More October Updates!

Hi everyone!  Over the Thanksgiving break I have been trying to get caught up on my blogging so you will have to forgive me for the many belated updates coming your way!

In September I blogged about our "Brown Bag Book Club" affectionately known as BBBC here in our classroom.  Here is a little video clip of a "Brown Bag Book Club" in action from a book we read in October titled "Spookley the Square Pumpkin".  You will notice that the student speaking is using what we call the "because clapper" (hands clap together), the "idea popper" (hand goes off our brain), and the "brake screech" (hand moves out in a stopping motion).  These hand and sound signals help the student to form their thoughts and share them in an understandable manner.



This was the culmination of a week long study of the character in the book. Students learned about and practiced character analysis, story sequencing, and the importance of the setting to the story. We also worked in some math by learning about 2-D and 3-D shapes.  We also made a yummy "Spookley" treat and learned how to write a recipe using transition words.

Here is a clip of the kiddos reciting a Halloween poem. (Sorry about the orientation.)

 To inspire some creative writing, we used Halloween stickers added to a picture and then wrote a story to go along with it.

We also spent time learning about bats and practiced writing facts as a part of this guided research project. Creating a bat from 2-D shapes was a fun math related activity to go along with our bat study.

And last, but not least, we practiced adding and subtracting with a variety of Halloween/Fall theme related games.

As you can see, October was a very busy month!  Thank you for sticking with me until the end of this long blog!!