Amazing Pumpkin Characters!

Wow, your pumpkin characters are AWESOME!  If you are unable to make it to Spirit Night and want to see the class's pumpkins, check them out here!

 

"It's Monday…What Are You Reading?"

What a week we have ahead in Reading!  This week, we will finish our Gooney Bird books in book clubs!  We are studying Gooney Bird closely as we wrap up our character trait unit.  In addition to pin-pointing appropriate character traits to various characters, we are also studying ways that characters and their traits drive the events of the text, their motivations, and actions that contribute to the sequence of events in the text.  Students will view, participate, and apply learning to a series of lessons by learnzillion.com that review how to do a "close reading" of literature on The Story of the Three Little Pigs, with a focus on character traits.  Check it out with a subscription FREE with a google account.  It's an excellent resource.  Happy reading!  And I am REALLY looking forward to seeing your pumpkin characters on Wednesday!      

"It's Monday…What Are You Reading?"

Did you know that a man once tight-rope walked between the two World Trade Center buildings?  It's true!  Ask your child about Philippe Petit, an aerialist who "spent almost an hour walking, dancing, and performing tricks a quarter of a mile in the sky."  This was a 'character' who demonstrated traits including bravery, courage, and determination in the book The Man Who Walked Between the Towers.  He was goal-oriented and a risk-taker.  Check out real-live footage of Mr. Petit!  Although we read this book at the end of last week, it's such an inspiring story, I really wanted to share it!  We will continue our study of character traits and discuss what moves/contributes to the actions of characters in a story.  We are currently reading different Gooney Bird books in our book clubs and observing her grow and change as a creative, fun-loving, unique character!

"It's Monday…What Are You Reading?"

Today, we continued to discuss our reading strategies/thinking while reading post-its with a focus on Author's Craft.  We talked about John Updike's use of literary devices in his poem, October.  We made great connections to how we feel in the month of October.  However, students were a little stumped on what "frost bites the lawn" might look like in the early October morning.  Perhaps show them one morning!  We also noticed that he intentionally writes with beautiful craft, including personification, similes, metaphors, and imagery.  We discussed some new terms, too, including idiom, hyperbole, and assonance.  See if your child knows these literary devices!  We also continued our discussion of Gooney Bird Greene, noticing that the author writes with a lot of repetition in her story.

  

"It's Monday…What Are You Reading?"

I am officially restarting my meme, "It's Monday…What Are You Reading?" as a way to share what our class is reading together!  What is a meme?  Check it out!  This week, our class is studying what good readers do while independent reading.  I am giving mini lessons on each of the strategy posters that were in the Open House packets, including: Predicting, Questioning, Making T-T Connections, thinking about theme, inferring character traits, and noticing Author's Craft.  I will model through my read-aloud Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry.  What a unique character she is!  At the end of the week, ask your child what makes Gooney Bird so special!  I think your children will enjoy hearing the unique stories she tells in Mrs. Lowry's story.  I also shared the story, The Boy Who Loves Words, with the class today.  See the video below!  It's a great story with a lot of high-level vocabulary in it.  It goes along with our unit, Building a Reading Life, which we just completed and now we move on to Character Traits with Gooney Bird!    

Poetry Journals

This morning, we put together our poetry journals that we will use all year!  These journals are where we will paste in and work with poetry daily, a new poem each week!  We will read and reread the poems each morning then complete the assignment described in our morning message found on the Smartboard.  The assignments will include:  highlight specific author's craft (similes, metaphors, rhyme, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc.), picture the poem, circle special words, underline specific parts of the poem, or illustrate your favorite stanza!  I'll share these journals at conferences in December, then look for this journal to come home in June!  Ask your child about our weekly poem, September, by John Updike!

Book Clubs!

Today during Reading, we started the first of a series of lessons that will teach students how to be active members of a Book Club.  Book Clubs will occur throughout the school year.  During Book Clubs, students will read and discuss a book together that connects to our learning theme, genre, or strategy.  Reader's Workshop will include the following pieces: a minilesson at the rug area, Book Clubs, independent reading, then conclude with Reader's Round-Up.  Check out the video we watched and discussed today to learn what Books Clubs are all about!