Ms. Kreul’s Class Blog

Visit Jon Scieszka’s amazing site Guys Read, a web-based literacy program for boys. The goal of the site is to help boys become self-motivated, lifelong readers.

ReadWriteThink Printing Press - Cool online tool for creating newspapers, brochures, flyers, and booklets at home

Math Activities – A variety of activities for each grade that match the units in the WFB math series

Each week fourth graders work on fluency, expression, pace, and interpretation as they read poems from their Poetry Folders.

Remember that Reading Log pages can be downloaded from the class blog so students can type their reading log entries each week. A great way to practice keyboarding skills!

The class will be learning how to do Literature Circles in 4KR next week using a variety of Junie B. Jones books. Students will write comments similar to reading log entries and discuss their thoughts with a small group of classmates in the circles. Book reviews too!

Time for Kids – or TFK – is the news magazine we read each week to find out what is happening in the US and around the world.

Visit the student site for TFK for learn more about this week’s issue and lots more…

TFK for Students

A Group Book Review by 4K on Sept. 18, 2009

Do you have a pesky little brother or sister? If you do, you’ll love Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume.

Peter Hatcher is a 9 year old boy with an annoying 3 year old brother named Fudge. One day the boys went to the dentist because Fudge tried to fly like a bird from the monkey bars at the park. He knocked out his two front teeth. At the dentist Fudge refused to open his mouth. The dentist and Mrs. Hatcher made Peter open his mouth so Fudge would too. Fudge always wants to copy Peter and be just like him.

If you like funny books, you’ll like the part when Fudge gets to be in a commercial for Toddle-Bikes. Do you have a little brother or sister? You’ll really understand the book because you know what little brothers and sisters are like! If you’re a fourth grade teacher, you will want to read this book to your students because it’s about a fourth grader. Is realistic fiction one of your favorite genres? You’ll love this book, too!

You’ll like this book if you have siblings, students, or just love a funny story. Run, don’t walk, to your library or bookstore and pick up a copy of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. It’s a comedy that any kid with a little brother or sister can relate to!

Teachers will soon be assessing student reading skills using “3-Minutes Reading Assessments.”

Students read a passage aloud while I observe their word recognition, fluency, expression, phrasing, and pace. Then students are asked to retell what they read in the passage to check for comprehension skills.

The results of this informal assessment, along with individual conferences using books students are reading for SSR time, will be used to plan lessons and projects for the whole class, small groups, and individuals.

4K has started using Time for Kids (TFK) as part of the reading curriculum. TFK is wonderful for learning about current events, reading about interesting people, learning how to read nonfiction texts, discovering how fiction texts differ from fiction texts, working on reading fluency with partner reading, and practicing comprehension skills.

Created with Wordle and Skitch

4K brainstormed a list of what makes books easy, challenging, and just right for fourth grade readers. They will use their ideas to make sure they are reading just right books for most of the time this year.

Easy books:

Understand everything
Not enough words on a page
Too much white space
Text size too big
Takes a short time to read
It’s way too short
All the words are easy
Don’t need fix-up strategies
Read fluently
Too predictable
Doesn’t keep your interest
Can’t make predictions
Have lots of schema

Challenging books:

Don’t understand a lot
Too many words on a page
Too little white space
Font is too small
Lots of hard words
Too long
Can’t make predictions
Don’t have much schema
Takes too much time to read
Doesn’t keep your interest
Can’t read fluently
Use too many fix-up strategies
Read later in the year or next year

Just right books:

Understand most of what’s going on
Enough words on a page
Text size is just right
White space is just right
Takes an average time to read
There are a few hard words
Use fix-up strategies a few times
Read fluently
Can make predictions
Have lots of schema
Keeps your interest
Want to read more in the series
Want to read more by the author
Enjoy reading

Information about Reading Log homework is included in this week’s Friday folder.

There is an information sheet and a yellow Reading Log sheet. I’ve also included a sheet with ideas of how to respond to books and a list of book genres.

Other homework assignments can be found in Assignment Notebooks and online on the class web page.

