Week of April 25-29

This week, the 3rd graders continued to impress me with their ability to use poetic techniques like personification, figurative language, and descriptive language to describe ordinary things in poetic ways. We turned an ordinary stapler into a shark whose teeth are falling out, an alligator chomping its prey, and even a rabbit hopping along leaving a trail of teeth behind! We are starting to look at the world as poets, finding the extraordinary in everyday objects and places around us!

In 4th grade, some classes were still exploring the language of Shakespeare, while one class read a child-friendly version of Romeo and Juliet and took a closer look at the famous balcony scene. After viewing and reading the scene, the students chose a section to turn into a texting conversation between Romeo and Juliet using this site: http://iphonefaketext.com/

In 5th grade, we viewed the beginnings of some powerful TED Talks and learned what makes a good hook for a talk: a shocking statistic, jaw-dropping personal story, provocative question, powerful quote. We then wrote the first minute of our talks, making sure to hook our audience and state our thesis in a clear way.

Week of April 18-22

It was wonderful to finally see my students after a month without them! Some of my third graders were still exploring aspects of poetry like rhythm and imagery by using poems as inspirations for paintings and choral readings with instruments. Others began writing their own poems using techniques like creating interesting lists and describing ordinary objects in unique ways. I was very impressed with how the students were able to apply so many techniques they learned from the poetry they read in their own poems!

The fourth graders continued to explore the language of Shakespeare by turning modern day conversations into Elizabethan language and vice versa. We learned that Shakespeare invented many words that we still use today, and then we invented some of our own words and definitions!

In fifth grade, we learned that the key to a good speech is having a specific POINT to the talk, and that point is called the thesis. Check out how to create a "happy" thesis below!