Barnyard Book Bingo!

Today was the pay-off for students who met their Readers-to-Leaders goal! In our class students are required to read each night at home. It's important. If students can develop a habit of reading every night, it will improve their reading and it is a routine that will be expected of them for their entire career at Chets Creek. It's not an easy routine for a first grader. He must remember to change out his book each morning and get a new book - a "just right" book from his book bin. He must remember to take the book home and remind mom or dad that he is suppose to read. It is the child's responsibility. After reading he needs to log in the book. On Friday he needs to remember to turn the book log in at school so that he gets credit for all that he has read. If the log is full he needs to remember to get a new sheet.
If the child read and logged in 55 books at the end of the second nine week, then he met his Readers-to-Leaders goal and today earned the right to go to the Principal's Barnyard Book Bingo! What a wonderful time we had. The children earned lots of prizes! Last nine weeks, Mrs. Phillips got slimed and rumor has it that students who meet their goal next nine weeks will get to watch her kiss a pig!!! Now that should be worth a little reading time1

Retelling Lilly

Today we worked on retelling Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes. You may have already heard this story on a previous blog post. Below is a first grade class reading the story. Enjoy it with your child and then ask your child to bring out the five story pieces that we ordered. glued on a strip of black paper and used today to retell the story. Make sure your child tells about each piece. As your child retells the story, the beginning should include the name of the main characters (Lilly and Mr. Slinger), where the story takes place (it begins at school) and the problem (Lilly wants to show everyone her new purple plastic purse). The middle should include at least three events (1-Lilly shows her classmates her purse and so Mr. Slinger takes it away, 2-Lilly gets mad and writes an ugly letter to Mr. Slinger and 3- Mr. Slinger returns the purse at the end of the day and Lilly feels terrible about her note. She runs all the way home) and then the ending should include the solution to the problem. The solution of course, is that Lilly takes cookies to Mr. Slinger, apologizes, and they do the happy dance together at Share Time!

Owen by Kevin Henkes

Owen by Kevin Henkes is the story of a little mouse named Owen who is attached to his fuzzy yellow blanket.

Today our students cut out stick puppets and practiced retelling the story to partners during Writers' Workshop. In order to write a retelling, you first have to be able to retell the story orally. The children brought their puppets home today so invite your child to show you the puppets and practice retelling the story. Below is the story with a beginning (including the characters, setting and problem), the middle (with three events) and the ending (with the solution). See how well your child can retell this delightful story!

Owen had a fuzzy yellow blanket at his house that he loved and took everywhere that he went, but he could not take it to school.

His neighbor, Mrs. Tweezers, asked his parents if they had ever heard of the Blanket Fairy that takes blankets during the night and leaves big boy gifts. They had not, but Owen hid the blanket in his pajama pants.

His neighbor, Mrs. Tweezers, asked his parents if they had ever heard of the vinegar tick that makes the blanket stinky. they had not but Owen buried the blanket in his sandbox to get rid of the smell.

His neighbor, Mrs. Tweezers asked his parents if they had ever heard of just saying no. they had not but Owen cried and cried.

Owen's mother had an idea and she snipped and sewed. she cut the blanket into little handkerchiefs so Owen could carry a piece of the blanket everywhere he went. Owen was happy.

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

We have been reading several of Kevin Henkes' books featuring his little mouse characters. Lilly is one of our favorite characters. We will meet her again in several of Kevin Henkes' other books that we will be reading in the weeks to come! Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse is actually a former Chets Creek Book-of-the-Month. We have been encouraing the children to make connections to the stories as they read because that is what good readers do. They relate things that happen in the story to things that have happened to them in real life or to books that they have read. Those connections help them understand the story and how the character feels. Make sure to ask your child about how the actions in the story remind them of something that has ahppened to them or maybe you can relate a story from your own life. Enjoy this delightful story below.

Chrysanthemum

We have started our study of author and illustrator Kevin Henkes! We are studying his "mouse" books. If you would like to check him out, visit his web site where you will find interesting information and also games to play. The first book that we read by Kevin Henkes was Chrysanthemum which is a wonderful story about a little mouse who gets bullied at school. Enjoy the book with your child!

Measuring Fish.

HOW LONG IS THIS FISH?

We have been measuring fish. First we measure them and then decide if they are keepers. They have to be a certain length to be a keeper. You will enjoy this game, Time to Move, that helps practice the same concepts of measuring and then deciding which tank certain fish need to live. Practice this week before our Math test on measuring!

We are 100 Days Smarter!

Happy 100th Day!

We have been in school for 100 days!

Can you get to the center of a Tootsie Pop in 100 licks? Just in case you wondered, nobody got to the center in 100 licks!

Happy, Happy Day!




We had such fun looking for 100 numbered chocolate Kisses and putting them on our 100 chart. It looks like one of them got eaten before it made it to the board because one was missing!

We had such fun today learning all about the number 100. The idea is to help our students visualize the number so they better understand what the number represents... but nobody said that learning couldn't be lots and lots of fun!