Finally...A Full Week

Well, it had to happen eventually.  We had a full week of school!  And what a week it was.  There are so many exciting learning experiences going on and the kids are super excited about every single one of them.

First, we have begun talking about author's meaning and message in text in language arts.  We read The Empty Pot by Demi, formed small literature groups, talked about a central question about the book, and then designed posters representing the responses students had discussed in their groups.  In addition to a talented group of students, we also have some amazing artists in this class!  The children's responses were thoughtful and their artwork conveyed the beautiful images of China they had seen in the book and beautifully tied in with their responses.

In Writer's Workshop, students worked on honing their final drafts by using a rubric to find areas in their pieces that needed editing and revising.  Working with their partners, they found two key areas and re-worked passages to perfection.

In conjunction with Writer's Workshop, we had our March Madness kick off meeting with Ms. B's class.  Students learned we would be spending March creating persuasive letters and advertisements of their favorite books, voting each week, and eventually determining the #1 book in our two classrooms!  Let the persuasion begin!

We headed into the last leg of our math module on area and hope to take the final test on Friday.  Everyone is doing beautifully on this unit.  A study guide for the test will go home on Thursday (assuming good weather).

I've posted lots of recent photos of student work on the Edline site, so please take a peek at it.  All pictures are are located in the righthand sidebar under their subject areas.

As we were reading The Empty Pot this week and looking at online videos of the book, we started to think, "Hey, we can do this!"  So, we've decided to make a YouTube video of Room 29's reading of one of our favorite books.  I cannot begin to tell you how excited everyone is about this venture.  It's such a great way to integrate the students' love of reading, a great persuasive text from our curriculum, and technology!  The class immediately decided on The Day The Crayons Quit.  Students will be voicing the roles of the characters in the story and creating illustrations.  Mr. Brakeman has generously offered to help us put it all together.  Just an FYI, to protect student privacy, no student names or faces will be used in the final production.  You will only be able to hear their voices reading the story.  As soon as we complete the project, I will send everyone the link.

Our One School, One Book assembly kicks off next week.  I wonder what Stepney's book will be?