Week 1: Students have learned previously about how fictional stories have a beginning, middle, and end. Now they are learning, in more detail, what information an author includes in each of those parts of the story. We are focused on pourquoi tales.

Week 2-3: Students planned and wrote their own pourquoi tale. They brainstormed, drafted, revised, edited, and published their work. They have also learned how to peer edit each others papers.

Week 4: We focused on poetry! Students learned about repetition, rhythm, and rhyme. We also talked about how poetry is made up of stanzas and lines. My favorite part of poetry is how it can break grammar rules, which we also explored!

Week 5: Students learned how to find the main ideas within a text by looking at each subheading, side bar, or text box. Students also learned how to find connections through these different sections.

Week 7: Students learned about adaptations and the different types (physical and behavioral). We focused on the Amazon Horned frog and the Water Holding frog. Students wrote paragraphs about the frogs' adapations with a partner. Students also made corrections to a previous reading test they had taken.

Week 8-9: Students researched a frog, either the Amazon Horned frog or the Water Holding frog, and wrote a research paper about their adaptations (physical and behavioral). Students also learned about verb tenses (past, present, and future) as well as some irregular verb conjugations.

Idioms: Each Monday, students are learning a new idiom. Idioms are a type of figurative language that are sayings not meant to be taken literally. These can be challenging for students because they have to memorize what they mean. They're also fun for them to learn since they can sound silly!

To help your student(s) get a better handle on the expressions, I will list them here as we learn them and you can use them at home too!

When pigs fly
Time flies
On cloud nine
Two peas in a pod
All ears/ I'm all ears
Catching some z's
Don't cry over spilled milk
It's raining cats and dogs
Two heads are better than one
Don't let the cat out of the bag
Hit the hay

Q1: Reading Challenges

Weekly Updates:

Week 1, 2, 3, and 4: Students are learning the difference between main idea in a narrative nonfiction text (using the summarizing model somebody, wanted, but, then, so) and the moral the story.

They are learning to write responses using the model RAP (restate, answer, and proof). Students will begin with paragraph writing about Nasreen and Rain School

Week 5: We will focus on context clues. This is a challenging skill for students, so it may take them some time to master it.

Week 6: As a class, we will read a nonfiction text about how some students in Kenya get books. Students will write a paragraph including information such as the geographical features, problem, solution, and importance of the library.

Week 7: Students researched a new country (Thailand, Canada, or Indonesia) and learned about how some kids get books in those different places. They wrote a paragraph on what they learned.

Week 8: We read More Than Anything Else about Booker T. Washington and discussed the historical context. Students reviewed a test on Mongolia (focused on main idea and context clues) and made corrections. They also independently wrote a paragraphs on Mongolia.

Week 9: Students wrote essays on the challenges and solutions related to reading around the world.

I ordered a culture kit from UNC's African Studies Center about Kenya. Students have been able to hold many artifacts from the kit as hands on learning.

We made our own rain schools to see how they were affected by our climate!

Q2: Frogs

Q3: Peter Pan

Q4: Water

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