February vacation has come and (almost) gone, and I'm just now getting to last week's blog post! It feels like a really long time ago that we came back from the weekend to a Monday with....no power! It was quite the experience. It was mildly overwhelming to think on my feet and completely revamp my poetry lesson for the day. It's crazy to think about how much we rely on electricity, from documents on Google Drive to the SMARTBoard to the copy machine. We ended up playing a game in teams centered around the poet's message. The kids showed so much flexibility and we ended up having a great time. (Check out the pictures below, along with some spectacularly neat handwriting by Miss Isadora.) Another fun-filled power outage happened later in the week, but we got around that one too. We spent a lot of time on writing about poetry this week. We analyzed the poem "Ode to Family Photographs" by Gary Soto and uncovered what we thought was the poet's message. We then planned and wrote about the message, proving it with evidence from the poem. We'll do another writing about a poem on the Monday we get back from break and then we have our poetry test on Tuesday. I'm super excited for our field trip at the end of the week too!

Tommy and Amanda were our Bucket Fillers of the week. Both students have done a really nice job in our poetry unit. Tommy's improvement throughout the course of the unit made me so proud. He went from being unsure of what a poet's message is to figuring out the message of some super difficult poems. Amanda also impressed me with her ability to analyze poetry. In addition, she's been writing poems galore and really making the most of her poetry notebook. Nice job you two!

I had a very exciting week this week...I have a new niece! And guess what her name is...Kennedy!!! I can't wait to tell the kids tomorrow. My sister-in-law's due date was on Super Bowl Sunday. (Considering the outcome of the game, perhaps it was a good thing she was a few days late!) I was on  high alert all week in anticipation of a text letting me know the baby was coming. That text finally came on Friday morning, and when I told the kids they all started clapping and cheering. Kennedy was officially born that afternoon and she is absolute perfection. Check out her picture below :)

Thinking about our poetry unit being over in just a few weeks is SO sad. I love this unit. This week, we focused on figurative language, rhythm, tone, and the poet's message. Monday was one of the most enjoyable lessons for me because it involved students analyzing the lyrics of well-known songs. I compiled lyrics with similes or metaphors from a bunch of songs. Some of the songs were "Firework" by Katy Perry, "Skyscraper" by Demi Lovato, "Thunder" by Imagine Dragons, and "Life is a Highway" by Tom Cochrane (covered by Rascal Flatts). It was so much fun playing the songs in the background and having the students recognize that figurative language really is everywhere!

Our Bucket Fillers this week were Brent and Nariya. Brent is an incredibly avid reader. His enthusiasm for reading has without a doubt strengthened his vocabulary and ability to understand and analyze complex texts. He rocks at being able to pull meaning from challenging poems. Nariya is a sweetheart. She's always smiling and positive, and you can't help but smile when you're around her. Nice job Nariya!

Health wise, we are struggling here in fourth grade. We've had so many students sick lately, something is most definitely going around! Mrs. O'Keefe was even out sick for three days this week. I'm not sure how I've avoided it... (knock on wood...) Viruses aside, our week was great. On Tuesday we got to attend the school-wide talent show. It was awesome to see so many students show off their talents and creativity. We didn't have any fourth graders participate, but after the talent show some of them were already brainstorming their acts for next year. On Wednesday we had another special guest for our poetry unit: our vice principal Mr. Marshall! Mr. Marshall has been regularly writing poetry since he was in elementary school. He wrote a poem a few weeks ago as an ode to our very own fourth graders. I asked him if he could come in and read it to us, and then lead the kids in a lesson breaking down the meaning of different parts of the poem. Lucky for us, he agreed! It was wonderful to see the kids analyze a poem that was written especially for them. So many kids have been writing their own poems too, which has been such a treat.

In writing, we're taking our expository writing (on an important person, place, or thing) through the steps of the writing process. We are on the revising stage, specifically focusing on organizing our writing in a way that clearly responds to the prompt. We'll eventually be publishing these pieces. It'll be fun to look at the progression from their original brain frames to jot down ideas, to another graphic organizer grouping those ideas, to an initial rough draft, to a second draft, and eventually to typed up writings.

Below you'll see pictures from the Snowflake Festival on Thursday and our school-wide assembly on Friday. At the assembly, students learned some dances led by the Somerville High School Dance Team to kick off our Health and Fitness Week, which will begin on Monday. Our Bucket Fillers this week were Kailyn and Jordyn. Kailyn has been writing poems galore! Her poems have revolved around all sorts of topics, from the Patriots, to softball, to beaches, to boredom. I love her enthusiasm for poetry. Jordyn worked really hard during writing this week. Her second draft of her expository essay blew me away. I love pushing her to incorporate description in her writing, because she's so good at it! Congrats ladies...and GO PATRIOTS!

