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......