The four books that lit circle groups are reading are Blown Away, Finding Home Again, Big Sky Country, and The Big Catch. The books tell the story of children from the Southeast, Northeast, Southwest, and Northwest who face big challenges in their lives and how they cope with the challenges with help from family and friends.

Check out the Wisconsin State Reading Association’s Author Festival!

Print out the brochure here – Authors Festival 2010.

4A and 4K alumni who have attended the Authors Festival in the past have given the conference a two thumbs up!

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

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

TFK for Students

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!

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.

Created with Wordle and Skitch

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

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.