Week 9 in Review

Greetings from room 119! We are a little late in Week 9's review, but with good reason. Mrs. Doran became sick Thursday and we had a substitute on Friday. We had a wonderful report from our substitute and told Mrs. Doran that we had a great day. The only problem was that when Mrs. Doran returned to school on Monday, graded papers that were in a bin to be passed out to go home in our folders as well as all of our work from Thursday and Friday were GONE! She found the empty bins in the hallway with our classroom recycle bin (not a good sign). We have been very busy (in week 10) catching up, but felt that we should certainly give a review (albeit short) of Week 9's happenings.

On Tuesday we (the students) had no school because it was Election Day and many of the schools in our district are precincts. Mrs. Doran told us all about elections and what it means to vote. She read us this great book called Duck for President where we learned some new vocabulary words like candidate, campaign and election. We then experienced our very own election day by voting for our Student Council Officers. Unlike our country's elections where you must be at least 18 to vote, in Loon Lake's election, you only needed to be in first grade or older. We listened to fifth graders explain why they would do a good job on student council and then we placed our vote. Don't ask us who we voted for! (Mrs. Doran said we can keep that information a secret if we want!)

We continue to do a great job in all of our workshops and now that Mrs. Doran has finished her testing, she actually gets to meet with us individually while we are reading. This is great because we get one on one time with her and a little instruction too. She told us that it is so important that we practice in books that are just right for us. Practicing will really help improve our reading. She even suggested we read the small books we bring home to various members of our family, and then perhaps even to our favorite stuffed animals! READ, READ, READ!

Just like we share at the end of our Writers' Workshop (and celebrate), we also share at the end of our Readers' Workshop (and of course celebrate). Everyone will get a turn reading a small book to our class or if they find something interesting that Mrs. Doran has taught us, we share that too! One of the most powerful learning experiences can be when you actually teach something you've learned, so we have all become mini-teachers as well as students!

Mrs. Doran has told us that now that we are writing such great things in our notebooks, it is really important that we make it neat so that others can read it. To do this, of course, we need to practice our handwriting, and what better way to start than with a little shaving cream! We were excited when Sarah, Emily and Isabelle all brought in cans to share with the class! Thank you ladies! We sure appreciate it!

One of the things Mrs. Doran missed most (when she was out Friday) was our special Mystery Reader! This week, Emily's Great Grandmother came in to read to us! She leaves for Arizona in the winter so we were sure glad she came in to read to us before she left! Mrs. Doran sure wished she could have met her! She has an amazing grandmother who also used to read to her all the time! We all sure enjoyed the book though and hope Emily's Great-Grandma will check in with us from Arizona and see what we are up to! Emily's little brother, Shane, also came into our class and by the look on his face we bet he can't wait to get to first grade! We can't blame him, it's a great place to be!