Reading Discussion and Strategy Groups

The CAFE model: Students have been learning that there are several skills good readers possess.  We use the acronym CAFE (stands for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanded Vocabulary, taken from the book The CAFE Book, by Gail Boushey and Jan Moser.) Each student has a goal they are working on under one of these headings in order to improve themselves as readers.

 

The magazine Storyworks has been a wonderful resource in our reading workshop time.  We have read fiction and non-fiction stories as well as poems.  Ask your child if they used Storyworks in their reading group time.

Volunteers

Thank you all for the overwhelming response to our volunteer needs in the Lily Pad.  Hopefully, you all know your scheduled time.  If there is a conflict, just let us know.

Writing

Our writers are working hard on their personal narratives.  Most students have written 2 or more discovery drafts.  All students are given a check list to help lead them through the writing process.

Once they choose a seed idea, they create a timeline of events. Then, they rehearse storytelling their idea to their writing partner or to themselves.  In their writer's notebooks they craft a few leads, choose the one they like the best and then enter it into their writer's notebook.

They then write their discovery drafts, and then revise for clarity and understanding.

 We have also learned how to use our timelines to take out information that is not important in the story and take a point in time from the timeline and expand it, adding more details.

They have also been learning how to find the most important part of the story and adding more details to make it clear and interesting to the reader.

Over the next few weeks students will be editing and creating a final personal narrative!

Stone Soup

After a successful trip to the market students all contributed an item to create the Lily Pad version of Stone Soup.  It was delicious and very colorful! Thank you for preparing the vegetables for our soup.

The Bicycle Blender

Luke's dad, Scott, brought in a special project he helped to invent...a bicycle blender! This is a project he worked on for a group called Sector 67.  Here is the link to their website.

www.sector67.org. 

Scott brought in items to make smoothies and the students all took turns taking a ride on the bike.  Here are a few photos from our experience.  I will have a full list of photos available at the end of the month. If you would like an email including all those photos, please let me know and I will include your name on our email list.

A giant shout-out to Scott for helping to make this experience happen for the kids in the Lily Pad.  What a unique way to demonstrate innovation and peddle power all in one!  I hope some day one of these students will bring a cool invention back to their former third grade teacher and help to inspire future inventions!

Crazy Hair Day

It was a crazy day at Marquette and a lot of students were looking a bit WILD! Gotta love crazy hair day!

The Hipper Hopper Drama Club

Annie and Tessa have coordinated a group of 14 students to create a drama group that meets on Fridays at lunch time.  It is called the Hipper Hopper Drama Club.  They began their meeting by introducing themselves and what they liked about drama.  They are deciding what they need to do in order to create  a play that they can perform for the class.  This is a completely student run group and I was so impressed at how smoothly it functioned!  It was apparent that Tessa and Annie put a lot of thought into the planning and how the group should function.  I guess my role has been whittled down to advisor and supervisor...I love it!

Well, it's late and I need to sign off for now!

Reminders for the week to come:

• The unveiling of the Lily Pad T-shirts on Monday!
• The Marquette Mile, Wednesday, October 19
• Willy Street Walk, Thursday, October 20
• No school for students on Oct 27 and 28