Our classroom quote of the week is:

No one is perfect–that’s why pencils have erasers.

What does this quote mean to you? Tell us about a time when you could have connected this quote to your life.

We learned how to write a list poem. First we read one by Bruce Lansky:

I Can’t Write A Poem by Bruce Lansky

Forget it.

You must be kidding.

I’m still half asleep.

My eyes keep closing.

My brain isn’t working.

I don’t have a pencil.

I don’t have any paper.

My desk is wobbly.

I don’t know what to write about.

And besides, I don’t even know how to write a poem.

I’ve got a headache.

Time’s up? Uh no!

All I have is this dumb list of excuses!

You like it? Really?

No kidding.

Thanks a lot. Would you like to see another one?

Then we wrote our own!

What Bugs Us

So many things

When mosquitos suck our blood

When our mother makes us eat brussel sprouts

When the class is too loud at lunch

When our siblings help themselves to our stuff

When we have to work all day

Maybe we’ll move to the moon.

We’d love hear about the things that bug you! 

We have worked hard on writing our first comic strips!  All of the comics are based on the fiction stories that we recently published.  Please visit our public gallery, read some, and please be sure to write us back some comics.  We are looking for feedback to help us make them even better next time!

Link to Public Gallery: bs4s.me/g/HMLV

Over the past two weeks our class has been learning how to write fiction stories.  We learned about creating believable characters, thinking about the characters’ needs and wants, writing small moments that “show-not tell” what the character is feeling, and then piecing all of the small moments together to write a complete story that includes a problem and a solution.  We used a story mountain to help us plan the rising action, the ultimate conflict and then the resolution. 

Today we started retelling a scene from our stories as a comic strip. Check out our blog next week to see some of our stories and comics!

We learned that the Early Settlers had to sew their own blankets.  They used scraps of fabric from old clothes, blankets, and feed sacks.  Not only did the Early Settlers use their creativity when sewing quilts, they also used fine motor skills and math skills to create beautiful quilt patterns. 

One of the most popular designs was the Log Cabin.  The centre square represents the hearth and the light and dark sections represent the firelight and shadows around the hearth.

After taking part in a class quilting bee, in which we each sewed one log cabin quilt block, we all agree that quilt making was hard work!  Life as an Early Settler was not easy!

We have continued to write small moments that have happened in Princess Peach’s life.  We created this small moment to show our readers that Princess Peach does not have a lot of friends. 

Two days after spending her birthday alone, Princess Peach saw a group of kids playing football. “I wish I was playing that game with those kids,” she thought to herself. Peach walked over to them and asked to join the game.

“No way! Go away! No one wants to play with you!” they told her.  “You’ll ruin the game like you always do.”  Peach’s face turned red hot. She was frustrated. “I don’t want to play anyway. You guys are babies!” she yelled.

When writing our small moment we tried to do 4 things:

• make it sound like a story
• write a good lead (a good lead has action, setting, dialogue)
• use some description
• not summarize events

Do you think we were successful?

We have begun a new unit in writers’ workshop all about fiction!  We have created a character as a class.  Her name is Princess Peach.  We started out by brainstorming external and internal characteristics.  Then we considered our list of internal characteristics and worked on writing a small moment story to “show, not tell” the characteristic.  Here is our first small moment story that we wrote as a class. 

 After reading it, let us know what kind of character you think Princess Peach is.

It was a beautiful summer day.  The carnival was in town.  The kids were excited about the giant jumping castle.  Princess Peach could hear all the laughter from her hotel room. “I wish all that noise would stop!” she muttered.

Peach looked at the needle hanging from the quilt she was working on. “I know!”she said.  Peach grabbed the needle, sneaked outside and walked behind the castle. 

“This will fix everying!” she whispered.  She pushed the needle into the castle but the rubber was too thick.  The needle broke in half.  “I can’t believe my bad luck!” she exclaimed.

Check back for more Princess Peach Adventures!

Our class loves to read!  Matthew surveyed the class and the results are in!  Check out the graph to see which genres we like to read the most and which genres we like to read the least.

For us in Room 210 Remembrance Day provided an opportunity for us to reflect on what peace is, the sacrifices that soldiers made for us in the past and things they are still doing today.

We looked at many pictures of Flander’s Fields, both photos and paintings.  We read the poem, In Flander’s Fields, on our own, with partners, and as a whole class.  We talked about each line of the poem and what it meant.  Fluency was also our focus as we practiced reading the poem with expression, suitable pace and timing.  The class performed the poem at the primary assembly.  Although they need to work on projecting their voices, the class did an amazing job of reading the poem with expression, pace, and timing!  They are a class to be proud of!

The class created 2 pieces of art around the theme of Flander’s Fields.  They learned what a horizon is, had a chance to explore the use of water-colour paints, and creating poppies using mixed media.  They used paint, tape, paper, glue, plastic, sticks, and buttons to create texture in their pictures.

Please take a moment to respond:

What things do you do to “keep the peace” in your life and for those around you?

Orange and Black Day was lots of fun at Birchview!  We all agreed that the dance was the highlight of the day!  Later that night everyone in this class went out trick-or-treating.  The next day we remembered our Halloween night with these words:

A head in a crystal ball, full bad, spook-tacular, trick-or-treating, haunted house, lots and lots of candy, happy, table, dressing up, excited, heavy bag, jack-o-lantern, spooky, scary, sad, freaky, vampire

We have started writing personal narratives, zooming in on a small moment of Halloween night.  Check back to read our great leads!