Jingle Bells Homework Smells Book Talk

Christmas Growing Pattern

Our Growing Pattern for this month is a gingerbread person.  Some are wearing hair bows instead of bow ties, so we are not calling them gingerbread men.  This was a lengthy and heated  (but very interesting) discussion in class!

We wrote about the eyes (2) and buttons (3) growing patterns.  There are others!  What growing pattern do you see?

Meet Jingle

Jingle is our Elf on the Shelf.  On Monday, we brainstormed some Christmasy names then voted for our favorite by putting up a tally mark by our choice.   (Elfie was a close second, but Jingle earned the most votes!)

Jingle watches us all day and reports to Santa every night.....he is magic and can make it to the North Pole and back by morning.  He tells Santa all of the good things he sees us do.  He tells Santa the not so good things too but so far this week he has had almost all good reports!  When he returns each morning he is hiding in a new place.  We can't shout out where he is hiding or touch him.  If we do, he will lose his magic....oh no!

Thanksgiving Story Bracelets

We made Thanksgiving Story Bracelets to help us retell the story of Thanksgiving.  (Thanks Dr. Jean at www.drjeanandfriends.blogspot.com for the cute idea!)  Each color bead helps us remember the story.
Here is a video of us practicing the retell!

Cranberry Thanksgiving

We read the story Cranberry Thanksgiving by Harry Devlin.  Mrs. Fischer's mom baked us our own loaf of "Grandmother's Famous Cranberry Bread" to try just like characters in the story ate.  Most of us LOVED it and even asked for seconds and thirds!  The recipe is in the back of the book, but here it is just in case you would like to make some of your own!

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
3/4 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cups light raisins
1 1/2 cups cranberries, chopped
  *Or use all cranberries instead of cranberries and raisins!

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl.  Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.  Add egg, orange peel, and orange juice all at once; stir just until mixture is evenly moist.  Fold in raisins and cranberries.

Spoon into a greased 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Remove from pan, cool on a wire rack.

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!

Here are our pictures with a cute little turkey.  It was a very warm and sunny day.  I still find this a little weird since I grew up in Indiana.....but I am not complaining!  Actually I am posting these blogs during my layover at the Atlanta airport on my way Indiana where it is COLD.  Don't worry, I am excited to trade in my flip-flops for my Uggs for a few days!

Happy Thanksgiving!  See you Monday:-).

Turkey Troubles Fluency Poems

These are just a few readings of the poem we practiced all week to help with our fluency.  The students  really seemed to enjoy practicing the poem each night and did a GREAT job with their "recording"!  After Thanksgiving Break we will practice a Christmas poem.

Hooray Hooray for the 60th Day!

 Liam was Zero the Hero's Helper today!

Since it is almost Thanksgiving, we made turkeys.  Their feathers counted by tens (one of Zero the Hero's favorite numbers) to 60.

Gabby creating her turkey.

Turkey Trot

Our class ran the "Turkey Trot" in PE today.  Coach Belfer was SUPER impressed with how hard we worked!  Our class completed 99 laps.  (That is more than we completed in the Pumpkin Run last month and we had less students here today!)  Our goal for the Reindeer Jingle Run next month is 100.  We can do it!!

Turkey Growing Patterns

Here are some picture from our Turkey Growing Pattern.

Whole Board

Row 3

Row 1 and 2 

   

This is the last Row.

Leave a comment predicting what will come next!

Turkey Glyph

Our Turkey Glyphs have replaced our Pumpkin Glyphs on our closet doors!  They are so cute I am sad they will only be up for a couple of weeks.
Glyphs are not just arts and crafts (even though they are really fun to make!)  They are a form of data interpretation.    When a glyph is finished, you should be able to "read" it to find out about the person who created it.  (If you came to Open House, you searched our Family Glyphs to find your family house by using the key!)


Key:

Are you going someplace or staying home for Thanksgiving?

