Ms. Rice Special Tech Pirates 2014-2015
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New and Improved Current Site is 
HERE


The Twistable Families based on The Twistable Turnable Man  poem
Turning Verbs into Adjectives with -able.

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W.S.

B.B.

Tongue Twisters 
The children practice many tongue twisters and then wrote their own. They  wrote it on a frog's tongue and using Mad Lips recorded themselves saying it. The ones below show their words and their voices.  

Dr. Seuss and My Many Colored Day
Children wrote about what color their feelings were & made sun catchers .

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If I was One Inch Tall!
Rulers and a poem.

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 We read Shel Silverstein's  poem One Inch Tall and made our own one inch books. We then read If I was 15 Feet Tall poem and made comparisons of the two different perspectives. 

Biography Reports
Room 15 learned a great deal and the children showed incredible courage! 
Well Done!

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Happy Student 
Dr. Seuss Poems
The children used a G.O. chart to write their own Green Eggs and ham type poem. They then had a choice of apps and read their poem aloud in an interesting manner. If the student read with fluency and used the visuals well- here it is.
We are studying how illustrations and  voice reflect the 'mood' or tone of a poem.

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                    D.P.                             J.L.                              E.H.

Dr. Seuss kicks off our poetry unit.
We started by reading The Zax, a story about  two Zax ( A north Zax and a south Zax)  who would not step aside and let the other pass  for 59 years. The book ended with the Zax still yelling at each other.  No solution was evident. We discussed solutions and then a few students made a book trailer using  the iMovie App.


C.O. 

K'nex Vehicle Manual & Directions
Writing Project

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G.O. chart to organize their writing.

E.M.

Using the vehicle they built for their Force and Motion Science experiments, the children wrote a how to manual  and  more using the Book Creator app.  Enjoy! More Science here

F.B.

Q.H.


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Valentine Inference 
(Smart Guess)


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We have been working on making smart guesses as we read, write, look at social pictures and more  all year. Talking Tom's Love Letter App is a fun and visual way to practice this important skill for Valentines day. 

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Expository Writing 
( How  To )


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How  To Blow a Bubble  writing assignment follows with the teachers and students following the student  directions. 
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The students read an article about Elephants followed by a discussion of the facts in the article. We looked at the text features ( diagrams, captions, tables etc) and compared this type of writing to narrative writing ( stories). Once completed we started our unit on Expository writing.  They watched me blow bubbles and we listed the sequence of steps I took to blow the bubbles. I passed out bubble gum  to the children who knew how to blow bubbles or bubbles and wands to those who didn't. They were asked to pay close attention to the steps involved and filled out their GO chart with the sequence of steps.

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Super Simile ME!

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After studying our weekly song Everything at Once which lyrics are all simile's,  the children wrote their own simile poem about themselves!
A very poetic class!

I'm as ..
sly as a badger
kind as a goldfish
fast as a ninja!
cool as a rockstar
quiet as a breeze
brave as Emmet
smart as a scientist...


A Glimpse of weekly 'Super Silent Reading'
( Teacher speak - Sustained Silent Reading)

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We have 20-30  minute periods 2-3 times a week of SSR. The children pick books from my large  leveled library and read comfortably around the room quietly, blog and take AR quizzes.  The audible groan 'Agh,  I just got to a good part ." is common. There is often a spontaneous book talk /share as well . I learn valuable information about  what types of books student's like/dislike which allows me to  add books to the library they will  enjoy reading. The majority of my library is now filled by  the points I get from parent's scholastic book orders, H&SC donations , book faire donations and generous parents. Thank you for making this such a popular part of their day! 

12 Days of Christmas and Adjectives

 It has been a full & busy 1st week back from Winter break! Please enjoy their 12 Days of Christmas  Video made with iMovie. This was a multi- step independent project started before break. They worked hard and many learned how to use iMovie in the process!  Each child was required to draw the correct number of items,  add an descriptive word before each gift to their true love  and calculate the total number of gifts. There are many memorable gifts ;-) - Adorable pups, cool Optimus,  panting wolves, mad chickens, pearl tires, sneezing noses, snorting pugs, trick yo-yos, ...

C.O.

D.P.

Writing a letter of kindness  to the Grinch
Will this help his heart grow?
( thinking about others…)

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 Once they completed the  Grinch G.O. chart with their  Grinch hearts, they wrote letters to the Grinch. These were written and glued into their writer's notebook. This was also  a  review of  the 5 parts of a letter for the 4th-5th graders. What re the 5 parts of the letter you ask? Talk to your child they know!

