Bats and Boats

Hi everyone!
I hope you all had a nice weekend. I saw some of you at the Halloween Haunt as I was trying to wrangle my little Elvis running wild through the gym.
Last week we studied bats and the children were very interested in this animal! We started off by activating our prior knowledge and adding our schema to our bat anchor chart. We read several nonfiction books, labeled bats, wrote bat facts on bat caves and made little bats to hang from them, compared and contrasted birds and bats and much more.



On Friday we had our third mystery reader - his name is Jimmy Parker and he is a ferry captain that drives the ferry into Boston. The children were right on with their inferences based on the clues he gave us (smart thinkers!!) and were thrilled to see him in his uniform after library class. Jimmy read a cute story "Sheep on a Ship" and then answered many questions about his job and the boat that he drives. The students wanted to know what happens if Jimmy doesn't want to drive the boat, what happens if his first mate doesn't want to either, if he went through any storms on the ferry, if people can eat on the ferry, if people sleep there, and more. And then several more extra questions about things like his shoes. And his watch....and his hair, and so on. :) Thank you Jimmy! We had fun!






Students have started working with "Math Tubs". This is something I will do every Friday so that I can work with students individually or in small groups on various skills in Math. Math Tubs have different games or activities that cover many different concepts from money, patterns, counting, greater than/less than, number line work, and more. They will also change out throughout the school year. On Fridays the students will move through two Math Tub stations. However, Math Tubs will also be available as students finish up independent work during regular Math time.


In Reading we are moving nicely through our unit "Readers Use Strategies to Figure Out Words". I am so impressed with their hard work, their ability to build on their reading stamina and their application of these strategies we learned. Here is an anchor chart that covers some of our basic strategies for tricky words.
Lastly... I am asking again if anyone is willing to be my classroom ROOM MOTHER!? Any takers? I promise it won't be too complicated. We have Halloween coming up and I'd love to have a mini celebration with a few goodies but I need some help.
Thank you!