Updates and Kindness ROCKS!

Welcome back!  We hope all students and families had a great Spring break.  We have eight very busy weeks of the school year left, it's hard to believe we'll be sending this amazing group of kids off to fourth grade before we know it!

This week we've jumped right back into the swing of things.  A highlight of the week was placing our KINDNESS ROCKS in various locations in and around EMES.  We've already had some wonderful feedback from students and staff that the rocks make people smile and think about the important messages students wrote.  Here are a few samples below.  If you and your family have some time, one day soon, it might be fun for you to have your child show you some of the rocks, it's kind of like going on a kindness treasure hunt!

Literacy Updates
We began Book Clubs this week.  Students are working in clubs of 2-5 classmates reading the same book and working on a variety of comprehension skills.  This work includes writing responses to prompts such as:

• Who is the main character in your book? 
• What are your first thoughts about the character so far?  
• What evidence from the text supports your thinking?

Another important piece about Book Clubs is learning skills and strategies about how to have a productive discussion with a group.  We're using a series of discussion prompts to help students become more comfortable with this lifelong skill.  Here are some samples of prompts students are learning.

• I agree/disagree with you because…
• At first I thought________________, but now I’m thinking_____________
• What gave you that idea?
• Can you say more about that?
• I heard you say__________. I’m thinking______________.
• You/the text just said________________.  That’s making me think__________.
• I can connect to your thinking by __________________
• Have you ever thought about this _________________________
• I’m not sure, but maybe….
• I’d like to add on to what _________said,
• This might not be right, but maybe….
• What do you think about…

These prompts can be really helpful in any type of discussion, maybe your family can try some of them out at home! The overall goal is for this kind of discussion to eventually become regular practice without needing the prompts.

Spelling

This week we've been working on vowel suffix endings and how they can change the meaning of words as well as how some base/root words need to be changed to accommodate endings. For example, we've been adding -er, -est to words to compare. We've concentrated on rules of doubling consonants like: red, redder, reddest. Changing y to i and adding es: such as happy, happier, happiest. Dropping the final e: wise, wiser, wisest.

Writing
Students continue writing persuasive speeches. We're concentrated on "directly addressing your audience", writing bold, brave introductions, and conclusions that reflect a "call to action". This work will continue over the next two weeks.

Sharing

Our May Sharing Calendar has been published here and also on our sharing link in the sidebar. We went over the calendar with students today and gave each child a hard copy as well as the "Book Buzz" page that needs to be filled out.  A lesson was taught about how to do the "Book Buzz" and specific examples were given, so students should be all set.  We'd like students to read chapter books that are new to them to complete this assignment.  

Have a great weekend!