Today the 4th graders started a new unit focused on the hero's journey, a storytelling pattern popularized by Joseph Campbell, that is followed by ancient myths and modern superhero tales alike. Over the course of this quarter, the 4th graders will be studying the hero's journey and conventions of storytelling, writing their own hero's journey tale, and engineering a shoebox crankie to bring it all to life. 

Today, the students learned what the hero's journey is and identified movies, books, and video games that fit into the cycle. They then wrote three first-person postcards from the perspective of a favorite story's protagonist during the Departure, Initiation, and Return stages of the hero's journey. Photos of the postcards were either added to their Book Creator portfolios or will be added next week.

We will need to collect some supplies to create the crankies in a few weeks, so please check out the In Search Of section below to see if you can help!

I also was able to tell the students some exciting news today... I'M PREGNANT! for an ultrasound photo and other snapshots of my winter break, be sure to check out the site homepage.