Vocabulary

I wanted to take a moment to explain what is currently happening in regards to vocabulary instruction in our classroom.  Our first vocabulary quiz should be making its way home for you to see.  

We do a vocabulary word a day.  It is up on the screen when students enter the room, and students are responsible for copying the word into their notebooks, thinking about the word while we go over it in class, asking questions if there is confusion and preparing for the quiz by reviewing the words in a way that works for the student.

We are really working on the responsibility behind this task, and we have been building on this responsibility all year, which is now entering into taking quizzes over the words. This first quiz was a great indication of a few things that we have been talking about in class and will continue to talk about.  We are asking ourselves these questions right now:

1) Am I really thinking about the word and it's usage/meaning when I write it down in my notebook at the beginning of class? (This includes spelling it right and organizing my notebook in a way that will be useful for me in the future.)

2) Am I adding information to my notes while the class talks about the word to help me understand even better? (This includes examples we might talk about, synonyms for the word or ways to use the word in my life.)

3) Am I finding a system for reviewing words and trying to look for words/use words in my everyday life? (We are talking about several ways to review content/study and kids are encouraged to try out and choose what works best for them.)

I really want students to become independent with this as these strategies and skills will be important to be able to independently utilize in upcoming grades/classes.

Vocabulary quizzes will be coming home two to three times a month.  Our second quiz will be right before winter break.  We will use these quizzes to track growth in vocabulary development and study skills. 

Editing and Sharing

We are working hard to edit our stories for our readers.  We will be working on final formatting concerns and printing on Wednesday and Thursday and our share celebration will be Friday.

So much hard work and effort has been put into these stories.  It is time to show them off!!!

Students need to have a peer edit and an adult edit by Wednesday.  So, don't be surprised if you are asked to be an editor!

Conferences

A conference reminder is coming home tonight in your child's agenda.  It includes the day and time of your child's conference.  Just another reminder that our nights are packed, and it will be important for us to be able to stay on schedule.  Thanks so much for your help with this!

Looking forward to meeting with you soon!

Ms. Daly

Revision

Almost all of us have our messy drafts typed, and we have moved on to revision.  This is often the most difficult stage of the writing process.  We spend so much time writing a draft and now we have to change it?!?!  We are working hard to understand the importance and the power of revision.

We started with leads.  We explored five different types of leads, and we have tried at least two alternate leads for our own stories.  It is so exciting to hear the new leads.  They are really engaging, and the kids are really getting into it.

I am assigning homework on top of reading this week.  Last night it was to try a new lead (some finished in class).  Tonight is to pick the lead they like the best and get it changed in their google doc.

Tomorrow we will continue/start work in writing groups.  We will be working hard to use peer review effectively.  I am excited to see the collaboration that happens through the use of google docs!

Along with this revision, we are still reading like writers.  We are currently reading a story called "Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto.  We are reading it a bit at a time and thinking about it in terms of the plot mountain.  Yesterday we read the exposition.  Today we read the rising action.  We are doing a lot of comparison to our own stories.  We are asking ourselves questions like, "Does my story have tension that gradually rises?" and "Does my exposition get my reader ready for the conflict?".

Inviting our Characters to a Sleepover!!!!

We are in the process of developing really strong characters.  Without strong characters, a story will fall flat!    The characters are who the reader connects to, so making them authentic is so important.  One of the biggest things we are trying to discover about our characters is what they want more than anything in the world.  Once we figure this out, we are setting up our conflict.  Because, within the plot of our story we will make sure we make it really difficult for the character to get their desire.  This makes a great plot.

The excitement and energy in the room the last few days is amazing.  Everyone is really in to their writing and most importantly, everyone is working hard to take on the identity of a writer.  We are getting a lot of awesome inspiration from one another too!

Tomorrow we will be collaborating in writing groups based on similarities in our writing topics or styles.

What is a story?: Reading like a Writer!

We are working really hard to read like writers in room 603!  We are using authors as mentors and reading their work looking for their craft moves.  What do they do to make their writing so powerful? So far we have decided that all of the powerful writing we have read so far includes the following components:

Description - powerful words and phrases that show instead of tell

Voice or emotion - the author uses words to create emotion or empathy in the reader

Figurative language - similes, metaphors, idioms all paint a picture for the reader and add an element of beauty to the writing

Dialogue - authors develop characters by using carefully planned dialogue at just the right times


We are working really hard to realize that writing is messy, and we are giving ourselves a chance to be "messy" when we are writing.  We are reading "Spilling Ink" by authors Ellen Potter and Anne Mazer.  They are giving us great, real advice that we are putting to use!

