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Ms. Arnold’s Classroom News (10/22/14)
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It's hard to believe October is almost over! This year is just flying by!
*Leaf Project: Thanks to everyone for collecting and preparing the beautiful fall leaves that made it into our classroom! With these leaves, each second grader was able to create their very own leaf animal. We have everything from tigers, mice, and rabbits, to turtles, ducks, and dogs! Of course there were quite a few OWLS in the bunch! These fantastic creations now adorn our hallway---be sure to check them out whenever you're in the building!
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| Logan studying Sohi's Look What I Did with a Leaf! book. |
*Writer's Workshop: Students have had a blast bringing their Diary of a _______ stories to life! While merging nonfiction information and narrative storywriting, our class turned their animal research into fantastic picture books! Being challenged to use the illustrator moves we noticed in our illustration study, I was so impressed with the number of techniques they included in their books. Our class has really taken ownership in noticing author & illustrator craft and they are feeling confident that they can take techniques and apply them to their own writing!
Check out a sample story: Diary of a Coyote by Taylor
At the end of this week, once everyone has put on the finishing touches, will have a chance to celebrate and enjoy all of these wonderful stories and authors at our first official publishing party! Way to go authors!
Without wasting another second, we have moved on to an author study to examine the writing techniques that many authors use. Meet our mentor author: Kevin Henkes!
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| For more information on our mentor author, visit: http://www.kevinhenkes.com/ |
With great books such as Chrysanthemum, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, Wemberly Worried and Shelia Rae the Brave, there's one thing for certain: Kevin Henkes loves using mice characters! We've only just begun, but we'll be using Kevin Henkes to inspire our own mice realistic fiction stories! If they're anything like our animal diaries, they're bound to be fabulous!
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| Kevin Henkes often uses the same characters in his books and has realistic problems that all second graders can relate to! |
*Read Aloud: Yesterday, we finished our third read aloud novel, Poppy by Avi. We were so enveloped in this novel, many didn’t want it to end! This story follows Poppy, a young mouse, to fight against the cruel "ruler"of Dimwood Forest, Mr. Ocax, to acquire new food and land for her family. It was a journey filled with up and downs, but in the end, we were happy that Poppy showed her bravery and learned to stand up for herself and for those she cared about. Avi is the author of many other wonderful stories such as Ragweed, Poppy & Rye, and Poppy & Ereth, which all also take place in Dimwood Forest. While the text itself is too advanced for second graders to read independently, these stories make fantastic read alouds.
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| Our Poppy poster is added to our collection of read aloud murals. |
*Poetry: Students have been working hard on building their reading fluency and have memorized their first poem! Today, they proudly recited Harry Behn’s poem Trees to the entire main office! They were SO impressed! Check out our rehearsal video below!
*Parent Conferences: With eight weeks of school under our belt, I am eager to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress thus far and develop individual goals for the remainder of the year. Reminder slips were sent home last week. Please arrive on time for your conference as many of the conference slots run back-to-back. I look forward to seeing you and discussing your fabulous child!
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Coming Up:
-Early Release: Wednesday, Oct. 29th (Parent Conferences)
-Pumpkins for Holey Pumpkin Day Due: Wednesday, Oct. 29th
-Holey Pumpkin Day Celebration: Thursday, Oct. 30th, 1-2pm
-Holey Pumpkin Day Celebration: Thursday, Oct. 30th, 1-2pm
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