The McGee
Gazette
September
2014
Whew! Time flies when you’re having fun…and we are having FUN! We have had a terrific start to our year and
I am having a ball getting to know your kids.
Reading and Writing is a TON of
FUN!
We are reading The BFG by
Roald Dahl and enjoying every single moment.
I hope that your kids have talked about the book, the characters, and
the wonderful story. They are always
eager to hear another chapter!
Character Traits are an important
part of any good book. The characters we
meet are an important part of any good book. The characters we meet in The BFG are
no exception. As we read, we will keep
track of our thoughts and take notes about questions we may have, things we
want to share, or connections we have to characters or events in a story. In order to learn more about the characters
we encounter, we talk about them a lot!
We also learn about the character traits they have. In The BFG, we began by starting a
list of character traits for the two main characters Sophie and The BFG. We later expanded the list for general
character traits. Kids picked either
Sophie or The BFG and wrote about character traits they have noticed. They also illustrated a character in their
Reader’s Notebooks. Using what we had
discussed and the traits we had brainstormed, they then created their own character.
An illustration surrounded by descriptions and sentences about the
character is a wonderful place to collect your thoughts about characters you
are reading or writing about. I was wildly
impressed with their ideas, illustrations and interesting characters…it’s going to be fun reading the
stories they write using these new characters.
YahooooOoOO! J
Nonfiction!
I took a class last year that
asked “Who is your favorite nonfiction writer?” and it was a question I didn’t
have a very good answer for. I do
now. I have spent the last several
months investigating nonfiction books that will grab a young reader’s attention
– even if, in the past, they haven’t
been a huge fan of nonfiction. Steve Jenkins
is one of those writers. He writes books
that are informative, beautifully illustrated, and chocked full of fascinating
information about a myriad of crazy cool animals. For example:
Line up every kind of plant and
animal on Earth, and one of every four will be a beetle. Seriously, that’s amazing and crazy
information to learn, isn’t it? It’s ONE
of the spectacular facts you will learn by reading the book The Beetle Book
by Steve Jenkins. Another great
nonfiction option is a series of books which explore the more grisly aspects of
life during various moments in our history.
Some titles include: You
Wouldn’t Want to be An Egyptian Mummy, YWWTBA Roman Gladiator, YWWTBA Slave in
Ancient Greece, YWWTBA Viking Explorer, YWWTBA American Colonist, YWWTBA
Victorian Schoolchild, and You Wouldn’t Want to Sail On A 19th-Century
Whaling Ship. To name only a
few.
We will also spend time reading
our subscription to National Geographic Explorer. So much to learn from nonfiction this year!
Morning Messages
Every
morning, your kids are greeted with a new Morning Message. This message can be found on the white board,
written on construction paper or the easel, or displayed with the Elmo (a projection
device). These messages are a fun way to
connect with the kids while giving them something to do, or information to
process. Often, it tells them to do
something before they line up for specials.
I LOVE THESE MESSAGES! This is an example of one of our messages from last week.
Question
for the Answer
This is a GREAT activity. The ANSWER is written on the white board and
the QUESTION is written in a special section of their Writer’s Notebooks. This week, the answer is Lewis and Clark. In order to
help them come up with questions, I supplied a helpful tool…the book You Wouldn’t Want to
Explore with Lewis and Clark. I
encourage you to try this at home. It
can be a tricky thing for kids to write, but practicing helps a lot! I use people we are learning about (Steve
Jenkins), people they need to know about (Jesse Owens), things we learn in
science (carrion beetles), things for books we are reading (The BFG), math
vocabulary (perpendicular), and seemingly random bits of information (often
found on the class calendar: Car Free Day (9/22) in Europe). Writing answers are SUPER fun and we learn a
lot while doing it!
Poly
Spot Pair Share!
We
learned a new game last week called Poly Spot Pair Share. It’s a combination of a game I learned a long
time ago called Mix Pair Share. Using my
new POLY SPOTS, we created a fun way to learn, dance, chat and share ideas
about things we are learning about.
Here’s
how it works:
The
music starts and everyone dances around the classroom. When the music stops, they must find a spot
and a friend on the spot. The two
friends answer the question I pose and go back to back when they are done
discussing it with each other. Once they
are back to back, they can no longer talk.
Gradually, the room gets quieter and finally, they are all back to back and
waiting to share…forcing them to really listen to
one another! Kids may not be partners
with the same person within one game. I
love playing this game. It’s a wonderful
way to review items for a test (list a characteristic of a polygon.), chat
about a book we are currently reading (tell your partner a few character traits
of Sophie from The BFG.), compare data collected during a science
experiment (tell your partner why the two pieces of bread in your mold
experiment look alike or different), or just getting to know one another (tell
your partner your favorite place to visit.).
