update 11-15

Book Fair is this week...the kids enjoyed previewing and being able to purchase books.  Thanks to the PTO for running and organizing this!

In Reading, we continue to work on story structure and comparing two stories in the same genre.  The genres we have studied are science fiction, realistic fiction, folktales, and fairy tales.  Ask your child about the different stories we have read.  Picture books have been used a lot in class and the kids seem to enjoy listening and reading these.  Some books we have read are shown below.

                                

A summative is this Friday to finish up our fiction unit.  It will consist of two stories with questions and an essay for kids to type in class.  This week in class, we have also been talking how our characters have changed in our self-selected books.  Please make sure your child is reading at least 20 minutes a night to help with this good habit.

Last Friday, in reading, we worked on writing quality responses.  The kids had to "grade" the responses and put them in order from best to the one that needed the most work.  Then, they had to rewrite the one that needed work to improve it.  A sample is below.

In writing, we are finishing up working on personal narratives next week.  Zooming in on a small moment was discussed and kids have written three drafts: one about a special person, special place, and a turning point.  This week we worked on revising these pieces and writing good introductions for them.  

For Veteran's Day, the kids wrote letters that Mrs. Will then distributed.  Kids who knew relatives were encouraged to deliver them to those special people in their lives.  A sample letter is below.  These kids are amazing and doing great things!!

update 11-1

Happy November 1st!  Fiction continues this week as we explore realistic fiction.  In class today, we read with partners a story called Weslandia.  It was about a boy who didn't fit in and created his own civilization.  By being true to himself, he had lots of friends who became interested in him!  Ask your child about it.

We will continue to compare stories in the same genre and discuss themes.  Ask your child about the book Those Shoes that we read together.  We learned the power of kindness and staying true to yourself through that book.    Here's a link to the video for it. 




We also are reading aloud together The Boys Start the War.  I will read the first six chapters aloud and then kids can choose to finish the book if interested.    Today we read chapter 4. 

Weekly Ten is this Friday (Formative) for reading.  Two short passages and questions.  All kids will use computers to answer the questions, but will have the choice on whether to read online or on paper.  Tomorrow, we are answering some questions on a Google Form.

In writing, we are working on personal narratives.  We reflected on a turning point in our live when we learned a lesson about something.  Those were drafted yesterday and were typed in Google Classroom.  There were some powerful moments!  We also finished our Monster Design Projects.  Those turned out very creative!  The kids designed a monster and then wrote a description of it.  Next week, we will look at the three narratives we have drafted and start to revise them and make them better.