This week we have continued to dig even deeper into our writing. We are getting really good at generating word referents. Ask your child for three alternate Adjective/Noun combinations to use instead of cat. (So you could say, fluffy feline, for example). Using referents helps avoid repetition when writing about  topic. Today we practiced when we read a picture book based on Little Red Riding Hood. Every second or so time we came across the word, 'wolf,' we used a referent, such as 'growling beast.' Try this at home! It's a lot of fun and provides lots of practice.

After our visit to the Ukrainian Museum, we brainstormed all we could remember. We then circled all the like ideas together. From these, we decided what the global, or main idea, of all the ideas was. This helped us to decide what paragraphs we could write about. We decided that we did not have many details about Pysanki Eggs, so that would not be a good choice to write about.

We then used our bank of main idea starters to craft a great topic sentence for our paragraph. Next we planned out our paragraph by choosing four details. We looked closely at each detail by asking ourselves the questions, 'What does it look like?' and 'Why is it important?' These questions help the students to add more depth to their work.

We took time from our work to create Found Poems to thank the wonderful volunteers at St Vladimir's Church. Found poems are a great way to access student understanding. You have to know what is important and what can be left out, as well as how to weave the lines of the poem so they have flow and they make sense.

We all created our own Found Poems but this is the one we created during guided practice:

Volunteers

We could not have wished

For anyone better than you

Outstanding educators

Thank you for guiding us

Round your amazing Ukrainian Museum

Everything was one of a kind

I saw colorful windows

Sparkling with light

The icons and pictures

Were standing with pride

I saw displays in windows

Yummy wedding cakes

Made out of bread

Doves to give away

Volunteers

Kind, loving and caring

I hope we see you again 

Housekeeping:

Acorn Art deadline extended to Friday. You can also use other art work that you can glue on. See the school email for further information