Along with reading like a writer, we are also thinking about the structure of a story which will help us as we begin to compose our own stories.  We are using our read aloud "Wringer" and also lots of picture books and short stories to help us.

We will be learning from lots of mentors for the next few weeks!  I am really excited to see the imaginations of each and every kiddo shine.

AMERICA READS DAY!

America Reads Day is quickly approaching.  If you have time and are willing to come read to us, please use the sign-up genius link below.

There are 4 time slots available, however, if we need more I can add more.

If you wish to read to my homeroom, that would be the morning slots.  If you wish to read to Mrs. Pickering's homeroom, that would be the afternoon slots.

If you have questions, let me know!

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C044DA5AE28A3FB6-america 

Powtoon

Great things are happening in regards to the intersection of technology and literature in room 603!

Students have been working really hard on a Powtoon assignment.

The premise of this assignment was to identify the theme in one of my son, Elliott's, books and then find three places in the text where I could stop and discuss this theme with him.

So, in other words, we are identifying theme and finding evidence in the text to support our thinking!

Once students put this into the "Some people think…." structure, they were ready to share their thinking using Powtoon.

"Some people think…" structure = a prompt that helps us to organize our thinking.  See prompt below.  

Some people think the book _____________ is just about ____________, but it is about SO much more than that.  It is actually about _______________.  I know this because ____________.  Also, _____________.  Finally, _______________.

Powtoon = a really cool app through google that allows us to put animation and sound to image and text!  

Below are a few images of us hard a work!

This work will really help us eventually move into writing thesis statements (for literary essays, personal essays…) and supporting them with evidence.

BOOK ORDERS

It is past time to get book orders up and going!  Below is a link that will take you to our team's site. At this link, you can order books and the books you order will earn us points for our classroom library!

Please let me know if you have any questions.  I also offer the kids the paper copy of the book order to anyone who would rather do it that way.

Thanks for your support!


Book Order Link:  https://orders.scholastic.com/JLGPP

Save the Date for America Reads Day

AMERICA READS - Ocober 17th  America Reads will be observed at all five Prairie elementary buildings and Prairie Creek Intermediate on Friday, October 17th.  This will be a fun day featuring guest readers sharing their favorite books with our students.  Sign up by October 8 and consider joining us as a guest reader! Sign up online! Clickhttp://tinyurl.com/ksrsfos  to sign up and read.

Color-A-Thon Packets Due Tomorrow….

Just a quick reminder that Color-a-thon packets are due to the school store tomorrow.

This week we have been busy working on writing one sentence summaries using "somebody, wanted, but, so", and we have been talking about how this strategy can also help us to identify conflict and theme.

The conflict can usually be inferred somewhere between the "want" and the "but", and the theme can usually be inferred in the "so".

All of this is going to move us nicely into talking about narrative structure and writing in narrative structure!  

R.A.F.T. and Power!

We are in full swing this week.  In reading, we are working on developing theories about our characters and tracking them.  This moves us into being able to defend our thinking with evidence from the text.  In writing, we are working on developing a plan using R.A.F.T. and our read aloud book Wringer by Jerry Spinelli.    

R.A.F.T = Role, Audience, Format and Topic

We also began to think about the concept of power.  We will move into thinking about power within our books and with our characters, however, this is a social studies theme that will come up again and again also.  So far, we have thought about what power is, who has power and whether or not kids can change the world.

Throughout all of this we have been using as much technology as we can.  We have been using edmodo and blendspace as platforms for lots of thinking and discussion. 

Below are some pictures of us hard at work!

  

Creek Social Event

Creek Social Event!

Sponsored by the Creek PTO

Saturday, September 27th from 6:00-8:00pm

Stoney Point YMCA

300 Stoney Point Rd SW, Cedar Rapids

$6 per student, please pay at the Creek Office by Sept. 25^th

Sorry NO refunds

CREEK Students only

Please bring swimsuit and towel if you plan on swimming.

Parents not required to stay but ***Chaperones are needed***

Any help is appreciated even if you can only stay for an hour!

Please contact Brooke Arp to help or with questions:

mail4brooke@gmail.com

Many activities to choose from!  Gymnasium full of activities, pool (limited students per hour), Party room of games!  DOOR PRIZES!!!

Vending machines available for snacks and drinks (accepts $1 bills and change only!).

Our first 'Read and Feed' was a success!

Generating Ideas...

