The Great Mail Race

Today we finished finding schools to mail our letters to for the Great Mail Race.  We will be sending them out this weekend.  Hopefully we hear something back soon!

We are in the middle of a poetry unit, and this week your children wrote some amazing poems! They wrote acrostic poems using the letters of their names, which will be hanging in our classroom soon on the writing wall. Be sure to take a look the next time you stop by! They also wrote some fantastic Cinquain poems. Cinquain poems are very structured poems which allow the poet to focus on using descriptive words in their poetry writing. Take a look below at some of the Cinquain poems your children wrote:

Puppies
cute, huggable
playing, running, hopping
They explore a lot
Mammals

By Sarah


Cats
furry, cute
eating, sleeping, killing
Cats are fast
Mammals

By Brayden


Rhino
strong, mad
smashing, hiding, charging
It's horn is strong
Mammal

By Xander


Animals
big, small
swinging, running, crawling
Animals are cute
Animals

by Kaylee

Animal Fantasy Writing

Last week, the students finished and published their animal fantasy stories.  The students brainstormed possible writing ideas, used a web to gather their thoughts, and practiced using voice in their writing.  After their books were finished, the students wrote a letter to a student in Mrs. Van Eman's 3rd grade class at Mercer Elementary to tell why and how they created their story.  The students Skyped with Mrs. Van Eman's class on Friday to tell them the stories were on the way.  Mrs. Van Eman's class read through the stories and letters yesterday and are going to write their author a letter back with their thoughts about the story.  

Creative ways to Communicate

This week, we have been learning about creative ways to communicate. I showed the class some pictures of some friends from the University of Cincinnati who visited Africa recently. While they were there, they spent some time with children in a school in Otho Abao near Kenya. While there, the children wanted to send drawings to America of their daily life or what they wanted to be when they grow up. I brought in these drawings for the children in our class to see. The learners in 115 decided to draw pictures to send back to Africa about their life and what they want to be when they grow up. I will take these drawings back to my friends at UC who will take them to the children in Africa in March. Below are pictures of the artwork from the learners in 115.

Halloween Writing Activities

Halloween Costumes:  The students gave clues about what they were going to be for Halloween.  The students read their writing aloud and had 3 friends guess their costume.  We got 21 costumes right. Great clues Busy Bees! 

Personal Pumpkins: The students created a personal pumpkin for their friends to guess which pumpkin belonged to which friend. 

Here were their guidelines:

Eyes Shape: Boy- Circle Girl- Square

Eyes Color: Color of your eyes
Nose: The first letter in your name
Mouth: Age 7- Triangle Age 8- Rectangle
Stem: Your favorite color
Number of Stripes: Number of brothers/sisters

Can you find your child's personal pumpkin and costume writing?  If so, please leave a comment. :)

Writing

Yesterday, we read the book The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams. We talked about how the Little Old Lady said she wasn't afraid, but she probably really was. Even though she was scared, she found out that there really wasn't anything to be afraid of at the end. We decided to write about a time when we were scared but it turned out to be nothing scary after all. I loved reading all of the stories that your children wrote! They are great storytellers using some wonderful details. All of their stories are hanging in the classroom. Here are some examples of your children's writing:

How astronauts live in space.

During Reading Street Unit 1 Week 2 the students explored space. They read a nonfiction piece about how astronauts live in space and wrote sentences about the information they could recall from the text.

What Would You Do If You Went Into Space?

During our investigation of space the students wrote about what they would do if they went into space.