"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

Today, we continued our Gail Gibbons author study after attending an assembly with a wonderful story-teller!  Today, students continued to notice Gail Gibbon's use of different text structures and text features in the book Deserts.  We noticed a variety of text structures, including description, compare/contrast, main idea & details, and cause-and-effect.  The variety of structures help the author share their information in the most appropriate way.  We also noticed many of her commonly used text features once again, including diagrams, vocabulary words, cut-aways, and even in-sets.  Ask your child what these features are and how they help us understand her book about deserts!  Happy reading!

"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

It's Monday and we are back to a full day's work!  It was great meeting with everyone over the conference days!  Today we started our author study of Gail Gibbons to wrap up our non-fiction unit of study.  She is a well-known author of non-fiction books who has written over 170 books!  Wow!  We will study how she structures her writing (main idea/details, compare/contrast, cause & effect, sequence of events, description...) and her amazing text features.  She will be a "mentor author" for our non-fiction books that we are writing!  Check her work out and ask your child what his or her favorite Gail Gibbons book is throughout our study!

"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

Today we started our mini study of animal homes.  As a class, we are reading and discussing the story, Animals Homes, and discussing the main idea, supporting details, and HOW the details support the main idea.  In Book Clubs, students are reading about how different animals build their homes, including birds, spiders and insects, and mammals.  Animals are truly architects and engineers!  During reading, I shared a video of weaver birds building their nests with my "bird" book club.  Check it out!  It's amazing how well they sew!  At reader's round-up, I shared the video below that shows how prairie dogs build their complex burrow system.  Happy reading!

"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

Today, we wrapped up our unit on Antarctica by reading about a "Whale of a Debate."  We read the article "Sea Hunt," featured in Time For Kids magazine.  The article discussed two points of view on hunting whales in Antarctica, including both the Japanese (pro) and the IWC (International Whaling Commission-con) points of view.  In our class, most students sided with the IWC, but three students thought Japan was right for hunting whale for scientific research, food, and as an oil resource.  Which would you side with?  In addition to reading critically and debating a point of view, students were also exposed to digital text features, including video links, voice recordings of the text, and vocabulary boxes.  Wow, what a great job our class did with 21st century reading skills!   

"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

Today we started our non-fiction genre study!  Our unit, Navigating Non-Fiction, will focus on reading strategies that are specific to the non-fiction genre, including determining the main idea & supporting details, making predictions, and asking questions.  Students will begin with a study of Antarctica.  Do you know the differences between the Arctic and Antarctica?  Check out this article!  As a class, we will compare and contrast how authors write about the same topic by reading a variety of texts on Antarctica and penguins.  Check out the penguins of Antarctica forming a huddle to keep warm in the frigid temperatures and whipping winds of Antarctica!

"It's Monday…What Are You Reading?"

This week, we are studying how different authors of similar texts portray their message about a similar character.  We will read and compare and contrast the poem "Watchman" to the books Scarecrow and The Lonely Scarecrow.  We will carefully study vocabulary terms that are important to understanding the scarecrow character.  In addition, students will be exposed to blogging!  Check out our kidblog!  Students will begin blogging about their reader's workshop books in class.  Blogging is a great way to share good books, as well as comment on what our classmates are reading.   Directions on how to appropriately comment on blogs will be sent home soon if your child wishes to do that at home.  However, school time will be provided for blogging!  Happy reading!  Perhaps enjoy a good book outside today….

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!