Friday, January 31, 2014
Friday, January 17, 2014
Jan 17, 2014: MAPS Testing and Green Screens!
Today was a bit of an odd day, we essentially had comm arts class all day long! Whooooo! During the morning we had comm arts for all three core class hours. Mr. D showed us how to use software for a project that we are starting. Using the scarology stories students wrote, everyone will be creating a digital story using our green screen room. They will be reading their story while pictures and video of what is happening in the story is happening on the screen behind them. It's the same concept/technology that a weatherman uses to give the forecast!
Students learned the concept behind the project today, and began working on their storyboards. The storyboards break up their original story into chunks based on what image or video is happening in the background. The next step will be to go get the pictures and video that are necessary and then we will head into the green screen room! It should be an awesome final product!
We spent the afternoon MAPS testing.
Monday's schedule will look the same as today's!
Students learned the concept behind the project today, and began working on their storyboards. The storyboards break up their original story into chunks based on what image or video is happening in the background. The next step will be to go get the pictures and video that are necessary and then we will head into the green screen room! It should be an awesome final product!
We spent the afternoon MAPS testing.
Monday's schedule will look the same as today's!
Monday, January 13, 2014
Jan 13, 2014: Touching Spirit Bear
Homework: Sentence of the week, Lit circle packets Day 1 questions
We started class today with DEAR time and then read from our read aloud book Girl Stolen, for a little bit since it had been so long since we were able to read it! After reading we reviewed our sight word cards and learned a new Sentence of the Week skill. We learned our final rules for writing with dialogue this week. Remember to review where the commas and periods go, as well as where things need to be capitalized!
Our second half of class was spent working on Touching Spirit Bear. Students broke up into their lit circles and began reading chapter 3. I handed out their lit circle packets today. Really really really really try not to lose these!!! We will use these packets daily, along with our reading so the loss of them will be devastating!
Your homework tonight will be to write your three new sentences for sentence of the week, and to finish your day one questions in your lit circle packets. Have a great night!
We started class today with DEAR time and then read from our read aloud book Girl Stolen, for a little bit since it had been so long since we were able to read it! After reading we reviewed our sight word cards and learned a new Sentence of the Week skill. We learned our final rules for writing with dialogue this week. Remember to review where the commas and periods go, as well as where things need to be capitalized!
Our second half of class was spent working on Touching Spirit Bear. Students broke up into their lit circles and began reading chapter 3. I handed out their lit circle packets today. Really really really really try not to lose these!!! We will use these packets daily, along with our reading so the loss of them will be devastating!
Your homework tonight will be to write your three new sentences for sentence of the week, and to finish your day one questions in your lit circle packets. Have a great night!
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Jan 9, 2013: Touching Spirit Bear
Welcome back! Three days off has left us rejuvenated and ready to learn! Right? Right???
We started class out with DEAR time and then reviewed sight words. After that we moved right back into reading from Touching Spirit Bear. We finished chapter one and completed the question sheet. Before beginning chapter two we went over some book long projects that we will be working on. We discussed theme and reviewed the themes of some common books and movies. Touching Spirit Bear has many themes and some are unfamiliar topics. Student pairs chose a theme and they will research the topic and present to the class. This will provide them with a deeper understanding of the meaning of the book.
We will continue reading the book in lit circles tomorrow and will begin discussing figures of speech.
We started class out with DEAR time and then reviewed sight words. After that we moved right back into reading from Touching Spirit Bear. We finished chapter one and completed the question sheet. Before beginning chapter two we went over some book long projects that we will be working on. We discussed theme and reviewed the themes of some common books and movies. Touching Spirit Bear has many themes and some are unfamiliar topics. Student pairs chose a theme and they will research the topic and present to the class. This will provide them with a deeper understanding of the meaning of the book.
We will continue reading the book in lit circles tomorrow and will begin discussing figures of speech.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Dec 10, 2013: Scarology
More editing of our scarology papers today! Students worked on beefing up their paragraphs. We also studied our sight words and worked on sentence of the week skills.
Tomorrow we will look at adding dialogue to our paragraphs which will go along with our sentence of the week work.
Tomorrow we will look at adding dialogue to our paragraphs which will go along with our sentence of the week work.
Monday, December 9, 2013
Dec 9, 2013: Scarology
Homework: Sentence of the Week
We started class out with some DEAR time and then practiced our sight words. We learned a new skill during sentence of the week. We learned how to use front-end dialogue, or how to write sentences with the spoken part written first. We will continue to practice this throughout the week.
We spent the second half of class reviewing what goes into every good paragraph, and what the difference is between narrative and expository writing. We then jumped on the computers to do some editing to our scarology stories. Everyone had to go through their paragraphs to make sure they had all of the elements of a good paragraph. They are....
- Topic sentence: Tells your reader what they will be reading about
- Supporting Details: 3-5 per paragraph that support the topic
- Concluding or transition sentence: Wraps up your idea/moves your reader onto what is happening next
- Transition words: Next, later, after, then....etc.
We will continue working on this tomorrow and will work on adding dialogue to our stories!
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Scarology Cont: Nov 13, 2013
We began a new read aloud today in class! The book we started is called Girl Stolen, by April Henry. So far it has us hooked! We left off on a cliffhanger so we might have to pick it right back up tomorrow! While reading today we jotted down notes about the characters we met, the setting, and some other important details. To sum it up, Cheyenne is a 16 year old blind girl that is accidentally kidnapped when Griffin, a confessed career criminal, steals her parents Escalade from a parking lot. At this point Griffin is freaking out about having Cheyenne and is very worried about what "Roy" (a character we don't know anything about yet) is going to do to him for messing up.....
After read aloud everyone practiced their sight words and then we worked on Sentence of the Week. What I found when looking at everyone's homework was that we need to remember that when using conjunctions you need to have a complete sentence on either side of the comma! We'll continue working on that tomorrow!
We finished up class by continuing to discuss scarology. We used this doc (not sure if you'll be able to open it or not). We talked about how a personal narrative is a TRUE story about the author! Some of you were wondering if you could embellish your scar stories but they need to be TRUE! We also talked about creating a good introduction that would suck your reader in. We'll keep working on this tomorrow as well and talk more about personal narratives.
No homework! Have a good night!
After read aloud everyone practiced their sight words and then we worked on Sentence of the Week. What I found when looking at everyone's homework was that we need to remember that when using conjunctions you need to have a complete sentence on either side of the comma! We'll continue working on that tomorrow!
We finished up class by continuing to discuss scarology. We used this doc (not sure if you'll be able to open it or not). We talked about how a personal narrative is a TRUE story about the author! Some of you were wondering if you could embellish your scar stories but they need to be TRUE! We also talked about creating a good introduction that would suck your reader in. We'll keep working on this tomorrow as well and talk more about personal narratives.
No homework! Have a good night!
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