being prepared for class, when you get five points as a team, etc. In this treasure box, there are yummy treats, pencils, erasers, etc. Tuesday, everyone from our class got a trip to the smaller treasure box. Everyone worked together to clean up WHOLE classroom for Curriculum Night. We worked together as a team and got the job done!

On Fridays, we are allowed to bring one stuffed animal for reading. With our stuffed animals we like to read to them, cuddle up with them, and sometimes they are even uses them for a pillow but mainly we just want to share our reading with our favorite stuffed animal.

Today is Kyle's birthday!!! He is turning seven today! We are excited because Kyle will be the first student in our class to get a trip to the big treasure box and is also the first student in our class to have a birthday. This afternoon, Kyle's parents will be bringing in some yummy cupcakes. We are all very excited to celebrate Kyle's birthday.

In our class, 13 students were able to attend our school carnival which happened last night. At the carnival there was face painting, relay races, obstacles course, fun games, magic show, photo booth, hat walk, and lots of desserts. There was also a big slide on the playground. We had great weather for the occasion! We had lots of fun at the carnival!

Kicking the Year Off!

Last Friday was Maple Elementary's Constitution Day in which we celebrated the signing of our Constitution. We spent a majority of our day discussing and even creating our own Constitution out of our classroom rules! Everyone took part in being a framer and helped to develop our own classroom law. Take a look at our Constition Day...

We framed our own Constitution.



Learing about the history behind our Constitution was very interesting!



Throughout the past couple of weeks, students have been practicing reading-to-self. This time involves the students finding a special spot in the classroom to enjoy their favorite books. A few rules go along with this time like no fake reading, no disturbing others, and to treat the books properly. Students are also asked to practice a few reading techniques during this time like visualizing. Up to this date, we are able to read-to-self for over 10 minutes! This is a great accomplishment and we are on the road to becoming GREAT readers! Look at what amazing readers we have in our class...