This week flew by! In reading we've officially started our fiction unit. We practiced summarizing and we explored the elements of fiction stories, like characters, setting, plot, problem, solution, and theme. I had Mrs. O'Keefe's homeroom for writing and social studies this week. We did Writer's Workshop on Monday and Wednesday, and we also developed writing process skits. For social studies we played state bingo and we went outside for some practice on the maps on the front basketball courts. The kids were really well behaved and proved to me that we can do outdoor lessons more often!

We had a neat performance on Thursday after lunch. Members of the National Theatre for Children came in to do The Energized Guys: Powered Up. It was an assembly about energy efficiency in which two actors performed a series of comedic and educational sketches on the topic of conservation. The actors used audience suggestions, participation, and improv to highlight how we can conserve energy and help our environment. It was a lot of fun and the kids seemed really engaged. Check out the pictures below.

Our Bucket Fillers for the week were Jayden and Robert. I adore Jayden. He is just such a nice kid who fills my bucket on a regular basis. He's been participating more recently which is awesome. Robert is a one of a kind. He's like an endless pit of knowledge and I love hearing the intellectual things he has to say. Congrats boys!

Happy fall! We had a wonderful week in 4th grade. We wrapped up our launch unit in reading and practiced writing summaries. Starting next weekend, students will be writing a short summary about their books rather than the four important things. I'll be providing students with a checklist to help them get started on these. They only need to be about a paragraph long and incorporate some of the major events that happened in their book that week. Writing a summary is an important skill to have and we'll make sure we've mastered it by the end of the school year!

I had my homeroom for intervention, writing, and social studies this week. As I continued to do benchmark testing during intervention, students worked on various homophone challenges and activities. We even played homophone bingo today! Writer's workshop has been awesome. I've spent the first few blocks writing alongside the students. I want them to see my enthusiasm when it comes to writing and hopefully develop a similar passion. We also did skits depicting the writing process. We've got quite the crew of actors and actresses in our class...

Our Bucket Fillers this week were Celine and Eleanor. Celine is such a pleasure to have in class. She works really hard and her homework this week about the story "Breaking" was so impressive. Eleanor has also impressed me. Her Quick Write notebook was fabulous and her participation during social studies this week was great.

The kids have been enjoying reading block these past few weeks because I'm in the process of testing them all to figure out their Guided Reading Level. That means they've had lots of relaxing independent reading time! We're also in the midst of our "launch" unit which just gets the kids acclimated to the reader's workshop framework of read aloud, independent reading time, and reconvening together on the rug. I'm almost halfway through the testing, but when I'm done I'll be able to meet with all of my students and share with them their level, their strengths, and what we need to work on together this school year. This will range from fluency to decoding to literal and abstract comprehension.

I had Mrs. O'Keefe's homeroom this past week for writing and social studies. We'll be doing the writer's workshop model of writing this school year, which involves the students writing in writer's notebooks on a regular basis. Every once in a while, they will select one of their writings to carry through the full writing process: drafting, revising, editing, publishing. I'm excited for writing this year because I took a writing course this summer at Lesley and gathered a lot of valuable resources on writing instruction.

Bucket Fillers this week were Kailyn and Amanda. Kailyn is such a sweet, hardworking girl and I've been looking forward to being her teacher for a few years now. I've also known Amanda since kindergarten, and having her in class is as wonderful as I had anticipated it would be. She participates in class and puts a lot of effort into her work. Great job ladies!

Even though a certain football team lost this week, it was still a good one in room 210. We spent ELA block goal setting, exploring our classroom library, and getting into our reader's workshop routine. My favorite day was when I got to show off my classroom library to the kiddos. I'm so proud of all my books and the way the library is organized. It is put in colored bins according to genre, with each book labeled to match the bin it belongs in. All of the fiction chapter books are also leveled by Guided Reading Level, which is an alphabetized system based on complexity. I loved hearing the kids react to and jot down books they are interested in. I'm in the process of testing the students to figure out their Guided Reading Level, but it'll take a few weeks.

I had my homeroom for social studies and writing this week. I filled the kids in on one of our missions of the school year: to learn all 50 states. We kicked off this mission with some team-building puzzle making and a "Man in the Map" read aloud. I taught them my silly tricks for remembering certain states' locations. Check out the "For Students" section for some fun games to practice the states!

We picked our first Bucket Fillers of the school year and they were Brent and Cam! Brent has had such an awesome start to the year. He's been on his best behavior and has been working hard on his Quick Writes each day. Cam also has been putting in effort. He has even done some extra homework! He's been participating in class and helping his classmates. Congrats boys!