MS. KYLIE'S FOURTH GRADE!
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HALLOWEEN AND FOXES

10/31/2017

 
Check out this beautiful fox who likes the sunshine by our classroom windows.  He added a little special surprise to our Halloween celebration!  Thank you Julie Wille for the gorgeous pictures.  We sure hope he sticks around for a while!
Before the holiday craze took over we took some time to practice our executive functioning skills.  As a school we're focusing on these personal skills to help kids be more successful personally and academically.  Today we started with following directions.  With this simply Halloween picture we were given a set of directions only once.  We had to be sure we were listening and responding quickly so we didn't miss anything!  It was hard to stay on task and not miss the steps.  
Check out these awesome coffee filter monsters!  They're super easy to make and they look great with all their monster friends up on the wall!  Try it at home with other creatures!
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Last but not least it was party time...and it was the best (mellow) Halloween party ever.  Thank you for all the help and clever crafts and activities.  We had a blast!  Be safe out there tonight!

Feely boxes are not for the faint of heart.  This kind of slimy orange cauliflower sure felt like brains behind the curtain!
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​We're coming home with some sweet Halloween decorated canvas bags.  They will be great for the grocery store or Trick or Treating!
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​You may also see some festive
Halloween necklaces!  We practiced our fine motor skills with these beaded beauties!
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PUMPKIN BREAD MATH

10/30/2017

 
Since Halloween is tomorrow we decided we better start getting ready.  So, today we made pumpkin bread.  It was fun and delicious, just like first grade should be! Do you know how much math and how many social skills are involved in baking...let us tell you, it's a more than we thought.
Look at all that math.  First we had to figure out how many kids would go in each group if we needed three groups.  Well, 18/3=6.  Then we needed to figure out those crazy measuring fractions.  All we had were cups, 1/4 cups, teaspoons, and 1/4 teaspoons.  When you draw a picture it's easy to see that two quarters makes 1/2 and three quarters makes 3/4.  We're such quick thinkers!
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Just a little bit messy.
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And a lot of delicious.
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HOW TO DRAW AN OWL

10/25/2017

 
Wednesday's are always part learning, part fun, and part cool math challenges.  Today, for fun, we learned how to draw an owl. We're working hard on a project coming your way this holiday season...so we won't give you too much information now, but you'll be seeing this owl again.
If you want to do more drawing at home, check out this cool website, Art Hub for Kids.  You can find so many cool animals and creatures to create at home.  Check out our owls below.  We love how we all followed the same directions and yet they are each unique and beautiful, just like us!
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Can you guess why we drew these owls on dictionary paper!?

LITERACY CENTERS

10/24/2017

 
Literacy is a big part of the first grade day!  Much of that time is taken by small group reading with Miss Kylie.  When she's doing that we're working independently.  Everyone is doing something different; it's a little bit of organized chaos, a little bit of magic, and a whole lot of learning!
Word Work
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We study a different phonics pattern each week.  Then we each use words based on our reading level and look for patterns, learn about them, and make sure we can recognize them in text and use them in writing.  
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Vocabulary

Each week we have four new vocabulary words.  We make motions and faces to help remember them and use them in writing and conversation.  Once a week we do Vocabulary Rock and Roll to solidify those words. 
Poetry

Every day we get a new poem.  That means so far we have 42 poems!  We're collecting them in a small binder and read them every morning or during quiet reading time when we want something a little different.
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Scholastic News

Scholastic News is a great source of current events, science, and social studies.  We learn about the topic and do some writing.  This week we focused on answering questions with specific evidence from the text.
Reading a Good Book

Once a day, at least, we curl up with a good book.  We've practiced finding "just right books" and then we read lots of them.  We collect them in our books boxes and trade them out in the library so we never get bored.
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Research Projects

As you know last week we started our independent research projects.  We're each studying two Colorado animals.  We're doing research online and in books and writing down all of our findings to compare!
Whew!  We are busy!

HOW TO...

10/23/2017

 
Today we continued our How To writing...we're experts in so many things, so it's fun to get to show it off every once in while.  But we didn't write about the things you might expect, like playing soccer, baking cookies, tying our shoes, or reading books.  Instead we started a book to share with you at conferences.  You're all experts at taking care of us, so we thought we might turn the tables and write about how to take care of you!  You can expect some extra special treatment coming up!

ABC Bears Wreaking Havoc on Cars, Homes
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Last week we also heard from our very first Reporter of the Week, Boti!  He shared a few articles and a couple of pictures about the great bear problem in town and at the ABC. As the bears food supply starts to disappear under the snow, the bears make their way into town to find our garbage, leftovers, and open house and car doors.  They leave quite a mess so lock your doors people! Thanks Boti :)

COMMUNITY DAY!

10/20/2017

 
What a fabulous success.  Thank you for all the help and support.  It takes a village.  We are so grateful for this amazing community we live and learn in!
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PLAYGROUNDS, SCIENTISTS, AND SECRET READERS

10/19/2017

 
Today was just the best.  We had a blast on the middle school playground this morning celebrating our classroom party.  We love spending time outside with friends and what better way than exploring a new and different playground!

