Happy Monday!
I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving and the long weekend! We have a busy week ahead, so let me fill you in on what we're doing :)
This week in...
Bible: We started a devotion/bible study that will help us prepare our hearts for Christmas and the celebration of Jesus' birth. This week we'll focus on the eternal nature of God's Word and what a treasure it is in our lives. Our memory verse is: Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Psalm 119:89.
Literacy: In 4th grade, three of our Guided Reading groups will be reading an adapted 'Readers' Theater' version of A Christmas Carol in preparation for our trip to see Scrooge next week at the Imaginon Theater. We'll be talking about how characters change from the beginning to the end of a story, and noticing how the character of Scrooge changes from the beginning of the play to the end. At the end of the week we'll "perform" our play for the rest of the class.
The fourth Guided Reading group is working together to read the book The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. We're doing this in a literature circle format where each student in the group takes on a different role each week.
At literature circle meetings, the Discussion Director comes up with four questions from their reading for the group to discuss. He or she also leads the meeting and makes sure that each person gets to participate. The Character Sketcher chooses a character to analyze (traits, goal, problem, etc) and illustrate. The Passage Picker chooses two passages to share with the group and why he or she feels they're important. The Word Wizard chooses 6 vocabulary words to focus on. These may be words that are unfamiliar or words that are important to the text. Finally, the Figurative Language Finder looks for examples of figurative language such as: simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, idiom, and allusion. These roles change each week so that each group member gets to participate in 3 or 4 of the roles depending upon how long it takes to read the book.
In 5th grade, two of our Guided Reading groups will be read the poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. They'll also be analyzing character; in this case looking at which traits of St. Nicholas can be found in the poem. Our two other Guided Reading groups have been split into four literature circle 'partnerships'. The books they're reading include: My Side of the Mountain, The Wednesday Wars, The Dark Hills Divide, and Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl. These students will also be taking on the different roles of a literature circle and meeting to discuss their books.
Social Studies: In 4th grade, we're talking about the major battles of the Revolutionary War, and in 5th grade we're launching a unit on early European Exploration.
Other Important News...
A permission slip was sent home today for our trip to see Scrooge at the Imaginon Theater on Tuesday, December 9th. Following the play we'll be having lunch at Brixx Pizza in uptown.
4th grade has earned 100 Sail points!!! We'd like to celebrate with an electronics and ice cream sundae party this Friday, Dec 5th. Please send in $2 to cover the cost of the ice cream and toppings. Thank you!!!
Have a blessed week!