We have been working hard in our writers' notebooks this week to generate possibilities.  We have shared stories to make personal connections, made lists and wrote about the history of our names and from an object.

Yesterday everyone picked one possibility and wrote about it for 10 minutes.  We were really looking to build stamina.  Can we write and think and write and think for ten minutes without the dreaded, "Ms. Daly, I am DONE"?  We are never done as writers, however, we have to know what this feels like.  We are working on knowing what it truly means to "never be done" as a writer.  I have to say, the stamina in the room was quite impressive during this 10 minutes.

A lot of it has to do with writing about things that matter to us!

In reading we have been working on developing ideas about characters.  We will keep rolling with this next week too!


Don't forget literacy night tonight from 5-7.  Remember, you can come anytime between 5 and 7 without missing anything!  Book fair will be open too!

100+ books read

We set a goal at the beginning of the year that once we reached 100 books between Daly and Pickering homerooms, we would have a 'Read and Feed' to celebrate.  

Well, we did it!  I will need to make the goal higher next time :)  I love the readers all these kids are being!  They are truly taking on the identity of reader!  

So, we will be having a Read and Feed on Friday.  They can bring a snack for themselves.  No drinks other than water please.  

What I love about celebrating reading lives this way is that we are celebrating reading with reading time!  And, if you are wondering if they can sustain their attention in books for more than an hour, yes!  Yes they can!  These kids have proven their reading stamina this year, and they are ready!  

We will be sure to each have a "book on deck" for Friday.  

Book on deck = the book you will read after you finish the one you are currently reading

End of last week and start of this one!

Last week ended with us getting reading partners.  We will switch reading partners about once a month or so.  The purpose of a reading partner is:
To care
To share
To motivate

I look at it like the friend you always share your books with.  I tried to pair students with similar interests so that they can be caring about each other's reading lives, sharing their books with each other and motivating each other to keep reading!

We also had a chance to get on edmodo and join my class group.  While on here we did some chatting about books by creating "Book Buzz".  It was really good to get the computers out.  The kids love them.  I love them!  So, we will be using them more and more.  I have enough computers for a little more than 1/2 the class.

Today we started our writer's notebooks.  And, the first thing we need to do as writers is generate ideas.    The more ideas we have that serve as possibilities, the more we have when we need to write!

Today we learned that writers generate ideas by sharing stories and making connections.  We all shared stories and tried to make personal connections to each other's stories.  When we had a connection, we added it to our list in our notebook.

Literacy Night Reminder and Tuesday's Happenings

- You are welcome to come any time between 5 and 7 during literacy night.  Events will be on a rotating schedule, so you will be able to jump in when you get here!


Today we talked about reading with our minds on fire and capturing these "fire moments" in our reader's notebook.  We practiced pushing our thinking about these "fire moments" by writing long and using prompts to push our thinking.

-Fire Moments - moments in our books when we feel emotions or empathize with characters, when we can't wait to see what will happen next, when we question the characters, when we can visualize the setting so clear that it is like we are there…

-Writing Long - when we take an idea and write as much as we can in our reader's notebooks about it (like our thoughts just spilling on our papers).  We tried to get to half of a page today and some of us got even more than that!

-Prompts - sentence starters that help us keep going.  Could it also be…. To add on to that…. Another reason might be… This is making me realize… On the other hand… - Grabbing these prompts when we feel "stuck" helps us keep pushing our thinking and helps us take our thinking in new directions.


I compared this kind of thinking to being inside a garbage bag.  If we have a thought that is one dimensional, it is like standing up tall in a garbage bag.  However, if we have a thought and then push our thinking about this thought, it is like our hands and feet and head jetting out and pushing on the garbage bag in all directions.  I am picturing a "force flex" bag here!  When we pick fire moments to write about, we can challenge ourselves to think deeply about the text we are reading.

Homework for tonight is to read and to write long about one fire moment.  (definitions above!)

Wednesday, August 27th & Thursday, August 28th

WEDNESDAY-

The lint roller.

Ask your child about the connection between a lint roller and reading!

Our schema is what hold all of our personal experiences and prior knowledge.  This is what we draw from when we read.  We are constantly making connections to our own lives (our experiences, thoughts, feelings), to other things we have seen or read (books, movies, tv shows) and to the world.

Today we practiced our awareness of these connections.  We all make them, it is just getting to the point that we are metacognitive about them (getting to the point that we can recognize them, call them out, identify them and think about them).

This is tough work.  It is quite easy to say, "I can't connect to this book at all".  BUT….we are all making connections constantly.  We will keep working hard to identify these connections because this is how we can begin to think more deeply about the books we are reading!

