Note Writing

We have been hard at work, putting our iPads to good use! We have been working on taking notes about the different temperate forest animals we are learning about. We have been using the app Popplet, which lets students create webs of their thoughts. Some students have even added drawings and photos to show what they know. Once we finished putting our notes into the app we started using them to write paragraphs about the animals we choose. We told about their habitat, food, why they are important to the forest, and why they are endangered (if they are). We are still working to edit and finish our final drafts of these paragraphs! It is so amazing to see the kids refer back to their notes to check facts and edit their work!

iPadding Away!

The week before school started we found out we had been selected to receive an HSD Technology Services grant! This grant covered 15 new iPad minis and several apps. This is one iPad for every two students! We have been so excited to start working with them! Last week we began playing with Popplet, an app that lets us share our thinking with others. We started by making a Popplet of fall ideas. Check out some of the great work below!

We will be using Popplet, Notability, and other apps this year to practice our note-taking skills, turn those notes into writing, and publish our writing in several different ways! I can't wait to see what these guys come up with!

Writing a Summary

Part of all students' homework each week is to write a summary of what they are reading. For some students, this may be a summary of the chapter book they are reading. For others, it may be a summary of a picture book they read at home. Since we have been working hard on how to write summaries at school, however, each child should be able to write about what they are reading. We have been practicing with fiction, using the anchor chart below.

Students need to identify who the story is about, <i>SOMEBODY. Then they think about what they WANTED. Characters never just get what they want, so there is a BUT something happened. SO, the character tries to solve the problem. THEN the story ends. We have found this to work really well for almost all fiction books and many non-fiction as well. If your child is still needing some support at home, ask them to tell you: Somebody Wanted But So Then Happy Reading!