Help Our Library Grow Up

I created a project on Donors Choose over the summer called "Help Our Library Grow Up". As I was weeding out books from my 3rd grade classroom library to prepare for my new 5th grade students, I noticed that there were not many for them to choose from. Plus, those that were left were not the best for 5th grade readers. I heard that US Cellular would be funding many classroom projects in September and October throughout Iowa and a few other states.

The books that I selected were high quality, high interest books. Many fit our genre studies, others are series books. These arrived Thursday after school. I spread them out on our coffee table for students to see as they arrived Friday. They were so excited and already have selected many that they plan to read. I look forward to discussing them with my students as they enjoy them. A huge thanks to US Cellular for making this happen for my students!

Spooktacular Event

It was so great to see many of my families at the Spooktacular Event on Thursday Night. There were so many family friendly activities to participate in. I hosted "Reading in the Dark". It's amazing how a flashlight and a dark room gets kids excited to read! Perhaps, this could be done at home!

Global Read Aloud

Click here to read about Rue's experience with the Global Read Aloud!
http://cblearns365.blogspot.com/2013/10/rue-elementary-participates-in-global.html

Canadian Teachers

Today on Mrs. Crain’s Mystery Skype, we figured out that the group of teachers we Skyped with lived in Manitoba, Canada!  They wanted us to help them and teach them how to Mystery Skype so they could do it more often with their students, so they will have a fun time in social studies.

by Saria

On Friday, our students got to teach teachers in Canada how to Mystery Skype. They loved the idea of Teacher vs. Students. The students "won". The teachers also taught us how to do a Mystery Number Skype. Each class picks a number and has to ask the other class yes/no questions to try to identify the number. It was a blast and so much math was practiced in a short amount of time.
-Mrs. Crain

International Dot Day

This week, students at Rue celebrated International Dot Day. Over 1 million people in 82 countries participated! The idea was inspired by Peter Reynolds' book The Dot. After reading the book, we viewed many dots created by some of our favorite authors. We noticed that evidence of how they are making their mark was evident in their dots. So, we thought about how we are making our marks and created our own dots.

Our Dots

Each class added their dots to a canvas.

Soon, each canvas will be displayed in our hallway.

Stop by and see them!

Today, we Skyped with Mrs. Kress and her class in Grove City, Ohio. We shared our dots and examples of how were are making our marks on the world. Their class worked with the theme, "Alone we make a mark. Together we make an impact." We can't wait to see their finished project!

Our host did a wonderful job!

  

Mystery Skype with Fort Worth

We Mystery Skyped a different class from Fort Worth,Texas today.They asked really good questions. Their answers really helped us locate them. When they said that they bordered another country (Mexico), we knew it had to be Texas. We knew it could not be North Dakota, because they had told us that they bordered a major body of water (Gulf of Mexico). We learned a lot from them.

Written by Aidan, Sam, and Zachary

Connecting with Skype.

Researching to answer their questions.

Eliminating states based on their answers.

Choose Kind

Grades 3-5 at Rue have been reading the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio. In the book, August (Auggie) has been prevented from going to school because of his "facial anomalies" and the complications that come with the 27 surgeries to correct them. Auggie's first experience at school is 5th grade at Beecher Prep. Being the the new kid is hard enough, but Auggie has to also convince the kids that he is a kid just like them.

Watch the book trailer here:

http://rjpalacio.com/!

The book is filled with many great messages. One of them is, "When given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind." I have seen many examples of my students choosing kind. One day when a student's fancy pencil went missing, another student offered to replace it. After school one day, I witnessed a student from another class prepare to make fun of another student and my student gave her "the look" and shook her head "no"(Although it is easy to type now, at the time I had to hold back tears.). I have also seen many examples of inclusion in the classroom when students have ensured that no one is left out of a group and helpfulness towards others. I hope you know what great kids you have! I am very proud of them!