Week of Dec. 2 - Dec. 6

It was another short week with the snow day and a professional day.  But it's December, and that means we can start reading Christmas books!!! There are so many great ones! I've included some of my favorites at the end of this post.









LOCOMOTIVE IN 5TH GRADE

In Social Studies, 5th Graders are learning about the Transcontinental Railroad.  We read Locomotive by Brian Floca, which is a beautifully illustrated book which describes what the first passengers experienced as they traveled West on the transcontinental railroad in the summer of 1869. The book is full of maps and diagrams of the parts of the locomotive, and it was awarding the Caldecott Medal in 2014 as well as the Sibert Award for nonfiction.




PARTS OF THE BOOK


In 2nd grade, we read A Book is Just Like You and talked about all the parts of a book.  Just like us, books have a name (title), a family (author, illustrator, publisher), a birthday (copyright date), and a spine to hold us all together.  We wear clothes, and a book wears a cover.  Just like us, library books have their own special address (call number).  This cover book relates all the parts of the book (dedication, table of contents, text, index, etc.) to a person to aid in understanding. After reading, they each pointed out all the different parts we read about.

GINGERBREAD MAN LOOSE AT CHRISTMAS
 I read Gingerbread Man Loose at Christmas to first graders.  This book is a sequel to Gingerbread Man Loose at School, which our students love. In the story, the gingerbread man and the children make gifts and cards for people in their neighborhood and for their teacher to tell them thank you.

After reading, the students made cards for someone they would like to say thank you to, and it was heartwarming to hear about all the adults at school that students wanted to thank. Some made cards for our nurse Mrs. Lannigan, our office manager Mrs. Prunier, the women who work in the cafeteria, our specialist teachers, and of course their classroom teachers.




  


Here are some more of my Christmas favorites...