I am already obsessed with our poetry unit...and we just started it on Monday! We had a special guest on Tuesday: my roommate Michelle. Michelle majored in English in college and loves writing poetry and short stories in her free time. A few months ago, we were sitting in our living room and Michelle read me a poem that she had written that day. At the time, I had no idea that she regularly wrote poetry. I was blown away by her talent! I said that when we kicked off our poetry unit, I'd love if she came in and read some of her poems to the kids. Well fast forward a few months, and we made it happen. Michelle took the day off from work and spent reading block with both homerooms. She read poems that she had written in fourth grade, seventh grade, college, and recently. It was sooo awesome to show the kids Michelle's enthusiasm for this genre. After analyzing one of Michelle's poems with strong imagery, the kids were given the opportunity to write a poem on any topic of their choice. Their goal was to include descriptive adjectives, vivid verbs, figurative language, and their senses. The poems they created in just twenty minutes were absolutely incredible. I couldn't believe it! Since then, many kids have been writing poems on their own. I ended up getting blank composition notebooks for students interested in compiling the poems that they write. The excitement the kids are showing for reading and writing poetry is every teacher's dream!!!

On Wednesday, students worked in groups on a STEAM activity. The activity revolved around making instruments out of recycled materials, and then using the sounds those instruments produced to play a message to the class. In order to communicate the message, each group developed their own morse code. It was a super cool activity and the kids did a great job with it. On Friday, we attended a performance called "Heroines on the Homefront". A talented historian and storyteller came in and talked about life during the Colonial times. The performance portrayed how Colonial women contributed to winning the war for Independence and how learning to spin created a new, independent, American textile economy that helped ensure the survival of the nation. It was neat!

Our Bucket Fillers this week were Nathan and Andrew. Both boys really blew me away this week with the poetry they wrote. They included impressive imagery and I loved seeing them showcase their creativity. I can't wait to see what else they come up with during this unit! 

What a week in ELA! After taking our nonfiction test the week prior, I had this week to reteach concepts the students needed more time on. I used Tuesday to work on analyzing text-based questions and developing a central idea based on each question. We used texts we've read this year to do so. We continued this focus on Wednesday, and the kids showed a lot of progress in both areas. Wednesday night's homework, Thursday's class period, and Thursday night's homework all had students preparing for a text-based debate on the advantages and disadvantages of technology in our world today. I gave students three kid-friendly articles that presented both sides of the overarching question, which was, "Do you think technology has impacted the world in a positive or negative way?" The purpose was for students to decide on a claim in response to the question and then find evidence in the articles to support their claim. I also encouraged students to use outside sources to strengthen their argument. Many students did so, and will receive extra homework credit for that additional effort. Friday was the debate. The kids got super into it and I loved it. Everyone had a chance to speak in both classes and they used debate sentence stems to agree, disagree, clarify, and add on to each other's points. They referred back to the sources from which they found their evidence throughout the debate. When the timer went off to signal its end, we were all disappointed! I can't wait to do more this school year.

Our Bucket Fillers were Tanner and Robert. This is Tanner's second week in a row! She definitely deserves it. She is an enthusiastic learner who consistently puts effort into her work. Robert blows me away on a daily basis. He is incredibly bright yet continues to seek out ways to challenge himself. He genuinely appreciates when I give him constructive feedback, which I love. Congrats you two!

I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend, our second in a row. It's been a while since I've posted on the blog, and it's a been a while since we've had a full week of school! The kids were really good sports this week. We took the district test for our nonfiction unit, and it took a lonnnngggg time. The kids worked hard for three reading blocks over the course of three days. It was part on the computer and part on paper. I was very very pleased with how well they did. The snow days made me a little worried because we didn't have as much time to practice writing about nonfiction, which was definitely the most challenging part of this unit. But they surpassed my expectations. We went over the test on Friday and students were given the opportunity to revise the written portions. I'll regrade them tonight and they will be sent home for parents/guardians to see at some point this week.

We're still working on expository writing. During writing block, I gave the students an expository prompt and a checklist that incorporated some of our focuses for writing this school year, like catchy beginnings, showing not telling, and sentence structure. Based on how they did, I'm working with Mrs. George, our reading coach, to plan the next few lessons. We'll spend the next few weeks practicing analyzing prompts, planning our writing, and splitting our writing into paragraphs. In social studies, students have started researching states for our road trip project. I love the different landmarks they're discovering and how invested many of them already are in this project.

Our Bucket Fillers for the week were Tanner and Ava B. Tanner's writing is always a pleasure for me to read. She is a master at writing creative similes and incorporating feeling into what she writes. Ava is a positive, kind student who gets along with everyone. I'm looking forward to having lunch with both ladies this week!

Happy 2018! I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing break. It's hard to believe it's been a week and a half since our holiday party. I'm so glad that we had so many family members join us. Thanks to everyone who brought in treats. Also thank you for all the thoughtful gifts! It was great seeing the kids work together to make their marshmallow towers and I had a blast with the holiday trivia. I ended up testing out all the questions on my relatives on Christmas and they found them a lot more challenging than you lot. Maybe I'll have to compile some really tricky trivia for our end of the year party....