Character Study, Punctuation and "Yarning" the Globe

What a busy week it was!

The first full week back to school was filled with lots of learning from a Character Study, to a sample writing prompt, review of punctuation, and ending with a "Yarning" the Globe activity.

      Our focus in Reading for the first nine weeks is on Elements of Fiction. So, I kicked it off with a lesson focusing on Character Traits. The student's learning goal was to identify and describe the protagonist in the story by paying attention to what the character said, did and thought throughout the text. Monday, I did lots of modeling with the students using the mentor text Mr. George Baker by Amy Hest charting my Think-Alouds and having the students turn and talk with their partner. Tuesday and Wednesday I used the story "Astronaut and the Onion" from our basal. Also on Wednesday, students worked independently reading the first chapter in their "Just Right" books and responded to their reading paying attention to what the character said, did and thought. Here's a pic of the Anchor Chart Pinterest inspired that  I created from Fabulous Fourth Grade.

Thursday we practiced how to take a 4th grade Reading Comprehension test using the UNERD strategy. 

Underline the Title

Number the Paragraphs

Evaluate the Questions

Read the Passage

Determine the Answers

Friday they took their assessment.

Students also did a writing sample this week, which took place on Monday and Tuesday. Students were given the prompt on Monday, and they brainstormed and wrote their rough draft. On Tuesday, a former student's essay was projected and students chose two good things about the essay and two things that needed improvement. Then students were given a slip of paper to find two good things and two things that they needed to improve on in their paper, and they did the same with their partner's paper. Finally, students were given time to write their final draft.

Students will focus on Map Skills for the first nine weeks, so we began with teaching parts of the globe. I found an awesome hands on lesson called "Yarning the Globe" that students enjoyed. Here are a couple of pictures of the students laying out the latitude and longitude lines.