Reading Workshop
Last week in Reading Workshop we talked a lot about the theme or message of the story. We talked a lot about how the theme is the big message that the author wants the reader to understand. After determining the theme we can ask what does the author want me to learn about this big message. This is the lesson of the story. We had many opportunities to think about and discuss the theme of some stories.
Below is an example of a "Tabletop Twitter" discussion that we had last week. The kids were divided into several groups to "tweet" about what they thought the theme was for a fable called The Young Rooster. After writing down their initial thought, they were able to respond to the responses of their peers. This made for a great (quiet) discussion and it was really neat to see the kids back up their thinking about the theme using ideas from the text. Some of the students also changed their thinking as they started to read the other "tweets."
Writing Workshop
We are finishing up our second literary essay of the year. Since the kids have learned many strategies for writing a literary essay and they are becoming experts in literary essay, they will have the chance to create an iMovie around their favorite picture book. We have talked a lot about audience and the purpose of writing this second literary essay. They will create the iMovie for an audience of other 4th graders, teachers, and parents who might be thinking about what picture book they would like to read next.
I am hoping that many of the kids will start creating the iMovies this week. We will have them published for you very soon! Be on the lookout!!
Erosion
We have continued our work with Erosion in Science. The kids watched a few videos around erosion. One video was a flyover of the Grand Canyon and the other was a video that watched the erosion of coastal land. After watching these videos they came up with a question that they wanted to find answers to. We then watched an informational video on Erosion to find out some of the answers to our questions. We will continue with some experiments this week!
We are in need of more play-dough for the continuation of our Statue project from a couple of weeks ago. If you can donate a few canisters of play-dough that would be very helpful! Thank you!
Just a reminder that Wednesday there is a half day! Have a great week!
Jen
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