We spent most of the year doing a poem every couple of weeks. Last week we finally finished compiling all of them into a complete poetry portfolio with 10 poems in them. Students chose their favorite three poems and shared them last week at our Poetry Cafe. Here are some of the students sharing their works.

Reading: We have recently started a new read aloud with the class. We just finished reading Snow Treasure, and have begun reading Number the Stars. This book is also historical fiction. The story is about a young girl named Annemarie. The story takes place in Denmark during the time of the Nazi invasion. We began this book last week and it has created great teaching and learning opportunities.

Along with reading Number the Stars we have begun Readers Theater. We just completed our second week and it is great! The students are given a script on Monday to read over and practice. On Wednesday we give them their roles and the students practice their parts with the groups. This has really helped with fluency and getting the students to project their voices and speak in front of others. We will be beginning our third week starting Monday. Ask your child to read aloud to you and see how great he/she is able to read with fluency.

Writing: We are just about finished with our Essay unit. The students have all completed their first draft of their essays. I am now conferencing with each student individually to help them improve their writing in one way. Ask your child what he/she chose to write about and encourage him/her to share their essay with you.

From, Ms. Peavey

After learning about Lewis and Clark, we wrote an expository paragraph about their journey. We came up with a topic sentence together, then each group wrote a supporting detail sentence. Then we put them all together and came up with a concluding sentence. After some revising and editing, here is the class's final draft.

          Lewis and Clark led the Corps of Discovery westward to explore the land. President Jefferson sent Lewis and companion, Clark, to survey the new American land. Lewis and Clarks’ goals were to trade with the natives, make maps, and to find a waterway to the Pacific. They also wanted to collect wildlife and animal samples. On the way, they met Sacajawea who was with the Hidatsa tribe. She was captured from her Shoshone tribe years earlier. During Lewis and Clark’s expedition, they ran into many dangers such as rattlesnakes, bears, and bad weather. When they finally reached the Pacific, they were very excited, yet disappointed because they were exhausted.

For our October session with our buddies, we wrote Halloween poems. It's amazing how comfortable they feel with their buddies already, compared to our September session. Here are pictures of the kids writing together.

Students will be working on a year long project this year called the World Tour. Students have been put in groups. Each group chose a country to study from different continents. Our five groups chose: Australia, Egypt, Guatemala, Argentina, and Greece. Each group will do basic research about their country and throughout the year plan a trip to that country. At the end of the year they will present their findings to the class. Today we wrote professional business letters to the US Embassies in these countries asking for more information. Hopefully we will hear back from them in the next couple of months.