Week of April 25

Some weeks honestly feel like they last about 20 days instead of 5, and this was one of those weeks. I think that happens more often as the school year winds down, which I still can't believe is even happening! We are down to 21.5 days...that's crazy to me. It's definitely the time of year that I start cramming in all of the things that we haven't gotten to yet, but I feel like we never get to everything!

Monday our student leadership council kids got to deliver the $200 of books that we had donated at our last book fair. It was a great experience for the kids and for me to see some of our kids out in the "real world" asking questions and learning. It was also fun to eat out at McDonald's on our way back to school. Our kids were so perfect and we got lots of compliments from strangers about how great they were.

Kindergarten continued our author study of Mo Willems by reading 3 more Pigeon books. Next week we'll move on to Elephant & Piggie, as the last book comes out on Tuesday. I just preordered two copies--one for me, and one for the library! I'm secretly hoping Amazon delivers it on Monday instead of Tuesday...but we'll see.

First graders did another compare and contrast with Goldilocks & the 3 Bears by Gennady Spirin, and Goldilocks and the 3 Dinosaurs by Mo Willems.

Second graders had a focus on chapter books in literacy last week. I put together a YouTube playlist of great chapter book series for first and second grade readers. Each student had an iPad and watched the videos that they were interested in, and then they checked out some good-fit chapter books. This is really the point that many young readers truly start doing meaningful independent reading. It is so fun and rewarding to see them excited about books, and we are truly blessed to have an amazing new collection that we add to so often! 

I made a few book trailers about beginning chapter books, and the kids loved watching the videos I made, which made me feel like quite the star! It was hilarious!

Third graders started our final project: creating a video book trailer. In fourth grade we do this as a huge project that always takes way too much time, but third grade does a short & sweet version. They pick a picture book and read it (which is what we did this week), then fill out a quick graphic organizer, and use ChatterPix to record a video. This year I'm going to also give them the option of using the green screen like I did. I'm excited to see the final products!

Fourth graders continued taking notes about Greek gods and goddesses in preparation for our Jeopardy game in two weeks. I formed a handful of questions and they were able to answer all of them! I am excited to come up with some prizes and incentives for the game. The most important thing they're learning is teamwork, and they are doing well. We've had conversations about collaborative note-taking and how important it is for everyone to do their share. So far, so good, it seems!