We do poetry readings each trimester. Our first time will be during October. Each child has signed up for his or her day on the class calendar. 

I asked each child to 

1. Pick out a book of poetry to read. I hope they read the whole book! I hope they pick a book they like!
2. Choose poems to read aloud. 
3. I didn't give a set number of poems to read. I said, "Plan on reading for about five minutes. That could be one really long poem or several short ones."
4. PRACTICE reading the poems aloud. Find out how to pronounce all the words. Think about your facial expression and gestures.
5. Come in and read aloud!

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​And here's the rubric.

I also asked students to interview someone who is older than them--their parents' age or older. It can be a family member or a family friend. The questions have to do with how things have changed over that person's lifetime.

The final draft, typed questions and answers (or a sets of paragraphs) is due Monday, October 14.

​You can see the directions here:

We had a great talk today about how hard this class is and about how it's easier to "hit the wall" in elementary school instead of high school or college.

I told the kids if they feel like they are in the deep end of the pool, that makes sense. My job is to teach them how to swim. To encourage them--to "put courage in."

We ran into a few technical difficulties in the computer labs this week, so I told the kids I would give them more time next week to work on their job applications and the writing prompt about their place or adventure (or both). No homework over the weekend!

The image shows the notes from our first grammar lesson. We talked about how writing might be important for a variety of reasons. One boy said you might need to be able to write to do your job. I told about a class I took on computer programming for gaming. I asked the instructor what classes students should take to get into the filed. He said (wait for it) grammar and creative writing! Wow, were my students surprised! See if your child can tell you why those classes would be important for that kind of job.