Then we earned an extra mini recess this morning!
Earning those marbles really pays off.

Since we are starting our data unit, Miss Kylie decided to start a long term graph.  Every week the pencils seem to just disappear to the corners of the classroom.  We went on a pencil hunt today.  Guess how many we found?  54!  We'll see how many we find next Friday.  Hopefully less...

Then the penguin taught class for a while.  He is extra good at Friday Freedom.

Today we read a hilarious book on Tumble Books.  It was called Pigasso and Mootise.  Can you guess what it was about.  Yup...a pig like Picasso and a cow like Matisse.  They were pretty competitive painters.  But in the end they became friends though, so it was all OK.

Literacy time in our classroom is always busy.  We're all doing different activities, reading different books, and learning different things.  This week (besides reading) we focused on answering questions about a text.  We had to go back to specific pages and find evidence to support our answers.  It's more challenging than it sounds.

Did you know Aracely lived the mermaid life in Puerto Vallarta in Mexico for seven months last year?  Jealous?  Her uncle is an amazing artist and drew her timeline pictures!  She was a monkey for her first Halloween, she has been to Disneyland, but was too little to remember, and she lost her first tooth on the left side of her mouth.

Everyone has been practicing!  We read through Owl Moon today and it was flawless.  Now we are working on expression and projecting.  We're almost ready for Tuesday.  Will you be joining us?

After planning out our owl chapter books on Friday, we were ready to start writing today.  It was easy to start putting the chapters together because we'd already thought of all the information we wanted to include on our planning maps.  We thought back to our old chapter books and remembered how to get our readers interested.  Do you know where owls live?  If you don't you should read this chapter on owl habitats because owls live in the mountains, at the beaches, and everywhere in between!

Semester two started today.  Besides switching to french with Miss Jenny we also had another change in the classroom.  Instead of getting visits from Miss Christine the counselor, we are now lucky enough to get visits from Miss Betsy Ann.  She'll be coming in over the next few weeks to help us learn about what bullying looks like, how to refuse it, and how to stand up for our friends. We practiced sharing our ideas with partners.  We also practiced really good listening when it was our partner's turn to talk.  This made for some good discussions.

This morning we had a visit from our reading buddies.  We really practiced reading the WHOLE time with them.  You may notice some of our buddies have changes.  The fifth grade classes switched up a bit so some of us are making new friends and others are keeping our old friends.

Next, we explored how to make all the combinations of one number.  Guess what?!  We figured out a pretty cool pattern.  For any number, there are that many plus one unique addition combinations.  For example, there are 3 ways to make 2, 11 ways to make 10, 20 ways to make 19. How many ways to make 300?

We are starting a second chapter book in time for Owling Night.  This time we are each writing the same book filled with all of the things we know about owls.  When you read our books you will find out about owl habitats, owl babies, owl eating habits, and owl characteristics.  Today we planned our stories.  It was like making a map with words.

Finn was born in Houston, Texas.  He was just as smiley as a baby as he is now.  He has four brothers!  Finn enjoys cooking, fly fishing, swimming, and building things.  Once, in the Bahamas, Finn got to see a Nurse shark when snorkeling!

William is a hard core Broncos fan.  He skied for the first time when he was only two and a half and got to ski on Highlands this year for the first time.  William has been to Oregon seven times. The last time he went to took a whole ten hours to get there.  Yikes!

Ruby moved to Snowmass Village from Washington state only two years ago.  In Washington her Dad built their first house.  Ruby loves Christmas and takes great photos with Santa.  She has a cousin Sissy who she likes to spend time with just hanging out and gardening.

Ike spent the first three years of his life in Houston, Texas.  He rescued a beautiful St. Bernard dog. Ike first put on skates when he was two, but we learned that skates don't work very well on concrete.  Ike has a younger sister Sophie.  When Ike was four he caught a 40 pound Mahi Mahi.

Quintin was an early baby.  He was almost born on an airplane!  Whoa!  Quintin skied for the first time at 20 months.  He has a younger sister Camryn.  Quintin enjoys fishing, golfing, go-carting, and camping.  He has been to Lake Powell many times.  In Costa Rica he drank a coconut!

Today we discussed the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  We learned a little more about what he accomplished and how he helped change the laws to make our world a better place today.  We made bubble maps about his life and then created informational pieces about him.  We learned a lot about his I Have a Dream speech and we are excited to write our own tomorrow.  We are trying very hard to follow in his footsteps and fight with our words not our fists.

Gavin was born in October.  He was a pretty happy kids right from the start.  Gavin loves the beach and has spent a lot of time in Hawaii.  Gavin saw his first Denver Nugget's game at only three years old.  Gavin is a star hockey player and at the age of five won the Daily Sportsmanship award.   

Molly chose a flower to do her timeline because flowers grow just like humans!  Molly was a November baby just like Gavin.  Her first friend (and still good friend) was Bates.  Molly cross country skied for the first time in Steamboat.  Molly likes to ride horses and do gymnastics.

As always ACES was a blast.  We learned how and where different animals live in the winter. Some animals hibernate and some migrate.  The animals that stay in snowy Aspen, however, have to carefully build a home.  Mice live in the Subnivean Zone under the snow where its warmer. Beavers use wood to make dams.  Snakes burrow into holes.  Magpies make nests in trees. Snowshoe Hares burrow and camouflage with their white fur.  All of these animals have to stay warm and fed in the cold winter months.  Building a home near a food source is a priority.

Can you guess what (or who) made these footprints?

First with a straw...

Then with a hair dryer...