Crankenstein and Building Dams

We jumped straight into October Rooted in Reading with Crankenstein.  I had originally planned to do Stellaluna first, but with a shortened week due to flooding, I felt Crankenstein was a better choice. 

I LOVE how deep we are digging into these books. I'm encouraging a ton of talking about story elements and the characters by using the questioning cards from our unit. With several standards focused on speaking and listening, I encourage my kids to have lots of discussions...now if they only understood when to turn it back off :)

In addition to a short week, I also had to be out for a doctor's appointment.  The thoroughness of the packet was SUPER easy to leave for a sub.  I was so excited to know they were doing quality work while I was out. 

I blew up the "Said is Dead" chart super big.  My kids love it and I know it will be finding a permanent spot on the wall!

I just love the tombstone book that the kids completed as follow up to the lesson!

On Friday we completed a directed drawing and activity from the unit.  I LOVED the vocabulary my kids used to describe Crankenstein.  They also applied these words to their writing.  They blew me away!

These guys look awesome in the hallway!

PHEW- week 1 in the books! And we had SO much fun!

On Fridays I try and do things a little different.  I have decided that the hour after recess will STEAM hour.  If you aren't familiar with the term STEAM- it stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.  I had a former parent donate a TON of art supplies because she knows I am super passionate about art being part of every classroom, NOT just in the art room.  I always try to tied in either watercolors, oil pastels, colored pencils, or something of this nature to show off our learning.

I also found these awesome STEM (minus the art) challenges on TPT in Smart Chick Teaching's shop.  Kids who have just experienced record breaking floods....want to learn and build dams.  SO...that is what we did.

Here is a snapshot of the winning team!