Twas the Week Before Break ...

In ELA this week, we switched things up with some winter activities! In writing, we spent part of our week discussing jobs and persuasive letter writing. We wrote letters to Santa as elves trying to convince him to hire us. For the second half of the week, we wrote "snoetry" ... haikus and cinquain poems! The poems encouraged us to use higher-level thinking to find syllables that matched the line and it was great to express our creativity. Check out our Twitter feed (@KendraStrickler) for more pictures of our final letters and snoetry poems.

Instead of Workshop, we broke into groups and practiced a reader's theater script. It was great to see teams working together to put their own spins (like fun accents!) on the play. It was also a great week to enjoy some independent reading. We put on our "fireplace" and just immersed ourselves in good books!

 (Did I mention that it was PJ Day?!)

Speaking of reading ... our "Shelf"ie wall is filling up fast! We have officially filled the right side of our wall and have moved onto the left side of the wall. Keep up the spectacular reading!

I hope you all enjoy a relaxing break with family and friends. I will see you in 2019!

This Week's Question: Write a haiku or cinquain poem about something you did over break. Email me by Jan. 2nd to pick from the candy closet!

PAWS Meeting and More!

Our week started with a PAWS Meeting on Monday. At our meeting, we learned about Camp Read S'More and our school-wide reading goal. As a school, we are hoping to read 19,905 books! As we get closer and closer to our goal, more and more teachers will be sent to camp in May. Who will be next?!

Speaking of reading, our "Shelf"ie wall is filling up fast! I do not have a picture to share today, but I will be posting one soon, so be on the lookout!

In ELA, we spent some time finishing up our How-To writing. We also practiced some creative writing with our Christmas Roll-a-Stories. It was so fun to write fun stories and then share our writing with each other.

On Friday, we spent some extra time reading. It was the perfect activity for such a foggy day! After we read, we shared some of what we read on Whooo's Reading and in small groups.

This week in ELA, come ready for some interactive reading, creative writing, and more holiday fun!

This Week's Question: As a preview to one of our activities ... what is a haiku? Email me by Monday to pick from the candy closet!

Writing Fun and More!

Our week started with a day of making/updating personal and class reading goals. We continue to do a great job with our class goal of filling the "shelf"ie wall. By checking in on our personal reading goals, we were able to evaluate how we are reaching our goals and how we plan to continue reaching for those goals. After we set our goals, we spent some time reading independently and then shared our reading with others.

This week in writing, we focused on writing our how-to papers. We paid close attention to our use of specific details and different transition words and phrases. Next week, we will be putting the finishing touches on our final drafts and presenting our skills to each other!

Workshop continues to be a success. We are progressing through our Story Elements unit each day and I am looking forward to applying a combination of these skills to larger readings. Come to Workshop on Monday ready for a bit of a change to our system...!

Friday was Fun Write Friday! We worked together to write stories in both classes. One class wrote story swaps, which is when we swap papers to the person next to us every few minutes. This encourages us to apply creative writing strategies to many different storylines. The other class rolled a winter-themed story. Then we all spent time sharing our writing. It truly was a fun day of writing!

Question of the Week: Come up with a simile, metaphor, or personification that has to do with Winter. Email me by Monday morning to pick from the candy stash!

New Writing!

We started a new kind of writing in ELA this week ... informational! Our first piece will be a how-to writing. At the beginning of the week, we looked at some examples and then came up with our expert lists. From these lists, we picked our favorite idea to use as our topic for the how-to essay. There are a lot of great ideas from baking, to building snow forts, to fishing!

In Workshop, we are continuing to work through story elements (plot and/or character). It continues to be a wonderful experience to participate in this reading community. One group has started a book club and I am looking forward to starting more book clubs soon.

There is a lot of great reading happening in our class ... stay tuned for another "Shelf"ie update soon! I am excited for our next Day 6 (Monday) when we will have time to relax and enjoy good books before sharing our reading on Whooo's Reading.

Question of the Week: What is one important thing to consider/include when writing a how-to essay?