Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving dioramas

Everyone was so creative this week as they made their Thanksgiving scenes in shoeboxes! Clay food and animals, paper people and houses, a Mayflower ship, camp fires, and so many other unique touches made this a very engaging activity. 

Precise cutting

Adding some clay animals

Ta Da!

Look inside!

Our Adventures of a Pilgrim writing

Bird's eye view!

 I hope you enjoy reading their Adventures of a Pilgrim booklet as much as I did - they were so industrious describing sailing for the New World, working hard to make a home, and sharing a first Thanksgiving feast. Writing from the point of view of a Pilgrim child was lots of fun!
Here are some Pilgrims and Native Americans to add to our classroom time line:

Guess who?!

Pilgrim friends

Part of our display

Grades closed today and report cards will go home next Friday. I sent a note home about signing up for conferences on December 5th on our online site. I also emailed everyone. If you have any questions feel free to call or email. Looking forward to seeing you all.

Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!
Mrs. Dagley

The Pilgrims are coming

Our 'newspaper' accounts of Squanto

Our library area with a Mayflower model

As Thanksgiving Day approaches, we have been learning about the history and context of this holiday. We began by learning about this 'New World' that the Pilgrims set sail for. Who was living here, what did the land look like when they arrived, and who helped them survive after their terrible first winter? Squanto had an integral part in helping the Pilgrims in hunting, fishing, and planting crops, and  since he could speak English (after sailing to England) he was their negotiator/translator with the Wampanoag tribe. After reading several texts about Squanto, the kids were inspired by his life full of adventures and hardships and wrote their own 'newspaper' accounts detailing his life. What terrific writing!

Have you met Squanto?

Exciting texts

We have also begun our Adventures of a Pilgrim booklet. We are writing from the point of view of a Pilgrim child and are describing our feelings about traveling to a new land, living aboard ship for weeks and weeks, and deciding what items we will pack. Next we wrote about working in Plymouth - all the jobs that need to be done, even by children! Next week we will complete this booklet.

Indoor recess on the cold or snowy days continues to be a creative time as kids build legos, castles, tinker toys, play school, set up animals and car tracks - great chance for socializing and sharing ideas and toys.

Lego time

Assembling a castle

A 'wow' show and tell - deer antlers!

                                                           
Our question in science this week was, "How can we communicate with someone far away without using sound?" After watching a MysteryScience episode, everyone got in partners to make their own code of an action to perform based on the color their flashlight  shone through. Flashlights are great fun on their own, but using them to communicate to their friend, and watching their friend respond with the corresponding action was extra fun!

Choosing colors and actions

"You have to spin if I shine red"

Sending a message

O.K., what am I communicating?!

Shut the lights off!

Let's get ready to send a message!

We have had a couple of short weeks and next week will be the same. We will have a half day Wednesday and be closed Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. Never the less, we have a lot of activities planned. The one the kids are looking forward to the most is our Thanksgiving dioramas. We will begin that Monday. We are all set for shoeboxes - no need to send any more and thank you to those who sent extras!

We will also take the Math benchmark test covering topics 1-4 and will complete our Pilgrim writing booklet. Grades close next week and we will have Parent Conferences on December 5th. An online sign up will follow. No homework next week due to the short week.


Enjoy the first snow!
Mrs. Dagley

Veteran's Day Respect

Lining the halls to welcome the veteran's visiting our school

Friday was a day to honor our local veterans who visited the school for a breakfast, songs, and a parade through the halls with all the students waving flags, giving high fives, and cheering. We read    Veterans - Heroes in our Neighborhood with wonderful illustrations depicting each veteran back when they served in the armed forces contrasted with their current occupations.   Thank you to the men and women who served!                                                
                                                       
Guess what made an appearance in math accompanied by great excitement? Calculators! The kids had a terrific time learning to solve problems using the calculators and learning how to skip count by 2s or  5's with just a touch of a few buttons. 

