1/24 Read aloud from The BFG
Read sample answer to the Home Afloat essays.
Listening skills: Old Stories with New Characters.
Vocabulary: Inferring from Context (Identity of an Object)
Finish for HW.
DEAR Time

1/23 Read aloud from The BFG
Proofread short essays based on article Home Afloat copied yesterday in writers' notebooks.
Worksheets: Visualization Skills and Developing Precise Vocabulary - finish both for HW.

1/22 Read aloud from The BFG
Self corrected short essays based on article Home Afloat and then recopied in writers' notebooks.
Finish for HW.

1/21 Editing/proofreading practice
Read aloud from The BFG
NYS ELA Practice - we reviewed the notes we took last week on the frredoms and responsibilities of living on a boat from the article Home Afloat.
Then we combined them into a short essay.
Finish for HW.

1/20 No school - we celebrated the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King.


1/17 Read aloud from The BFG
Listening Skills: How the Skunk Got His Stripes
Vocabulary: Finding Synonyms Crossword - Finish for HW if not done.
DEAR Time

1/16 Read aloud from The BFG
A few children finished up their lists of freedoms and responsibilities.
A few children finished up the vocab. assignment from yesterday:  Developing Precise Vocabulary - finish for HW.
Some children typed their January book reports.
Those who were up to date relaxed by playing Seven-Up.

1/15 Read aloud from The BFG
NYS ELA test practice: Home Afloat article - Worked on the list of the freedoms and responsibilities Wendy has that are different from our own.
Vocabulary: Developing Precise Vocabulary - finish for HW if you were not at the concert last night. Those children who were here were given no HW by Sister Susan for showing up.

1/14 NYS ELA test practice: Home Afloat article - Worked on the list of the freedoms and responsibilities Wendy has that are different from our own. 
Finished Snowman Puzzle: spelling/vocabulary - started last Friday.

1/13 Proofreading/editing practice
Read aloud from The BFG
Returned graphic organizers from Home Afloat and went over both good and poor answers.
Began work on short essay for same article: we made a list of the freedoms and responsibilities Wendy has that are different from our own. 
Short period due to concert rehearsal, so we did not finish.

1/10 Read aloud from The BFG
Listening Skills: Leaving the Herd
Snowman Puzzle: spelling/vocabulary - will finish next week
DEAR Time
AR Tests and signing up books

1/9 Proofreading/editing practice using samples from student book report (no names.)
Read aloud from The BFG
Verbally quizzed children on the article red yesterday.
Children reread the article, Home Afloat, and highlighted the advantages and disadvantages of living on a boat in two different colors.
Completed the graphic organizer accompanying the article.
Finish for  HW.

1/8 Proofreading/editing practice using samples from student book report (no names.)
Corrected HW: Reading skills: Inferring from Context 
Read aloud from The BFG
Proofread our Christmas essays and turned in to be graded.
Read our nonsense poem Philbert Phlurk aloud in several different ways to stress the rhyming pattern.
NYS ELA practice article Home Afloat: we read it twice, paying close attention to the advantages and disadvantages of living on a boat.
Finish reading for HW if not done reading it twice.

1/7 Short period due to practice for next Tuesday's concert
Proofreading/editing practice from actual class writing (no names)
Collected writers' notebooks with Christmas essays
Reading skills: Inferring from Context  - finsh for HW.

1/6 Proofreading/editing practice
Read aloud from The BFG
Children who needed to took the AR tests on their Dec. books.
Book reports for December are due January 13th.
Children copied their Christmas essays in their writers' notebooks.
Reading skills: Inferring from Context 

12/23 - 1/3 Christmas vacation

12/20 No class - 12:00 dismissal

12/19 Read aloud a Christmas story: Ramona and the Three Wise Persons
Corrected vocabulary HW: Finding Antonyms
Children peer-edited each other's Christmas essays.
DEAR Time

12/18 Read aloud a Christmas story: The Season that Santa Forgot He Was He - children filled in the missing rhymes as I read the poem/story.
Corrected HW from yesterday: sentences and fragments.
Vocabulary crossword: Finding Antonyms - finish for HW.

12/17 Read aloud from The BFG
Children shared their essays about how they celebrate Christmas.
Writing/Grammar: distinguishing sentences from sentence fragments.
HW: Finish worksheet - making fragments into complete sentences

12/16 Proofreading/editing practice
Read aloud a Christmas story: The Mole Family Christmas and made connections to other Christmas stories we read this year.
Creative writing: Christmas at My House - write 2 paragraphs and include at least 1 simile.
Finish for HW.

