Mrs. Flores’ Web Blog

The Scribble Scrabble Club met yesterday.  35 kids attended :).  I’m putting the challenge out there!   I have plenty of prizes to give away…  a slushy to Stripes, an item from Sonic’s dollar menu or even an ice cream from Padre Pizzeria.  All you have to do is read 10 books! 

The Scribble Scrabble Storytellers have selected their stories to tell at our upcoming storytelling event at Barnes and Noble at the end of August.   See more info about the SSS by clicking on the page link above.

The On the Run Book club is challenged to finish the book by the time we meet on Friday, July 10.  Also go to the On the Run page and post a blog!

KEEP READING!

I’ve heard through the grapevine that Ms. Lori’s Scrapbook Journaling is a smashing hit!  I believe the actual words were “AWESOME!”  I’m looking forward to Friday’s storytime and club meetings.  See you there!

Seashore Storybook Cafe.  Today, we hosted our first Scribble Scrabble Club meeting at the Storybook Cafe.  Our special guest for today’s storytime was Madeline!  We appreciate Barnes and Noble coming to read for us and bringing the book character Madeline with them.  If you missed the storytime today, Madeline will be hosting a storytime on Saturday at 3 pm at Barnes & Noble. 

Our summer reading program is off to a great start.   I would like to congratulate Nicolai O. for reading the first ten books of the summer.  I hope he enjoyed his trip to the treasure chest.  I’m looking forward to congratulating many more readers this summer.  For an update on the Scribble Scrabble Storytellers click on the link above.  Also if your participating in the “On the Run” reading club, check out the link “On the Run” link and we can have some book discussions online too! 

 I’m so exciting about READING!  I hope  your up to the Summer Reading Challenge

One week to go and summer will be here!  Students are winding down the year presenting their genre study book reviews.  We have enjoyed powerpoints, skits, dioramas, posters and even comic strips.  SLC students are very talented indeed!  Next week Mod III will be hosting the Living Science Museum.  Students have been practicing their scripts and we look forward to a great time.

The school year is drawing to a close.  This week as a part of our spelling review, the students created their own spellling lists reviewing the spelling rules.  If the words seem a disjointed, they are!  It is quite a conglamoration!  list-16-all-groups

 Just as a side note, next week is Children’s Book Week.  The Students are planning some fun events to celebrate this day.

I’ve been looking over some of the comments hidden within my blog.  I would to help clarify something a student pointed out.  The blogger noted that some students end their comment with the word “by”.   The commentor was presenting an argument that instead of “by” it should be “bye”.  These words are members of a lengthy list of homophones.  I’m sure you can help me think of many homophones that are often misused words. 

I however would propose these arguments.  I can understand the writer’s use of the word “by  so-and-so”  because they are intending to show their original authorship of their writing.   I can also see the responder’s point that perhaps they should be using the word “bye” to indicate that they are leaving their message and are saying “bye”  which is a shortened form of  good-bye which originated in the year 1565-1575 from the phrase “God be with you”.  Good-bye is another word for farewell.  Farewell, after reading dictionary.com’s definition, is to wish you fare well, which then leads us to a great compound word and to the homophone and homonym, fare, which is an archaic term for the state of things, not the food or the price for passage on a vehicle. Nor is it “fair”-well which would be an unbaised wish of wellness or a neither good nor bad wish of wellness.  Ohhhh the joy of words!

Back to the original comment about whether a blogger should write “by” or “bye”, I might add that a blog responder would not need to write “by so-and-so” because their name appears at the beginning of the online dialogue that they are expressing.  I thought I’d just ramble about this interesting phenomenom,  since one of my illustrious students (L) enjoys such verbose conversations.  If you had any difficulty in understanding this rambling, I would like to suggest that you pick up a dictionary or perhaps link through to www.dictionary.com for further assistance.  I would like to end my little soliloquy with a reminder that your spelling words this week are compound words much like the word “farewell”…. Here is the link to the current spelling list. list-15-all-groups

Finally, I would like to say ”farewell”, “adieu”, “adios”, “good-bye” ….whatever suits the reader’s fancy.

I thought I’d  better post the latest spelling list online in case anyone wanted to start working on them for the week.   list-13-all-groups

The Easter weekend is drawing to a close.   Spring is in the air.  I sent off our class books for publication.  The publishers, Student Treasures has assured me that the books will be in by the end of the school year.   I am anxious to see the finished products.  The students worked really hard and I am very proud of them for their hard work.

We are now working on a genre study and students should be reading their books in preparation for their presentations later this month.  I’m looking forward to the students’ powerpoints and other creative presentations.

Spring break is here!  I hear birds chirping outside.  I believe the little song masters are calling for the sun to please come out and warm us up!  Inside I have my heater cranked on to get rid of my goose bumps.  Last nite the family watched a movie together, Beverly Hills Chihuahua.  The movie, although a little cliche, had some unusual twists that amazingly kept me engaged.  Of course, I like fairy tale endings and who doesn’t fall for big, brown, puppy eyes. 

Have you ever heard a saying and want to remember it?  Well in the movie when Poppy the brave landscape chihuahua thinks his princess Chloe is gone forever… now,  I know that I’m not an expert at remembering lines verbatim, put he cries that her passing has “taken the wag out of my tail”.  Spring break seems to be starting with the same way for me with the bleary weather.  I feel like a puppy that has lost its wag.  So I don’t know about you but this seems like a great time to curl up with a book and read.  I’m pretty sure once I enter into “bookland”, my wag will return.  Have a great spring break and READ!

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Thank goodness we have reached a milestone, and the TAKS test is behind us.  We enjoyed celebrating Texas Independence with the Lone Star Stampede last Friday.  Boy! did I ever enjoy watching the boot stomping and scooting fun!  Plus watching the kids in their Texas best is always a delight. 

To update you on our next ventures,  we will be starting the next nine weeks with some online keyboarding lessons.  We also our are preparing a classbook for publishing, “That So Random Topics”.  Students are putting together their ideas, revising and editing, and even illustrating the book.  Parents will soon be receiving more information. 

 Students have also been setting some new reading goals for themselves and will be starting a historical fiction read aloud, “Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry soon.