Happy New Year

It's 2014! I'm not used to writing that quite yet and more than once have had to use White-out to fix my mistake! I hope you had an enjoyable break, especially with the extended 2 days. I traveled over break and it was lovely.  I saw family and while it was great eating out at yummy restaurants and being in a hotel, I was ready to come back to the comfort of my home!

 I've posted many items about writing and thought I'd continue the trend. I have a visual like this hanging on my front wall in the classroom. I have the students refer to it when they say they are finished writing. As you know, writing is a process and can be a difficult one at that.  When the kids know what to expect and how to follow through, the process is made that much easier.  Use this graphic when your child is writing at home. It's important for them to know the difference between revising and editing and how to do each of these tasks.  

Calendar of Events for January

Wednesday, January 15    First Day of Third Quarter

Thursday, January 16       Reading Fair/ Literacy Night 6:30-7:30 pm

Monday, January 20          No School- Dr. King Day

Friday, January 24             Primary Awards Ceremony 1:30-2:30

                                                Intermediate Awards 2:30-3:30

                                                All- Star Academic Luncheon

Making learning fun!

As break quickly arrives, you may be thinking, "I have 2 weeks with my kiddo at home. What can I do to keep him learning even though he is on break?" An easy solution is turning regular games into educational games. I have put a few of my favorites here on my blog to show you how it easy it is and you will have fun in the process!

Math Jenga

Turn an old Jenga came into a math facts game quickly with strips of paper and a marker! You write out math facts of any kind and glue or tape them onto the Jenga blocks. As you or your child pulls a block, a problem has to be solved!

HedBanz

You can make a version of this game with anything- states and capitals, geography, science, the possibilities are endless! You don't necessarily need a headband. You can make cards and have the person hold it up against their head and ask questions in order to guess while the other person gives a yes or no response. 

Checkers or Connect-4

Using the checker pieces, glue/tape pieces of paper with math facts or questions pertaining to a certain topic and the player has to answer a question before he uses his piece. 

These treats aren't board games but can be educational with measuring and mixing: 

Holiday Cupcakes

Reindeer cupcakes

Double chocolate mousse

Sparkling mandarin orange dessert 

I hope everyone has a joyful break full of family, downtime and fun times making memories!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I was in Macy's this past weekend and you'll never believe what I heard......If you said Christmas music, you're right! How is that possible? Thanksgiving hasn't even come yet and the stores are filtering in the holiday music. My ears weren't ready! I love holiday music but can't warm up to it until I've filled myself with turkey and stuffing! That being said, I hope you have your families have a wonderful holiday filled with love, laughter and a good pie or two! I have just a couple things for you:

1. If your child has me for SFA, I gave them Read and Respond papers they can use for extra credit. If they fill these out for tonight through Friday, I will give them 1 point per day extra for their team celebration points. It's not mandatory but I would love for them to continue reading over break.

2. I've been on this writing kick and today in SFA we did a snowball writing activity. This is where each student starts with the same writing prompt and writes for about 2 minutes. Then they pass their paper along to the next student where the story is picked up. We wrote for 12 minutes so approximately 6 students wrote on a page. These stories turn into funny stories and wind up ending differently than the person who started it may have intended! The prompt had a turkey holding a blank sign and said, " It is Thanksgiving Day and Tom the Turkey is in the farmyard holding a sign that says...." This would be fun to do as a family and then read the finished product at dinner! The younger kids could decorate the pages with pictures or attach their own. Let me know how it turns out if you try it!

3. I saw this simple dessert on Kraft you can make with your kids. They're little turkey cupcakes and I think they're adorable! I hope you enjoy the holiday cooking and baking with your loved ones!

Remember: Thanksgiving Break is Wednesday, November 27-November 29th. We will see you back at school on Monday, December 2nd. 

More writing information!

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, I thought I would pass along this writing prompt in which kids can write what they are thankful for.  They can color it and post it for the family to see when you get together for the holiday. I also found another site that provides various pictures for students to use to create poems or stories. The site is called Storybird and it's free to sign up. Kids can choose from a large variety of illustrations to go along with their story or to start the creative juices flowing! I also saw kids can collaborate with other kids and comment on their work. If you check it out, let me know what you think!

Upcoming Evendale Events for November 

18-21 “Make a Change” Penny Wars Drive

19 Fall School Picture Retakes and Activity Pictures

22 Thanksgiving Feast, Kindergarten, Cafeteria

     Thanksgiving Feast, 1^st Grade, Community Room

25-26 17^th Annual Grand Days

27 Interim Reports go home

27 Conference Exchange Day, no school

28-29 Thanksgiving Break, no school

Practicing Creative Writing

Kids need to practice creative, free form writing. Why do I say this? It's not because kids aren't writing in school. They are and they are often asked to write informational, descriptive,  and short story pieces on a topic. There's a specific outline and I'm grading them according to a certain rubric. I believe to become a better overall writer, kids need to free write on a topic of their choice knowing they're not be graded. A fun way to practice this is give your child an interesting picture (real or cartoon) without a caption and have them write a story to explain what's going on. You can also find story starters that give you a picture and the start of a line and the child has to finish the story. The stories can be outrageous or realistic in content but either way, your child has an opportunity to use their imagination to construct a story without the stress of a grade. You can search "picture story starters" online for pictures. Enjoy the creative process!

Halloween Fun

I like to think of myself as a baker. I enjoy baking and creating yummy treats for my friends. I also have made cookies from time to time for a baptism or wedding. That being said, my cousin Kristen is a bonafide pastry chef and I have to give her a shout out! She has her own blog/website called INK foods- In Nanny's Kitchen, where she creates delicious treats and shares the recipes along with her delightful stories. I saw these Halloween treats the other day and even though they have nothing to do with Common Core or the OAA's, I thought you'd like them. They're something fun to do with your children and you don't have to be super crafty or a pastry chef to make them! Theses treats are called Halloween Cookie Critters and they're made with your favorite store bought cookie. Check out her website for this treat and other mouth watering creations!

Practicing Spelling

Fall is definitely here along with my favorite fall treat- candy corn and peanuts! If you haven't tried this delicious combination yet, get on it! I keep it in a jar at home and it disappears quite quickly! Some people add M&M's to the mix but I like it without the chocolate. It almost tastes like a Payday. Anyway, enough about my sweet tooth and onto educational things! Many parents have said, "My child is a horrible speller. How can I fix this?" Practice! It takes time for kids to quickly recognize blends, prefixes and suffixes and often using a dictionary proves hard because it's time consuming. Kids also don't like writing but they do like playing in sand. I saw this, on Pinterest of course, and thought I would pass the idea along to parents of struggling spellers. Using their SFA word list (their teachers would be happy to give it to you) or words they come across as they're reading, they can practice "writing" in the sand. Unfortunately there aren't sight word lists for kids above 3rd grade so I don't have a specific list for you. If you want to practice Pre-K through 3rd grade sight words search "Dolch Sight Words" on the computer for lists or look here for complete lists. You can practice in the sand by providing a model like the picture shows or giving your child a word aloud and having them "write" it with their finger.

Image and link found here