Today I have two great books to share with you! The first one is a collection of poetry that we will study throughout the week as part of our morning work. It is from a book called Mirror Mirror and it features poetry written in "reversible verse." Ask your child what this means! Today we read "In Reverse," which introduces the craft of the book to readers. Throughout the rest of the week, we will read, study, and reread "Cinderella's Double Life," as another exposure to a version of Cinderella and two different point of views on the fairy tale. At Reader's Workshop time, we started the book The Egyptian Cinderella. As we read this text we are noticing how culture impacts the setting, characters, archetypes, and events of a fairy tale. Throughout this week, our focus will be noticing cultural effects on fairy tales. Happy Reading!
Today we did a variety of activities during reader's workshop. First, we read and explicated the "May" John Updike poem. We are certainly ready for spring and this warm weather that has finally arrived! Mr. Updike does a beautiful job describing the "growing season" that spring is! We then started the fractured fairy tale, Sidney Rella and the Glass Sneaker. We read chapter 1 and we are already noticing the changes that the author makes compared to the original version and what she keeps the same. Tomorrow we will organize our thoughts on a Venn Diagram. Happy Reading!
Today students took the Blue Ribbon reading test, so we did not get to share a good book. However, we did have the end of our Reader's Workshop block of time to begin our new genre study of fairy tales! We will end the school year with a close study of the fairy tale genre, including a study of its special elements, fractured fairy tales, and even spend some time rewriting fairy tales! It will be a fun, magical way to end the year!