Then we heard from our second scientist of the week...SLOAN!  She wanted to know how many helium balloons it would take to lift up a person (specifically Sloan).  Guessing that would be a lot, she settled on figuring out how many for a Barbie.  We made our hypotheses and our guesses ranged from 1 to 100.  Turns out about 13 balloons will make Barbie stay suspended in the air!  Next week we look forward to turning this into a math problem to hypothetically make Sloan fly!
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We also wrapped up Siri's science experiment about teeth.  Ironically she lost a tooth today!  Take a look and just guess which tooth spent a week in water and which tooth spent a week in soda!?  Pretty gross.  We took the opportunity to discuss enjoying things like soda and candy in moderation...while of course continuing to brush your teeth daily!
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And last but not least...we heard from a secret reader.  Mr. Kevin, Beck's dad.  He read a fabulous book, Castaway Cats.  It was a story of disaster, struggle, and finally friendship.  We experience many of the same friendship struggles in our classroom so we could definitely relate.  Though we might not have cat fights, we certainly have to work out our differences with friends.  We're getting really good at it!  Thanks for the great read!!  We love surprise stories from loved ones!
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EXPERIENCING READING

10/18/2017

 
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First we experienced Miss Kylie's new favorite book.  She seems to have a new favorite every week!  As we start to dive into non-fiction writing, we'll be writing some How To stories about things we are experts at doing.  For example, playing soccer, tying shoes, reading books, baking bread, and writing stories.  This book, however, uses beautiful illustration to take simple how to tasks to the next level.  For example, how would you see the wind?  How would you make a sandwich?  How would you be brave.  Julie Morstad gives us some pretty clever ideas.
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how to watch where you're going
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how to wash your face
But we decided to focus on how to see the wind!
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Check out our awesome experiential ideas...
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...ride a snowboard down a black diamond.
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...watch the leaves in the trees blow through the forest.
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...use a balloon, or 2, or 3, or 4, or 5, or 6, or 7, or 8, or 9, or 10.
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...look at a gondola rock.
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...get a book and watch the pages fly.
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...feel the breeze with your hair.
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...see the leaves in the air.
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...watch your dress blow in the wind.
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...take a paper house and put it outside.
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...feel it in your hair.
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...watch a windmill.
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...use a kite.

Then we took some time to just curl up with a good book.  We're getting really good at reading independently in the classroom.  We made a list of what good readers do and then practiced them on our own and with our friends!
WHAT GOOD READERS DO...
point to the words        share books with friends        ask questions        persist
       love books        make pictures/movies in their minds       respect books        re-read books
find just right books        sound out hard words        use clues to figure out hard words

RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH

10/17/2017

 
You knew we were readers, mathematicians, artists, scientists, athletes, friends, and first graders, but did you know we are very curious researchers too!?
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Today we dove into a big, huge, exciting project.  We will be researching and writing about Colorado animals!  We've each picked our two favorite wild animals and over the next few weeks we'll be researching and creating presentations with all the cool facts we learn.  Today we used the kid friendly search engine KidRex!  This is an amazing site that helps sift through the craziness on the internet to find the really good, appropriate, usually educational stuff.  Check it out below!
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We will be using Google Slides to create our final presentations, but we'll also be diving into non-fiction writing in the coming weeks so you can expect to see some fabulous research based writing coming home too!  You may hear us ask you to use KidRex at home to keep researching.
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Now, for the cool part.  When we're all done, we will create a class book with all of the information we compiled.  We'll compare and contrast the different animals.  AND we'll create a giant web detailing how these animals are connected and vital to our unique Colorado ecosystem.  

BRINGING A STORY TO LIFE

10/16/2017

 
Today we went back to our small moment stories after a brief affair with poetry.  We took a look at the stories we'd written and figured we could make them even better.  After all, in first grade our writing motto is: "Once you're done, you've just begun!"  We used some mentor texts to make our characters move and talk in our stories and thus make our stories jump off the page!
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We read this book for the first time today and we're pretty sure it's our new favorite.  Though the story is not necessarily non-fiction, we were able to learn from the fabulous author Julia Denos as she brings the colors in this book to life.  We learned that bringing a non-human element to life is called personification.  The little girl in this book tries to tame all the beautiful colors in the world, but soon realizes that they are much better off free to mix and mingle in the wild where they belong.  We made some awesome connections to our own lives as we read this beautiful, colorful, action packed book.  Check it out at the library!
Look at these action words.  The author could have written exploded based on the picture.  Instead she wrote:
grew       yawned       stretched       twirled       bloomed       whirled,
leaked       swirled       spreading       billowing      twisting
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This is an awesome text we use for small moment stories!  George McClements masterfully takes the terror of eating three peas at dinner time and turns in into some serious drama and a great read.  Have you ever experienced this at your dinner table?  We studied his words and noticed how he uses very specific action words to help the little boy come to life.  He also uses speech bubbles to show what the parents are saying to each other throughout the very dramatic dinner scene.  His character talk and move and this helps them become real for his readers.
Check out the serious toe curling, finger wiggling action...and be sure to take note of the parents voices in the background!
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