Five for Friday- Jack Frost Came

      TGIF!  I am so excited to be able to link up to the Five for Friday linky party...mostly because that means it's finally Friday. :)

Five random things from this week...

1.  Jack Frost came today!

So, as we did the weather today during morning meeting, one of my students was sharing how she noticed ice on the grass this morning.  The other kids filled her in that this is called frost.  

One of the little girl's in my class shot her hand in the air.  "Mrs. Kerola, guess what?  Something weird happens every time there is frost outside.  A visitor comes."  (She is so animated and cute!)  I asked her who visited and she said, in a very matter of fact, how could you not know this kind of way, "Jack Frost!"

2.  The Great Candy Corn Race

We started studying long vowels more in depth this week, and we focused on the long a sound.  Next week I'll introduce long i and I have a super fun, festive game for the kids to play.  I have updated the game and you can get it in my TPT store.  Click on the picture below to check it out.

Students draw a card and get to move their candy corn game piece around the board, trying to lay down their cards as they find words with matching vowel sounds (long or short i).  The person with the most cards at the end of the game wins!

3.  Pumpkin Math Freebie

I found a great freebie (that I did not make) to use next week on Halloween for math.  The kids have to measure the height in cubes, count the seeds, and count the lines on the pumpkin.  Thanks Hiba Mustafa for the free resource!  You can click on the picture below to get a copy.

4.  Frog and Toad Together- a classic.

We finished reading the chapter called Cookies yesterday, and my kids were so disturbed that Frog joined in and ate the cookies, too because he has always been the nice, responsible one so far.  Love us some Frog and Toad.

5.  Halloween costume- what should I be?

       Alright, I could use some suggestions.  My new school does a Halloween parade, and so I have to dress up at school.  I need something fun, easy, and cheap.  One of my team teachers suggested we go as dominoes.  What do you think? Ready....go. :)

TGIF!

Our Schema's Like a Web!

       This week we had a very short week with kids because of conferences.  So, in reader's workshop all we had time for was to introduce schema and begin to think about what is already in our schema.  The book Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor has some great ideas about to introduce the concept of schema and is a really easy read. It also has lots of pics of charts. :)  Click on the pic below to check it out.

       I used her analogy of a spider web to help kids understand that our schema,or background knowledge, is unique to us based on our own experiences.  They totally got it.

       First we talked about what they know about spider webs....they are sticky, they catch bugs, and they can get bigger and bigger as the spider keeps spinning.  Then, I told them that that's just like our schema.  It catches everything new that we do and learn and it just keeps on growing!

       We added our ideas about what schema is to our chart (just the top half).

                                 

        Then, today I shared some things in my schema and explained that it's probably different from everyone else's because I have had different experiences.  They each got a sticky note to add one thing from their own schema and stick it on our web.  Here are two of my favorites.

                                  

"Dogs like to growl at loud things." 

(don't you love the phonetic spelling, especially when they can't make the 'th' sound yet?) 

 

                                  

"Bugs are gross!" (We are still working on sight word 'are').

I have no idea why those pictures do not appear exactly centered.  Grr...

         Finally, we decided to add a sentence on the bottom that would explain why there was a spider web on our chart for anyone that comes into our room.  

"Our schema sticks to our brain like bugs stick to a web!

Have a great night!

Jenny