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.

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

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!

Students went to the computer lab to go on a virtual field trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame to research famous Hall of Famers. Many students were able to view videos and photos of the players, along with other primary source documents available on the site.

Have you ever seen the comedy duo of Abbott and Costello perform their famous routine called “Whos’ on First?” Fourth graders practiced their fluency – and comedy skills – as they read the script of this hilarious baseball routine with partners.

4K’s current read-aloud book is titled In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, written by Bette Bao Lord. It’s a story set in the 1940s about a girl named Shirley Temple Wong who moves from China to America. Shirley doesn’t speak English and has trouble making friends in her new school until she discovers that she loves to play stickball. She also finds a hero in Brooklyn Dodger baseball superstar Jackie Robinson. Ask your fourth grader to share this wonderful story with you.

We also shared several read-aloud books about baseball, including Mama Played Baseball by David Adler, a story about the All-American Girls” Professional Baseball League, The Babe and I, a tale of a Depression Era boy and his father and Babe Ruth, and Teammates, which tells about the friendship between Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese during a challenging time in American baseball history.

These activities have combined reading, listening, social studies, math, research, and technology skills – and baseball! Not a bad way to spend a few days in the spring!

Would you like to read a outstanding book that even might leave you puzzled for a while?Then you should read Davy Crocket by George Sullivan.

This book is about Davy Crocket’s adventures around the world, life, and very important events in his life and friends and family’s life like the creek war.Davy’s personality in my point of view is brave and respectful because instead of staying at his nice cool cabin he went to fight for Texas’ independence and when Andrew Jackson tried to sabotage Davy’s campaign Davy still respected Andrew Jackson.

Davy Crocket is perfect for a report or even a class biography.Davy Crocket is fantastic when you just want to learn about great historical events like the siege of the Alamo.Or it’s also a great eye popping, Heart stopping, action packed, and book of fun!

Once again,if you would like to read a outstanding book get Davy Crocket at your library or book store.

Making over 100 American Flags for the army? Unbelievable! This truly amazing book I read is called Betsy Ross. It is by Peter and Connie Roop. Many of the pictures were from the Bostonian Society, and the Library of Congress.

In this biography, Betsy is a clever, nice and hardworking Quaker. She never gives up in all of her important tasks, such as running an Upholstery Shop by herself. Betsy gets married to a wonderful man named John Ross. Even though it was against her family’s rights, she believed it was the right thing to do. John Ross is a caring and hardworking husband. But he died after a gunpowder explosion, and was caught in it! Betsy was married two more times, but those husbands also died.

One of the reasons you should read this book is because of all the amazing accomplishments Betsy did. For example, she made over 100 flags for the army, or se cared for 7 children. Another reason you should read this book is some parts of her Betsy’s life were happy, like when her flag was chosen by Congress. The last reason is that other parts of her life were sad, like when all of her husbands died at different times in her life.

I would recommend this book to someone at least 8 years old because I sometimes felt like crying when someone in her family died. A lot of us think she did make the American flag, some don’t think so. Others believe she just worked in an Upholstery Shop. Who knows? You choose if she did or she didn’t!