We've survived our first day of the ELA MCAS...and it was a long one. Last year the ELA portion of the MCAS was spread over the course of three days, while this year fortunately it's only two days. While that's obviously a positive thing (the less days of testing, the better), it also means that more material is packed into each day. For that reason, it was a strenuous day of testing- I was exhausted simply watching the kids work. The stamina they showed was incredible though, and I was a very proud teacher. I can't wait until Tuesday afternoon when day two is also behind us!

On Wednesday of this week, we joined classes and did some review jeopardy. It's always fun to have both groups together in one room. On Friday, we made cards for Mr. Cheney since it was his official last day as pool director at the Kennedy. We then went outside to play kickball as a reward for filling up the transition jar. It was great to get some fresh air, and I look forward to spending time outside more and more as the weather gets nicer. I also really enjoyed getting to see the kids cheer each other on and show great sportsmanship. After specialist, we started the movie "Wonder" and then finished it after lunch. I absolutely adored the book and I've been waiting to see the movie so that I could watch it with the class. The movie was beautifully done and did the book proud. I only shed a couple of tears...on a couple of occasions....

Our Bucket Fillers of the week were Jayden and Pedro. Jayden is the epitome of sweet. He's such a nice kid and his recent Ove writing task blew me away. Pedro worked really hard on Thursday, and I was very impressed with his perseverance throughout the long and tiring day. Nice job, boys!

April vacation is upon us! I cannot believe it's April. I keep telling the kids how crazy it is to me that we only have a few more months together. I'm trying not to think about that last day of school...

Anyways! I worked the kids hard this week. We turned our focus to writing the continuation of a story. I tell my students all the time about how much I love reading and how often I get so absorbed in a book that I literally cannot put it down. Oftentimes if I'm reading a book that is especially well-written, I'll come across a descriptive paragraph or a creative example of figurative language that I think about showing in class for the kids to analyze. Well, I started the book A Man Called Ove recently after several people recommended it to me, and as I read the first chapter, I knew it was finally time to make this idea a reality. I made a copy of the first four pages of the book and gave it to students to read and annotate. The writing in this excerpt is definitely complex, especially for 4th graders, with difficult vocabulary and thought-provoking figurative language. (It's also appropriate, I promise!) The kids did a great job making sense of the excerpt and jotting down what they learned about the characters, setting, and plot. They then used these takeaways from the first chapter to brainstorm what might happen next. They each created a sequencing brain frame to map out a second chapter to the story. They added detail bubbles to that brain frame to incorporate their first chapter notes, description, and dialogue. It was so cool to hear all of their creative ideas and each student's unique take on what could happen next. They typed them up on Thursday and we worked in deliberate pairings on Friday to continue to practice this type of writing.

I sent home a letter in Friday Folders about the upcoming ELA MCAS. Our first day is the Thursday after break. The kids have worked so hard and I couldn't be prouder of how much they've grown over the course of the year. They will do fabulously!

Our Bucket Fillers this week were Celine and April. Both girls are perfect examples of that academic growth, particularly in their writing. Celine's writing has transformed in her incorporation of details and voice. April has embraced my feedback all year and her writing is now more focused and clear, with beautiful description. Keep writing, ladies!

We were really fortunate this week in that we got to attend a powerful and interesting assembly about two very inspiring people: Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes. Jessica and Patrick are a married couple who both got injured in the Boston Marathon bombings. They ended up writing a book about their service dog Rescue, who has become a vital and supportive member of their family. We read the book, Rescue and Jessica, in class, and then we talked a little about what it means to have a prosthetic leg and how a service dog can have such a positive impact on the life of someone with a disability. The timing of this assembly was pretty ironic, as we literally just read two articles on guide dogs and wrote a text-based essay on the challenges of training a guide dog. Having that background knowledge of what it takes to train these impressive animals was pretty neat. At the assembly, the students were given the opportunity to ask Jessica and Patrick questions after they read their book to us. Tanner, Ariana D., James, and Jessica represented the fourth grade and made us proud with some great questions. I included some pictures below. (Along with a photo of Nathan with an epic bacon t-shirt...)

The students have been working really hard in ELA lately. Writing about texts is no easy task, especially when there are various types of text-based questions. We focused on essays this week, which required students to respond to a question incorporating and expanding on evidence from two texts. I'm so impressed with the effort and stamina students showed me while writing these lengthy and comprehensive essays. Next week we'll focus on narrative writing tasks, which involve students reading a story and then either writing the story from another character's perspective, writing a new ending, or writing the next chapter. Let's just say our April break will be well-deserved!

Bucket Fillers for the week were Ariana M. and Shane. Ariana made me so happy this week. She kicked off Monday by showing me all of this social studies research she did over the weekend. She did an awesome job completing her homework throughout the week, and even did an extra writing for me. Keep it up Ariana! Shane cracks me up. He constantly impresses me with his witty comments and jokes. The two of us bicker at times, but at the end of the day, we're buds. (And sometimes he even tells me he misses me when I'm absent...right Shane???)