We're Back

It was great to get back to work today. We picked up right where we left off with Absolutely Almost.

I am enjoying how this books hops around. You hear about Albie at school. Then you are on to hear about Albie at home. Then a quick check in with Albie and his babysitter. You never know exactly what is going to happen next. Even with all this hopping around I think we are starting to see the big picture. As you read, Lisa Graff makes it hard not to root for Albie.

In writing we introduced one of our last books by Cynthia Rylant. 

Let's Go Home is one of my favorite Rylant books. It is a bit longer than the other titles that we have read but the extra text gives you a chance to really enjoy the beauty of Rylant's words. In this book Rylant walks you through a house. From the porch to the kitchen to the family room and even to the bathroom, Rylant describes the house. 

It was great to see the students figure out how they could use this technique. Some students described their house the way that Rylant describes the house in this book. Other students took the idea of going from space to space but moved the setting away from a house. A few of my favorites were a student describing a grocery store going from aisle to aisle the same way Rylant went room to room. Another student described football going position to position. We are getting close to giving the students the chance to decide what idea they will turn into their Rylant-ish project. I cannot wait to see what they pick.

In Social Studies we looked at some of the mounds of Ohio.

We asked the students to infer why/how the early Ohio tribes built these mounds. After the groups had made some inferences we had them read an article about the Mound Builders. Students highlighted some of the theories that archaeologists have about these mounds.

In reading we started to look at nonfiction text structures. 

As we look at these text structures we are going to read articles, look at maps, watch videos, and look at anything else we can find about the drought in California. As we research the drought, we will find articles that have these text structures that we are exploring. When we feel the class has a good grasp of the text structures and they have become experts about the drought, we will ask them to write an article using one of the structures. 

It was a great first day on a Wednesday.