Halloween Party!!!!

Next Thursday, October 31st, is our class Halloween Party. Students are able to bring their costume to school (not wear their costume to school) and we will change into them around 12:30. If your child's costume comes with weapons, please leave those at home.  Around 1:00/1:15 we will begin our parade around the school.  Classroom K-3 will parade down our hallway and through the upstairs hallway to show off their costumes to the older kids. Around 1:15/1:25 we will return to our class for our classroom celebration. 

We had 7 wonderful mom's volunteer to plan our Halloween Party this year and it is looking to be a lot of fun!  We will have the students participating in 3 centers and enjoying a snack. For the centers, students will be making and decorating ghosts, playing Mummy Wrap and playing Mark the stem on the pumpkin (like pin the tail on the donkey).  We will also have Monster Mash dancing. :) 

To pull off this wonderful celebration with the class, we need your help.  There are a few supplies we will need for the party that we were hoping you could donate.  I have set up a "sign up genius" with a list of things needed for the party.  If you can able to, please sign up to send in an item.  If you are having any trouble viewing the list or signing up for a supply, please email me right away.  We are asking that you sign up and send in your supplies by October 29th so we can get any remaining supplies needed before the party.  If you would like to join up for the party, you are more than welcome to come to school.  Just email me so I know how many people (and siblings) to expect. 

Sing up genius link: http://www2.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E4DA5AB2FA7FB6-halloween

Thank you for all your support and I can't wait for our party. :) 

Mrs. Blake

This week

Sorry I haven't had a chance to post this week.  We have been very busy and time just got away from me.  On Tuesday the Hoffman Estates Police Department came to school to talk to us about fire safety.  I was unable to attend the assembly due to a previously scheduled meeting, but the kids filled me in on everything they learned.  We made a poster of the most important facts learned.  

In Math we started a new unit.  We have been working on patterns and even/odd numbers. I even taught the students a neat trick to know is any number is an even or odd number.  Ask your child if they can show you how smart he or she is. :)

In writing, we began a new story about what we like to do with our friends. We are currently at the rough draft stage and are getting ready for our final copy.  Again, we are making sure we have a topic sentence, at least three supporting sentences and a closing sentence. We are also making sure all of our sentences stay on topic!

In reading, we are working on showing our comprehension of stories by working on a story map and making text-to-self connections. In science we have been working on the life cycle of a pumpkin/plant. 

Just a reminder, next week is Parent/Teacher conferences. I will be meeting with parents on Thursday evening and Friday (No school Friday). Please make sure you are on time for your conference as we only have 15 minutes to meet. I am looking forward to talking to everyone. I am so impressed with my students and can't wait to show off some of their work. 

Mrs. Blake

Fiction vs. Nonfiction

Today we worked on understanding the difference between fiction and nonfiction text.  We talked as a group about what a fiction book is and what a nonfiction book is.  We then talked about the differences we see in fiction vs. nonfiction.  After our discussion, the students were asked to go through Scholastic book flyers to find fiction and nonfiction books. 

EEKK

We have been working really hard on learning all the parts of our Daily 5 reading schedule.  Lately we have been working on EEKK buddy reading. EEKK stands for elbow to elbow, knee to knee, I read to you, you read to me. It takes a lot of practice to learn the proper way of working with a partner on reading so that both partners and getting something out of the experience.  I have to say, the kids are doing a great job working together.  So far, I have chosen the groups of students working together but starting this week I am going to let them choose their partners. Hopefully everything still runs smoothly. :)

Staley the Bear Came to Visit Timber Trails!

We had an amazing assembly today with Staley the Bear, the official mascot of the Chicago Bears. He talked to us about the different types of bullies we could encounter and what we can do if we are being bullied or see someone else being bullied.  The kids LOVED the assembly and had a great time. After the assembly, we decided to write letters to Staley thanking him for his visit and telling him what we learned.  We brainstormed some ideas of what we could say to Staley and I modeled what a friendly letter should look like.  So far, we have made it through our rough drafts and have begun work on our final copies. as soon as everyone is finished, I will send them to Staley.  Hopefully we will get a letter back.  Here are some pictures from the assembly and some picture of us working on our letters. 

Staley the Bear is coming!!!

Staley the Bear from the Chicago Bears is coming to our school tommorrow!!!!  Wear your Chicago Bears clothes (or anything orange or blue) to show your support. He will be talking to us about bullying. Pictures will be posted :)

I want to be writing activity

Last week we were talking about what we want to be when we grow up.  The kids had great ideas of what they wanted to be but I wanted them to go farther. So we started talking about why we wanted the jobs we talked about.  Next, we worked on putting our ideas into writing. We discussed what a topic sentence was and came up with the sentence starter "I want to be ..." Next, we talked about supporting sentences. These are sentences that describe or add to our topic sentence. All these sentences have to stay on topic and add to the readers knowledge of our topic sentence.  Last, we discussed closing sentences.  Then I asked the students to put their new found knowledge to use and write a five sentence paragraph. :)  Everyone did a great job on this task.  Here are a couple of our works in progress. 

We can't wait to share our final copies with you at conferences!!!!