What We're Doing for our Thanksgiving

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow with our friends and family. Here's what we said we'll do:

• have a big meal with our families
• eat turkey
• play games with our cousins
• visit our families that don't live so close
• have some stuffing
• eat pie
• have special "holiday" foods we don't always get to eat, like pumpkin pie and grandma's special rolls

Happy Thanksgiving from Northern Indiana!

You might not love reading.

We've been talking lately about how reading can get us what we want someday. Sometimes we must discipline ourselves to read when we just don't feel like it. Really getting into a book is like when Harry Potter crosses from the Muggle world into the wizard world via Platform Nine and Three Quarters...we can open a book and plunge in to another world entirely! Allowing ourselves to really be IN the story can make a huge difference in making ourselves read. It makes reading soooooo much better, even on those days when we just don't feel like reading.

Today when we read, we became...

Thinking like poets

Poets look at normal, everyday things in a fresh new way...with their imaginations. These are some of the ordinary things we thought about in fresh, new ways today.

^^ News for the Week ^^

This week has flown by around here! We:

• began studying poetry. We're learning that poets don't think like other people.
• read to Mrs. Overman even more than normal, since she is testing us on our reading. That prompted her to remind us about why we read.
• talked a lot about how reading can help us reach our goals as grownups.
• learned that it's okay that we don't always LOVE reading, but we do it because it's good for us.
• practiced checking ourselves for understanding as we read.
• learned to add double-digit numbers AND regroup (carry).
• had fun learning about assembly-line production and unit production during Junior Achievement.

Things to keep in mind:

• Thanksgiving Break is November 28 and 29th.
• Please send a heavy coat with your child. It's chilly and we're outside nearly every day.
• Please sign and return the bottom part of your student's report card and the manila envelope as soon as possible. 

Happy weekend!

Junior Achievement Donut Factory

We did an experiment to see if unit production (one person makes a product from start to finish) is more efficient than assembly line production (a team of people works together to make a product).

We discovered that assembly line production works better!

Poetry Inquiry: What makes a poem?

Our challenge: figure out what a poem is or has. What makes a poem? More to come soon!

Thankful for Veterans

We have old photos of Mrs. Overman's grandpa. He was a Sargent in the Air Force.

Clayton brought in a photo of his grandpa.

And we put our photos from Mr. Grass in the hall for everyone to see.

We are headed to our annual Veterans' Day program soon. We wrote "thank you" on our hands to show them this morning.

```News for the week```

It's been another good but crazy week around here! This week we have:

• learned more about genres of literature, especially Realistic Fiction.
• had a writing celebration with Mrs. Willaman's class. Click here to see it.
• worked on adding two-digit numbers.
• celebrated Ties and Tutus Day. Check out our picture here!
• wrote to Mr. Grass (you can learn more about him here).

Things to keep in mind:

• Some people are requesting a paper copy of our lunch menus. The front office distributes these each year; however, this year it was decided that our lunch menus will be online only to save on paper costs, etc. Click HERE to see the current lunch menu.
• Please be sure to send a COAT with your child. They are outside for recess each and every day as long as it's dry and above 20 degrees (brrrr!).
• Report cards will be sent home next week.
• No spelling test next week. I will be assessing students one-on-one, as I do at the beginning of each trimester. Spelling tests will start again after this upcoming week. :)

Writing Celebration

We read people's books, then left a comment on a piece of paper for each person.

And we, of course, had cookies!

Writing to Mr. Grass

Mr. Grass is serving our country right now. He sends us really cool pictures of things he sees and does.

Here's Brooklynn writing to him. She knows a lot about the military because her dad is in the Air Force.

Ties and Tutus Day!

*~News for the week~*

This week has been totally cRaZy! We have...

• celebrated Halloween. Click here to see party pics!
• had our Lake in the Classroom fish tank set up. We love it so much, we've forgotten to stay sitting down! Click here to check it out.
• finished studying tens and ones in math.
• continued writing personal narratives in writing. We made covers for our books that will hopefully make readers REALLY want to read them.
• started studying different genres of literature and tracking what we like most.

Things to remember:

• There is no school for students on Friday, November 8th. This is a teacher work day.
• Thanksgiving Break is November 28th and 29th (that's Thursday and Friday).

Thanks so much to Kassy, Lynk's mom, for organizing our superfun Halloween party! It was so much fun! Thanks to all the parents who attended and/or sent items to help us have a great day. We loved it! You are amazing. :)

Have a super weekend and be safe Trick-or-Treating tonight!

Lake in the Classroom

We have a lake in our classroom! We need to say a big thank you to Kosciusko Lakes and Streams, Grace College, and our local Kiwanis Club for funding, providing, and caring for our tank. Here are our friends explaining to us how to care for our new friends.

We've already named our fish: they are Claws Crawfish, Whiskers Catfish, Harry Bluegill, Goldie Bluegill, and Spike Bass.