Going: TanTurkey   Staying:  Brown Turkey

Do you like to eat turkey?

Yes:  Pear Body    No:  Oval Body

Do you like cranberry sauce?

Yes:  Eyes Up    No: Eyes Down

Where do you eat Thanksgiving dinner?

Dining Room:  Yellow Beak   Kitchen:  Orange Beak

Do you help cook Thanksgiving dinner?

Yes:  Open Beak   No: Closed Beak

Do you like gravy?

Yes:  Short, Fat Wattle    No:  Long, Skinny Wattle

What foods do you like to eat on Thanksgiving?

Feathers:

Red: Stuffing    Orange: Potatoes      Green:  Pie

Yellow: Corn       Purple: Beans

Do you like to eat leftovers from Thanksgiving?

Yes:  Yellow Feet    No:  Orange Feet

               

 
They Turkey Glyph key we used came from Shari Sloane (kidscount1234.com).  I just made the pieces and tweaked the key a little to better fit our classroom.

Reading Centers

We spend an hour at Reading Centers most days.  We practice our skill of the week, fluency, reading comprehension, and spelling.   Here are a few newer pictures.

 

November

How did November get here so quickly?  We will be very busy over the next few weeks, that's for sure.  Stay tuned to see pictures of our Turkey Growing Patterns and our Turkey Glyps that we are finishing up.

 In Science we are learning about the Day and Night Sky.  In Math we are working on addition to 12.  This week's Spelling Words are l-blends and can be a little tricky.  Study hard, the test will be on Thursday since it is a 4 day week.  Keep doing the homework that is in your Reading Bag nightly!

Picture make-ups will be on Tuesday.  Send in your retake form if you need them.
Check the back of your binder for our November Newsletter!

Leave me comments.....I LOVE seeing that you are enjoying our class with us.  Our blog has had over 900 views, so I know you are out there!

Math Centers

Here are a few pictures from our Math Centers.  This week I am introducing iPods as a center.  I don't know who is more excited, me or the kids!

50th Day

We celebrated the 50th day of school last week.  (Wow, that was quick!)  Since 50 is half way to 100, we learned all about half!  After learning and practicing that half means dividing things into equal shares, I gave the students a little test!  After assigning each student a partner, I gave each pair 5 cookies.  The test was to see which team could divide their cookies so each partner had an equal share.  I was impressed with my student's kindness.  Most groups gave each person 2 cookies and set the remaining cookie to the side. (Very kind, but I insisted they use all of the cookies!!)  Some thought they would "help" by eating the extra cookie.  Marin and Nikki were the first group to successfully divide their cookies in half.  Marin broke the extra cookie in 2 pieces!  Way to go girls!

Pumpkins....Science, Math and Carving!

Mrs. Debby (Miss Gilbert's mom) and Ms. Mindy (Miss Gilbert's aunt) came to school on the Friday before Halloween to help us with our fun Pumpkin Activities!  They brought 3 pumpkins with them so we could work in small groups.  Thanks to http://www.bainbridgeclass.blogspot.com  for the great Pumpkin Books we made. Before we carved our pumpkins we used them for Science and Math.  We predicted (then tested) if our pumpkins can sink or float....what do you think?  We also weighed, measured the height, measured the circumference, and predicted the number of seeds our pumpkins would have!  Then each group had to agree on what kind of face to put on their pumpkin.  (That was the longest and hardest part of our activity! )  Finally it was time to clean out our pumpkins.  Some of us thought it was cool, some of us thought it was icky, and there were even a few that refused to touch the "icky, squishy, slimy" stuff!  After multiple hand washings, we counted the seeds.....wow were our predictions way off!  While we were at Music, our helpers carved our pumpkins for us.  They were adorable, but you will have to take my word for it.  We were so excited to draw the names of who got to take the pumpkins home, that we did NOT take any pictures of the final product.  Can you believe it?  Here are some pictures of the process!