Isabel's Adventures with Flipper

When I brought Flipper home I read a story to Flipper and my mom. It was Friday night and Flipper, Madeleine, my mom, and I watched Miracle on 34^th Street and had hot chocolate from the world famous restaurant Serendipity in New York City and we had winter cookies. During the day on Saturday I had to go to dance and gymnastics, so Flipper played with my mom, sister, grandmother, and my grandpa.

Saturday night my family went to a house party in downtown Chicago. We brought Flipper along. All of my friends made snowmen and angels and we made a nativity scene. No one finished the angels. Then we had pizza for dinner. For dessert we had con muffins and chocolate chip cookies. Then one of my best friends, Michael, and I played Uno and Flipper played with us. When we were done all of my friends and Flipper played a game when we turn the lights off and we make a weird move and then we look at each other’s looks. Flipper was in an old baby crib and he looked like a baby penguin. When everyone went home we went to my mom’s friend’s house to sleep over. We watched a movie.

On Sunday night we made cookies. The shapes were bells, snowmen, Christmas trees, stockings, stars, candy canes, and gingerbread men. Flipper watched us use them. We made another batch. When the cookies were finished, my family, Flipper, and I played a very fun board game. We put the cookie on a Christmas plate and then we put them away because we had to make dinner. Then, when we started eating we put on the movie Far and Away. When we finished our dinner we had our cookies. They were delicious. When the movie was over we went upstairs to give Flipper a bath. Then I had medium pjs. Then we watched some TV. Then we went to bed.

On Monday morning we had breakfast. Then we went to school. It was awesome having Flipper at my home.

Luciana's Adventures with Flipper

Friday, December 6, Flipper came home with me! He met my penguin and my human families! At first, he waited for me to get my swimsuit on. (He covered his eyes, of course). Then, I carried him in the car to Arlington Alligators swim practice. He was pretty hot in there, and I warned him not to jump into the warm pool! He watched Emilia, Lidia and me swim.  Later at home I gave him a quick bath and dried him. We watched The Grinch before heading to bed. We snuggled like crazy, and I woke up during the night to make sure he was warm and cuddled!

On Saturday, Flipper and I went to watch Lidia and my dad at the Santa Run. It was hard to spot them because everyone had a Santa suit. Flipper spotted them first, and we followed them to them to the finish line. Flipper ran faster than some of the Santas! We had treats at Panera afterward and he shared a Cobblestone muffin and cherry Danish with me. The cherry was Flipper’s favorite. I dragged Flipper to my swim practice again. All the kids were happy to see him.  My parents had to go out so Flipper got to meet our new baby sitter. She was nice and she liked Flipper. I read Flat Stanley to Flipper. He says he wants to hear the other books too. When my parents got home my mom tucked me and Flipper into bed.

Bright and early on Sunday (6:00) we drove off to the Blat off swim meet at Northwestern University. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts on the way and he had a munchkin. He got to see Lake Michigan, and now he knows why Chicago is called the windy city! The clouds were thick and dark… a storm? a blizzard? Lidia placed third in breaststroke. Flipper high fived her and kissed her!

When we were close to home after the meet the snow started to come down. Flipper did a flip. He begged me to let him play in the snow. I let him throw a snowball. I held him (so he would stay dry) as we went down the snow-covered slide along side The Peas.

Monday morning we all said our sad good byes. The Peas started crying and the penguins gave Flipper a group hug. I was not too sad because I still get to see Flipper at school and in my pictures. What a great weekend!

Weekly Crandall Chronicle

What's Happening This Week

Spelling: Our spelling pattern this week includes words with /ur/.
Reading: This week we are focusing on the skill of identifying cause and effect. We will also be examining words with multiple meanings and the same root. 
Writing: We will be taking a break from our WEX unit to work on various winter-themed writing activities.  
Grammar: Our focus is on past tense verbs. 
Math: We concluded lessons for our current unit last week. We will spend the next two days reviewing and preparing for the test on Wednesday/Thursday. The format of the test includes written, listening, and speaking portions, which means that the test may extend over two days in order to meet with each child individually for the speaking part of the test. All students should be prepared for taking all portions on Wednesday, though!   
Social Studies: We will be constructing our floats throughout the week and will be parading them around the building on either Thursday or Friday. I will take a video of our class's parade that will be posted on our blog. 