12/13 Read aloud from The BFG
Listening Skills: Making Morning - a myth about the creation of morning light
Holiday Crossword Puzzle - finish for HW.
DEAR Time

12/12 Read class the story Herkimer the Magic Christmas Bird and figured out the moral or lesson of the story. Ask your child.
Finished up the Figuratively Speaking assignment - writing original similes for a list of words.

12/11 No class - field trip to Nassau Coliseum

12/10 Read aloud from The BFG
Corrected HW: NYS ELA Test practice: Penguins Are Funny Birds multiple choice reading comprehension questions
Figures of Speech: continued work on similes.

12/9 Editing/proofreading practice
Read aloud from The BFG
NYS ELA Test practice: Penguins Are Funny Birds - read the story and answered the multiple choice reading comprehension questions. #16, 17, 18, 20 and 21 must also be highlighted in the article.
Finish for HW.

12/6 Read aloud poem How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas - children had to call out the missing rhymes whenever I paused.
Listening skills: Plant Art
Corrected  vocabulary crossword and classifying ideas papers.
Proofread personal paragraphs and turned in.
DEAR Time and signing up books for December.

12/5 Computer room - we took the STAR Reading placement test. Results will be sent home with the report cards next week. 
Continued work on Vocabulary: Classifying Ideas Crossword - finish for HW if not done.

12/4 Read aloud from The BFG
Copied paragraphs in writers' notebooks.
Finish for HW if not done.
Worked on vocabulary paper from yesterday.

12/3 Read aloud from The BFG
Peer edited second drafts of personal paragraphs.
Recopied rhymes on Philbert Phlurk nonsense poems, being sure to spell everything correctly. Then we lighlighted the rhymes in assigned colors.
Vocabulary: Classifying Ideas Crossword

12/2 Read aloud from The BFG
Returned papers of words made by using the rhyme wheels.
Rewrote paragraphs on what we like best about our lives.
DEAR Time

11/28 and 11/29 No school!

11/27 Short period due to 12:00 o'clock dismissal.
Children took the AR tests on their November books.
Finished highlighting the rhyming words on the poem Philbert Phlurk
Peer-edited paragraphs about what they like best about their lives.
DEAR Time.

11/26 Read aloud from The BFG
Creative writing: Shared with the class and their groups their paragraphs about what they like best about their lives.
Corrected the rhyming assignment Philbert Phlurk: reviewed the vocabulary, went over and filled in the missing rhymes, highlighted the rhyming pairs in different colors, recopied all work on a new copy to save in our poerty folders.
Finish for HW.

11/25 Editing/proofreading practice
Read aloud from The BFG
Collected Thanksgiving Crossword Puzzle which was HW.
Creative writing: What is my favorite thing about my life? One paragraph of 5 sentences. Finish for HW.

11/22 Read aloud from The BFG
Listening skills: Dr. Seuss
Completed: Philbert Phlurk - Filled in the missing rhymes in the poem following the pattern that every other line rhymes.
Thanksgiving Crossword Puzzle - finish for HW
DEAR Time

11/21 Read aloud from The BFG
Returned writers notebooks and went over corrections.
Corrected Vocabulary HW for nonsense poem Philbert Phlurk.
Filled in the missing rhymes in the rest of the poem following the pattern that every other line rhymes.

11/20  Editing/proofreading practice using samples from the children's personal essays - no names attached.
Read aloud from The BFG
Continued work on Reading Comprehension: Songs of the Sea - again listened to some sea shanties so the article we are reading would make more sense to the children. Also, they really enjoyed the songs yesterday.
Reread the article.
Looked for the answers to the multiple choice questions in the article and highlighted them. (Close Reading)
Poetry: Philbert Phlurk - look up the words quirk, score and tinkering. Find a definition for each that makes sense in the poem. Finish for HW.

11/19 Editing/proofreading practice using samples from the children's personal essays - no names attached.
Read aloud from The BFG
Finished using our rhyme wheels by correcting the list of words using the sound OT.
Reading Comprehension: Songs of the Sea - listened to some sea shanties so the article we read yesterday would make more sense to the children.

