Research Workshop!

Welcome back from vaca!  This week, we are kicking off a new nonfiction unit of study in both reading and writing.  At home, this means that students will be reading nonfiction books and recording those "nonfiction noticings" on their at-home reading logs.  At school, we are also reading nonfiction like writers as we begin the research stages of our nonfiction writing project - US Regions alphabet books in the style of Michael Shoulders (who we Skyped with earlier this year!)

Check out this Research Workshop document with a list of great resources!  In school, we will be using these resources to close read, paraphrase, and plan our nonfiction alphabet books.  Stay tuned for some amazing nonfiction in both reading and writing!

We HEART writing!

Room 20 STARS!
Thanks for the shades, Aria!!

Just before vacation, we wrapped up our unit on opinion writing!  As "essayists," our job was to persuade and convince our readers to agree with our opinion about a topic.  Our essays about important people were very persuasive and, most importantly, heartfelt!  We also created two poems "from the heart" during a two-day poetry workshop with Room 21 and Miss Farrell.  Check out our publishing party and the amazing compliments we received from our Mix-It-Up friends!  Be on the lookout for more spectacular writing after vacation!

Book Review Fun!

We've been having fun with reading this week in Room 20!  We've been working on forming and supporting our opinions as we read - just like in writing essays!  Book reviews are a way for us to recommend a new reading adventure to our classmates and support our recommendation with reasons to convince others.  Enjoy the work of Sydney, Elizabeth, Katie, Sam, Nate, & Dylan!

Our Week

Check out these talented singers!

What an awesome week! We've enjoyed being together in the New Year and we've learned a lot too!

For reading, we are working on sharing our opinions and backing them up with evidence. We've written opinion essays about characters in our books in Google letters! (You can check them out in our Google Drive. Feel free to respond with your feedback!). Some of us are in book clubs and others are working on creating video book reviews (like Ryann & Ashley's below!)

We've also been doing some close reading of nonfiction! We read articles about zoos to prepare us for our next read aloud book, The One and Only Ivan. Then we had our zoo debate with Miss Farrell's class! Girls debated boys and it was a lively debate about whether or not zoos are a good idea. Debaters used evidence from the articles and counter argued the other team's points. It was a perfect way to get us ready for our next book!

We are working on fractions in math! Stay tuned for some fun how to videos!

In social studies, we've been studying the northeast region! Stay tuned for some slideshows of Northeast landmarks!

Ryann & Ashley Dork Diaries Book Review

Check out Ryann and Ashley's video book review of Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life by Rachel Renee Russell!  These girls had a mini book club in which they read and discussed the book together and then prepared this book review to encourage others to read it.  Stay tuned for more updates on what Room 20 has been up to in addition to more video book reviews!

December Update!

We finished The Sisters Grimm and celebrated in style!

Here's a sneak preview of some of the exciting things we've been up to here in Room 20!  Our student bloggers will be posting articles later this week with more details, but here are some highlights.

We're writing fiction!
Narrative writing (story writing) can be both real or imagined and we are diving head first into the world of fiction!  Check out some fiction "storyboards" for planning our stories below!

Ashley drew a storyboard of one of our mentor fiction shorts, "Frozen Fever."

We celebrated Fairy Tale Day!
We were so excited and proud to have finished The Sisters Grimm!  Stay tuned for exciting details about our special celebration!

We're dividing and applying what we know!
Long division is the name of the game in math lately!  We're also using what we know about division to solve problems and find prime and composite numbers using divisibility rules.  Quiz on Thursday (12/17), so check out the pink study guide!

Gabi and Brandi did a great job collaborating on some prime & composite brain teasers!

We're on a Great American Road Trip!
Our new social studies unit is going to be so much fun - studying the US regions and Washington, D.C.  Stay tune for some awesome pics and slideshows!  Got any cool postcards or family photos?  Send them in!

Division HOW TO Video!

Hi everybody!  Today, we learned a new strategy for dividing.  It involves some multiplying and some subtracting to find your answer.  I made a short video of me solving an example problem to help you remember how to divide!  Use it to help you with your math homework and remember that homework is PRACTICE.  This is a new skill, so if it was easy and automatic, that would be surprising!  Remember,  you might not feel comfortable with division YET, but that doesn't mean you won't feel better after a few days of practice, which is EXACTLY what we've got in store for us this week (and next!)  Try your best and keep moving forward!

Extra! Extra! Rooms 20 & 21 Press Release

As part of our study of fairy tales in conjunction with our class read aloud, The Sisters Grimm, students worked in cooperative groups, or "news teams," to create fairytale-inspired newspapers!  At our "press release" last week, students got a chance to read other teams' newspapers and give them specific comments and compliments in their "Letters to the Editors" notebooks!  It was a time to celebrate the hard work, cooperation, and creativity students exhibited in this short two-week project.

