Hey guys! We have been studying tropical and temperate rainforests this week in class. Today is the day to get to show off some of what you’ve learned and also time for you to go on a quest for more information. Again you are off on a quest! In this WebQuest you will explore the types of rainforests found in North, Central, and South America. You will compare and contrast the two types of forests and learn about the plant life that flourishes there.

Here is your task:

* compare and contrast a tropical and temperate rainforest.
* find out why rainforests are disappearing and why they should be preserved.
* discover plants that live in both types of rainforests.

Please use your Rainforest WebGuide to guide you! Get ready, get set, go! Click here to get to the website.

When you are finished, click HERE to play the Butterfly Discovery Game where you get to create your own butterfly! You are going to LOVE this! 

Time for a quest! Grab your Grasslands Webquest Guide and Click HERE to get to our favorite site for biomes.

Sean getting Amber in the PIE TOSS! The Fall Festival was a BLAST! Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our parents who were involved. Clearly we have the greatest PTSO ever! Special thank you to Ana Garcia and Monique Posada. Check out the Fall Festival / Flag Ceremony Slide Show on our Picture Page.

Hi all! Don’t forget that it’s the FALL FESTIVAL today! It starts at 12:00 and is over around 4:00. Bring your family! Bring your friends! Throw pies at teachers! Watch the talent show (which begins at 1:00)!… and MUCH more!

Our Third Grade Booth will be set up along the fence.  Sean will be there helping me until 2:00!  See you there!

Here is the list of the (better than) said words we collected today when we read Stellaluna by Janell Cannon.

crooned, squeaked, cried, chirped, hissed, warned, sighed, stuttered, gasped, and murmured.

I was excited to see that you used some of these words when writing about the talking bubbles in Otto’s Orange Day. I can’t wait to hear what other (better than) said words you find.

*** Hey! Don’t forget to pay attention to said words in your reading (and conversations!) this week. Share them with the rest of us by leaving a comment below.  

(If you would like to have Stellaluna read to you, visit our On-Line Work tab under Language Arts/Story Line) 

Bet you thought that I had forgotten about our word funeral this week, huh?! Well it’s just that I have a feeling it is not going to be easy to let go of this one. So… here it is. The our new dead word is… said. There. I said it. Uh-oh. See? I told you it was a hard one to let go of.

So here is the plan: Let’s spend the week brainstorming better words than said, because let’s face it, said is a pretty bland word. Think of all of the more colorful ways say it… whispered, sneered, growled, chirped, replied, bellowed, roared… the list is endless. We will be detectives all week- both in our reading, and during conversations.  Once we feel that we have a nice collection of said words, we will officially bury said for good.

And finally… back to Toon Books Otto’s Orange Day! Last week we brainstormed ways that a comic book is similar +/or different from a picture book.  What stood out to most of us was the talking bubble.  We all agreed that the silly dialogue and the talking bubble made reading more fun!

Today in the lab let’s see if we can get some “said is dead” practice in while we read Otto’s Orange Day. Here is your task:

1.) Choose your favorite talking bubble from the story.

2.) Add a “said” word to it with the name of the character who is speaking.

For example: I wish that everything in the world was orange exclaimed Otto. (On Monday we’ll start adding the quotation marks… for today, let’s just work getting our vocabulary going!)

Most of all, enjoy jumping into the next chapter! Click HERE to get started. You will need to use the right arrow to click forward to Chapter Two!

Friday was a SPECTACULAR day! Alexandria, Alexia, Almario, and Amber impressed all of us SO MUCH! Can you believe they got up there in front of that crowd and performed like that?!?! Wow!

It was also such fun to see all of you meet your pen pals in Mr. Clarken’s class.  I especially enjoyed seeing you all try new things… guitar, chess, drawing, computer animation, and dancing. I will be posting more pictures from both the Spelling Bee and PenPals with Mr. Clarken up in our picture tab as soon as I can, so check back!

Enjoy your HALLOWEEN!

Hi all! This week we have spent a lot of time learning how to read magazine articles. We found out quickly that these nonfiction articles are arranged much differently than the picture books and chapter books we are used to. By learning how to read all of these different genres, we get a lot more out of what we are reading.

 

What about reading a comic strip?  Does a comic strip tell a story the same way that one of our picture books does?  I’ll let YOU decide.  Today in the computer lab you are going to have a comic strip read to you.  Click HERE to get to Toon Books: Ottos Orange Day. Click READ TO ME and when you are done hearing the page, click the right arrow to move on.  

 

*** At the end of Chapter One… please leave a comment with your  thoughts . How does a comic strip tell a story differently than a picture book?  What do you feel is similar to a picture book?

The Spelling Bee is finally here! Don’t forget to wear comfortable shoes… at 9:00 am Friday morning we are WALKING to Palmer Way for the annual Spelling Bee.

Alexandria, Almario, Alexia, and Amber are ready to rock!  I know that everybody is excited to cheer them on. Remind your parents that they are welcome to join us. Palmer Way’s address is 2900 Palmer Street just over the hill from us.  

And… you will finally get to meet your Pen Pals in Mr. Clarken’s class.  We have a fun activity in store for all of you. 

Once we get settled back at school, Sophia is going to share the book she bought for our class: Can You See What I See? On a Scary Scary Night as well as some spooky music…

Today you are going to research five grassland animals.

Please bring 5 index cards to the computer.  Click HERE to get to our grasslands site.  Look to the left and click Grassland Animals. Choose five animals and take these notes on your card:

On the striped side of the index card, write the Class, Diet, Habitat, and Range of the animal.

On the white side of the card, write the name of the animal and sketch a picture of the animal.

Enjoy!