The Relatives Came

We've been learning to "read like a writer." To do this, we first immersed ourselves in Cynthia Rylant's picture book, The Relatives Came. We read it several times together as a class, then read it individually as well. We read it while viewing the illustrations, and we read it with just the text, as well. We then set out to find "striking places" within the text. These are places in the text that make us feel something, make us laugh, create connections to our lives, present a vivid picture, use interesting language, or make our mouths feel good when we say them aloud.

Each student found his or her favorite striking place in the text and narrowed it down to 15 words or less. We read our striking places in our class circle - like a poem. We were amazed by the beautiful language and the interesting position of lines. It was also interesting to see which students picked similar lines. We switched ourselves around and read it again - it was very cool.

After this activity, students got in groups of 4 and created presentations for their striking place "poem." Students were only limited by their creativity. They had to design the order of their poem, as well as the motions and movements. We hope you enjoy our presentations of striking places from The Relatives Came.

Click to play

Authors' Circles

I am so impressed with our writers. Today in writer's workshop, we focused on revision. An important part of revision is getting positive and constructive feedback from other writers. We need more than "That was good" or "I liked it." Writers need specific feedback that can help an author improve his or her piece. An important tool we use to accomplish this is an author's circle. In an author's circle, three writers get together and listen to one piece of writing. They usually listen to it several times before giving feedback. When discussing the piece, they usually focus on some questions like these:

What did I like about the writing? (being specific!)

What message or meaning did I take away from the poem?

Were there any parts that confused me?

What tools or techniques could improve the writing?

After demonstrating an author's circle with Atticus and Anna C., the students took off to have their on. Again, I was so impressed. The students were giving incredible feedback to each other. They were taking their work very seriously, and it showed through all of their conversations. Here's some pictures from today's workshop time:

Atticus and Jordan gave Garvin some feedback to one of his poems. I love how they're all reading the poem together, carefully listening to Garvin's words.

This group was incredible. Caroline and Charlie spent almost the entire class period giving Justin feedback on one of his poems. Justin took their suggestions very seriously, adding in new stanzas and lines to his poems. It was amazing to watch this group of writers at work. This is so much more than "I like your poem." This is the work of real writers!

Fraction Games

To gain a deeper understanding of fractions, students created fraction kits (they're the ziploc bag full of cut construction paper your child brought home a few days ago). We've used these kits to play two really fun games so far - Cover Up and Uncover. Through these games, the students have gained a really indepth understanding of how fractions relate to each other. Today in class, the students easily could tell me equivalent fractions for 1, 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8. I was very impressed. I've included some pictures below so you could see the kids playing the games in class.

Our Poem

Today in class, we learned about some "musical" tools of poetry - alliteration, rhyme, repetition, rhythm, and onomatopoeia. After studying several poems, we decided to create a poem of our own using some of theses musical tools. Amy came up with the idea to write a poem about a sunset, and here's what we wrote:

Sunset

Sneaking beneath the earth
Peeking out of the pink clouds
Soothing sun sits lightly in the horizon
Orange, blue, and pink
Swirls and twirls in the sky
Lower and Lower
Sneaking beneath the earth

Can you identify some of the tools we used? Give us some feedback, let us know what you think!

Holiday Party

Here are some pictures from our classroom Holiday Party. Hope you enjoy the video!

Click to play

Holiday Poems

We had a few minutes before our Holiday Party began, so we decided to record some of the kids' holiday poems. We've been focusing on free verse poetry, and the kids have created some incredible images with their poems. We hope you enjoy!

Click here to listen to our Holiday poems!

The Amazing Read

What would happen if everyone in Greenville county read the same book at the same time? The Greenville County Library System has chosen The Pleasure Was Mine as Greenville county’s first community-wide, one-book reading initiative: The Amazing Read. The initiative will encourage reading, connecting families and neighbors through literature, and increase awareness of Alzheimer’s disease. I think it’s a great idea! It’s the same concept I use in my classroom. We always share a chapter book read-aloud (our current one is Maniac Magee). It provides a shared experience for everyone in the class, giving us opportunity to discuss and talk together about the text. I encourage all you parents to pick up a copy of this book and read it!

If you get a copy of the book, leave a comment on this post and let us know how it's going. I'm currently (as of December 19th) halfway through the book, and I'm really enjoying it.

Golden Apple

Last week we were in the middle of playing a math game when Beth Brotherton from WYFF and a camera man came walking into our classroom! We were surprised, to say the least! It turns out one of my former students, Hannah, had nominated me for a Golden Apple Award. Beth and the camera man spent some time in the classroom - videotaping us playing our math game and even singing a song or two. The kids were incredibly excited - it was truly an unbelievable experience. The kids got LOTS of face time, so I'm hoping that each one of them will be on the news segment.

If you want to tune in, it will be shown on Channel 4 WYFF on December 27th. I think it airs at 5:00pm.

What Types of Objects Cause a Reflection?

This was the questions we persued in science last week. Students were given a variety of materials - aluminum foil, mirror, cloth, paperback book, wax paper, etc. They hypothosized if each type of material would cause a reflection. Students then tested the materials and recorded the results. After studying our results, we concluded that shiny, hard, and smooth surfaces cause a reflection. We went on to learn about the Law of Reflection, and we inferred how light waves react when striking various types of surfaces.

Anna checks her reflection in a sheet of aluminum foil.

Garvin checks his reflection on the back of a paperback book.

Community Calendar

To create a strong community of learners, we must get to know each other. One way we do this is with our community calendar. Each day, a student has a "piece" of the calendar. The student writes and draws something about him or herself. The student then shares his or her calendar piece with the class to begin our class meeting. Here is a picture of our completed November calendar. I always love the variety of colors and ideas that make up our calendar by the end of the month.