The Peaceful Positive Meditation Lunch Bunch

Did you know that we have a meditation group happening in room 214 on Mondays and Wednesdays? I'm really excited about it. I've been getting some very positive feedback from the students who are participating. The meditation has been helping the students find wonderful strategies for keeping themselves together when they're angry. WOW!

So, my Peaceful Positive Meditation Lunch Bunch... share your thoughts with us. Tell us how you feel about our group and meditation.

Holiday Fun

Well, here we are... getting close to our Winter Break. How many days are left until then? Are you counting down? I love the smells of this holiday... Fir tree, gingerbread, cinnamon, what else? We have a real Christmas Tree in our dining room. Yum! Right now, it has these really pretty little white lights and just red apples on it.  I know you're not surprised about the apples- you all know how much I love love love apples ; )

My daughter, Lara, will be coming home this weekend from college. It will be so very nice to have her home. While we're off, I want to relax and read.

Are you going away or do you have any family coming in? Do you have any decorations up? Tell me what you like about this time of year.

Oh, and if you'd like to practice your multiplication facts, here's a cute game where you can make a Gingerbread House as you solve the problems.

The Rewards Star Readers

Hi! We're learning about reading using the Rewards Reading Program. To tackle words, we break them down into syllables.  One strategy we use is to look for prefixes and suffixes. So far, we've studied 18 prefixes and 35 suffixes. We also look for vowels and vowel combinations. An example would be when there's an "e" at the end of a syllable, the "e" might be silent and the vowel before it might be long. We would mark the long vowel with a macron. We also learned we can try two ways to sound out a vowel. First we try the sound, then we try the name.

Here are a few more interesting things we learned:

• A "g" can sound like  /j/ when it's followed by e, i, or y-- like gymnasium
• A "c" can sound like  /s/ and  /k/- like cycle or cat
• Words can have more than one prefix or suffix-- unintentional has the prefixes un and in, the suffixes tion and al

Check us out later! 

Dawud, Jakwana, Jamal, Marquise, Najmah, Nayir, Siani, Tyreese, Vickie, Zaire

Wilson Rocks!

Wilson is a special reading program and it helps us to read better. We tap out the sounds in the words. That's called decoding and encoding. Our group has been working on this for over a year. When we first started using Wilson, we didn't know how to sound the words out, but now we can sound out multi-syllabic words. Did you know that every syllable in the English language has to have a vowel? That's why we look for the vowels first. Then we look to see if there are consonants or digraphs or blends in between the vowels. That helps us to find the syllables. Here are some of the rules we learned:

• If the word only has one consonant between the vowels, close in the first syllable.
• Divide between two consonants.
• Keep digraphs together.
• Watch for digraphs, blends, and welded sounds; divide between them.

If you don't understand, ask us! We are: Neique, Tavon, Leslie, Taz, and Terry.

WELCOME BACK!

Hey there! Welcome back! I know I'm a little late in posting- it's October already. WOW! Where has the time gone!

We're already well into our instructional program. There are Rewards Readers and Rewards Writers, Wilson Tappers, and Everyday Math thinkers. Did I forget anyone? So let me hear what you're thinking about the school year so far. Are you enjoying what we're doing?

YOW WOW! It's HOT!

Boy oh boy is it hot! Today is going to feel like 115 degrees. Anyone out there reading these posts? I know Brianna is-- she just sent me new comments on older posts. She's the reason I'm putting up a new post today. I've been kind of busy with summer things- that means fixing things at home like painting and plastering and caulking all around my house. Did you know I was handy like that? What?

Other than that, my sister Zoe came in from San Francisco for a week. It was really good to see her! I don't get to see her that often but I do talk to her a lot. My daughter, Lara, also came home for a visit. She lives in Pittsburgh (if you didn't know that) and is finishing college.

So tell me, what have you been doing?

Here's Zoe and I.
My mom and Lara in the back.

We went to Hershey Park one day!
Boy are those roller coasters wild!

What did you learn?

So you're back from your trip through Historic Philadelphia. Blake said his group didn't get to go to the mint, which is a shame since that is the topic of his research project. Did you get to go to all of the places? What did you learn? What did you like best? Tell me!!!! : )

Take a Walk Through Philadelphia's History

Hi guys! So you're going to take a waking tour of Philly! How cool is that! I made a new folder with links on my portaportal if you'd like to learn about the sites you're going to visit. My one group will be making a podcast and taking notes on the trip, so they DEFINITELY need to check out these links! Go to my portaportal, and check out the folder "Philadelphia History" then let me know what you think! (Click here)

FOR ALIZEA (Look! I remembered!)

So last Friday, a very excited Alizea came up to me before the bell rang to start the school day. Do you know what she asked me? She asked me if I have ever been so excited about a trip that I couldn't get to sleep! The answer is YES!!! Once I was going to visit my sister in San Francisco and I was taking my daughter to visit her for the very first time. Lara was only 5 months old. I was excited and nervous about the trip. I hardly slept! Boy was I tired the next day.

So have YOU ever been so excited about a trip that you couldn't get to sleep? If so, tell me about it!

HERE'S A SHOUT-OUT TO THE KIDS ACROSS THE HALL

I just want to give a great big shout-out to all of the kids across the hall from my room! You are wonderful, wonderful students! I know you all worked super hard on that PSSA. Aren't you glad it's over? I can't believe that I have 2 more weeks of testing.

I have to test the 5th graders in writing, and then the 4th graders in Science.

Yikes! Do you think we'll EVER get back to our schedule? I certainly hope so...

So the school year's coming to an end soon. What has been your most favorite thing about the year so far? AND, what did you like the least? Can't wait to hear your answers!

CHECK THIS OUT!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! Hoops and YoYo created a new manners lesson using one of my homeroom's ideas! We made two movies to send to them on manners, and the very first one had the right and wrong way to raise your hand! You can check out OUR manners movie by clicking here XX . Then you can click on this link to see Hoops and Yoyo's.

Tell me what you think! I think it's VERY VERY cool ; )

Your Opinion, Please

So the past few weeks, my fourth and fifth grade Extended Day students have been comparing various folk tales. We read Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters and The Rough-Face Girl. The fifth graders also read the traditional story Cinderella. We created "T" Charts and what the 5th graders called "Double T" Charts to take notes as we read. Both groups did a great job of analyzing the information. They learned that if you write information about one character you must include similar information about the other character. You should check out the wall outside of my room to see their great work!

While I like all three stories, one is my favorite. I'm not going to tell you which one. You can try to guess which one I like best- but you must tell me WHY you think that. I was also wondering which story YOU liked best and why.

SNOW!

Goodness, where has the time gone? I can't believe I haven't posted since the holidays! Must be all of that preparation for the PSSA keeping me busy.

We had yesterday off because of a huge snowstorm over the weekend. This is a picture looking across the back yards of my house during the storm on Saturday. We got 28.5 inches. Did any of you go out and shovel, sled, have a snow ball fight or make snow forts? Can you believe that we're supposed to have another storm tonight? What did you do during the snow day? What will you do tomorrow if we have another day off? All I seem to be doing is EATING! Yikes!