Week of October 26, 2009

October is fire prevention month and the kindergartners have met some firemen, seen the fire trucks and gone through the smokehouse.  We're still going to read one more book on fire safety called Crawl Low Under Smoke by Lucia Raatma.  But it is Halloween week so we'll have some fun too reading one of my favorites,  The Little Old Lady WhoWas Not Afraid of

Anything, written by Linda Williams.  We'll learn how pumpkins grow by reading Pumpkin Pumpkin by author and illustrator Jeanne Titherington and then one more dash of non-fiction when we read Jack-o-Lanterns by Lola Schaefer.

Things are going to be a little batty in first grade! We'll first read Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats by Ann Earle.  We'll learn how bats use echolocation to hunt, their hibernation patterns, and how they play a vital part in our environment. Then on to the fun stuff when we read There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat! by Lucille Colandro...always a hit with the kids!

In a second grader's mind, nothing is better than beginning to read chapter books! 

This week they'll meet Minnie and Moo (more cows!) by Denys Cazet.  I'll read a couple chapters of Minnie and Moo:  The Night of the Living Bed, Minnie and Moo Meet Frankenswine  and Minnie an Moo and the Haunted Sweater - just enough to get them hooked!  We'll also meet author and illustrator Dav Pilkey when we read The Hallo-Wiener and Dragon's Halloween.

In January and February our third graders will do a report on a biography of their choice. Up until that time we will read quite a few biographies in class. This week we'll learn about the life of author James Stevenson as we read his autobiography When I Was Nine.  And then, in the spirit of Halloween, we will read Mr. Stevenson's thriller What's Under My Bed.

Fourth graders are still hitting that atlas hard!  This week we will be answering questions about the U.S.A. map and also a few on some of the other countries in the world. These are great exercises to learn how to properly use the Table of Contents and Index sections of reference books.  We'll wrap things up with some fun poetry by Daisy Wallace in Ghost Poems.