A Glimpse of Literacy

Literacy has been busy! Some students are finishing their biographies (these published pieces will be coming home soon), while most students have started fictional stories. Students are looking into fiction through developing characters and setting and making their own comic books.

Konnar is publishing his biography on Jeff Kinney

Mathew made a plan for his fictional story with a character and setting

Independent reading

We value the importance of talk in our classroom and giving our students many opportunities to talk about books. Today Miss Maerissa and Mrs. Watson took their group and read the book "Voices in the Park" by Anthony Browne. The first time we read it they couldn't see the pictures and students worked on creating a graffiti board...

A grafiti board gives students an opportuntiy to draw or write what they are thinking.

Then we took time to look at each others thoughts and had a discussion. After this we took time to read the book while looking at the illustrations and our discussion changed! Students were looking at the meaning of the pictures and listening to others thoughts.

Ask your child what they are working on during literacy-we are seeing amazing work!

Field Trip

Dear Elementary Families,

We are planning a field trip to Rock Bridge State Park on Thursday, October 27th. This trip will give students an opportunity to apply their knowledge about geography and science. During our time at the park students will—explore the landforms, use directional tools, examine the wild life and its habitats, and participate in community building activities.

Our upper level college students are in charge of planning this field trip as well as leading your students in a variety of activities. Although we will have ample supervision at the park, we would appreciate your help with the following:
• Send a cold lunch clearly labeled with your child’s name. Also, send water bottles for the trip as we plan to be walking/hiking.
• Have your child dress in layers to accommodate for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes. If you would like your child to wear sunscreen or insect repellent, apply it before you send them to school.
• Return the attached permission slip no later than Monday, October 24th.

The bus will leave our building at approximately 9:00 a.m. and we will return about 2:00 p.m.
If you need to need to contact your student during the time we are on the field trip, please use either of the following cell phone numbers: Lindsey Clifton, 573.999.7363 or Brigid Flynn, 815.557.0745.

Thank you for your assistance. We are looking forward to both learning and having a great time at Rock Bridge State Park on Thursday, October 27th.

Sincerely,

The Elementary Team and the Stephens College Education Department

Organized Chaos

Our study of geography has taken off! All of the groups have been looking at location through following directions using left or right, longitude and latitude, or North, East, South, and West. To assess the student's knowledge of our world most of the groups paper mache globes today. When they dry we will paint them-we want them to create their globes by adding the seven continents, equator, directions and much more! Below are some fun pictures of the students in action:

Comics with Mrs. Clifton and Ms. Flynn

We dove into graphic novels. We talked about how illustrations make up most of comics. For instance, speech bubbles, action lines, paneling, and playing with words. Ask your child what ideas they have for writing their own graphic novel/comic.

Geography: Exploring Place. Physical characteristics versus human-made characteristics of geography.

First Spanish Class!

Readers Theater

Readers theater has become very popular during our literacy.