Schedule
Writing - Tuesday & Thursday (75 mins each class)
Homework Red Duotangs
Grammar homework will be given at the beginning of each week starting Monday September 25th & will be due by Thursday of each week.
- Homework must be completed by the due date assigned
- Should students not come prepared to school on a regular basis, a phone call will be made home.
- Students that have been absent due to illness or special reasons may be given extra time to complete the work
- Agendas will be used to record all assignments. Students are currently using a Black Folder for school/home communication.
Writing - Summer Recounts
We have been working on our summer recounts & learning how we can "Bump It Up". In the children's writing duotangs, I have given them descriptive feedback & prompts to activate thinking. Below are the tools we have glued into our Writing Duotangs to help remind us about punctuation, transition words & a writer's checklist (for when we think we are finished).
September 25-29, 2017
Our recounts were finished this week. During the process of our recounts, the students made a rough copy & final draft. For the rough copy, I gave written feedback on each student's work & how they can make changes. (Example: Add more detail, topic sentence, beginning, middle, end, punctuation & grammar etc.) Then, the students did a final draft using their own editing skills & teacher feedback. My feedback on their final draft will be put into their Hapara accounts this week.
Thursday, we did an introduction/refresher into adjectives & descriptive writing. With student input, we created an adjective mind map. This mind map was written down into their duotangs as tool to reference. Then, I asked them to describe popcorn using their Five Senses. I was surprised at the amount of students that did not like popcorn at all. As you can see from the picture below, nauseating was on many of their sheets.
Thursday, we did an introduction/refresher into adjectives & descriptive writing. With student input, we created an adjective mind map. This mind map was written down into their duotangs as tool to reference. Then, I asked them to describe popcorn using their Five Senses. I was surprised at the amount of students that did not like popcorn at all. As you can see from the picture below, nauseating was on many of their sheets.
Thursday was a busy class for us. I introduced our Literacy Centres. I'm so proud at how well they all worked. You can just see from the photos below!!
October 2-5th, 2017
This week we continued to work on descriptive writing & understanding adjectives. We started out with simple sentences & "bumped it up".
Bumping it Up
October 10-12, 2017
Bio Poem Homework is Due Monday
This week we worked on parts of speech and descriptive writing .
This week we worked on parts of speech and descriptive writing .
Oreo Descriptive Writing Activity
My apologies if your child came home this week asking you to buy Oreo cookies. I know they asked me several times to bring some in for them. We started a descriptive writing activity about oreo cookies describing the taste, smell, feel, sound and look of oreos.
October 16 & 18
The students continued to work on their Oreo descriptive paragraphs. I will be working on feedback to send home in the next coming weeks.
October 24 & 26
Descriptive Monsters!
One student was asked to go into the coatroom and listen to the description of the monster on the smartboard. Then, he was to draw it on a paper. This is what he came up with from what his peers said to him (see below). We then discussed how we could have been more specific with our description. The class was then asked to draw a monster & then write a very detailed description of it. They then switched with a partner to see if the partner could draw the same monster matching the description.
One student was asked to go into the coatroom and listen to the description of the monster on the smartboard. Then, he was to draw it on a paper. This is what he came up with from what his peers said to him (see below). We then discussed how we could have been more specific with our description. The class was then asked to draw a monster & then write a very detailed description of it. They then switched with a partner to see if the partner could draw the same monster matching the description.
Oct 30- Nov 3
Spooky Menu
This week we worked on Spooky Menus. We created a restaurant menu with spook descriptive words to describe some Halloween themed dinner items.
This week we worked on Spooky Menus. We created a restaurant menu with spook descriptive words to describe some Halloween themed dinner items.
Here are some exampes of the student's writing:
**Feel free to check our your child's Spooky Menu in their Google Drive!!**
**Feel free to check our your child's Spooky Menu in their Google Drive!!**
Nov 6-10
Remembrance Day Activity
This week we discussed the poem "In Flanders Fields". We went line by line and discussed what John McCrae was talking about and how he and the other soldier's would have been feeling during this time.
We also discussed how we can connect to Remembrance Day. Many of the students shared how their relatives were apart of World War 2.
The students then answered these questions on their Google Drive. Feel free to check out their writing.
1. How does this poem make you feel? Why?
2. What line of the poem do you think is the most powerful, or impacts the reader the most?
3. Why do you think that this poem is often read on Remembrance Day?
This week we discussed the poem "In Flanders Fields". We went line by line and discussed what John McCrae was talking about and how he and the other soldier's would have been feeling during this time.
We also discussed how we can connect to Remembrance Day. Many of the students shared how their relatives were apart of World War 2.
The students then answered these questions on their Google Drive. Feel free to check out their writing.
1. How does this poem make you feel? Why?
2. What line of the poem do you think is the most powerful, or impacts the reader the most?
3. Why do you think that this poem is often read on Remembrance Day?
Nov 13-16
Snowman Decriptive Writing
Similar to what we did with our monster writing, we did a decriptive writing piece on a snowman. Each student was given a blank snowman to be as creative as they would like in decorating their snowman.
This is the snowman that was shown as an example, using descriptive winter words. (Below)
Once we have all completed our snowmen, we will be reading them to the class and doing a Walk-About to try and find the picture that matches the drawing.
Success Criteria
Similar to what we did with our monster writing, we did a decriptive writing piece on a snowman. Each student was given a blank snowman to be as creative as they would like in decorating their snowman.
This is the snowman that was shown as an example, using descriptive winter words. (Below)
Once we have all completed our snowmen, we will be reading them to the class and doing a Walk-About to try and find the picture that matches the drawing.
