Lots of Excitement in Fourth Grade...

     This week the kids worked really hard in writing.  They spent a lot of time storytelling seed stories to their writing partners.  With partners, they worked on zooming in on a specific moment.  Then they worked on telling the story focusing on what they were THINKING, any DIALOGUE that was going on, and the ACTION in the story.  This is tricky to do, but I could also see a difference in their storytelling by the end of the week!  
     In reading we talked about what to do if we feel like we can't focus on one book.  We made a list of strategies we could use.  Some of the ideas that the class came up with were...

• Go to a genre, topic, series, author that you know you like.
• Ask a teacher, parent, librarian to help to point you in the right direction.
• Ask a friend or classmate for a suggestion or recommendation

     Our book orders came in today.  It is always very exciting to get the book orders.  Not only is it exciting for the kids that ordered, but the whole class gets excited because we are able to get so many new books for the class!  We "raffled" off books that were popular.  Some of the lucky winners were able to get the first chance at these new books before passing it off to a classmate.  As a group the kids seem to be very interested in the "I Survive" series.  These are historical fiction books and focus on events such as Hurricane Katrina, the Shark Attack of 1916, and Pearl Harbor.

     In social studies we are starting our tour of the Northeast.  We started to learn the states and capitals of the 9 northeastern states.  

     Blogging has taken on a life of its own in our class!!!  :)  We went into the computer lab to comment on other blog posts.  We were finding all of the things that we have in common with classmates.  We also got to ask questions of our classmates to expand on.  They were so excited that I heard a bunch of kids say they wanted to go on the blogging site this weekend.  We set it up so that they could share about their Weekend News.  I hadn't planned on starting blogging at home, but I couldn't pass up this great opportunity with all of the excitement swirling around the classroom.

Have a great weekend!