Dental Health... & Eggs???

This week, for Social Science, we learned about Dental Health. We talked about why we need our teeth, things that we can do to keep our teeth healthy, and things that are bad for our teeth. So, why did our science experiment involve eggs? We learned that the hard outside part of our teeth is called enamel, and that it is a lot like the shell of an egg (except thicker and harder). So, for our science experiment, we put hard-boiled eggs in cups full of Coke to see what might happen if we drank soft drinks all the time and never brushed our teeth. There was also one egg that sat in vinegar all week... and that one was a surprise.

Here are our cups on Friday... the Coke is looking really nasty!

Debbie & Mariah think our Coke-stained eggs are yucky.

Bryson S. tries to use toothpaste to clean up his egg.

Cheyenne & Breanna

Kailey & Christian

Jacob G. & Jaelynn

Kolt says, "Gross!"

Matt hams it up while Nicole works hard trying to clean their egg.

Kyle realizes this is a perfect picture opportunity with his partner, Bryson C.

Charlie didn't really want to touch his egg.

Here, Mrs. West explains about the egg in the vinegar...

and Charlie says it feels slimy.

The vinegar dissolved the shell of the egg completely! Now we know why it's so important to brush our teeth after eating!

Writer's Workshop

In January, we started doing Writer's Workshop 2 or 3 times per week. In Writer's Workshop, I teach a short mini-lesson (no more than 5 minutes) about writing. Then, we set a timer for the students and they write about whatever they want until the timer rings (usually about 10 minutes). The kids are really starting to enjoy this writing time. In fact, when the timer rang today, several said, "Awww! I wasn't done yet!" :)

Green table: (clockwise from top left) Christian, Breanna, Mariah, Bryson S., & Cheyenne

Yellow table: (clockwise from top) Kyle, Joseph, Kailey, Matt, & Allan

Black table: Jacob G. & Jaelynn

Blue table: Kolt

Red table: (left side, from top)Debbie, Jacob E., Nicole; (right side) Charlie & Amanda

After the writing time ends, we gather on the big rug and have a sharing time about our writing. Unfortunately, my camera died after these photos, so the sharing pictures will have to wait for another blog post.

Gold Award Celebration

Our school won the state Gold Award for making great gains in student achievement. We had a celebration this past Friday to commemorate this accomplishment. Below are pictures of the celebration.

Star Strategies

In Guided Reading, we are working to be able to read on our own more without help. We have recently started talking about strategies that "star" readers use. We know that a strategy is "a plan to understand," or something that just helps us know how to do something. We also know that star readers are always thinking and always asking questions. We have 5 main strategies we are using to help us figure out words we don't know. Each student has a star that he/she uses to help remember our strategies while reading individually. This is what our stars look like:
The 5 strategies are on each of the 5 points of the star:
1: Look for chunks we already know.
2: Get your mouth ready. (Sound it out.)
3: Does it look like a word I know?
4: Try again! (Go back and try to sound the word out again.)
5: Look at the picture. (Sometimes you can figure out what the word is by looking at the picture.)

When a child has tried all 5 strategies and still can't figure out the word, then he/she can turn the star over to the back. On the back are pieces of reusable highlighter tape. The tape can be put on the word in the book for reference in our group, and the student continues reading. When we come back to our group, we go through and find words we couldn't figure out by looking for the highlighter tape in our books.

Using these stars is really helping the kids be more responsible for their own reading, instead of asking, "What is this word?" whenever they get stuck. When your child reads at home, encourage him/her to remember the star strategies! :)

Becoming Readers

Here are some of the kids in their guided reading groups
(these photos are from November, but better late than never!).

Charlie, Kailey, Jaelynn

Colby, Debbie, Matt

Mariah, Breanna

Christian

We are now learning about strategies that "star" readers use.
I'll try to post about that soon. :)

Class Blog

This blog will replace my previous class website. There is so much more that I can do with Blogger and it is so much easier to use, so hopefully I can keep it updated more often! :)