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!