Our poster

Here we are with these little gems

After watching a Science video clip about career kid Erik, who designs video games and uses light and sound to communicate information in the video game, we chose video game themes and designed some of our own. The kids were very excited to create obstacles, bonuses, add stickers representing light or sound, and plan a story to help their character to the goal. It was equally exciting to then share their games and directions with friends.

Getting started designing and planning

Choosing characters and destinations

Cutting out game pictures

Drawing back grounds

Creative ideas 

Telling each other our video game stories

Listen to mine!

"So first you go along here..."

Our completed designs!

During writing this week we have been focusing on personal narrative/small moments and wrote a seasonal story about a fun fall activity including an introduction, details, and a closing. We also chose a 'Gold Star' habit to focus on during another writing activity. Using capitals, end marks, spaces, correct spelling for words introduced, and using the lines to form letters were a few of the options they chose from. After reading Porcupine's Pajama Party, the kids were inspired to write their own plans for a sleep over party with all the activities they would do. 

A funny chapter book

During centers and Fundations  we were working with words ending in /ck/ and words having digraphs (sh, ch, th, wh). The kids loved using the letter boards with magnetic letters to spell words letter by letter. We also introduced 'bonus letters' for words ending in l, s, or f (miss, bell, stuff). Lots of great decoding strategies being used!

Word work center

Next week in social studies we will focus on the Thanksgiving story and learn about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans in Plymouth, MA. Meanwhile, there is no school Monday due to Veteran's Day observance.

Have a nice weekend,
Mrs. Dagley

Who am I ?!

Can you guess who we are?!

Kids and dressing up seem to go together, and everyone had fun on Wednesday showing their favorite character costumes or clothes. We learned about a few seasonal and woodland nocturnal creatures such as bats after reading, Amazing Bats, Flying Bats, Is That A Bat?, Where Are the Night Creatures. and Night Animals. 

Costumes and drawings

Do we know these kids?!

It was also fun to play an online google game projected on the screen. I had one of the kids use the laptop arrows since video games are not my skill!

Expert player!

Quick! Go left!

We had a captivating visit with an author this week - David Hyde Costello. He led the kids in creating their own story beginning with just a squiggle line on the paper. Characters, problems, and a solution were all brain stormed as he illustrated each part. 

David Hyde Costello author visit

Speaking of books, we visited the Book Fair on Friday, down by the office. Some of the kids went home with 'Wish Lists' of books or items they liked. If you choose to send in money for one or more of their choices, they will be able to go back down to the fair to purchase the book next week.

In class the kids have been doing their own word hunting in books while reading. This week they shared a spelling pattern, word, or interesting information from books that they were reading independently.

Look what we found!

Book sleuths!

Topic 4 in math has introduced several strategies to use when adding or subtracting. Volunteers took turns solving the same equation while each employed a different strategy! This week we introduced the number line as another tool in solving equations.

Mathematicians!

A science activity we did this week included sorting photos into light, sound, or light & sound. We discussed ways light or sound or both can be used to communicate information.

Great sorting!

The Liberty Bell was the National symbol we leaned about this week in social studies. We learned when that infamous crack appeared (the first time it was rung!) and when the last ringing of the bell happened (in honor of George Washington's birthday in 1846). It was very exciting to read the true story of the time the Liberty Bell was hidden away under the floorboards of a church in 1777 to keep it safe from the British!

Exciting true story!

Language arts centers this week focused on spelling for color words, reading a story about a wolf family on Starfall, sorting and spelling words in the pocket chart, identifying sight words in poetry, and listening to a CD story about Max the duck in Duck Soup.

Max the Duck has a whole series of books!

Counting by 2s together

Reading on Starfall

Sorting pictures under sh.th, or ch

Our poem had hand tracing turkeys too!

Recess Tinker toy engineers!

As a reminder, next week we have a no school/P.D. day on Tuesday.  Also any extra shoebox donations will be appreciated for dioramas coming up. Thanks!

Have a nice weekend,
Mrs. Dagely