The fourth grade watching the film adaptation of Because of Winn-Dixie.

Over the past eight weeks or so, the fourth grade readers and writers have been studying the realistic fiction literary genre. The realistic fiction novel we have been reading is called Because of Winn-Dixie, a story about a lonely girl who moves to a new town, adopts a stray dog whom she names after a grocery store, and befriends a series of unlikely characters who all end up a little less lonely thanks to the dog that brings them together. During this study, we have participated in regular collaborative discussions and literature responses, using text evidence to support our answers in discussion and writing. We have also been walking through the writing process to create our own realistic fiction narratives, which we will be publishing and sharing with one another soon!

Ms. Jessica

Hello from 2nd Grade!

I love seeing students grow in the processes of writing. The first writing we did this year was a personal narrative. We are presently in the middle of our second piece of writing, story writing. The students are learning that writing is a longer process than they think. We learned a short chant that helps us memorize the steps of the writing process. It includes: brainstorming, writing a rough draft, editing our work, publishing, and adding a picture. We use bubble maps for our character development and story maps to help us plot out the beginning, middle, and end of our story as well as helping us to make sure there is a problem to be solved.

I love seeing the creativity and watching them add details to their stories to make it interesting for the reader.

The skill of being able to write well is so important for them to learn from a young age. Great writers come from great thinkers. Great thinkers make great communicators. I hope that they can grow their writing skills this year and as they get older!

Blessings from Mrs. Andrea and the 2nd grade!