Weeks of Dec. 2nd and Dec. 9th

So I did not get a chance to post to the blog last Friday or over the weekend so I am posting mid-week for both last week and this week.  I am afraid if I don't do it now, the weekend will come and go again and there will be no post.  It is a crazy time of year and hard to keep up on everything. 

Last week we began reading the Red Clover books.  The Red Clover books are 10 books that are nominated each year by a committee comprised of Vermont teachers, librarians and sponsors. The committee reviews all picture books published in the prior year.  The Red Clover Award promotes the reading and discussion of the best of contemporary picture books in nearly all of Vermont's elementary schools. Each year over 20,000 K-4 students read, or have read to them, the ten nominated books.

The list of nominees is published each March. Here are the book selection criteria:

• The book must have been published in the prior year.
• The award is for the entire book-text and illustrations.
• Both the author and illustrator must be living at the time of the selection.
• Only one title by the same combination of author and illustrator may be chosen in a given year.
• The books must be appropriate, in the aggregate, for a range of children in grades K-4.
• Both fiction and non-fiction are eligible.

We read each of the 10 books and then vote on our favorite.  We then share our votes with the librarians who take other votes and come up with a school winner.  Stay tuned to find out which book won in our classroom next week.  We will read the last book on Monday.  School results will not be in until April or May.  After we read each book, we do an activity related to the story.  Check out some of the activities we worked on last week.  The top 2 are from the book "The Fantastic Jungles of Henry Rousseau" and the bottom 2 are from the book "Looking at Lincoln".  A list of the Red Clover books can be found in the next post.  They are some wonderful books!

On Monday of this week, we had our 2nd Discovery Table share.  Annika in the 2nd grade classroom shared about Sweden.  She told us about the country, and shared some of the holidays and traditions that come from Sweden.  Below is a picture of her share.

Anyone can sign up on our team page and share about a topic of their choice.  The share is done on Monday and the table stays up for the week so students can check it out. 

In math we have started a new unit.  We are talking about number lines.  This week we are learning how to add on number lines.  Next week we will be jumping by 5s and 10s on the number line. 

In writing we are working on Publishing our Small Moment stories.  We will be typing them up, illustrating them and then will share them with the Dragonfly 1st Graders and Mrs. Killkelley's class.  We are looking forward to this next week. 

In Social Studies we have been reading "Flat Stanley" and are preparing our own Flat Stanley's to send to friends and family.  We will be addressing the envelopes tomorrow and they will be mailed out on Friday.  We will be looking forward to what we get back after the holidays and sharing what we receive at school with the team.  It's a great way to learn about where different states and countries are and a some information about them. 

I hope that everyone has a wonderful rest of the week and a great weekend,
Nancy