This week's post will be a whole lot of pictures! As the week before winter break, it was full of excitement. My homeroom also earned a reward for topping off their Community Jar, which is a whole class method of positive reinforcement. I put marbles into the jar for things like compliments in the hallway, quick and quiet transitions, and positive reports from specialist teachers. When those marbles reach the top of the jar, the class votes on a reward of some kind. The vote resulted in the majority of students opting for board game time. We ended up spending 40 minutes on Wednesday playing various board games together, both ones I've collected over the years and ones students brought in from home. I'm not going to lie, I love when this is the chosen reward. Why? Because I love board games, particularly Scrabble. A crew of us spent the time playing it, and overall, it was a fun mid-week break from schoolwork.

On Friday, we had our holiday party, and it was a blast. We did holiday/winter trivia, and the only stipulation for teams was that each team needed to include at least one adult. It was a lot of fun getting the families involved, so thanks to everyone who joined us! And thank you so much for all of the generous and thoughtful gifts given to me--I am one spoiled teacher.

With the craziness of the party on Friday, I didn't pull names for Bucket Filler. That being said, this week definitely goes out to Lila. Friday was actually her last day at the Kennedy. At her request, we didn't make a big deal about it at the party, but her family is moving to Charleston, South Carolina within the next week or so. (Sidenote: I'm obsessed with Charleston! Two of my close friends moved there a few years ago, and after visiting them a few times, I completely understand why...). Honestly, I can't say enough wonderful things about Lila. She is incredibly sweet and thoughtful, and she is the epitome of our classroom motto: "Kindness Matters". She has a heart of gold, and I feel lucky I got to be her teacher these past few months. Her new school in Charleston just gained a truly special girl. <3 We'll certainly miss her around her!

I hope everyone has a wonderful break and enjoys the holidays with their loved ones. See you in 2020!

  

   

  

    

  

 

 

We had our winter concert this past week. As fourth graders this year, students are given the opportunity to play an instrument, which makes school concerts slightly different from those of previous years. Those students who play an instrument are on stage twice: during the grade level performance, as well as the band or orchestra portion of the concert. That means there are many logistical directions that need to be followed for the concert t o run smoothly, and the concert itself is longer. Not only can it be nerve-wracking to get up on stage in front of a cafeteria packed with people, but students need to be quietly seated, attentive audience members for over an hour. I was really proud of our crew for doing a great job during all of these aspects of the concert. And I was especially proud of them for the giant compliment we got from Mr. Marshall while we waited in the hallway before our grade level performance. These guys were told that they did the best job patiently waiting in line than any other grade...in any other year! They just stood in two lines in absolute silence, showing respect and consideration for the middle school chorus who was performing on stage. Yup, we've officially set the bar high for positive concert behavior.

In ELA/SS this week, we continued our focus on landmarks. We added to our research, and we decided how we wanted to organize that research into three overarching sections for our magazine. We then looked at those three topics and decided on a central idea that not only weaves them together, but also conveys what makes our landmark important and special. Ari was our Bucket Filler this week, and this was largely due to his effort on this assignment. Upon deciding his three section topics, he realized that he could use some more information about Mount Rushmore before drafting his magazine. So he showed responsibility and independence by going home that day and just about tripling his research. He didn't need to be instructed to do so; instead he recognized the shortcoming and did something about it. Way to go, Ari! Laura was our Bucket Filler for my homeroom, and I was shocked to hear that this was actually her first time winning. In reality, she's one of those kids whose name could get pulled every week, because she's constantly filling my bucket! She's kind, enthusiastic, hardworking, and receptive to feedback. She participates, she helps others, and she's consistently following my directions. I love having Laura in class, and I'm certain that she'll be Bucket Filler many more times this school year.

 

 

I'm not going to lie, Tuesday's snow day was a welcomed day off. Though we'd just come back from a four-day weekend--and you'd think that those extra days would've allowed for time to get caught up and prepared for the week--I left school Monday afternoon craving a snow day and vowing to myself that if we got one, I'd make it a day of epic productivity. And that it was! I finally feel (almost) back on track in the correcting department, and students will be reviewing my feedback in their writing notebooks this upcoming week.

In our integrated nonfiction reading and social studies unit, we've been using various texts on our assigned landmarks to apply strategies for finding the main idea of a text. Sometimes the main idea of a nonfiction passage is clearly stated, or evident from the title or heading(s). But other times, we need to infer the main idea by thinking about what the information and details in the text have in common. It's in times like these, when the main idea is implied, that it can be especially challenging for students to identify and word the text's main idea. But one strategy I've found super helpful for kids is first recognizing the text's primary structure, which is how the information in the text is organized. There are five main nonfiction text structures: chronological sequence, compare and contrast, description, cause and effect, and problem and solution. Figuring out how the author chose to organize the information in a text gives the reader clues about how it's intended to be read and what is most important in the text--it can lead the reader to the main idea! And we have some helpful sentence frames for each text structure that can scaffold our wording of that main idea so that it is clear and concise. We'll continue applying this strategy as we progress through this unit.

Usually when kids take the time to participate in optional assignments, I don't think I could be any more excited and impressed. But I'm quickly proven wrong when kids take the time to put in that extra effort over a holiday weekend, and that's exactly what happened this past week. I'd given kids the option of earning extra credit stickers for a turkey-themed persuasive writing. Participating students had to take on the role of "Tom the Turkey" and write a letter or speech to "Farmer Don" convincing the farmer that he should spare him this year as Thanksgiving dinner's main dish. Several kids opted to take part, and their creative reasons and convincing letters cracked me up. I had a few students even turn in the letters inside envelopes addressed to Farmer Don! It was super cute, and I snapped photos of some of those hardworking students sharing their writings with the class, so be sure to check them out below.

One of the participating students was Annabelle, who happened to be one of our Bucket Fillers this week. Annabelle is as thoughtful as they come. She is constantly helping out around the classroom, and her little gestures of kindness and notes of gratitude are always highlights of my week. For Mrs. O'Keefe's homeroom, Tesla was our Bucket Filler. One characteristic I really appreciate about Tesla is that he gets right to work as soon as he gets into the classroom at the start of our ELA block. When we have a Quick Write, he's often the first to start his writing and the last to finish. That kind of effort should be celebrated, and I'm pumped that his name was pulled as our Bucket Filler this week. It's well-deserved!