Pumpkins EVERYWHERE!

Hello heroes!

This is the Mickey Mouse inspired design I
carved this year. 

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. I enjoy the cooler weather (who doesn't love wearing a sweater) and I LOVE all things pumpkin! One of my family traditions for as long as I can remember is our annual family Pumpkin Party. The whole family comes over and we carve pumpkins into Jack O'lanterns. We move all the furniture out of the way and watch old Halloween cartoons and movies while we cut, clean, empty, and carve our pumpkins. I'm usually responsible for food at family parties. This year we kept it easy with one of my favorite foods- PIZZA for dinner. I made a ton of desserts including Pumpkin Blondies, Apple Tarts, Oatmeal Cookies, Pumpkin Cupcakes, and Frozen Smore Pops. Something you might not know about me is that I LOVE to bake and like making new things.  

Here is my brother (Dylan), little cousin (Julia),
and I getting our pumpkins started.

Just a few of our pumpkin designs. 

Lastly, we clean the seeds and roast them for a fall time snack! 

Blogging about my Halloween traditions makes me wonder- what Halloween traditions does your family have? 

Can't wait to hear from you!
Mr. Font 

So Much to Read...

Hello readers- 

Today when we were book shopping I noticed that many of you couldn't wait to get your hands on some new books. I LOVED seeing how excited you were to have new books to read from our library.  As I mentioned today- I had a teacher meeting at Barnes and Nobles after school and I felt the same excitement that you felt when you shopped in our library today. There were SOOOOO many books that I wanted to read (and, as promised, I purchased a few for our classroom). 

Sorting books always makes Copper tired. 

As I browsed the shelves I saw some new books I am dying to read, some new favorites, and some old favorites that I have read so many times that the cover just makes me smile. It made me wonder- What is one of your FAVORITE books? 

Can't wait to read your comments!
-Mr. Font 

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens! Although they may be Julie Andrews "Favorite Things" in The Sound of Music they aren't really my favorite things. My favorite things can be summed up in three words: Harry, Heroes, and Mickey!

During one of our Paper Blogging sessions I shared my love for Disney. I really love watching Disney movies, listening to Disney songs, and (of course) going to Walt Disney World. For me, Disney World is truly the Happiest Place on Earth. I love the shows, rides, characters, and fireworks! I try to go to Disney World as frequently as possible. 

I LOVE the fireworks over Cinderella's Castle at night. They are so pretty!

Time for a little info on favorite number 2! I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. You may (or may not) know that I taught fourth and fifth grade for 9 years with a Harry Potter themed classroom. I think JK Rowling's books are fantastic and I think they did a great job adapting them into excellent movies. I've even traveled to London, England to visit the Harry Potter movie sets. 

My last favorite thing I am sure you know about- SUPERHEROES! I love a good superhero movie. When I was little the X-men were my favorite heroes, particularly Storm and Wolverine. Now I am a HUGE Avengers fan (Captain America is my fave) but I am looking forward to the new Justice league movie. 

Sharing my favorite things made me wonder-What is one of your favorite things?

Can't wait to hear about your favorites in the comments below! 
-Mr. Font 

Reading Super Powers

Hello Heroes!

Not sure if you've heard, but our Classroom Library has been taken over by the JOKER and his gang of villainous, well, VILLAINS! 

 We have been working hard and examining the traits of a Superhero in order to gain our Reading Super Powers and win back our library from the Joker. We examined a clip of heroes working together by viewing a small clip of the FANTASTIC Disney movie The Incredibles. Then we created this chart showing the traits they exhibited.  

Lastly we've begun exploring METACOGNITION- our first Reading Super Power. We learned that Metacognition was an important part of REAL Reading and that it meant we needed to think about our thinking. 

It's tough work, but nothing a 3rd Grade Superhero can't handle!
-Mr. Font

Welcome to a SUPER new School Year!

Hello friends- 

Welcome to a SUPER new School Year! Everyone at Village School is gearing up to welcome you on September 8th for the 2016-2017 school year. I look forward to welcoming you to Room #21 as your third grade teacher. This Summer I have been very busy enjoying my Summer and getting things ready for September. 

This Summer I have.....

Done some reading.......

Harry Potter is one of my favorites and I couldn't wait to get
my hands on the newest book. 

I also spent some time enjoying the sun....

And traveled to my favorite place on Earth....

I've also spent some time getting our new Superhero Headquarters, Room #21, ready for you....

I can't wait to welcome you to our headquarters on September 8th. 

SaveSave

Building better Readers

Hello-

We started our third grade ELA work by focusing on Metacognition and thinking about our thinking while reading. We've also discussed and modeled REAL reading versus FAKE reading. 

One lesson we did has us making Reading Salad-combining text and our thinking to make real reading.  Modeling this lesson with the kids, showing how I was thinking while reading, and then including their thinking while I read the text really solidified their understanding of Metacognition. 

We have also been working hard on building our Reading Stamina and this past week we were able to beat our first quarter goal of 15 minutes of sustained reading! 

Way to go Heroes!

Have a SUPER day!

Mr. Font 

Third Grade Superheroes

Hello-

We had a SUPER beginning to our year together.  We started the first day by analyzing a scene from Disney's Incredibles asking ourselves, "What is the job of a hero?". We documented our Hero qualities on an anchor chart and are constantly working to be a third grade hero. 

Here's the anchor chart that we created documenting the
qualities of a hero. 

We read The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man and created our own superheroes.  We wrote about ways that we were going to be a third grade superhero. 

We started our first Read Aloud of the year. Captain Awesome is a phenomenal story told from the perspective of a little boy named Eugene who has a Superhero alter ego named, you guessed it, Captain Awesome. One of the best parts of this book is that Captain Awesome sees everything from the perspective of superhero- even his arch enemy, his little sister Queen Stinkypants. 

It's been a SUPER start of the school year!