Writer's Workshop

Today I was interrupted during our mini lesson to a student begging to "just write." I am thrilled we have been enjoying our process of writing. The current piece started off on making a strong beginning paragraph. Which we then worked on making a strong middle of a story. We have yet to get to the end, because these students have been so interested in letting their imaginations run free. We have some mysteries, drama and historical fiction writing pieces. Throughout this process the students periodically conference with me and go back to writing. Today we conferenced with a buddy and learned so much more about how we write. We noticed editing, discussion, and new, fresh ideas.  

P.I.E

Wednesday we discussed the Authors Purpose for writing a book. After a few mentor texts, we discovered the authors purpose is to persuade, inform or entertain. We took notes on what each of the above means and made a list of examples. Our next task will be to choose books for our book bins that contain the purpose of persuading, informing and entertaining. The students had fun investigating the purpose of their books they were reading for independent reading!  

"When you're curious, you find lots of things to do"

-Walt Disney

Third and Fourth grade has spent the past week examining rocks we collected from outside North Hero Elementary. We have come to sort them into different properties of rocks and minerals. The students have recorded their rocks and made notes about their attributes; size, color, luster and hardness. They are becoming quite the scientists and we are excited for our experiments of the different types of ricks in the coming weeks.  

Open House 2015

Open house was a great success. Thank you to all who came to visit the classroom. It was extraordinary to meet you all and we are excited for the adventure through grades 3/4. 

"Ohana" means family

Being new to this district and school, I have learned so many wonderful things about the Islands. Each and every day a situation or experience leads me to this wonderful feeling of family. Today was one of them. 

We have started our whole school reading buddies, where we mix the students up and they take charge in their reading and share what they have learned. Today grades 3/4 were honored to work with Mrs. Parker's Kindergartners. I have not yet seen this class work so hard to help someone accomplish a task. The Kindergartners were so proud when they left our room because of the support given by their older peers. We were definitely Golden Eagles today at North Hero School.  

Hakuna Matata

...homework...

Parents/Guardians, you will have no worries for the rest of your days if you make sure to check your students' O.W.L Binder and assignment book each and every night. I understand life can get in the way and that's O.K! Your child does an exceptional job doing their part in writing what needs to be done and they are always eager to read! Please do your part by browsing the binder and assignment book for any important notes and homework assignments. I love seeing your signature acknowledging you've done so! 

Every night I assign 20 minutes of reading which isn't anything new for these third and fourth graders. For my third grade math class (if I assign homework) it will be one worksheet for the whole week, due back on either Thursday or Friday (depending on how intense the workload for the class work is that week). The rumors are true, I do not give homework on weekends! It is in my best interest that spending the weekends with family, friends and enjoying being a child is very important. This does not mean your child CAN'T do any reading or math facts, I simply do not assign it.  

With that, Hakuna Matata families, for there are no worries. 

STAMINA!

 

Third and Fourth graders have been practicing how to use stamina while reading. We use stamina to read, write and practice math. Stamina is doing anything for a long period of time without getting tired or giving up! Our motivational piece has been our tracking how many minutes we can independently read. We started off our chart at six minutes. Today our goal was ten.

::drum roll please::

Today on this magnificent Monday, we reached 28 Minutes! This surpasses our goal of 10 minutes. We are very excited to continue our reading! 

- - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"You've got a friend in me"

Along with practicing our independent reading, we have also been practicing our buddy reading. During this time, students are placed with a buddy and are asked to read and have a discussion about the books (or parts of books) in which they had read. Students were given prompt cards to help assist in their book discussion. The students really look forward to this time of day because they are excited to share with a friend what they are learning or reading about. 

Third Grade Math is "Glyphtastic"

Currently in third grade math we are learning about analyzing data and what it can represent. Today we sorted our 'People, Glyph, Legends' where each symbol represents a way we like to learn math. For example a yellow hat represents working well with one other person, brown means in a small group and red represents working well alone. 

It was amazing to hear the discussions being held by these third graders. Their interest kept growing the more they tried to figure out was to sort and graph the glyph people. 

Four star writing!

All week during our Writers Workshop, we have been working on a personal narrative about our Summer Vacation. We are now all on the revising stage where students can spice up their writing and make it more engaging for readers. After long rereads and editing to ourself, we partnered up and read our writing piece aloud to a partner. Amazing discussion began to happen! 

Tomorrow we will be working on publishing this piece... And next week we will celebrate our success!