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Elfamus thought our kind thoughts and ideas worked!
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Similes and Metaphors 
Your a Mean One Mr. Grinch!

The children listened and sang the song several times  (which  was  lot of fun!). Then they completed this worksheet , circled their favorite metaphor/simile, typed & illustrated  it- then  sang it for everyone to enjoy!  
I turned it all into an iMovie! Fun  multi step project. Can you hear your child's simile/metaphor? Listen carefully!
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Is the Grinch a BULLY?

 Can the  Shelf Elf help the Grinch ? Wait and see!
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What's for Dinner ?
Persuasive Writing

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W.S.

C.O.

B.B.

S.N.

Don't Eat the Turkey! The children went through the writing process ( G.O. chart,  rough draft, self and teacher edits )  to complete a persuasive paper written from the turkey's point of view  convincing the reader to eat something else! Their final draft was completed digitally  with the Book Creator App.  This G.O. chart got them started. Once their books were completed we shared them using the Apple TV. Enjoy !
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J.L.

F.B.

D.P.


Thanksgiving and Three Books

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Comparing and Contrasting
We studied Thanksgiving from 3 points of view using  3 types of writer's purpose- (to Inform, Persuade and Entertain).The three books were Squanto's Journey , Thank You Sarah! and  A Turkey for Thanksgiving.
I read aloud one book a day, we completed the G.O. chart together and the children answered  guided prompts  in their blogs. All children are blogging now! The 3rd graders began blogging with this unit of study.

Show Not Tell Descriptive Writing
Guess My Feeling

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The children are learning about  emotions using several games during  in pirate club. This writing activity is an extension of this  month long unit on emotions. They were asked to work in teams and brainstorm what their bodies, thoughts and behaviors were when experiencing a specific emotion or sensation. They were then each given a 'secret' emotion card.  They were asked  to draw a detailed picture with labels to to use as they    write their own  show- not -tell  paragraphs without using the feeling word. This writing was then carefully copied into their Writer's Notebook and turned into a Doodle Cast  ( below) for the class to watch and see  if they could guess the secret feeling! Their writings were excellent and all  were eager to share and guess. Notice how some held their ears while they voluntarily shared their work. ( They are always allowed to pass but none did!) It is difficult for some to listen to their own voices but they beamed with pride as their classmates guessed their feeling word. 

F.B.

J.L.

W.S.

B.B.

A.N.

CAN YOU GUESS 
THEIR FEELINGS?

E.H.

C.O.

S.N.


Angry "Verbs" 
The finale to our  super sentence unit. 

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The children were asked to play Angry Birds (Not  one guff by the way ;-)  and keep a record of  Angry VERBS, Prepositional Pigs, Adjective Rocks and Tower Nouns. They were then required  to make a Puppet Pals video showing their understanding of these word categories.  The clever students worked carefully on their puppet shows at school!

Playing, recording , planning, making puppets  and making their movies...

Students Angry Verb Puppet Shows

      W.S.                                                        E.H.                                               A.N.     

F.B.

D.P.

C.O.


4th and 5th graders are now Blogging in class!

The daily read aloud is followed by a 10 minute quick   write prompt response in their student response journal. This week the 5th graders began writing in the  class  blog!  We also began our first  read aloud biography- Who Was Christopher Columbus.

 4th graders started blogging  the following week. 


3rd graders will be blogging once they are consistent and independent  using the required format  in their response journals.

 Self portraits, adjectives and a super sentence about US!

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FB
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DP
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EH
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AN
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QH
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JL
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EM
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CO
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WS

 Singing our Super Sentences about Stuart,
a book character from this week's read aloud!

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Adj., adj., noun
Adj., adj., noun
Adj., adj., noun, verb , adverb ,prepositional phrase



Key Word Pirate Stories

Our first writing project  of the year is to use key words and write a story based on them. The students  are to fill out a Graphic Organizer, write a rough draft , go  through an edit process and then in their best handwriting  copy it into  their notebook. Once done they will use Book Creator to publish add pictures and sounds to their stories. 

Problem solving for Pirates

 Redbeard, Blackbeard & Bluebeard could not solve their  problem. 
 But wait! Room 15 had some great ideas to help them.
Listen to the song then check out our ideas!
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