Monday, monday

Hello,

I just practiced my guitar for about 45 minutes. My after school meeting was cancelled and I decided to get some time in. I can't feel a couple finger tips now, so please excuse all typos.

We are continuing to work with setting. We spent a few days with Crow Call by Lois Lowry. She is a fantastic author who describes her settings beautifully. I'm hoping to see some transfer over to our class writing, and decided to give it a few more days of study. We're now going to use some Chris Van Allsburg books. We read a bit of Queen of the Falls, but tomorrow, each student will grab their own Allsburg book and look for setting descriptions.

I started my one on one writing discussions. This will go on all year. My first impressions are what I expected. Many kids really don't do one bit of editing as they write. They shouldn't have to wait for "revision time" to capitalize and punctuate. I know this is partly on me. I don't think major editing and revising should happen during first drafts, but I'm seeing how many kids have interpreted this to the extreme. Periods and capital letters isn't major editing and needs to be done as they write.

In read aloud, our main character, Mr. Terupt, is in a coma. His students were fooling around on the playground and he got hit by an iceball. It will be interesting to see how his class deals with it and see how much blamed is dished all around.

We're getting more and more familiar with atoms, elements and the periodic table. Tonight's assignment is to make words using only the letters from the symbols of the elements. For example:
Rain could be made from Ra and In (Radium and Indium).

All fifth graders in the Willy Wonka musical that is being put on by Ms. Brown and Ms. Hodgdon, our music teachers, will get a chance to watch the original movie that the show is based on in our room at lunch times.  We're starting with our class, Mrs. Greene's class and Mrs. El Ghazouani's class. We'll meet every lunch on Mondays and Fridays until it is done, and then we'll rotate classes. Tuesday lunches are our new skit club. Wednesday's are for Harry Potter Club and I have duty on Thursday.

I do realize that the play is based on the book, but the songs of this musical are based on the old movie. The new movie version is not something I recommend.

All for now. Guitar club tomorrow until five. Get practicing: kidsguitarzone.com. It works for adults too!

Thanks,

Steve