THURSDAY-

Genre!  Today we defined each of the genres and began thinking about the similarities and differences between them.  We will be keeping a graph of the number of books we are reading as a team within each genre.  I am SO impressed by the number of books these classes have already finished, and it is only the first full week of school!!!!!

When we get to 100 books as a team (Ms. Daly's Class + Mrs. Pickering's Class), we will schedule a Read and Feed.  I will let you know in advance when this will be!  I don't think it will be long!

Happy reading :)

So…do they have homework?

Great question!

Homework for me this week has been to READ!  I have purposely been open ended about the number of minutes because I am still getting to know the kids as readers.  I want them to want to read.  Some are there and some are not.  This is ok.  What I don't want to do is force reading on them and give them a "bad taste" in these first few weeks.

Reading every night is really an expectation for me.  Just like anything, we only get better if we practice.    We are working hard here at school on building solid reading lives, and we will all get there!

So, the answer to this questions is, YES.  They do have homework and it is to read!  They are also learning ways to respond in their reader's notebooks so I am encouraging them to be doing a little writing about reading too.  However, this will get to become more and more as we learn more about how the reader's notebook works.

Literacy Night

Prairie Creek will be hosting a literacy night on September 11th from 5pm to 7pm.

This is a chance for you to experience and hear about what literacy looks like at Creek.

There will be opportunities for raffle prizes, a chance for everyone to sign up for a free book and opportunities to get public library cards from our surrounding community libraries.

We will also be having the book fair at this time, so it will be a great opportunity to buy some books too!

You can come any time between 5 and 7 and rotate through the centers of your choice.

We hope to see you all here!!!

Tuesday, August 26th

Today was all about METACOGNITION - Thinking about our thinking

There is a difference between reading words and real reading.  Real reading happens when we take the text (what the author is telling us) and mix it with our own thoughts.  This is when real reading happens.

It is kind of like having constant thought bubbles popping up over our heads.  And, the thought bubbles help us make meaning from the text.

Today we practiced paying attention to those thought bubbles.

STEALING MINUTES!  We have been working hard on the concept of "stealing minutes".  This is a habit of a good reader.  Stealing minutes means trying to carrying your book so you can get a few minutes in here and there.  Examples of this at school are when the teacher is answering another question or when the teacher gets interrupted by someone at the door.  Rather than sitting and waiting, steal minutes in your book.  This keeps us engaged as readers.  The more we read our book, the more we get into it and the more we'll want to read it.

Monday, August 25th

Today we talked more specifically about what keeps us reading.  We also started our reading notebooks by listing things that keep us reading.  Our reading notebooks will become a very valuable and important part of our literacy lives.  I am excited to get these off and running!  

We then had time to read, and I checked in with all students to ask them if they felt "into" their books.  During this time, I was trying to capture what was keeping them reading.  This information is great for me because it will allow me to get to know each student as a reader and help to recommend books for them.

We have had some students already finish a book!  WOW!!  I think I have a class of readers, and I love it.

We will be working really hard this year to develop and maintain a positive reading life.  The way we become better is by doing and so we need to be reading A LOT!

Along with this, we need to be reading books that are just right for us.  We have talked about IPICK.  The book fits our purpose, we are interested in it, we can comprehend it and we know a lot of the words.  We also talked about how sometimes we don't get really into it until a few chapters in.  I shared that the book I am reading right now didn't get really, really good until page 50.  So, we have to know how to "hold on" and give books a fair chance.

Homework for tonight was to read!  I just want to know how long and how many pages.  Again, this is giving me information into each reader's current reading life so we can build from there!

First Week

Our first three days of school we spend a lot of time getting to know each other and talking about classroom and school expectations and procedures.

We did learn quite a lot from the Channel 14 news team.  They taught us how to S.O.A.R at Creek.  SOAR stands for Safe, Optimistic, Accountable and Respectful.

Enjoy just a little taste of the news team here.

We also started talking about our reading lives.  We brainstormed reasons for good reading lives and "stinky" reading lives.  And, we decided that interest plays a huge role.  We need to be reading books that we are interested in, that we understand and that we WANT to keep reading.  Otherwise, reading is going to fall by the wayside!

We had a chance to get to know my personal classroom library and also to visit the IMC.  Most students left with a book on Friday and lots were able to get a few pages read.

We also learned about "stealing minutes".  Ask your child what this means!

It was a GREAT first week!

Welcome

Welcome to our class blog!

Here you will find information about your child's Literacy/Social Studies class.