"I Love to Read" week brought lots of excitement! Between Hat Day, 80's Day, Wacky Hair Day, and PJ Day, there were many photo opts! It was a fun way to celebrate all the reading done during the month of February and all year! 

Free photo slideshow made with Smilebox

Our classroom just wasn't quite the same today...we were missing Miss Burbach! We are so very thankful for all she shared with us in the 8 weeks she was in our classroom. She brought more joy and learning to our 100th Day, Valentine's Day, Family Reading Night and taught us about penguins, mental images, ellipses, bucket filling, estimating, measuring, and much, much more! We wish Miss Burbach lots of luck in her next adventures! 

We went on a pattern search around the school way back in November. I was playing around on a website called Prezi.com and added our pattern pictures and comments. It turned out too neat not to post here. Once you press play, the word "more" should appear. Then choose "auto play" to enjoy the show. 

Last Friday, author Julia Cook visited Bendix. We learned about the many steps Julia takes to get her books published. Just like us, she revises her writing and works on one story for many days, weeks, or months. Her books helped us learned about  important school behaviors such as personal space, respecting others' words by not interrupting (controlling our "volcanoes"), and even reminders about not picking our nose! :) We are posing with Julia and her dogs below. 

Miss Burbach has been helping us research penguins. We asked questions, read many nonfiction penguin books, and made a chart of our new thinking. Then we each chose a fact, illustrated it, and read it for the slide show below. Maybe you will learn something new about penguins too! Waddle, waddle, waddle!  

A big thank you for the many thoughts, well wishes, and donations for Sommar's benefit this past Saturday. Last week our class created a framed picture to donate to the silent auction. We studied the illustrations of a favorite author, Todd Parr, and thought we could draw and paint like him too. We used a black marker to draw and then filled our drawings with bright paint. Our small paintings were put together in a collage-like fashion and framed. It looked awesome! I know someone special is enjoying it at home right now. Our class felt good about doing a little something to help Sommar and her family. 

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! After reading Snowballs by Lois Ehlert, we worked in small groups to paint large snow "characters" (both people and animals). We collected "junk" from home and added details to our creations. We were amazed with some of the things that actually "stuck" by just using glue!