Holes.

We decided we needed a map to help us understand...

this great book!

Santa's Reindeer Cam!

Look! It's Santa's reindeer! Some of us think that Rudolph is one of these and Santa screws a red lightbulb on his nose when they're ready to fly on Christmas Eve.

Make your illustrations realistic.

Mrs. Overman had to draw everything from the same point of view. It looks like you're flying above the land.

Look how real Timmy's dad's gun looks.You can even see the stripes on the raccoon and the bark on the tree. Oh, and Timmy WAS awake during this time...he just looks sleepy!

Daetona's day that she wrote about was sunny and clear. Can you tell?

You can see Beau drew tracks and spokes on his wheels so his vehicle looks real.

Notice how real Mark's fire and tree look. You can even see the coal under the fire.

Sorry it's so fuzzy, but Gavin's tree is decorated like a real Christmas tree!

To keep her page realistic, Kelsey had to draw her characters from the side because they're talking.

Abi made her house look as real as it gets! We can see the chimney, the slide and playhouse, and the door!

Makensie dressed her character. Who wants to read a stick-people book? (Well, except for Diary of a Wimpy Kid....)

Writers make their illustrations realistic so readers will take them seriously.

Oh my! News you might want to know.

Hi everyone! So sorry I didn't get a newsletter to you last week! I wrote myself two notes and STILL forgot (imagine that!). Anyway, we've been working on:

• telling time
• quotation marks
• adding detail in our writing
• reading like we're talking
• reading like a character
• finishing chapter books
• reading "Holes"
• addition
• ten more and ten less than a number

Things you'll want to know for the next week-ish:

• no spelling test until after Christmas break. We're going to be having other tests, like quotation marks, and I don't want to over-test us!
• We'll have a small Christmas celebration on Tuesday before break at the end of the day.
• Please let us know if your child needs a coat or hat or gloves. We have some available.

Merry Christmas (almost!)

what we do for christmas! by Avery and Kelsey

-

    we dress up P.S. she is Mrs.clause.

    We decorate tree's. OH chirstmas tree OH chirtmas tree.

   Santa  clause gives presents!

    We clean up things always:(

    We shop for books:)

    We spend money  Booooooo.

    We READ BOOKS!!!

    We pet our pets!

    Here is Santa Clause shopping  for KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    People travel lots of PLACES!

   We build snowmen in the snow.

    We get together for chirstmas.

    Santa is checking his list.

    Comet's getting ready.

    We donate food to poor.  

    We draw pictures.

    Snow falls down.

    We tell what we want for christmas.

  We give cards.

We write books.

Writers Add Tiny Details in their Pictures.

Kelsey made curtains in her house.

Makensie made grass and boots.

Abi showed the lines in the road and even the bus number!

Breanna showed herself throwing up on her mom's shoe...yikes!

Mark's Christmas tree is decorated.

Beau made tracks and hubcaps on his wheels.

Lupito added the names of his family in his story.

Mya put small people in the background of her page because they were walking around her at the store.

You can do lots with crayons.

Yikes! Mrs. Overman took away our markers! We were sad, but she taught us some things writers and illustrators do with crayons. Don't tell...but we kinda like it!

You can use your eraser to rub over your coloring and make it lighter in places.

You can color, then scratch with your fingernail to make cool textures...this one isn't done yet.

You can color in your letters like David Shannon.

You can write important words in crayon.

You can make a background with crayon and still read your words well.

You can outline with crayon, then color lighter inside the outline like on these trees.

You can color in lightly with crayon, like the purple on the outside of Adam's picture, or you can color hard and make it dark, like the middle of his picture.

News for last week (Nov 28th-Dec 2)!

Our blog posting has come to a screeching halt over the last couple of weeks because we're working on doing reading tests...this is one-on-one (teacher and student) and takes a long, long time!


This week we:

• learned how to find ten more and ten less on a number chart.
• figured out numbers before and after another number.
• (some of us) began Accelerated Math (more of us will soon!).
• read for 35 minutes each day independently, then more as a class and with partners!
• began telling true stories from our lives with a beginning, middle, and end, and important details.

Things to remember:

• The book fair is open in the Little Theater all week. If your child would like to bring money in to spend, that's fine...just no more than $20 please. :)
• We will NOT be doing a gift exchange this year. We'll have a little celebration for Christmas and make something fun instead.
• Christmas Break dates: (no school on these days) December 21-January 3.

Spelling words for next week:

• junk
• brothers
• float
• house
• crash
• trip
• shook
• snap
• with
• stop

We Voted Today!

In Junior Achievement today, we had to decide on what would be best for our pretend community...an animal shelter, a toy store, or a skate park.

In groups we wrote the pros and cons of all of them.

Then we voted!

We decided an animal shelter would be best for everyone (especially the animals!).