Six Word Essays

We recently published our personal essays. As part of our publishing, we wrote six word essays, inspired by Ernest Hemingway's six word memoir. Though six words may not sound difficult to write, this work required writers to synthesize weeks of essay work.

Please enjoy the video of our class reading our six word essays.

Assemblies by Sal

Lately we've had some really cool assemblies. One was where someone told us about fire safety, and one was where this guy came in and did something really cool!! Basically, he came in and took four chairs from the audience and four people and put the chairs so they faced north, south, east, and west. The kids sat down in the chairs, then he took away the chairs!

One of them was where a policeman came in and told us about bike safety, which I guess was cool...

So, yeah. We've had a whole bunch of other ones, too! So I hope you liked this!

Room 101's Math Class by Braiden

Lately in math we have been learning how to multiply 2 digit multipliers and 1 digit multipliers. We have practiced doing them with the traditional algorithm.

We have done something called hot calls. What we do is Mrs. Mills or Mrs. Barnett write a rounded fact and everyone does it in their head. Then Mrs. Mills or Mrs. Barnett calls on anybody (you don't raise your hand). Then, the person answers it. Next, the class agrees or disagrees. Finally, we do the next problem. Hot calls are normally in the mini-lesson.

A mini-lesson is what we do every day in math after our math message. In the mini-lesson we learn about what we will practice. After that we do a sheet or math journal page to practice what we learned. And that is room 101's math!

 Doing the math message before the mini-lesson.

 Doing partner work in the mini-lesson.

Doing a sheet after the mini-lesson.

The photos above were taken and captioned by Braiden.

Wemberly's Ice-cream Star by Megan

I made an iMovie about the book Wemberly's Ice-cream Star. The reason I chose this book was because I liked the cover.

When I was reading the book, I had to think about not going too fast or too slow. I practiced reading the book until I thought it was perfect. I liked recording the book in iMovie. I hope you enjoy it.

Nonfiction Celebration

For the past month, we've been reading nonfiction texts and learning how to move from thinking about topics to thinking about main ideas that are supported with facts and details (i.e. evidence) from the text.

To celebrate this hard work, students chose a page of notes from their reader's notebook that they were particularly proud of and created a visual that taught an idea from the text with evidence. They added color to show meaning and may have included visuals. The work on each student's poster came from their notes on their nonfiction reading.

Before our celebration, students practiced teaching their reading partner and gave and received feedback to improve their presentation. They presented their posters to a group of three classmates. We ended the celebration with a gallery walk to share our notes and posters with the whole class.

The video below includes photos of the posters created as well as a few moments of the teaching happening.

Artists by Jack M.

This month during Art, we are learning about Van Gogh. Van Gogh sold a few paintings, but after he died, some of his paintings became priceless! Van Gogh lived 37 years and started painting when he was 27 that means he only painted for 10 years. In 1888, Vincent left Paris and went to a French town called Arles. The reason we are learning about Van Gogh is because every month we learn about a new artist so we can learn about different styles of art.

Realistic Fiction Pieces Around Fair Haven

We're excited to share that our realistic fiction pieces have been hung around town! Thanks to Caroline, Lucas, James, and their families for helping to hang these pieces.

Each hanging piece also has a QR code in front of it. The QR codes are the black and white images that can be scanned with a smartphone (there are free apps to scan them). Once the QR code is scanned, you'll be sent to a link that will allow you to listen to the writer read golden lines from his or her piece. Hearing the lines read aloud by the writer really brings the writing to life!

Golden lines were chosen, practiced, and recorded by the writer. The lines reflect the writing goals of each writer during this unit. Some of our goals were to use a variety of details (e.g. action, thought, dialogue, setting...) and to include sensory details and figurative language. (Some writers had the goal of add paragraphs more consistently throughout their piece, which won't be reflected in their recording.)

Here's a breakdown of whose pieces are where:

Tavolo - Jack S., Maia, Marcus, Harry, Patrick, Sophie, Jack M., Sal, Maddie, Megan, Harris, Lily, Lucas, Christina M., Maisy, and Braiden

Fairwinds - Quinn, Christina U., and James

River Road Books - Ellie, Caroline, Connor, and Cameron

We're so thankful to these Fair Haven businesses for allowing us the space to share our writing!