We have been working hard on our narratives! The end is in sight and so we are working on how to end them. We don't want just any ending! We want an ending that will match our story. If the story is sad, we should have a sad ending, if the story is funny, we should have a funny ending, etc. Here is a chart that can help us choose an ending that will fit our narrative:
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Narrative Endings- The Play and Intonation!
Posted by Mrs. Cole, Mrs. Constande, & Mrs. Sani at 11:11 AM 3 comments
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
New Reading Homework Format
We will be having a new reading homework format for the rest of the school year. Your child will be reading every night for 20 minutes, logging in the title, author, time they read, number of pages read and having their guardian sign this.
Reading nightly is so important! Please read the following to truly understand it's importance:
Did you know one of the most prominent indicators of a successful reader is the amount of time spent actually reading? Let's figure it out -- mathematically!
Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week
Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!
Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.
Student A reads 20 min. x 5 times a week = 100 mins./week
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes
Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.
Student A reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B reads 80 minutes a month.
Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year
Student A reads 3600 min. in a school year.
Student B reads 720 min. in a school year.
Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.
Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.
By the end of 6th grade if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits, Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days.Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days.
One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance. How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?
Some questions to ponder:
Which student would you expect to read better?
Which student would you expect to know more?
Which student would you expect to write better?
Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?
Which student would you expect to be more successful in school....and in life?
Posted by Mrs. Cole, Mrs. Constande, & Mrs. Sani at 2:16 PM 2 comments
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Writing with Emotion
In class right now, we are getting started with writing narratives again! We are so excited about this! We are learning many different ways to generate narratives. So far we have come up with:
- Think of a person, place or thing that matters to you, then list clear, small moments you remember. Choose one to sketch and then write a story about that moment.
- Think of the first or last time you did something and write about it.
- Think of a mentor author that you admire and write a story that theirs reminds you of.
- Think of a family story.
- Think of an emotion and write about a time when you felt that emotion.
We came up with some emotions and listed times when we felt them. Here is what we came up with on our first day:
The next day, we chose four emotions and told stories "out in the air" to our friends and then wrote the story in our charts in our writing journals.Posted by Mrs. Cole, Mrs. Constande, & Mrs. Sani at 2:58 PM 3 comments
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Making Predictions
Posted by Mrs. Cole, Mrs. Constande, & Mrs. Sani at 11:13 AM 1 comments
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Arts Extravaganza!!
Wow! What a week it has been with Arts Extravaganza! Arts Extravaganza is a week when everyone at Chets Creek celebrates the arts. We decorate the walls of Chets with paintings and sculptures and are introduced to a new form of art everyday at a fun assembly!
On Wednesday, we listened to the poet and storyteller, Glenis Redman. She was hilarious! Click here to go to her website!
Today, we watched Orisirisi, which is an African American dance and music team. They were AMAZING!
The fun doesn't stop today either! Tomorrow we will be enjoying the sounds of The Listening Project, which is a bluegrass band.
Then comes the fun stuff! Friday night from 6:00- 8:00 PM, Arts Extravaganza will be held here at Chets Creek! This is a fun-filled night of roaming the halls to look at all of our beautiful artwork, making our own FREE art crafts and more! Come and join the fun and leave a comment about what you do this Friday at Arts Extravaganza!
Posted by Mrs. Cole, Mrs. Constande, & Mrs. Sani at 3:37 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Character Traits
Posted by Mrs. Cole, Mrs. Constande, & Mrs. Sani at 11:48 AM 2 comments
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Summarizing
Today we learned another strategy for summarizing books that we read. We know that when we summarize, we aren't retelling all the details from the story, we are just giving the "gist" of what happened. One strategy that we learned earlier in the year was the "Someone Wants But So" strategy. Today in class we learned that, by answering the 6 questions, Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How, this will help you summarize a story. Here is a picture of our summary of Chester the Worldly Pig.
Also, we are learning new vocabulary words this week: edit, revise and revision. Since it is only Tuesday, we have only learned edit (to correct punctuation, spelling, grammar) and revise (to make more clear, to make better). Try and go into your orange Language Folder every night and review your words, we will have a quiz this Friday! :)
Leave a comment and tell us a summary of a book you've read using either "Someone, Wants, But, So" or the 6 questions!
Posted by Mrs. Cole, Mrs. Constande, & Mrs. Sani at 3:38 PM 1 comments