Students really flexed their writing muscles a lot in this project!  They wrote to entertain, inform, and persuade their readers through creating cover stories, ads, weather reports, and special features.  Students learned the difference in "voice" between a narrative of an event and a newspaper article of the same event.  Students also had the chance to grow their technology skills by using some of the more sophisticated features on Google Docs such as margins, font sizes, inserting photos and captions, and creating tables!  WOW!  When asked what they've learned from the experience of creating a newspaper, students' responses were varied and impressive!  Check them out below:

“The newspaper helped me and my team work together and it taught us about different forms of writing” -Ashley M. & Katie D.

“From creating a newspaper, we’ve learned how to inform, persuade and entertain” -John & William

“We’ve gotten better at working together as a team!!!” - Cailyn & Elizabeth

“We learned that working with a team is so much more fun and helpful than working alone.” - Ashley C. & Gabi B.

“From creating a newspaper we’ve learned to write a newspaper and you have to make it interesting. We have gotten better at typing from creating a fairytale newspaper.” -Abby & Gabby M.

“We have got better at creating newspaper articles, decision making and deciding on the weather advertisements.” -Dylan & Brandon

“From creating a newspaper, we learned how to create ads and do awesome cover stories as a team.” -Casey & Brandi

“I think we got better at typing doing the newspaper assignment. I think we got better at making tables on the Chromebooks.”- Ryann & Kayla

“From creating a newspaper, we are better when we work together. We’ve gotten better at fairy tales from creating the newspaper.” - Eden & Sam

“We’ve gotten better at using Chromebooks and creating a newspaper articles.” -Sydney & Julia

“From creating a newspaper, we learned how to type faster, work better in groups, to be creative with our writing and think about fairy tales. We also learned how to work tables and use snapshots.” -Sammy & Shane

“From creating a newspaper, we’ve learned more about fairy tales.” -Aria & Arianna

“We’ve gotten better at using teamwork from creating a fairy tale newspaper.” -Brad & Sam

“”By creating this newspaper, we have learned how to use our knowledge of fairytales in different ways. We have also learned better teamwork and gotten better at typing.” -Nate and Samir

“We learned how to be more creative by coming up with ads.” - Jasmyn & Brooke

“We have gotten better at using the chromebooks and working as a team from creating fairy tale newspaper.” -Michael, Ben & Nick

Check out the photos and be on the lookout for a tote bag of all NINE published newspapers coming home soon!  All families will have the chance to check out the newspapers and leave their own "letter to the editor" for our budding staff reporters!  

Wrapping Up Picture Book Month!

Two Skype visits with picture book authors completed our celebration
of Picture Book Month!

Fourth graders wrapped up Picture Book Month in a BIG way on Monday!  We enjoyed not one, but TWO Skype visits with authors of picture books - Michael Shoulders and Tara Lazar!

Michael Shoulders, author of many alphabet nonfiction books, answered lots of our questions about his writing process, how picture books are printed, and about the history behind some of his latest projects.  He told us about how writing is a lengthy process.  In fact, it takes him about a school year to write one book!  When we write nonfiction books ourselves, we'll have to remember how Mr. Shoulders told us that research and rewriting are two very important pieces in the process!  He told us that it wasn't easy publishing books, but it was so worth it!  What a great life lesson!

Tara Lazar, author of Little Red Gliding Hood, among other picture books, entertained us with a lively read aloud of her fairytale inspired book!  It went along perfectly with our fairy tale unit and it was so funny.  She even wore her PJ's and told us about the writing process from her point of view.  Interestingly, Ms. Lazar echoed what Mr. Shoulders said about writing being a long process with lots of revising and changing and going back and forth before the final copy is produced.  We are so excited to write our own fiction pieces after speaking with her!

As Picture Book Month comes to a close, I can only say that I have a renewed excitement for picture books as a teacher, reader, and mom!  Be sure to stop by the Barnes & Noble Book Fair this week at B&N in Bellingham for more picture book fun!  I'll be there with my whole crazy family reading one of my latest faves, so be sure to come by and purchase some books to help out fundraising for literacy at JFK!

Brandi, John, and Dylan Celebrate Picture Book Month!

We've been enjoying lots of fun picture books this month at school and at home!  Check out some Room 20 families enjoying picture books together.

Brandi and her mom enjoy reading picture books at night!

John and his sister enjoy The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home.  (Mrs. Adams does too!)

Dylan enjoys reading pirate picture books from the JFK library!