Monday, March 26, 2012

Contraction Surgery

This week in spelling we are studying contractions. We had a bit of fun creating contractions by becoming spelling surgeons. Who knew spelling was so dramatic!

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"Egg"ing

The Cooperative Combo has been up to some mischief. He, he! We "egged" two classrooms. We tip-toed into their rooms and hid an Easter egg with treats inside for every student. Then, we left them this sign and the instructions to "egg" two more classrooms. The kids are loving walking down the hall and seeing more and more "egged" signs pop-up. They love the fact that they started it all!

St. Patrick's Fun

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Spelling Battleship




The kids have been having a blast with Spelling Battleship. The kids hide their spelling words in the grid then try and find where each word is hiding using coordinates. Thank you to all the parents that played Spelling Battleship with their children for homework last week. It made for a fun way to review spelling words. If you ever want more copies of the gameboard, please just let me know.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

QR Reader Book Review Project




We started a new project in the Cooperative Combo, a "QR Reader Review Project." We are beginning with our class collection of Dr. Seuss books. The students read a Dr. Seuss book and completed a book review. In the book review, they had to rate the book, pick describing words, write a one sentence summary, and tell about their favorite part.

Now, we are in the process of making videos of our book reviews. Next, we will link the videos to QR codes. The QR codes will go in the book jackets of the books in our classroom library and in the school library. Once the QR codes are in place, when a student goes to check out a Dr. Seuss book, they can scan the code and get a peer review of the book.

We have finished about 5 reviews. In the next couple weeks, I hope to get at least one video review done for each student. Then, in the future, Mrs. Anderson and I hope to collaborate and expand this project to many books in our Bitterroot library. Here is just a taste of what we have been working on.






Here are a couple more codes. You can download a free QR reader for your smart phone, ipod touch, or ipad.


Friday, March 2, 2012

Our Seuss-tastic Week

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Cat in the Hat


Friday, March 2 was Dr. Seuss's birthday. He would have been 108. For the culmination of our Dr. Seuss week, we celebrated with the Cat in the Hat. The kids were invited to wear silly hats. We played Seuss themed math games, made a "Thing" craft, practiced our rhyming skills, watched a biography, and, of course, READ several Dr. Seuss books. Oh, and how could I forget, we had another guest reader....insert scream...Justin Bieber.






Green Eggs and Ham

Thursday, we enjoyed activities surrounding the story Green Eggs and Ham. The kids dressed in green. We had a team challenge for rhyming. The kids did a rewrite of the book Green Eggs and Ham. Thanks to our wonderful classroom volunteers, we ate green eggs and ham and had the cutest green eggs and ham candy. And, I can't forget to tell you...we had a guest reader: TIM TEBOW!




Fox in Socks

Wednesday was Fox in Socks day. Students wore their craziest socks. I can't wait for the next crazy sock day...I LOVE the idea of pinning socks to your shirt or the inside of your jacket. Now that is CRAZY!

Dr. Seuss warns that the book Fox in Socks is dangerous for your tongue. It didn't scare the Cooperative Combo kids from reading a few pages. Watch out for tongue twisters!

Fox in Socks with Ava by niemeyerc


Fox in Socks with Brady by niemeyerc

Fox in Socks with Sydnie by niemeyerc

A Wocket In My Pocket

Tuesday was "Wocket in my Pocket day. The kids were challenged to wear as many pockets as they could. I was amazed with how many pockets came to school. One student had 14 pockets. Another clever guy brought wockets in each of his eight pockets. We made a class graph and analyzed our pocket data. One of the interesting points that the students noticed was that most pocket numbers were in even numbers.




Here is a student book review for Wocket in My Pocket.