After TCAP Testing today we headed to the Telluride Historic Museum!

We learned about famous inventors that influenced our tiny yet unique town! Nikola Tesla, a famous inventor, is best known for his contributions to our modern day electrical supply system. His design of alternating currents encouraged the use of electricity in our hospital, mines and eventually public places. Can you believe Tesla helped build the world's first commercial grade alternating current power plant in Telluride? The Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant was in full swing in 1891. The electricity improved life in Telluride by making mining conditions safer. What an electrifying story!

Hopping like kangaroos!

Today we planned for a narrative prompt. The prompt asked students to write a story about waking up one morning and being able to hop like a kangaroo. What do they do? Where did they go? How did they change back at the end of the story? We had a little fun hopping around the room before we started writing!

Today we are picking out the main ideas of Expository writing pieces!

Listening to Lucy Calkins speak about transforming reading instruction to include the CCSS.

Mrs. H is learning about the latest literacy technology of 2013 at the CCIRA conference in Denver!

Non-Fiction Text Features

Ryder and Julien are learning the differences between the Table of Contents, Index, and Glossary of a book.

For the next few weeks, students are reading Blood, Bones and Body Bits,  a gruesomely informational book about the human body.   Students will learn and use non-fiction text features to decode the information in the book. 

Learning Characterization... Character Maps!

This week students presented their Character Maps based on a character from their Landmark Book.

We Bind Our Books!

Sewing pages together... almost ready to glue in our stories and illustrate!

We Chart Our Writing Process!

Writing Interviews & Conferences

Oral Writing

Students "oral write" with partners to streamline ideas!

Mimeo Lessons

We use the mimeo to project and manipulative students' writing!

DEAW: Drop Everything And Write

Students independently WRITE in their Writer's Notebooks for 5-10 minutes everyday!

DEAR-Drop Everything And Read

Independent reading happens daily for 15 minutes!

We Post Weekly Paragraphs to the 4th Grade Wiki

We Find "Just Right" Books

Book Multiples

We have an entire closet of "book multiples" for Literature Groups! All of our book selections enhance our Social Studies/Science Units.

We Use the Painted Essay Model to Write Expository Pieces

We Write to Penpals in Vermont!

Writer's Notebooks Help Us Write Publilshed Pieces

Learning from Mentor Text

We use mentor texts to create our own writing!

Narrative Symbol Cards

We use Narrative Symbol Cards to plan our stories and decode our favorite books!

Flashcards

Transition Flashcards, Vocabulary Flashcards, Proofreading Flashcards & Thinkmark Cards, oh my!!

Everyday Words

An Everyday Word List is secured on our desks to ensure good spelling!

Modeling & Mini-Lessons

Mrs. H keeps a Writer's Notebook and Reader's Notebook too! Teachers often become students and students become teachers during our workshops.

Student & Parent Editors

We learn the difference between revising and editing!







Parents are invited to be special editors when we go through the publishing process!

Class Read-Alouds

During our Class Read-Aloud time, all students have a book to follow along. When we read together, we learn new vocabulary words!

"Read Like a Wolf Eats"

This is our favorite reading quote!

Class Library & Pillows

We cozy up on pillows for comfort while we read! We also do "EEKK, VOICE, CHECK" when we partner read.

 

The Author's Chair & Critique Sessions

Students sit in "The Author's Chair" to share their writing and ideas. We hold critique sessions providing students with "Stars" and "Changes" for their writing.