Group 4: What is your favorite part of Halloween?

We like decorating our houses. We like to watch people scare us in their costumes. We get to eat lots of candy for a very long time. We get to march in a Halloween parade. The best part is having a class party for Halloween!

Group 3: What is the best part of Halloween?

We get to eat candy, but only at home. We get to wear our costumes. It is fun that we get to walk in the night. We get to say trick-or-treat to everyone. We get all different types of candy. We get to decorate our houses. We get to carve pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns.

Group 2: What is your favorite thing about Halloween?

We like to march in the Halloween parade. We like to dress up. We have brothers and sisters who get to dress up too. We like to go trick-or-treating. We like to get tons of candy. We like get scared by witches and wizards and goblins. The ghosts are the scariest!

Group 1: What is the best part of Halloween?

The best part of Halloween is trick-or-treating. We like eating candy. We like to dress up for Halloween. We like to carve pumpkins. We like to make jack-o-lanterns. We like ghosts. We get candy from other peoples houses.

Questions for the dinner table. 10/30/08

• What was the new center Mr.T put in literacy centers this morning?
• What is a word family?
• Can you explain the book you made during math today?
• What book did the counselor read to the class?
• What grade did you play with on the playground during recess?
• Did you draw a picture of your Halloween costume?
• Name one thing that was a challenge for you and one that that was a success for you today.

Questions for the dinner table. 10/29/08

• What were the games you played in the math carnival today?
• What did you do in computer lab?
• Who was the mystery reader today?
• Did you earn a badge in badge work today?

Zach's art work: "The Beach"

"I made it because I like the beach. I like that you get to go out surfing and you can ride waves. I wanted to put this on the blog because I wanted my grandma in Philadelphia to see my work." -Zach

Questions for the dinner table. 10/28/08

• How many scarecrows are you making for the scarecrow competition?
• What scarecrow are you working on?
• What is enemy pie?
• How many bunches of 10 do you have in calendar math?
• How many ones do you have in calendar math?
• How many days have you been in school?
• Did you start the All About Me class book today?
• Who is on the first page?
• What was the title of the Halloween story Mr.T read today?

Questions for the dinner table. 10/27/08

• Did you enjoy Cinderella the opera?
• What specials did you go to today?
• Who was your favorite character in the opera?
• What did you learn in music class?
• Who did you sit next to on the bus ride to the opera?

Questions for the dinner table. 10/24/08

• Who won math bowl today?
• What did you blog about in literacy centers?
• What did you do in calendar math?
• How many days are left until Halloween?
• What is Mr.T going to be for Halloween?
• Can you tell me one addition math story and one subtraction math story?
• Who volunteered for literacy centers today?
• Did you meet with your 4th grade buddies? What did you do with them?
• What was the best part of your week?

Group 4: What do you want to do this weekend?

We want to ride our bikes. We would like to play with legos. We would like to go to the aquarium. We want to go to Octoberfest. We want to go to the swimming pool. We would like to color. We would like to go to the park. We would like to go to Target. We would like to sleep. We would like to go to the Halloween store. We would like to have a Halloween parade. We would like to play football. We would like to watch movies. We would like to watch Star Wars with our family.

Group 3: What do you want to do this weekend?

We want to go to a fair and get some ice cream. We want to see the clone wars movie. We would like to visit Gracie’s lake house. We want to start spooking people for Halloween. We want to have a fun time with our moms. We want to play with our brothers sisters all weekend. We want to make legos. We want to go to the toy store. We want to go to the swimming pool. We want to go on a weekend fieldtrip. We want to do early trick or treating.

Group 2: What do you want to do this weekend?

We want to take a nap. We want to watch TV. We want to go to a football game. We would like to play with our sisters and brothers. We want to go to a Navy football game. We would like to play at the park with our friends. We want to have a play date with our friends. We want to watch movies in Spanish. We want to go to the movies. We want to play the star wars video game. We would like to go to the pool. We want pizza for dinner. We want to play our video games. We would like to have chicken for dinner. We want to have ice cream!

Group 1: What do you want to do this weekend?

This weekend we want to sleep in. We want to eat pizza for dinner. We want to do the worm dance. We want to watch a Spanish movie. We want to have lots of play dates. We want to play with new toys. We want to have a soccer game. We want to play on the computer. We want to have pancakes for breakfast! We want to play with our parents.