Fourth graders have done a terrific job this week organizing desks and school supplies, greeting old friends and meeting new friends, learning schedules and routines, and working hard during the first few days of school.

After listening to the read-aloud book The First Day Jitters, fourth graders shared times when they felt nervous – or had the jitters – when faced with a new situation or challenge. Students wrote personal narratives describing a memorable time when they felt nervous or scared or anxious.

Be sure to ask your fourth which character had the jitters in this entertaining picture book. 

ReadWriteThink has organized a wonderful collection of summer reading and writing projects for students in Grades K-12 called Learning Beyond the Classroom.

Check out the Grades 3-5 section and write sports poetry, create online trading cards, making board games, and lots more.

Leave a comment to recommend a cool activity that you tried out!

4K is currently working on the last round of Literature Circles for the year. The genre is mysteries, and students are reading and discussing these wonderful books – The Mystery of the Phantom Ship by Laura E. Williams, The Mystery at Miss Abigail’s by Lois Gladys Leppard, Key to the Treasure by Peggy Parish, and The Mystery of the Haunted Playhouse by Laura E. Williams.

Students worked together to set up a reading schedule for the number of pages to read each day, depending on the number of days available. There are always 2-3 additional days added to the schedule to write book reviews for publication online.

Fourth graders are assessed on their participation in Lit Circle discussion groups, their written responses to daily reading assignments (similar to homework reading logs), and an independently written book review.

4K has begun a short unit on Wisconsin in social studies. Among other activities, teams of students will be reading about Wisconsin’s history, geography, government, and people, then presenting WI facts to classmates using posters, songs, maps, or other formats of their choosing. In other words, they are the teachers for this unit!

4K has been composing poetry using the poetry templates on the wonderful web site ETTC’s Instant Poetry Forms.

After experimenting with the many different forms, students chose one to complete on the online form. Next they copied and pasted the poems into Open Office Writer documents. Then they saved the documents to the server and printed copies to use to practice for podcasting.

After several days of practice, students recorded their podcasts using Audacity on the teacher’s iBook. The teacher saved the .aup files as .mp3 files and added the podcasts to the class blog.

Elle’s poem is titled “Excellent Birthday”

Hannah’s poem is titled “Me and My Shadow”

Tommy’s poem is titled “I Am”

Dylan’s poem is titled “Dylan’s Ice Cream Store”

Annie’s poem is titled “Now I Am a Kid”

They hope you enjoy listening to their poetry!

Poetry Podcast #4 May 2009

4K has been composing poetry using the poetry templates on the wonderful web site ETTC’s Instant Poetry Forms.

After experimenting with the many different forms, students chose one to complete on the online form. Next they copied and pasted the poems into Open Office Writer documents. Then they saved the documents to the server and printed copies to use to practice for podcasting.

After several days of practice, students recorded their podcasts using Audacity on the teacher’s iBook. The teacher saved the .aup files as .mp3 files and added the podcasts to the class blog.

De’Ana’s poem is titled “I Can’t Write My Own Poem”

Jacob’s poem is titled “Fruits and Veggies”

Curtis’ poem is titled “My Many Names”

Evangeline’s poem is titled “Worry Poem”

Sam’s poem is titled “I Wish”

They hope you enjoy listening to their poetry!

Poetry Podcast #3 May 2009

4K has been composing poetry using the poetry templates on the wonderful web site ETTC’s Instant Poetry Forms.

After experimenting with the many different forms, students chose one to complete on the online form. Next they copied and pasted the poems into Open Office Writer documents. Then they saved the documents to the server and printed copies to use to practice for podcasting.

After several days of practice, students recorded their podcasts using Audacity on the teacher’s iBook. The teacher saved the .aup files as .mp3 files and added the podcasts to the class blog.

Andrew’s poem is titled “Who Am I?”

Lizzie’s poem is titled “I Am a Squirrel”

Xavier’s poem is titled “Once Upon a Time I Caught a Little Rhyme”

Vlada’s poem is titled “Hello Spring”

Joseph’s poem is titled “I Am a Lizard”

They hope you enjoy listening to their poetry!

Poetry Podcast #2 May 2009