Drawing Conclusions and Night Letters

Our Reading Street story last week was Night Letters.  The kids really got into this story! For one of their stations, they thought about an object such as a plant or animal that they might find in their back yard.  Then they wrote a letter to themselves from that objects point of view- just like the little girl in the story.  I did model by writing my own night letter from the point of view of garden snake.  After stations, they came up and shared their night letters with the class.  I tied in our skill of the week which was drawing conclusions by having the students guess who each night letter was from.  The students had to explain their thinking by using details from the text and their prior knowledge.  My kiddos really enjoyed this activity and it was great practice!

Christmas Time Is Here!

I adore Christmas! As soon as I finished my last bite of Thanksgiving dinner, I was ready to start decorating.  I have decorated part of my classroom and put up our tree.  The kiddos will make their first ornament tomorrow thanks to a wonderful parent volunteer!  Just a tip: I buy a few packs on inexpensive thank you notes from Wal-Mart or Target and keep at school.  That way I can write the kids a note before I forget and they go home for the holidays.

I found these felt snowflake place mats at Wal-Mart and hung them up in our classroom.

This is in my bedroom.

My Christmas tree at home.

An ornament we will make this season!