Newsletter: Tuesday, May 5

I took a break from a game of Cross the Ocean to let some of the girls "fix"
my hair. I don't know what was more worrisome - their stylings or the fact
they were using water from the playground to sculpt.

Dear Families,

We are hard at work on our biography expert projects. Everyone has completed their (initial) research and are currently writing it into story form. On Monday we studied how other biographers have crafted their leads and each of the kids tried two from the list with their own piece. Today they edited and revised these with a partner then chose which one they wanted to keep. After that decision was made we read a biography of Alice Coachman to see how other biographers organize their information. We found that these projects are quite different from our earlier animal expert projects in that most authors do not use chapters to break up the information. Rather, they just tell the story of someone's life.

The kids have selected the format for their own writing and are now in the process of typing it all up on the Chrome Books.

After our first day of typing we checked our word counts to see how much we accomplished in our forty-five minutes of typing. The kids really are getting to be much faster at typing. I wish, however, we had a formal program to help them learn to type from the home keys. That, to me, seems a lot more useful than spending a month or more learning cursive. However, they make due and tap out word after word after word. They are to be commended for their hard work!

Our goal for today was to get 150 words typed. It was not a race of any kind. In fact, going a bit more slowly is a great idea because it allows the kids to think and rethink how they plan to craft their research in ways that is inviting to their readers. A few of the kids are well below 150 and will need to catch up at home. Tomorrow's goal is to reach 250 words. The final draft needs to be at least 600 words long. I assume this will call for a second round of research for many of the kids. They will likely find that once they have typed up what they have there are still a number of unanswered questions to be answered as well as important details to chase down.

Speaking of biographies, we are also launching new book clubs this week. Everyone in the class selected a biography they were interested in reading and formed book clubs around these. They are reading a chapter or two each day then getting together to talk about what they learned.

Finally, don't forget the kids are putting together a walk-a-thon next week to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. We will be walking three miles on Friday, May 15 during our PE time and then enjoying a picnic lunch together. Ms. Mahowald's class is joining us for this event. I told the kids today to check with you to see who they might ask to pledge them. Thanks, in advance, for any support you can offer them!

Chris