Our theme unit has come to a close, but have no fear, our aquarium unit is here! I'm really pumped for this unit. The intention had always been for our last two units of the school year to be theme and revisiting nonfiction. Originally, the plan was for theme to be our final unit, with nonfiction coming beforehand. Yet I decided to rearrange the order so that we concluded with nonfiction. As our second nonfiction unit of the school year, this one is specifically focused on reviewing nonfiction reading strategies, recognizing different types of nonfiction sources, and researching/writing about a specific topic of interest. I took the outline and focuses of the unit and applied them to marine animal adaptations. It was actually really neat, because after getting in touch with folks at the aquarium, I got to go into the Teacher Resource Center last weekend and explore a bunch of resources on animals we'll get to see during our aquarium trip. With the help of one of the Teacher Resource Center staff members, we made a list of 34 marine animals that have interesting physical and/or behavioral traits. I left that day with two giant tote bags packed to the brim with loaned books on these animals. Between these books and texts from our school library, we have a pretty incredible collection of nonfiction resources on marine animals. I went through all of the books and estimated their reading levels. This led me to assign each student a particular animal based on reading level, anticipated area of interest, and small group dynamics, as there will be certain lessons when students with similar animals will work together. This assigned animal, along with animal adaptations in general, will serve as the topic they focus on during reading block for the next month. The final product will be an essay and presentation on how the physical and behavioral traits of their animal help it survive in its habitat. Mrs. O'Keefe will also be spending the last science unit teaching into animal adaptations, and we'll be working together to ensure that all students are ready to share with the class what they've learned about their animal prior to our visit to the aquarium on June 18th.

We had a bunch of assemblies this week. On Tuesday, we were one of a few lucky grade levels to get the opportunity to watch an impressive performance by the Somerville High Band and Drumline. On Thursday, we had a post-MCAS celebration of best effort with sunshine, popsicles, and kickball. On Friday morning, the whole school headed outside for an assembly in honor of Memorial Day, and that afternoon, we had a kick off assembly for next week's STEAM week.

Our Bucket Filler's this past week were Marco and Robert. I love Marco's enthusiasm for our new reading unit. For a teacher, it's always a great feeling when students seem eager about what we're learning and doing in school. Marco makes sure I experience that feeling on a regular basis, continually voicing how excited he is for particular lessons, activities, or units. Robert gave me a feeling of pride this week when we found out that one of his poems will be published on poeticpower.com, a website that celebrates talented young writers. This recognition is well-deserved, considering Robert is currently writing poems for his third book of poetry...

I'm a little late posting this week because I wanted to make sure that I had pictures from the kids' quality bonding time with some therapy dogs on Monday! I didn't get to meet the dogs, but from the photos and from what the kids relayed to me, they were very cute. The kids went in groups of five and spent about fifteen minutes or so bonding with the dogs. We were one of the lucky grade levels who got this opportunity this year, and it was a nice way to head into our final two days of MCAS. Fortunately the math MCAS involves a lot less reading and writing than the ELA portion, so everyone was done by lunch time on both days. AND the fourth grade MCAS is officially behind us, woohooo!

In our final week of our theme unit, we looked back at all the fiction stories we've read over the course of the school year, and identified common themes among those texts. We also discussed how the choices the author and illustrator make often play into the theme of the text. For example, an author might write a story from the perspective of a character who learns a vital lesson about friendship. By taking on the perspective of the character who learns that lesson, we really get an inside look at his thoughts and feelings as he navigates his peer relationships, which can lead us to the theme of the story.

Our Bucket Fillers this week were Ava B. and Lydia. Ava B. has taken on the lead role for a presentation on syllables that will be put on for my homeroom this week. She's done some work at home and come in early before school to work on it. I'm proud of her extra effort! Lydia is a pro when it comes to theme. She excels when it comes to digging deeper into a text and pulling out a lesson that applies to life and our world. I enjoyed having lunch with her and April today. :)

Finally finally finally: we are spending sufficient time on social studies. Social studies got lost in the shuffle quite a bit this year, and I can obviously take the blame for that. I'm still trying to navigate how to structure the afternoons so that I spend enough time on writing and enough time on social studies. Since we are a departmentalized fourth grade, I see each homeroom every other week. Last year, I tried splitting the afternoons so that when we came back from lunch, we did writing for about 40 minutes and then social studies for about 30 minutes. However, when it comes to writing, there is such a range in terms of the students' pace. For that reason, I often needed to cut into our social studies block for those students who required more time to write. So this year, I tried breaking the week up so that we had writing on the afternoons of Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and social studies on the afternoons of Tuesdays and Thursdays. Well, with half-days, assemblies, snow days, etc., at least one afternoon per week often got affected in some way, and because I have certain writing standards I'm required to teach students, writing often took priority. Alas, social studies got the short end of the stick yet again. But at this point in the school year, since we've covered the majority of the 4th grade standards in reading and writing, I'm trying to incorporate our road trip project any chance we get.

In our persuasive writing unit, I introduced students to our next writing assignment: a school editorial. They chose topics that related to school, and came up with a claim based on their topic. For example, one student's claim is that a half hour is an insufficient amount of time for lunch and recess, while another student's claim is that the school would benefit from having a newspaper club. We'll take this writing step-by-step through the writing process, and the eventual goal is to support our claim in a five-paragraph essay. On Friday during our theme unit, students worked in groups to determine the critical moment(s) and what the character learned in their assigned picture book. These led them to the theme of the story. Each group had to present their book and theme to the class. I really do love hearing the kids talk about lessons from texts that they can apply to their own lives.

Our Bucket Fillers this week were Laura and Nathan. Laura wrote me the sweetest card for Teacher Appreciation Week. She has a heart of gold, and she shines during our reading discussions on theme. Nathan also has a giant heart. He pretty much makes me smile whenever I see him. He is witty and his enthusiasm for Disney songs rivals my own. :)

I'm so proud of these kids. Again, they worked incredibly hard throughout a long day of ELA MCAS testing. One point made following the test was about how looking at a screen all day gave them a headache. It's so true!!! I literally left both days with aching eyes and a headache...and I wasn't the one testing! It's crazy what's expected of kids across the state with these tests, but it's an unfortunate reality that I do my best to handle as a teacher. I try to instill confidence in them and voice that doing the best they can is all that matters, but I do know that the anxiety was still very much there for many kids. That being said, I couldn't be more impressed with the level of effort and stamina that my fourth graders showed these past few weeks, and I'm really proud of them.

On Wednesday we started our theme unit. I am OBSESSED with the theme unit. As a teacher, it's so much fun to hear the deeper meanings and life lessons that kids can pull from the stories we read. My ridiculously excessive collection of children's books really come in handy. We kicked off the unit by listening to a bunch of preselected songs and took a closer look at their lyrics. We shared ideas about how we interpreted the song and the message we thought the lyrics were trying to convey. We got really into it and decided that throughout the unit, we'd listen to one song per day to continue this activity. 

Our Bucket Fillers this week were Will and Ronan. I love Will's enthusiasm for our road trip project in social studies. Actually, I love Will's enthusiasm about lots of things! He is such a great kid to be around and his eagerness to learn is contagious. Ronan won the Superintendents Award for my homeroom this past quarter, and boy, did he deserve it. He has transformed as a student this year, from his academics to his independence to his attitude. To say I'm proud of him is an understatement, and I've included a picture of the two of us on the morning of the awards breakfast below. There are also some pictures of Mrs. O'Keefe's homeroom acting out quotes with figurative language in a game of inferencing charades. The acting skills were out of this world......