We presented the museum to the other classes today. It was another very busy day. We are not going to have new spelling words this week. It would just have been too rushed, and not very instructional. So the test is Friday over the words from last week...the occupations of the Ohioans we studied.

Frindle is finished. Inspired by the book, this week we will brush up on dictionary skills!

Here is a fun, game show style dictionary practice game.
http://www.quia.com/rr/45806.html

And if you need a mini-lesson on dictionary skills, try this link
http://www.tv411.org/lessons/cfm/vocabulary.cfm?str=vocabulary&num=4&act=1

Next week, we will begin a new unit over myths, fables and folktales.

We finally finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was such a wonderful book and I think many kids are convinced that the book is better than either of the movies!

We will spend the next week or so reading many books by Chris Van Allsburg. He is the author of Jumanji and Zathura.  He is both an amazing author and artist.

I found the book images from http://a-b-c-delicious.blogspot.com/, along with this GREAT description of his work. "Chris Van Allsburg is an AMAZING artist and storyteller. His picture books are full of mystery, suspense and science fiction. They are not best suited for little ones, however you could read Z was Zapped and a few others to younger readers. Although he is best known for his beloved Christmas book, The Polar Express, most of Van Allsburg's books are perfect for reading in October, with the mystery and eeriness that his books are full of. Welcome the autumn season in by reading The Widow's Broom and The Stranger. His illustrations are so incredible, you really have to spend more time looking at the pictures than reading the words. He captures so many emotions and leaves the reader thinking all the time. When you pick up these books for your child, make sure you read them together and discuss what happened in the book. Read it more than once and reinforce what you discussed. He leaves a lot of clues and children have to use inferencing to figure out exactly what went on. Inference is a sophisticated and important comprehension skill that good readers need to develop. Chris Van Allsburg is a great way to practice that skill with your child. His books are so fun! I promise you'll enjoy them as much as your child."
We spent time pre-testing over the Ninety Most Common Misspelled Words. We covered 40 of the words. The kids added the words they misspelled to their spelling list, and included social studies and science words if they needed extra to make a list of ten words. This spelling test will be on Friday.

On Friday, I will be presenting at the Mahoning County Educational Center’s Technology Conference!

Reading Rockets: Children's Books and Authors

Love all the great resources Reading Rockets has, including author interviews. I am planning on highlighting a different author each month. But who to highlight? And when? Lots of planning to do this summer!

Reading Rockets: Children's Books and Authors

Fun2TeachAndLearn

http://sites.google.com/site/fun2teachandlearn/literacy&language

Last find of the day...need to rest a bit before a long night at swim team meet.

Smartboard Links and Resources

Definately want to remember and share this site!
http://www1.center.k12.mo.us/edtech/SB/templates.htm

Fun free site!

https://speakaboos.com/

The illustrator's site is here: http://www.violetadabija.com/video.html

Great Conference...Great Bike!

Go ahead! Click on the link above and check out the bikes!
I was surfing the web for a bit tonight after being inspired to visit some new sites I learned about at the tech conference. I found this GREAT bike! I really, really want one of these! Wouldn't this be great to have to peddle around town?

Also on the wish list is an iPad. Sure I wanted one before today, but then we got to use one! It was really cool. Lots of fun!

Teacher Link Love: NC Dept of Edu

Maybe it is because of my many years of teaching in Charlotte, but I really do LOVE all the great resources the Dept. of Education in North Carolina has to offer. Check out their site at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/charactereducation/

There is an entire downloadable Character Education manual filled with great ideas and great resources:
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/charactereducation/handbook/

Teacher Link Love: Teaching That Makes Sense

First of all, I love the name of this site. It seems that people in general often make choices and do things without thinking "does this make sense"? Crazy, but true. (Especially true of middle schoolers.)
Next, I am sucker for sites that have great resources already in pdf form. No special copy and pasting and formating and saving needed. Just click and print. Thank you!
And finally...I googled the guy who runs the sight, Steve Peha and noticed his amazon listmania! was filled with great books from people like: Regie Routman, Frank Smith, and Alfie Kohn...just to name a few.
Enjoy! http://www.ttms.org/

Link Love: Save the Tree Octopus!

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

Teacher Link Love: Big Ideas

http://www.authenticeducation.org/bigideas/

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?

Two Snow Days= One Cool Website Just For You

Click on the above picture to entarge. Then ask your parents if you can go to http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/.

Teacher Link Love: Mrs. Pancake

Nothing educationally, Web 2.0 earth shattering...I really just love the graphics here. A bit more for the younger crowd, however still very pleasing. So fresh! So clean! Plus Teacher Link love is really for the Teachers, so enjoy!

http://mrspancake.com/index.php