11/18 Editing/proofreading practice
Read aloud from The BFG
Finished using our rhyme wheels by making as many words as we can with the sound OT (about 24)
Rhyme papers will be collected tomorrow. All word grouops that we did as a class must be on the yellow sheet, even if you missed a class for some reason.
Reading Comprehension: Songs of the Sea - we read the article and answered the multiple choice questions. Finish for HW.

11/15 Continue Similes from yesterday. Explained the origin of as dead as a doornail and as clean as a whistle.
Read aloud from The BFG
Editing/proofreading practice using samples from the children's personal essays - no names attached.
Listening skills: Champion for Freedom: The Story of Harriet Tubman
Signed up new books
DEAR Time

11/14 Editing/proofreading practice using samples from the children's personal essays - no names attached.
Read aloud from The BFG
Rhyme wheel: made as many words as possible using the sound OLD (about 10)
Reviewed similes by showing the children 2 posters illustrating the concept.
Assignment: Figuratively Speaking - identifying common similes and writing original similes.

11/13 Read aloud from The BFG
Corrected Rhyme wheel: made words using the sound OAT (about 12)
Corrected vocab. Classifying Ideas
Proofread our personal essays: All About Me
DEAR Time

11/12 Editing/proofreading practice
Started a new read-aloud book: The BFG
Rhyme wheel: made as many words as possible using the sound OAT (about 12)

11/11 Veterans Day - no school

11/8 Listening Skills: Teamwork Is Key
We took the 2 AR Tests on George's Marvelous Medicine: reading and vocabulary
Finished copying our All About Me in our writers' notebooks.
Finish for HW.
Vocabulary crossword puzzle: Classifying Ideas - finish for HW.

11/7 Finished our read-aloud book George's Marvelous Medicine.
Tomorrow we will take the AR tests on the book.
Corrected the rhyme wheel work from last week: making as many words as possible using the sound ING (about 20)
All About Me - Continued to copy the final corrected draft into our writers' notebooks. 

11/6 Trip to Holy Trinity HS to see Peter and the Starcatcher

11/5 Continued watching the movie Peter Pan to become familiar with the story of Peter and the Starcatcher in preparation for our trip on Wednesday. See below.

11/4 Editing/proofreading practice
Preparation for our trip on Wednesday to see Peter and the Starcatcher, which is a
prequel to Peter Pan, so we reviewed the characters in Peter Pan and then began to watch the movie to become familiar with the story.

11/1 Read aloud from George's Marvelous Medicine.
Listening skills:  An Amusing Story
Rhyme wheel: made as many words as possible using the sound ING (about 20)
Finish for HW.
Took AR tests on our Octber books.
Book reports are due on November 8th.
DEAR Time

10/31 No class due to Halloween parade and party.


10/30 Read aloud from George's Marvelous Medicine.
Rhyme wheels: made as many words as wecould using the sound IME.
Essays: All About Me - began to copy the final corrected draft into our writers' notebooks. 
To be continued.

10/29 Read aloud from George's Marvelous Medicine.
Rhyme Wheels: corrected HW - make as many words as you can with the sound IGHT. There should have been about 15 words.
Writing: Peer edited our essays All About Me by exchanging papers with our 2 o'clock partners.
DEAR Time

10/28 Read aloud from George's Marvelous Medicine.
Editing/proofreading practice
Vocabulary: Sub Power - Match each word with the prefix SUB with its correct definition.
Rhyme wheels: make as many words as you can using the sound IGHT. Finish for HW.

10/25 Read aloud from George's Marvelous Medicine.
Listening skills: Special Eyes about guide dogs for the blind
Finished Reading skills - Inferring from Context: Identity of an Object
Halloween Pumpkin crossword puzzle
DEAR Time 

10/24 Read aloud from George's Marvelous Medicine.
Rhyme Wheels: We made about 13 words that rhyme with the sound ICE.
"All About Me" - finished copying our personal essays on good paper, being sure to include at least one simile in your essay and being careful not to repeat words. Finish for HW.
Reading skills - Inferring from Context: Identity of an Object - not HW.

10/23 Read aloud from George's Marvelous Medicine.
Rhyme Wheels: We made at least 10 words that rhyme with the sound EEL.
"All About Me" - continued copying our personal essays on good paper, being sure to include at least one simile in your essay and being careful not to repeat words.
   
