Mystery Unit Unfolds!

 
The mystery is just beginning!
We are reading From the Mixed-Up File of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
I found the BEST WEBSITE! http://picturebookreport.com/category/from-the-mixed-up-files-of-mrs-basil-e-frankweiler/
As the creator Meg Hunt states on the site,
Picture Book Report is an extended love-song to books. Fifteen illustrators will reach out to their favorite books and create wonderful pieces of art in response to the text that has moved them, shaped them, or excited them. From sci-fi to children’s books to fantasy to serious novels, we’ll cover them all. For three weeks out of every month there will be a new illustration every day from one of us along with our thoughts, process, anything we can come up with. Together we will try to excite readers both new and old and capture some of that magic of storytelling.
I love these illustrations and can't wait to show the kids. They are going to flip. Hope the site isn't blocked.

Each student has picked 12 spelling words from the following list:

scene

mystery

spy

disguise

detective

red herring

clue

solve

suspicious

suspects

hunch

investigate

question

case

crime

wrong doing

solution

alibi

sleuth

witness

victim

evidence

proof

treasure

innocent

guilty

reason

explain

decide

evidence

footprints

fingerprints

gumshoe

Can't wait to show the kids this site too! They will have a chance to explore the site with the net books this week.
http://www.metmuseum.org/

ZooWeeMama!

The Book Parade was great! Thanks to Mrs. Gorby, Mrs. McClish, Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Huber and Mrs. Buzzard for announcing. I was able to get some video clips and have uploaded them to YouTube. Thanks to Miss Daley for letting me borrow an iPad! Thanks to Mr. Covert for bringing Arthur to the parade! I promise to work on my camera skills.
The classes have been working on earning a movie reward...Diary of a Wimpy Kid. They are almost there so we will probably be seeing it soon. Many kids have read the first book, so it will be interesting to compare the different versions.
Winter break and Christmas will be here before we know it!
Over the next 3 weeks, we will be reading and writing non-fiction. The focus of most of our reading will be centered around holiday traditions that we celebrate. Mrs. McClish and I are working together to cover Social Studies and Language Arts standards together.
Spelling:
This week: antonyms and holiday words
Dec. 5-9 homophones and Countries
Dec. 11-16 homographs and holiday words

Synonyms

source unknown

This week our focus lessons are about different categories of words starting with a sampling of each: synonyms, antonyms, homophones and homographs.
We will be using activities from Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr. I thought this information from the Brain Pop Jr. site was worth sharing...

"Explain to your children that they use synonyms and antonyms everyday without even knowing it. Synonyms are words that have the same or similar definitions. For example, a few synonyms forsmart are intelligent, brilliant, clever, or genius. Encourage your children to think of other synonyms.

Synonyms can make writing more powerful and bring words to life. Children should always look for ways to bolster their sentences by using strong verbs and vivid adjectives. We recommend watching the Similes movie together as a review. They can read what they have written and find synonyms for lackluster words. A thesaurus is a book that lists words and their synonyms. Explain that a thesaurus is different from a dictionary, which lists words and their definitions. Some thesauruses also provide antonyms for words.

An antonym is a word with the opposite meaning of another word. For example, a few antonyms for bored are excited, thrilled, energized, and wound up. Some words have only one antonym, such as black and white. Other words have many antonyms.

Brainstorming and using synonyms and antonyms are great ways to increase your children’s vocabulary and expose them to different words that are above their grade level. Reading also exposes your children to new words. Students should read actively and write down new words in their notebooks or have a dictionary handy to look up difficult words."

In addition, here are some other sites to use to at home for vocabulary building:

http://www.vocabulary.co.il/synonyms/

American Symbols: What Do They Mean?

Here are two great places to learn more about the symbols:

http://bensguide.gpo.gov/3-5/symbols/index.html


http://americanhistory.mrdonn.org/Symbols.html

Link Love: Peace Corp Service-Learning Standards

“Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world.

For, indeed, that's all who ever have.”

Margaret Mead

With Governor Strickland's recent call for all Ohio high school seniors to complete a service-learning project; I have added a section of the site just for Service-Learning. I have been completing service-learning projects with the kids, but really want to step this up a bit. Found!: The Peace Corp has a great resource, Service-Learning Standards and Educational Framework. The handout includes essential elements of service-learning practices as well as essential questions for students to be able to answer. I hope to add more to this section of the site I the next few weeks.

Who is your hero?

http://www.myhero.com/

In case you are visiting over the weekend, here is a question: Who is your hero and why?

Week Nine

Lesson Plans, Week 9

Monday, Oct. 20
5 & 6 Finish up Quote Books
4 Make mini-quote book

Tuesday, Oct. 21
Responsibility: Goal Setting & Being Organized. What does responsibility LOOK like?
Book Bag Take Over!
In teams, students will empty out, sort and organize an out of control book bag.

Wednesday, Oct. 22
Responsibility Reflection: Chalk Talk (from the inservice)
Questions:
1. What is one responsibility that you have this year that you are really good at?
2. What are some ways to achieve goals that you set for yourself?
3. Your friend is always borrowing pencils and paper from you and never gives you anything back! What can you do?
4. Do you agree with this…
We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort. -Jesse Owens
5. What do you think this means…
Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking. -H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Begin Citizenship, go over handout and briefly discuss trait.

Thursday, Oct. 23
Additional Citizenship Handouts for CE Journal…& Election Lesson.
Preview for tomorrow: Share Pinwheels For Peace website.
Ask students to think about the 3 character traits they would like to develop in themselves.

Friday, Oct. 24
ALL: Character Pinwheels: Which 3 traits will you focus on for the rest of the year? Create a pinwheel of three colors to represent your goals.
Class Celebration! Treats, Reflection and Fun!