Class books updated. . .

I made a few updates to the file.  You can grab the cover for your grade level along with the alphabet pages here.  

I love Clifford!

Do you love Clifford the cute little  big dog?  Norman Bridwell has so many books, and he's a wonderful person to use for an author study, especially when it comes to creative writing features.

Kohl's Cares for Kids has new books, and I'm so excited because one of the books is "Clifford's First School Day."  Also for purchase is the original title, "Clifford the Big Red Dog," along with "Clifford the Firehouse Dog," and "Clifford's Birthday Party."

 

Silly Rabbit. . . Books are for Kids

Today we kicked off the last week of school with a "reading marathon."  Since breakfast is the most important meal of the day, we ate a little bit of cereal.  

Then we read, 

 read, 

read,

and read a little more!

 The students brought a favorite book, a stuffed animal, and their slippers.  

I wore my monkey slippers today, and even Yoda joined us!  The students loved switching books and discussing their favorite parts while they sat in the "reading marathon circle."  

 

   

 

 We took a break to create a new class book:  "Silly Rabbit...Books Are For Kids!"

 

 

 

  In case you're wondering why we were here at school on Memorial Day, it's because of all of the ice/snow mixture that we got during the first week of February!  Please excuse the mess and clutter you see in the background...I am in the process of preparing the room for summer!  

authors, inventors, and researchers...

Over the past few weeks, we've been making lots of class books.

My two favorites were created during the week that our spelling words were "days of the week" and "months of the year."  We wrote "The Very Hungry First Graders" and "The Pigeon Munches All Year Long."

We're still illustrating, but here's how the story starts and ends.  

Here's "The Pigeon Munches All Year Long."

After we read "The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog," the kids did a great job on some directed drawing.

I used the sketch below to guide them through the process.

We've also been conducting research about famous inventors and working on a few inventions of our own!

We're also taking a closer look at the animals and plants of the desert habitat. 

We've also been working on character analysis and higher level comprehension skills.  I loved these portraits of Miss Nelson along with her physical traits and character traits.  We were supposed to create one for Viola Swamp as well, but didn't get a chance to.  Harry Allard's "Miss Nelson" series is great for teaching character analysis because Miss Nelson and Viola Swamp have easily identifiable traits.