10/22 Read aloud from George's Marvelous Medicine.
Rhyme wheel: correct the list the children made yesterday for the sound ANK.
Personal essays: "All About Me" - wrote second draft.  Be sure to include at least one simile in your essay and be careful not to repeat words. We will finish tomorrow.

10/21 Read aloud from George's Marvelous Medicine.
Editing/proofreading practice
Clock Partners: each child received a clock drawing and had to fill in the name of a classmate at each hour. Whenever we need a partner in the future, we will use the clocks to find one.
Rhyme Wheels: We made at least 21 words that rhyme with the sound AKE.
We will check these tomorrow.

10/18 Listening Skills: Deep Sleep
Rhyme Wheels: we made at least 8 words that rhyme with the sound EDGE.
Visualization Skills worksheet
DEAR Time

10/17 Read aloud from George's Marvelous Medicine.
Rhyme Wheels: we made at least 12 words that rhyme with the sound AME.
"All About Me" - peer edited each other's essays.
Began recopying them - second draft.

10/16 Read aloud from George's Marvelous Medicine.
 Continued woring with rhyme wheels: finished making a set of words for the sound ABLE. Then we made a set of words for the sound AKE and another for the sound OOL.

10/15 Editing/proofreading practice
Began our new read-aloud book George's Marvelous Medicine.
Corrected vocabulary HW: Building Compound Words
Set up the sheet we will use when working with our rhyme wheels to record the sets of rhyming words we will make.

10/10 Finished our read-aloud book The Twits
Took the AR Reading Test, the Vocabulary Test and the Literacy Skills Test on the book.
Vocabulary: Building Compound Words - finish for HW.

10/9 Read aloud from: The Twits
Writing Process: children read their personal essays All About Me to the class and to their groups.
Rhyming Unit continued: we made rhyme wheels that we will be using for the next few weeks to create families of rhyming words. 
The children began to experiment with the wheels by making a set of 5 rhyming words.

10/8 Collected September book reports.
Read aloud from: The Twits
Corrected Vocabulary: Classifying Ideas from last Friday.
Reviewed Writing Process taught yesterday.
Children continued writing their personal essays All About Me.
HW: First draft due tomorrow. Minium 5 paragraphs.

10/7 Editing/proofreading practice
Writing Process: Introduced the steps and discussed each one. (Ask your child to share the steps with you.)
Our first writing topic: "All About Me" - children brainstormed at their tables for 10 minutes before they began to write the first draft of their personal essays.
BOOK REPORTS DUE TOMORROW.

10/4 Read aloud from: The Twits
Listening skills: Antlers
Reviewed Figures of Speech and similes that we learned esterday.
Vocabulary: Classifying Ideas - finish for HW.

10/3 Read aloud from: The Twits
Introduced Figures of Speech/Figurative Language:  gave out a list of the Figures of Speech we will study and their definitions.
Read about similes and looked at a poster full of common similes like wise as an owl.

10/2 Read aloud from: "The Twits"
Reread Written Book Report Guidelines
Corrected Vocabulary crossword puzzle from Monday: Classifying Ideas
Table 1 came up to my computer and located our page on the SSCM website so they are better able to check it each night at home.
Read aloud the poem/stroy "The Rhyming King" after reviewing some vocab. words in the poem. The children had to call out the rhyming words as I came to each one. The message of the poem is that there is no word that rhymes with orange.

10/1 Read aloud from: "The Twits"
Written Book Report Guidelines: Gave each child a copy for his/her reading folder. We read over the directions and explained each step. There is also a copy at the top of this page under Useful Links.
Reminder: September book reports will be due October 8.
Corrected work from Friday - Reading skills: Developing Precise Vocabulary

9/30  Read aloud from: "The Twits"
Children took the AR tests (reading and vocabulary) on their September books.
Book reports will be due on October 8th.
Children should now be reading their October books. See schedule to the right.
Vocabulary crossword puzzle: Classifying Ideas
Finish for HW.

9/27 Read from: "The Twits"
Collected HW: Rhyming Rainbow Crossword Puzzle
Listening skills: A New Home
Reading skills: Developing Precise Vocabulary - finish for HW
DEAR Time
***Reminder: All AR tests on Sept. books must be taken by Monday. No exceptions.

9/26 Read from: "The Twits"
Corrected Vocabulary: Classifying Ideas 
Continued our work on rhyming words: Rhyming Rainbow Crossword Puzzle - finish for HW.

