A small group of fourth and fifth graders decided, after reading four short novels by Mildred Taylor that they wanted to continue with the book club and read another book together. They all voted to read the book at home. And so I selected a favorite book, War Horse by a favorite author, Michael Morpurgo. Read More >>
Dictation
Students in dictation class have been focusing on reading and spelling words that follow the vowel-consonant-e pattern and comparing them with words that follow the consonant-vowel-consonant pattern. Students sort, compare, read, and write words and sentences using words with these patterns. We have emphasized spelling patterns for certain consonant sounds at the ends of these types of words. For example, Read More >>
Fox Book Club
Some of our younger students have been participating in their first book club. We have been reading several of the Fox books by Edward Marshall, including Fox On Wheels, Fox and His Friends, Fox On the Job, Fox Be Nimble, Fox On Stage, and Fox Outfoxed. Each book is divided into three chapters, each a humorous story about Fox and his family, friends, Read More >>
Phil Brill, Mystery Guest
Phil Brill, Valor’s Grandpa and author of a children’s book, The Red Bottle, was in town visiting his family. He offered to come to school and share his real life story that inspired him to write The Red Bottle. He shared the lovely story of his trip to the beach where he found sea glass. He talked Read More >>
Writing Workshop – The Elements of a Good Story
A small group of older students have been discussing the important elements of a great story. First we considered setting and the children created a drawing or map of a place or setting that intrigued them. The following week we discussed character and the importance of considering the inner as well as outer traits of Read More >>
Book Club: Two Tickets to Freedom
The oldest students have all read Two Tickets to Freedom: The True Story of Ellen and William Craft, Fugitive Slaves by Florence B. Freedman. This has been part of their social studies unit on the Civil War. After completing the assigned reading, they met in small groups to discuss questions that not only exercised their comprehension Read More >>
Vanessa Johnson, Mystery Guest
Our storytelling unit has begun! The gifted Vanessa Johnson kicked it off as our fifth mystery guest. She started her presentation with a clever interaction between herself and three future generations, played by our own Glady, Frannie and Lola! Artfully she demonstrated how stories are passed on from one generation to another and how we Read More >>
Writing Workshop with Dana
We are working on short story structure: beginnings, middles, and ends. We have been discussing character motivation, dramatic conflict, and how to resolve things in an interesting and satisfying way. It’s a challenge to structure imaginative worlds, and it takes a lot of focus to show a dramatic arc in a compressed form. Our goal Read More >>
Cursive
Students in 3rd and 4th grades have been working on reviewing all of the lower case cursive letters from the clock climbers to the hills and valleys. As we finish up our lower case letters, students have been challenged to write two words in cursive, switch with a partner and print what their partner has Read More >>
Upper Case Printing
Working once a week with our youngest children, we have studied and learned how to form the capital letters A through E. While this sounds like a simple task, there are many things to consider. First of all where to start the letter? This is hard for some youngsters who are used to forming their Read More >>
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