Throughout the year, we will spend about 6 weeks each on specific writing genres. Our first writing genre this year is memoir. Some memoir writing we have done so far includes our 4th Grade Memory Poems, our Mathographies, and a memoir connected to a mode of transportation. As we have been writing memoirs, we have also been reading lots of memoirs including selections from What It Is by Lynda Barry, Knots in My Yo-Yo String by Jerry Spinelli, and Childtimes: A Three Generation Memoir by Eloise Greenfield. Our next memoir will be a food memoir and will focus on a specific experience, either positive or negative, with food. We’ve been doing some prewriting brainstoriming lists of foods, and today we read a piece by the poet and prose writer Naomi Shihab Nye called Mint Snowball and we identified some writing techniques used to enhance the descriptions in our writing. We highlighted the use of sensory details as well as some figurative language and similes as we read about the author’s memory of a mint ice cream treat from her childhood.
One day a week, during our literacy block, we check out the laptop mobile lab and the students use the computers. The past few weeks we have been doing some basic computer literacy work with Mac OSX and learning about formatting and word processing using Microsoft Word. This week the students were given a chance to experiment with a web-based graphic organizer called bubbl.us Bubbl.us allows users to quickly create cluster graphic organizers, save them on the web and print them out. The students began organizing some of their ideas about possible food memoir topics. You can take a look and try making some bubbls yourself by following this link.
Homework:
- Vocabulary: Finish packet and study words for test.
- Math: Study Link Page 33 – Open Number Sentences
- Reading: Read for 25 minutes and fill out Reading Log. Get Reading Log signed!
Mr. Weis