Success Criteria
- I can write a topic sentence
- I can write supporting detail that relate to the topic
- I can write a concluding sentence that restates the topic sentence.
- I can verify for capitals and punctuation (!, ?, .)
- I can add descriptive adjectives
- I can add powerful verbs
- I can use classroom resources to check spelling
Nov 20-24
Tuesday: Continued snowman descriptive writing.
Thursday: Narrative Writing
As an introduction to narrative writing, we read Fireflies by Julie Brinkloe (youtube to the book) as a class.
When we finished reading the book, we had a discussion about the beginning, middle and end of the story, the problem and the solution. Once finished our discussion, we worked on the 'Story Plot' below together as a class. (See below).
This is our introduction to narrative writing. We will continue to break down texts over the next couple of weeks and then write our own narratives.
December 4-22
The whole month of December we will be working on narratives. We will be building on our writing knowledge from the last couple of months to create our own narratives in January.
Here is what we have been working on.
Here is what we have been working on.
We have been focusing on the different elements of a story.
SETTINGS: We have been picking apart the parts of a story. Setting is very important as it tells us what happens in the story. We are using our 5 senses to show the setting. We did a Guess The Setting activity: The students needed to write about a character that passes through a space to another space. |
Guess the Setting
I picked a students writing and we bumped it up together as a class. Then we wrote another Guess the setting knowing what we need to do to bump it up.
Example: The red is how we can bump it up more. Guess the Setting!! By: B
I walked down the rusty old path of falling leaves (colour) with trees that seemed like they went on forever. (How does it feel outside) It seemed so quiet and peaceful. There was a ruffle in the bush. It was a bunny (describe). Beyond the trees I saw a gazelle,(describe the gazelle) the it was beautiful and every moment it moved, it moved with silence and grace. As I ran back to my house, I ran with silence....
How can we bump it up?
Teacher Example:
The sun was just rising and I was sitting in my rumbling car just outside of work. I could hear a voice on the radio saying: “It’s a bitter -15 outside today, dress warm!” The radio then went silent as I turned off the noisy vehicle. As I stepped out of my warm and pleasant car, the cold winter breeze hit my face like a ton of bricks. Lucky, I brought my warm winter hat today and I pulled it down tighter over my ears. I crossed the parking lot swiftly, while bracing myself for black ice on the ground. I shuffled my feet on the icy ground to avoid falling in embarrassment. Stepping onto the sidewalk, I could see the big silver doors in the distance. As I walked, I could see winter was finally here: the plants that lined the big brick building were leaning over and dying from frost bite. I knew if I stayed out in this bitter cold, I’d probably look like that too. By the time I reached the main doors, my face and fingers were freezing cold. My mittens were making it extremely difficult to punch in the school pass code to open the doors. My fingers lightly pushed in the four digit code and I heard a “click” come from the door. I grabbed the silver door and pulled as hard as I could to open it. Sometimes it gets stuck. The black mats on the floor were covered in salt and snow from previous people entering the building. I twisted my legs and feet back and forth to make sure they were dry before walking down the hall to my classroom….
Task: Write a passage that demonstrates a character walking through one space to another. Remember to use your 5 senses.
As the student's work through this task, I will be giving them oral and written feedback. This is all building on our structure of our narratives.
I picked a students writing and we bumped it up together as a class. Then we wrote another Guess the setting knowing what we need to do to bump it up.
Example: The red is how we can bump it up more. Guess the Setting!! By: B
I walked down the rusty old path of falling leaves (colour) with trees that seemed like they went on forever. (How does it feel outside) It seemed so quiet and peaceful. There was a ruffle in the bush. It was a bunny (describe). Beyond the trees I saw a gazelle,(describe the gazelle) the it was beautiful and every moment it moved, it moved with silence and grace. As I ran back to my house, I ran with silence....
How can we bump it up?
Teacher Example:
The sun was just rising and I was sitting in my rumbling car just outside of work. I could hear a voice on the radio saying: “It’s a bitter -15 outside today, dress warm!” The radio then went silent as I turned off the noisy vehicle. As I stepped out of my warm and pleasant car, the cold winter breeze hit my face like a ton of bricks. Lucky, I brought my warm winter hat today and I pulled it down tighter over my ears. I crossed the parking lot swiftly, while bracing myself for black ice on the ground. I shuffled my feet on the icy ground to avoid falling in embarrassment. Stepping onto the sidewalk, I could see the big silver doors in the distance. As I walked, I could see winter was finally here: the plants that lined the big brick building were leaning over and dying from frost bite. I knew if I stayed out in this bitter cold, I’d probably look like that too. By the time I reached the main doors, my face and fingers were freezing cold. My mittens were making it extremely difficult to punch in the school pass code to open the doors. My fingers lightly pushed in the four digit code and I heard a “click” come from the door. I grabbed the silver door and pulled as hard as I could to open it. Sometimes it gets stuck. The black mats on the floor were covered in salt and snow from previous people entering the building. I twisted my legs and feet back and forth to make sure they were dry before walking down the hall to my classroom….
Task: Write a passage that demonstrates a character walking through one space to another. Remember to use your 5 senses.
As the student's work through this task, I will be giving them oral and written feedback. This is all building on our structure of our narratives.
Happy New Year
January 8th-25th, 2018
For the next couple of weeks we will be working on our narrative writing piece. The students have brainstormed their ideas, created rough copies and will be typing up the final draft. Along the way I will be giving them feedback about their work. Narratives are due January 25th.
For the next couple of weeks we will be working on our narrative writing piece. The students have brainstormed their ideas, created rough copies and will be typing up the final draft. Along the way I will be giving them feedback about their work. Narratives are due January 25th.