Change

Within the last time I posted A LOT has happened, both inside and outside of school!  My husband and I bought a house and moved in, and only a week later we adopted a puppy.

Meet Annie, my new love.

School has been flying by lately, and the students have been working so hard all year long that they can work without my help now.  This makes my day a little boring because I don't do a ton of instruction anymore.  I guess that's a good thing.

The past three weeks the students have been studying all different types of poetry and loving it!  We have been listening to a new poem each day with Poetry Speaks to Children and Hip Hop Speaks to Children.  The students are truly enjoying poetry, which makes my heart happy.  On Thursday, April 14, we celebrated Poem in Your Pocket Day.  The fourth graders posted poetry around the school and then kept one in their pockets to share with anyone who asked.

Our novel study this time is going wonderfully- if you have not read Blue Jasmine, I strongly recommend it.  The students are fully engaged with their literature groups and are writing wonderful journal entries about each couple of chapters.  It is fun to see the students creativity shining through in their journal entries.  The librarian shared A Big Red Lollipop with me a couple of weeks ago, and I am so glad.  Although the book is well below my students reading levels, it had some wonderful connections with Blue Jasmine and cultural differences.  It is so exciting that the students are using their reading strategies now.

Last week, the students worked together on an Interactive Writing about what good readers do while reading.  It was neat to see their minds working together on how to articulate what they are doing when they read, I will post the final product soon!

This week we will be working on an "I am" poem through Interactive Writing.  First, we will be doing it all together about a fourth grade student.  Then, the students will pick a character from Blue Jasmine, and they will write an "I am" poem about that character.

Let me take a moment to say that this Friday will be the first time in my life to get Good Friday off, and I am incredibly thankful!  It's wonderful to work at a Christian school.