This is Shelly ’Klingensmith’ Glennon. Shelly teaches fourth grade at Tularcitos Elementary School in Carmel Valley, California. Leslie volunteered in Shelly's first grade classroom for 14 years. All of this exposure to the first-grade classroom has had a lasting effect on Leslie’s books, not just providing a setting but also making the books very curriculum friendly. Albert’s Field Trip was a direct result of a class field trip. Ms. Klingensmith (Shelly) can be seen (in her Pleasant Valley/rabbit persona) working with the first-graders in Albert’s Birthday. Shelly created these materials and used them in her classroom with great success.

Snowflake Letters By Shelly Lyon

If you’re going to write a letter, you’ve got to write TO someone. My fourth grade class is Buddies with Lynn Handshy’s first grade class. That means that we get together and read to each other every week, walk in parades together, and assist the little guys with other curriculum topics. This month the first graders are learning about weather, and the fourth graders are learning letter writing. Here’s a way to get to both and have fun at the same time. The fourth graders cut out a snowflake on an 8" x 8" piece of white paper. They only cut the outside edge of the flake, not the inside cuts along the folds. They write a letter to their first grade buddy on the center solid piece of snowflake. In their letter they ask the little guys a question about some aspect of weather. This may require some research on the older guy’s part. These are some of the questions the big buddies wrote: Where does rain come from? Why isn’t it snowing? When can we see a rainbow? These letters are left on the first grader’s desktops. To find out what happens next read Lynn Handshy’s article about the responses to our Snowflake letters. Happy winter! Shelly.

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