Weekly Reminders
* The December Student Challenge is due by Friday.* Remember to send your child to school with appropriate clothing for outdoor recess. As the days get colder, this may include hats, mittens, winter coats, and warm pants. If your child wants to play in the snow, he or she must be wearing snow pants and boots.

Study Tip/Request

After two weeks of winter break, it is not uncommon for students to show a decline on their math fact tests. To help avoid this from happening, please continue to encourage your child to practice his or her math facts nightly. Remember, there are many               different math games on our class website! Xtramath.org is another resource that is available for students to use. 

The next region of states and capitals the students will be responsible for is the Northeast. The test will be late January/early February, so it is not too early to begin studying these states!

Weekly Crandall Chronicle

What's Happening This Week

Spelling: Our spelling pattern this week includes words with /ar/.
Reading: This week we are focusing on the skill of identifying setting and plot. We will also be examining figurative language and practicing dictionary skills. 
Writing: We are continuing to read the book My Name is Maria Isabel by Alma Flor Ada. Students are continuing to identify character traits that the main character possesses and providing evidence to support their claims. We will review the skill of using sensory details in our writing.  
Grammar: Our focus is on present tense verbs. 
Math: This week students will be focusing on decimals, including numbers with tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. We will have our unit test early next week.   
Social Studies: We are concluding our Midwest unit this week. The test covering information from this unit as well as the states and capitals for the Midwest region will all be on the test, which will be given on Wednesday.  Each student has been assigned a Midwest state to research and complete a project. Information was sent home on Friday. Please begin sending in materials for the project by this Friday. 

Weekly Reminders
* The December Student Challenge is due any time before winter break.

* Remember to send your child to school with appropriate clothing for outdoor recess. As the days get colder, this may include hats, mittens, winter coats, and warm pants. If your child wants to play in the snow, he or she must be wearing snow pants and boots.

* Please continue to encourage your child to practice his or her math facts nightly. Remember, there are many                      different math games on our class website!

Study Tip/Request

Prior to any science, social studies, or math test, a review guide is completed in class and sent home with students. These are terrific resources for the students to use while studying for their tests. Creating similar problems or changing the numbers in math problems would be a great way to help your child prepare for their tests. 

On Friday the students brought home flash cards containing the vocabulary words that they will need to know for our social studies test on Wednesday. Please remind your child to review these!

There are several websites the students can use to practice for the states and capitals portion of the test. They can be found on our "Race Across the States" page of our website. Just scroll to the bottom of that page. 

Weekly Crandall Chronicle

What's Happening This Week

Spelling: Our spelling pattern this week includes words with /ar/ and /or/.
Reading: This week we are focusing on the skill of visualizing and the comprehension strategy of making inferences. 
Writing: We are beginning our new WEX unit this week. Students will be reading the book My Name is Maria Isabel by Alma Flor Ada. We will be identifying character traits that the main character possesses and using evidence to support our claims. There will be no new writing words for the month of December. 
Grammar: Our focus is identifying and using action verbs.
Math: We are beginning Unit 5: Place Values. Students will be focusing on large numbers this week.  
Social Studies: We continue studying the Midwest region of our country. Each student has been assigned a Midwest state to research and complete a project. More information about this will be sent home soon!

Weekly Reminders
* The December Student Challenge will be sent home on Friday. It will be due before winter break.

* Remember to send your child to school with appropriate clothing for outdoor recess. As the days get colder, this may include hats, mittens, winter coats, and warm pants. If your child wants to play in the snow, he or she must be wearing snow pants and boots.

* Scholastic book orders will be due Friday, December 6,  so that the books will arrive before winter break. If you would like the book order to be a surprise for your child, please write me a note, and I will be sure to send them home in a sealed package.     

* Please continue to encourage your child to practice his or her math facts nightly. Remember, there are many                      different math games on our class website!

Study Tip/Request

Please continue to thank the friends and family members who send postcards to our class. We recently counted 161 postcards from 44 different states and 22 international destinations! The students really enjoy learning about the states and countries, and locating them on the map. 

We are still in need of postcards from the following states: Alabama, Delaware, Maryland, North Dakota, South Carolina, West Virginia