Field Trips
826michigan! YahoOOo!
We will visit 826 on Friday, October 10th. We will take the city bus downtown and attend
the Strange Mysteries! Workshop. The
workshop is from 10-12. Permission slips
will be coming home soon!
826michigan
presents…Strange Mysteries!
Skills taught: Overview of
mystery genre, including alibi, conflict/problem (what does the character want,
what will he or she do to get it), motive, clues, antagonist/protagonist,
writing persuasive argument based on evidence collected during the field trip.
Description:
Students arrive for the Storytelling and Bookmaking workshop only to be interrupted
by an emergency from the mysterious Dr. Blotch, crotchety editor and head of Blotch
Books. Students work with 826 volunteers to uncover a mystery and interrogate
suspects. Students collectively write the story of Dr. Blotch’s stolen_________,
and once the story reaches a climax point, students write individual arguments
(in the form of a letter) explaining why they think a certain suspect is
guilty.
Students
share their letters with the group for Dr. Blotch’s approval.
End
product: Each student leaves with a bound book containing the group’s mystery and
his or her individual solution.
King Arthur Flour is coming to
Haisley!
King
Arthur Flour will be here in January. YahOoOOO! This is an amazing opportunity for our
kids. This presentation will be for all
4th and 5th graders.
From their website: bake for good:
kids program…Bread baking is a fun way to apply math, science, and reading
comprehension to a real-life experience – just as the more than 120,000 students we’ve taught through our Bake
for Good: Kids program. In this FREE
Program, Kids in grades 4-7 LEARN to make bread from scratch. We provide the ingredients and the know-how
to get baking. Kids BAKE bread at home,
and take pride in both their new skills and the delicious results. Kids give back to the community and SHARE a
loaf of bread with a local organization, experiencing the joy and satisfaction
that come from helping others in their community.
Important Dates to Remember
Wednesday,
October 1st: Picture Day and
Count Day
Friday,
October 10th: Field Trip to
826michigan
Thursday,
October 16th: Conference Night #1
Tuesday,
November 4th: No School (report card writing/PD for teachers)
Thursday,
November 6th: Conference Night #2
Monday,
November 10th: Conference Night #3
Tuesday,
November 11th: Conference Night #4
Wednesday,
November 12th: Report Cards Go Home
Saturday,
November 15th: Haisley Auction!
Recipes…yup, recipes!
I love
to cook and I love sharing good food with people. I thought I’d share a recipe in my
newsletters. Sharing good food helps
make the world a better place. Your kids
learn better when they eat well. That’s
one of the many reasons I bring new and unique food for them to eat throughout
the year. I think it’s important for
them to learn about good food and understand that eating well doesn’t have to
be scary or taste yucky. They LOVE cherry
tomatoes. They ate two large baskets of
RAW green beans too! The first recipe
I’d like to share with you is one my Grandma used to make when I was growing
up. It’s an easy and delicious way to enjoy
BBQ sauce, chicken and spaghetti! Enjoy!
serve with
chicken (or ribs!) and spaghetti
12 T Worcestershire
sauce
12 T vinegar
12 T brown sugar
1 t black pepper
2 t paprika
2 t mustard
1 t salt
3 cup ketchup
3 small onions,
sliced
1 green or red
pepper, sliced (optional)
small amount of water
if needed
• Bring above to a boil, pour over chicken or ribs.
• 2-3 pounds of chicken (I use skinless/boneless). Use your favorite chicken!
• Bake in covered dish for 1 ½ hours at 350˚.
I use my Le Creusét
which is really deep, so
there
is no risk of anything leaking!
• Remove chicken from sauce and brown chicken under broiler.
• Serve over spaghetti.
EDJLZXCVBNMm
Ellen McGee •
Haisley Elementary School •
734-994-1937
http://mcgeehaisley.blogspot.com/
• mcgee@aaps.k12.mi.us
Worms have arrived in room 306. It took
them a few days, but they are now doing their best to escape. It isn't
going well. The worms that arrived are pretty small, so we have night
crawlers from a bait shop to check out. They are bigger and easier to see
the anatomy of our worms. So cool.
Check out our worms!
What are earthworms? Worms are invertebrates. They don’t have any bones or teeth. The body of an earthworm is made up of
segments, which look like rings wrapped around their bodies. Most adult earthworms have between 150 to 170
segments. To find the head of an
earthworm, look for the saddle. The
saddle is a smooth band around an adult earthworm’s body. Watching the kids use flashlights to find
body parts…priceless.
They were amazing scientists! We
took notes, illustrated our findings and shared what we discovered with one
another.