9/25 We reviewed the 3 AR Tests on "Fantastic Mr. Fox" by displaying them on the TV so we could all see them and discuss them.
Started new read aloud book: "The Twits"

9/24 Same as yesterday because it is taking longer than expected to get everyone familiar with using the AR program on the Chromebooks:
Continued taking the 3 AR tests on the book "Fantastic Mr. Fox": Reading, Vocabulary, Literacy Skills
Continued working on Vocabulary: Classifying Ideas crossword puzzle. Finish for HW.

9/23 Editing/proofreading practice
Continued taking the 3 AR tests on the book "Fantastic Mr. Fox": Reading, Vocabulary, Literacy Skills
Continued working on Vocabulary: Classifying Ideas crossword puzzle. Finish for HW.

9/20 Finished reading "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
Children began to take the 3 AR tests on the book: Reading, Vocabulary, Literacy Skills
Collected decorated notebooks that were due today.
Children not taking the tests today (not enough tablets) worked on Vocabulary: Classifying Ideas crossword puzzle. 
Gave children their reading ranges as determined by the STAR reading test we took yesterday. These labels were pasted in the blue reading folders. All new books chosen to be read this trimester must be within this reading range.
Mr. Senatore will also have a copy of these ranges in the library to help in book selection.
STAR reading test results will be sent home next week. 

9/19 We took the STAR Reading test to determine our latest reading levels.

9/18 Read aloud from "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
Reviewed Book Report Procedures.
Corrected complete sentence/sentence fragment homework from yesterday.
Continued our RHYME work: Rhyming Crossword - finish for HW.

9/17 Read aloud from "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
Reviewed Book Report Procedures that we received yesterday.
Returned arbookfind.com assignment. Any errors must be corrected for HW. 
Taught/reviewed definitions of sentence and sentence fragment.
Sentence/fragment assignment. Finish both sides for HW.

9/16 Editing/proofreading practice
Read aloud from "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
Gave our BLUE reading folders that will hold all AR Tests, notes, guidelines, book reports, anything for reading.
Gave out copies of Book Report Procedures and went over them. here is a copy on this page under Useful Links.
Explained to children about word puzzles called Pundles. Showed them many samples. There will be a new one on the board every Monday for them to try and guess.

9/13 Read aloud from "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
Corrected vocab/read HW: Inferring from Context: Identifing the Identity of a Speaker
Listening Skills (which we will work on every Friday): "Summer Camp"
Quiet Reading also called DEAR Time  - Drop Everything And Read - which we will also have every Friday. These books must be finished by Sept. 30. See schedule to right.

9/12 Computer room: We printed out our summer reading tests.
Then we used the website arbookfind.com to look up 10 assigned book titles and locate the following information about each one: author, reading level, interest level and points that can be earned for successfully passing the AR test. Finish for HW.
Inferring from Context: Identifing the Identity of a Speaker - Finish for HW.

9/11 Continued our read aloud book "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
Finished the "Senseless Sentences" we started yesterday.

9/10 Continued our read aloud book "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
Writing sentences: children had to unscramble groups of "random" words to create sentences that make sense, including the correct punctuation. We will finsh tomorrow.

9/9 Corrected 2 ELA assignments from last week: Rhyming Words and Using the Context.
Continued our read aloud book "Fantastic Mr. Fox" by Roald Dahl. 
Began to sign up our Sept. books, which must be finished by Sept. 30.

9/6 No class due to 12 o'clock dismissal. See due dates.

9/5 Summer reading - we took the AR tests on the summer reading books. As per Sister Susan's directive, these grades count towards the first trimester report card. 
Worked on vocabulary skill: Inferring from Context - finish for HW if not done.

9/4 Began our first read-aloud book: "Fantastic Mr. Fox" by Roald Dahl. We will begin each class with a read-aloud story.
Rhyme: some words that look alike (cough and tough) do not rhyme. And some words that do not have a single letter in common (flew and through) do rhyme .
HW: Finish rhyming sheet.

9/3 Reviewed supply list. 
Gave out directions to cover marble notebooks.
Due: Sept. 20
Collected summer reading papers. Many were not turned in.
Discussed book due dates - see list on this page.
Books must be by Newbery  authors. See list on this page. Children must have a Newbery book to read every day.