Author Visit: Jon Coy

Today author Jon Coy visited our school! 
 

He started off by telling us how he wrote his book, Night Driving. He said that the first draft was fast, messy with misspelled words. Ask your child how long it took him to write Night Driving!

He gave these suggestions for starting a story:
1. Don't say, "I don't know what to write."
2. Don't ask how to spell words - just get the ideas down.
3. No erasing, cross things out instead.

The biggest piece of advice was that good writers and illustrators have to do things OVER and OVER and OVER!
 

First he makes a practice book and then he sends it to a publisher to see if they will make it into a real book.  Often times the publisher will say "No thank you." Jon Coy says he has two choices when that happens. He can either go back and try and make it better or he can lie on the couch and eat donuts.

Ask your child how many times the publishers rejected Night Driving before someone decided to publish it! After a publisher agreed to publish it an illustrator was picked. The illustrator worked on the pictures for two years before the book was ready!

He read us two of his books, Two Old Potatoes and Me and Vroomaloom Zoom.

 

He ended with this advice: to be a good writer you need to READ, READ, READ!

Researching on PebbleGo!

Today we went into the library to begin our research on our weather topics! We used PebbleGo to find facts and information! Everyone did a great job! Ask your child what they learned about their topic! Next week we will use books to finish our research!
 

Today was our last day for switching for science.  Our class went to Mrs. Rowan's room.  Ask your child about what he/she did!

 

Also, in math we are learning about fractions! Ask your child if 1/4 of a large pizza is the same as 1/4 of a small pizza.  See if he/she can explain why or why not.  

Switching with Mrs. Anderson

Today our class went to Mrs. Anderson's room for science.  Ask your child about what he/she learned today!
 

 

Also, yesterday we started a new literacy theme. This theme is called "Cast Your Vote." Yesterday we read a non-fiction selection on Election Day. We learned many interesting facts! Ask your child why the election day is on a Tuesday in November!

Zoomers

Today we switched for science.  Our class went to Mrs. Kath's room. She did "zoomers" with them today. Ask your child about what he/she learned!

Rolling Cups

Today we did an experiment how things roll.  We had a ramp, paper cups and a penny.  Ask your child these questions:

How did the cup roll down the ramp?
Why did it roll that way?
How did the cups roll when they were taped together?
Why did it roll differently than the cup by itself?
How did adding a penny affect how the cup rolled?
Did the position of the penny on the cup make a difference? Why?

Today

Today we watched the 5th grade music concert.  They did a great job!

 

We also worked in our symbol book and wrote about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Yesterday we watched a short video on him and took notes.  Today we wrote about what we learned.  We also practiced writing good paragraphs!

Moose Presentation

Today we had a special presentation by the Anoka County DNR about moose!  We learned a lot of interesting facts!

There are no longer enough moose in the state of Minnesota for people to hunt, so hunting them is no ok.  There are only about 4,000 moose left in Minnesota.  However, there are millions of moose in other countries like Norway and Sweden.

See if your child remembers how tall and how much a full grown male moose gets! (6 feet tall and about 9 feet long, weighing around 1,200 pounds)

Moose only eat plants.  They especially love the plants that they find underwater.  See if your child can remember how many pounds of food each day they want to eat. (60 pounds, although they aren't always able to find and eat that much.)

In the winter they eat sticks and bark.  See if your child can tell you what effect that has on their teeth.  Moose usually lose a couple of hundred pounds in the winter.

In winter moose grow another layer of fur.  It is like when we put on gloves.  It helps the moose not feel the cold and snow.

Most people think that the moose's antlers are their primary source of defense. All moose use their hooves to defend themselves.  See if your child can tell you what three animals in Minnesota are most likely to attack a moose. (big bears, wolves and cougars)

A moose's antlers weigh about 40 pounds each.  They swing their head down low back and forth to protect themselves.

See if your child can tell you how old a very old moose will live to be. (20 years)

Baby moose weigh about 30-40 pounds when they are born.  They gain 500 pounds in 6 months!  They have to be ready for winter.  They live with their mom 1 year.

The antlers on a moose are made of bone. The velvet on the growing antlers is like hairy skin.  It covers the antlers and gives it blood to help the antlers grow.  When it is time for the velvet to come off, it starts to itch, so the moose rubs the velvet off.  See if your child can tell you why little animals like mice like to eat away at a moose's antlers.  (There is calcium in the antlers.)

In the winter the male moose get rid of their antlers because it is harder to move through the trees and the antlers take up a lot of their energy (to carry and move around).

 

It was a great presentation!

Research Project

Today we started talking about our new research project that we will be working on!  Students will be looking up information on one of the following topics:

hurricanes
tornadoes
floods
tsumanis
blizzards
thunderstorms

Today I modeled in class by looking up information on droughts on PebbleGo.  Students followed along and we practiced taking notes together.  Next week we will use PebbleGo in the library. Students will work with a partner or in a small group and take notes on their topic. We will also be using books to get more information.  See if your child can tell you why it is important to have more than one source of information!

Measuring

Today in math we measured how far we can do a standing jump and our arm span. We took that data and found the middle value for our class for both sets of information. Ask your child how we found the middle value!
 

Pajama Rama!

Last night was the K-2 Pajama Rama! I wasn't able to get out of my room to check out the other activities, but it looked and sounded like everyone was having a great time! We had a lot of fun playing Tenzi in our room. It was fun to see parents and kids playing together. If you were able to make it last night, thank you for coming!