Spring Celebrations!

Our Lookybook of the Week

This is a great book about animals on the farm. See if your child can read it on his/her own. Post a comment and tell us if you liked the book. (Don't forget to click on the eyes to make it bigger!)

That Devious Leprechaun

What a day we had for St. Patrick's Day. We began by setting our traps first thing this morning. Afterwards we listened to a story about The Luckiest Leprechaun and read a couple poems together. Then we made our cute leprechaun hats,made a book, and wrote a story about a leprechaun. Before we knew it - it was lunch time. That is when that devious leprechaun came and made a mess in our room. You would not believe the mess we had. All those traps and we still couldn't catch him. He left us a note, coins INSIDE our traps, and even a snack of green milk and oreo cookies (but we had to clean up first). Lucky for us the kids did a great job at clean up and we were able to enjoy our green treat. Thank goodness that devious leprechaun only comes once a year. Here are some highlights from our day!

Our class book - How Little Cloud Became a Big Cloud

After listening to Little Cloud by Eric Carle, we decided to write our own sequel to his work - How Little Cloud Became a Big Cloud. The kids loved this book so much and loved thinking about what little cloud could turn into. They wrote the middle of the story on their own and then we wrote the beginning and ending together as a whole group. What fun it was to hear everyone's ideas. We decided to voice thread the piece. We love it and I am sure you will love it to.

Our Favorite Book!

Anyone who has heard Eric Carle books has a favorite…or many favorites! After hearing so many pieces of his work, the kids have come to have their favorite as well. Here is what the kids have to say.

My favorite Eric Carle book is:
Hannah – Have you Seen My Cat because I like the picture of the jaguar like we saw at the zoo.
Hailey – The Very Quiet Cricket because I like when he makes the sound to the girl cricket.
Jasani – Head to Toe because I like when the giraffe and the boy hold their neck that way.
Cameron – Have You Seen My Cat because I have a cat at home.
Lisa – Have You Seen My Cat because I like cats. They are my favorite animal.
Faith – Hello Red Fox because they were having a party.
Nakyya – Do You Want to be my Friend because when the whole class went to the zoo we got to see those animals.
Alex – Hello Red Fox because the frog invited all of his friends.
Matthew – The Very Busy Spider because I like how spiders spin webs and then catch things in them.
Carter – The Very Quiet Cricket because I like when the crickets make the sounds.
Dylan – Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too because I like all the colors in the book.
Zachary – The Very Quiet Cricket because the cricket made sounds.
Rebecca – The Very Busy Spider when he spinned the web.
Payton – The Very Hungry Caterpillar because I like when he turns into a butterfly.
Connerly – The Very Quiet Cricket becase I like that they became friends.
Mia – The Very Busy Spider when the horse said neigh neigh do you want to go for a ride.
Brandon – Rooseters off to see the world because I saw a rooster once on a farm.
Amy-The very busy spider when the horse asks if he wants a ride
Lea – Do you want to be my friend when the mouse asked the elephant if he wanted to be his friend.
Alexis – Have you seen my cat because I liked when the boy said have you seen my cat.
Emily - Red fox because it’s neat to look at the animal for a long time and then look at the other page and see something different.
Katie – The Very Busy Spider because one time I went to the zoo and we saw a spider and my sister freaked out.
Julia – Little Cloud because I like that he changed into an airplane.
Elliot – Little Cloud because I like when he turned into different things.
Peter - Dragons Dragons because I like the part when the snake had two heads.

Reader’s Workshop in an Author Study

What do young emergent readers do during an author study? You might not think a lot but walk into our classroom and you will find out how wrong you are. Over the last couple weeks we have read many Eric Carle books that he has written. The kids have loved being able to hear new stories, make predictions about these new books, discuss how the books relate to each other, make text to self and text to text connections, and share their favorite parts. They learn how to not only make predictions about an individual book but learn how to make predictions based on what they know about that author and other books he has written. This week the kids learned about Venn Diagrams. They were able to compare two books by Eric Carle and find what these two texts had that were the same and different.




Each day they “WOW” me as they become so involved in their books. They are reading, discussing, and writing about their thoughts. They are continually learning how to have book talks with one another which will help them to be successful lifelong readers. Make sure you talk to your child to find out what we are doing each day.

Happy Birthday Ms. Stresen-Reuter

What a great day it was. Ms. Stresen-Reuter was so surprised at how 27 little kids were able to throw her a party and she didn't know anything about it. The kids were so excited all week as they made her a present (a treat jar for Stanley), made birthday cards, and helped us plan how we were going to get her out of the room. She couldn't believe we pulled it off. The room was decorated, we ate cupcakes and ice cream, and opened presents. I think the kids enjoyed her birthday as much as she did. As Zachary states "I wish it was your birthday every month!". Here are some hightlights from our day.

Surprise

Wild About The Zoo

We're Going to the Zoo - Zoo - Zoo

What a great day we had at the zoo. Lots of animals, kids were wonderful, and even better weather. The kids were so excited when we returned to talk about all the animals they saw and what a fun day they had - I think the giraffes were the big winner for the day. Check out our pictures this weekend to see all our zoo highlights. Post a comment about your favorite part of the day!!

Zoo-ology

This week I found a great website that allows us to read books on-line and share these books on our blog as well. Each week I will try to add a book to share with you for one reason or another. This week I am choosing Zoo-ology (a book about animals) to go along with our trip to the zoo. Try to name as many animals on each page as you can. Post a comment to let me know what part of the book was your favorite! (If you click on the eyes the picture will enlarge.)

Eric Carle - We just love his books

Over the last two weeks we have been reading many Eric Carle books. We have been learning how to discuss his books and write a response to them as well.












In Reader's Workshop we have been learning important attributes to his books such as the characters, setting, and the main idea. We also have been making predictions prior to reading and then making text to self connections to help us understand the story better.








This week we discussed all the different ways readers could respond to literature. We have charted our thoughts and used these charts to help guide us through out writing. This also helps us learn how to discuss his books with our floor buddies as we do every day.













We will continue our Eric Carle study through the end of March. Ask your child to write a post about his/her favorite Eric Carle book so far. Here are some of our samples of work. (click on the work to see a larger image)

Carter



Dylan











Zachary