Fact or Fib

This week we started reading Nonfiction. We spent a lesson this week working on finding the most important facts in a story. Students took notes while they stumbled upon an important idea. Finally, they chose their top 4 to create a fact or fib on a notecard about each fact. Below are a few of the facts the students learned. Our brains were overflowing with knowledge about each topic we read. Great job Readers!

*The forehead and lower jaw play a part in echolocation.

*Ancient people only knew of 5 planets.

*Insects, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, ticks are all examples of arthropods.

*People use tanks to control uproars and crowds.

* Adelie penguins make loud squawking sounds.

*Reefs are covered by coral polyps.

*In 1861  Captain Jenks was shown off in Boston and New York.

* The odor of flowers is the oily substance.

*Orville Wright was born in 1871.

*Lightning strikes in hotter places.

*Sound makes things vibrate.

*Your body is made of many cells.

*Otters are excellent fishers.

*Long ago many people were interested in flying.

*A group of animals has backbones.

*148 tornadoes  raced across 13 states.

*Rattlesnakes eat 6 times a year.

*The polar regions extend for over 1,200 miles around the North Pole.

*The nucleus of an atom is in the center.

*Most earthquakes are too small to notice.

*The saguro cactus can live up to 200 yrs.

*Ben Franklin saved the town.

*Magnets attrack metal objects.

*The oldest maps are from the Ancient Desert Kingdom and made of clay.

*The female lion does most of the hunting.


WOW!  WE SURE LEARNED QUITE A BIT TODAY!

Timeline Project

Parents, if you are comfortable with computers, here is a great alternative for your child's timeline project. You can go online to the website http://www.timetoast.com/ It is very user friendly. Our previous children had alot of fun working on it with their parents. When the timeline in finished, just email it to me at tsengasc@duvalschool.org. We will then view it as a class during presentations. If you perfer having your child do it with construction paper, we will be happy to provide the needed paper for them. We hope that you all have enjoyed these projects. The children are so proud to share them with the class. Thank you for all of your support.

Literacy Pumpkin

It is ALIVE! Porkenstein was our mad creation this year for our annual Literacy Pumpkin Event. Each  year every classroom chooses a book to decorate that has been read in class. After that, we  make a reading based experience come to life with a touch of creativity and help from a few wonderful classroom parents. The kids absolutely loved decorating the pumpkins and being a part of something fantastic. There are so many wonderful projects you can do after reading a fantastic book. Art is a great way for them to have fun and embrace their young mailable minds.

We hope to see you all at the Fall Carnival on Friday! Come in costume and trick-or-treat the halls at 6. Our class will be running the Book Walk until 9:00. There will be plenty of games and food for everyone to enjoy. Hopefully you can  recognize us in our costumes!

Main Idea....We've Got it!

This week we have been studying how to decide on the main idea of a story. The main idea is often hard for students to grasp as it is not usually stated in a story. Students need to think critically about what everything was about and look at the title and first/last sentences in the story. They were told to look at their hands to help them visualize this process. Their palm is the main idea and their fingers are the supporting details. For example, if the main idea of a story is that they had a tasty lunch, the 'tasty lunch' is the palm of their hand. Their fingers would be the details that prove and support the good lunch such as: pizza, favorite drink, or whatever makes a good lunch. Students are asked to find the main idea and supporting details on every reading test. Finding supporting details is a skill that requires them to GO BACK..... GO BACK..... GO BACK into the text. Yes, it takes more time, but is worth finding the correct answer. Encourage your child to discuss the main idea of their readings to you. Ask for details to prove their thinking. Here are some practice sites for finding the main idea and details in a story. These are great tools for your child to use to help increase their reading comprehension. You can log these stories and they can count for your daily 20 minutes of reading as well
Find the Main Idea

  Get the Main Idea practice

Open Jungle Night

Don't forget that we have Open House from 6:30-7:30 in our classroom jungle this Thursday, Sept. 19th. Please come and take a peek at your child's daily schedule and learn about the things that happen in our room. We will be explaining homework, grades, assignments, and expectations. We'd love to visit with you! The student's will take you on hunt for certain items in our room and also grade you on your schoolwork. This is a great opportunity to see the kind of work your child is producing. See you soon!

Giraffes Can Dance!

"> After reading Giraffes Can't Dance, we decided to have a little fun and create our own giraffes! We discussed the important theme and message we learned from the story. Students discussed which characters they learned from and what the giraffe's message is. They had a blast creating their own unique giraffe in class. Like the giraffe, each student is special and unique in their own way. We learned from the giraffe we can do anything we want to if we work hard and stay positive. Great day of learning friends!

No "Lion", It's Time for Second Grade!

Welcome brave adventurers to SECOND GRADE! Time has sure flown by since you all were young explorers just entering school and now here you are ready for 2nd grade!  Mrs. Tsengas and myself are beyond excited to start the year. We LOVE  seeing new faces and making new friends. We know that this bunch of young minds will be full of energy and positive spirits ready to charge into the wild Chets Creek.  We look forward to getting to know each of you better and can't wait for you to learn all about us. Get some rest, have some fun over the weekend, and prepare for a fantastic first week back to school!