Fall is in the air

The days are getting crisper and shorter but there is still a lot going in on 4Z.  The students are working on Parts of Speech and writing personal narratives.  We do writing workshop with units of study by Lucy Calkins.  The children are working on great hooks to capture the readers' attentions.  I love watching them write as I put on the focus music in the background to help them concentrate.  

The stories include best trips, favorite memories spent with families, prize possessions and pets.  We call this sacred writing time.  No one walks or talks, just write and express themselves in words. 


Our # bookaday is going well, also.  The children enjoy listening as I read a book each day.  Many of the books create wonderful conversations with many lessons like, being kind, being different, being yourself, and never giving up to name just a few.

You can see some of the books that we have read, and there are more to come.



The student made collages of nouns, verbs, and adjectives.










This past week we began to incorporate art and literacy.  We read The Best Part of Me and took pictures of the students' best part.  They will continue this week by drawing the parts that were photographed and do a writing piece to go along with it.  Can't wait until the finished product is completed.







Our 5th graders continue to work on the Summit Platform and are doing projects about comparing and contrasting stories from the same genre.  We see a lot of collaboration and team work.  The process is running smoothly and they are personalizing their learning by making choices on what resources to use and which project they will do. 

There is always something going on in our ELA class.  The children are engaged and on task, reading, writing and practicing on IXL both in math and ELA.