Questions for the dinner table. 10/22/08

• Can you explain your computer lab lesson?
• What are tricky teens?
• What book did the librarian read today?
• What happened during the drill today?
• Who was the mystery reader?
• What part of the community did you study today?
• Has everyone been star student?
• What did you do in literacy centers?

Dana's model of Jamestown Elementary School

"I built this model because I like Jamestown and I thought Mr. Turner would like it. I made it out of cardboard for the box. I made it out of this foam stuff I found that my mom said I could have. I taped it with duct tape. I drew windows and doors on it. It's special to me because my sister, mom, and dad helped me to break up the foam." -Dana

Questions for the dinner table. 10/21/08

• What were your two specials in the afternoon?
• Can you explain badge work?
• What was your morning work assignment?
• Name at least three badge centers you went to today.
• Who were the two new characters you read about in Wayside School?
• What is so special about the 19th story?
• How many days have you been in school?

Kelly's Ocean artwork

"I made that because I want people to look at my artwork. The first picture is a picture of a dolphin. The next picture is a picture of a fish. It is a magic fish and that makes it beautiful."- Kelly

Questions for the dinner table. 10/20/08

• What was the initiative in morning meeting?
• Who volunteered for literacy centers?
• Did you meet with Mr.T for guided reading today?
• What did you do in your guided reading group?
• What is the title of your guided reading book?
• Who will be the last start student tomorrow?
• What happens after everyone has been star student?
• What are you collecting on the blacktop?
• What was the interactive story about?
• What did you do on your nature walk in the afternoon?
• What are ordinal numbers?

Questions for the dinner table. 10/17/08

• What did you blog about today?
• Who read Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude to the class today?
• What did you use the Smartboard for today?
• Did you have open centers?
• Who volunteered to help in literacy centers today?
• Did you like the Halloween word search?
• Did you complete the ending sounds sort in literacy centers today?
• What was the new activity Mrs. Kuehn put in open centers today?
• Tell me one thing that was a success for you and one thing that was a challenge for you today.

Group 4: What do you want the world to know about kindergarten?

We have a prize box that looks like a treasure chest. We like literacy centers. We like open centers. We like magic school bus and peep and the big wide world. We have a Smartboard. We like to go outside for recess. We like lunch. We like reading. We like doing math activities in the hallway. We learn to be friendly to each other. We like swinging on the monkey bars. We have new friends in kindergarten. We like the blacktop. We like stories on the Smartboard. We like cutting out pictures. We like coloring. We like painting.

Group 3: What do you want the world to know about our classroom?

We have literacy centers. We have a Smartboard. We have two teachers. We have a movie after lunch. We meet with our buddies in 4^th grade. We have a playground. We like our teachers. We have open centers. We have snack. We know how to read. We think our classroom is cool. We have a lot of kids in our class. We are learning how to write. We are learning how to spell. We have a TV in our classroom. We know each others names. We earn badges!

Group 2: What do you want the world to know about our classroom?

We like math. We like the computer lab. We like story time. Do you like it? Our school is called Jamestown. Our teacher is named Mr. Turner. We have a principal. She gave us Jake’s magic wand. We have 23 kids in our classroom. We go to specials. We like to go and dance in music. Sometimes we watch a movie after lunch if it is raining. We have literacy centers. We like to have mystery readers.

Group 1. What do you want the world to know about our classroom?

We have 23 people in our class. We know our ABC’s. We have a black top we play and do jump rope. We have two playgrounds. We have 4^th grade buddies. We have two teachers. On Wednesday and Friday Ms. Brown comes to our class. We have a bathroom in our school. We have a tv in our room. We like to play with legos. We like to do yoga.

Literacy Centers

Here is a sample of our daily literacy center block. Students rotate through 4 centers in a 60 minute time period.

Fun with science!

Students put on their scientist hats to do a color mixing experiment.

Questions for the dinner table.

• What was your favorite part of the read aloud Stellaluna?
• What were the four literacy centers you had today?
• What did you learn from Ms. K's(the counselor) lesson?
• What are the two letters you worked on in hand writing without tears today?
• Was there a star student today?
• Did you play a literacy game in the hallway with Mr.T today? If yes, what did you do?
• Tell me one thing that was a success for you and one thing that was a challenge for you today.

I will try to add questions for the dinner table on a daily basis.

Mr.T