Dear Students,

Reading can be so much fun! However, it can also be challenging, especially when you get confused by the text.

Sometimes readers get confused because the author wrote in a complex way. 

• Example: "Complete darkness, not a hint of the silver world outside, the windows tightly shut, the chamber a tomb-world where no sound from the great city could penetrate." (by Ray Bradbury)

Readers can also be confused because they don't know certain words.

•  Example: With her kids running around the waiting room screaming, the mother secretly prayed that there was a sedative in the juice boxes she was opening. 

Sometimes readers are confused by figurative language (similes and metaphors). 

• Example: "Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." (by Marcel Proust)

Other times readers don't have enough background knowledge to understand what the author is describing.

• For example, if you're reading a story that has a scene that involves Formula 1 racing, and you know very little about race cars at all, you may be confused by the author's descriptions.

We all need strategies to help us battle confusion in our reading.

Describe a time you were confused by something that you read. 
Why was it confusing? Then, describe what you did to clear up your confusion. 

I look forward to hearing about your strategies for clearing up confusion in your reading. Happy responding!

Listen to this short clip of the fifth grade singing "Dona Nobis Pacem", which is Latin for "Give Us Peace." The amazing music teacher, Mr. O'Neil, conducts this gorgeous choir of voices and instruments.

Students dissected owl pellets (owl barf!), in which they found the skeletons and fur of numerous rodents. Students then sorted the bones and then rebuilt the skeleton of the devoured animal. We learned about food chains, animal adaptations, and skeletal structure. Check out the action!

Wow! We've made it to ten blogs!

Have you ever read a book that has a powerful message? You know, when you finish the book, you feel as though you just learned something about yourself, other people, or life. Often books have multiple messages that the authors want you to take away. We call these messages, "themes". A theme is a central idea to story.

A book that I recently read that has powerful themes is "Hound Dog True" by Linda Urban. One theme is about having confidence in yourself. Another theme is about not judging people. In the story, the main character is an extremely shy and self-conscious girl named Mattie. Mattie meets the girl next door, Quincy, who is older and appears to be "popular and cool". Throughout the story, Mattie is worried that Quincy is judging her. She thinks Quincy is uninterested in being her friend because Mattie is babyish and awkward. However, Mattie learns that Quincy has a big heart. She discovers that Quincy has her own insecurities, just like Mattie. At the end of the story, Mattie realizes that Quincy is her friend and has been all along.

I thought the themes of confidence and not judging people were powerful. I could relate to Mattie's stress that Quincy was judging her. She had low confidence in herself. However, it turned out that Mattie was the one doing the judging. Mattie assumed that Quincy didn't care about being her friend because of the tone of Quincy's voice and how little she said. But Mattie was wrong. Quincy enjoyed Mattie's company and liked doing the same things Mattie did. Mattie learned a valuable lesson not to judge people and to have confidence in herself.

Describe a story that has a powerful theme (or themes). Explain how the story brings forth the theme. Explain why you felt moved by the theme.


Happy Responding!

For this creative homework project, students researched a planet and then designed a space home that would allow them to live on that planet. Check out their imaginative work below!

Have you ever read a story where the main character has to make an important decision? Not just an everyday, common decision, like what to have for dinner, but a challenging, significant decision. Important decisions are ones that affect the characters' lives. These decisions change the course of the story for better or for worse.

Let me share an example of what I mean. In the story that I'm reading, called "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand, the main character Louie is a troublemaker. As a little kid, he was always stealing, getting into fights, and throwing himself into danger. As he got older, his brother decided to step in and encourage him to run on the high school track team. Louie tried it, but hated running, so instead, he decided to run away from home. 

However, that is not the decision I am referring to. Let me explain. Once Louie ran away from home, he faced all sorts of hardships that he wasn't prepared for. He got kicked off of a train at gunpoint for hitch hiking. He had to seek shelter in a barn. The only food he had to eat was canned beans. Life away from home was not what Louie expected, even though he was used to trouble.

Louie realized that this was not the kind of life he wanted for himself. He knew he could be better. He decided to go back home and make something of his life. He decided to commit himself to running on the track team. With the help of his brother, Louie trained every day. He wanted to be the best runner. Because of his decision to change his life, Louie changed himself from a troubled kid into a champion. He became a star runner. His determination made him the best runner in the nation. He beat numerous world records. People who used to hate him for stealing their things and beating up their kids now adored him. People cheered and praised Louie wherever he went. 

Imagine if Louie decided to remain away from home. What a different life he would have had! The book probably wouldn't be  much of a story if Louie hadn't made the decision to go back home and be a better person.

Describe an important decision that a character has made in a book you have read. 
Tell all about how the decision affected the character's life or how the decision changed the course of the story. Include enough background information so that readers can understand why the decision was so important and difficult.

Happy responding!

Summarizing is an important skill for all readers to know. When you summarize something, you tell about the main idea and the main points of what you read. Summarizing is very different from storytelling, which is what we have been learning to do in Writing. Unlike storytelling, summarizing does not zoom in to the little details. Instead, you look at the big overall picture of what happened.

Summarize the story so far in your independent reading. Focus on the main points and big ideas so that readers can get a sense of the overall story.

Check out our dioramas and some excellent writing from our Ecosystem Extravaganza project below. Students had to research an ecosystem and recreate it in a diorama. Then they needed to write a story from the perspective of an animal in their ecosystem. On top of all of that, students then wrote a poem or a rap about life in their ecosystem. Great job everyone!

This fun math game has students sorting polygons by their properties to get points. Students especially enjoyed the betting part, where they could draw extra property cards that still matched their polygons and quadruple their points.