In Other Words ... with Grade 4

Fourth graders are practicing their paraphrasing skills. First we worked together to come up with synonyms and ways to recast a sentence.

ORIGINAL: The automobile that went by very quickly was maroon. It went through a big puddle and splashed us.

NEW Room 118: We were splattered with water when the large purplish car sped down the road into the puddle.

NEW Room 119: A dark red car zoomed through a puddle and got us wet.

ORIGINAL: The educator removed the unruly student from the learning environment because of the sounds he was making 

NEW Room 118: The teacher got rid of the student because he was making weird noises and being obnoxious.

NEW Room 119: The teacher kicked out the disrespectful student because he was distracting the other students.

ORIGINAL: In the metropolis, the recreation area was dilapidated. Youngsters received injuries when they attempted to utilize the equipment.

NEW Room 119: In the city, children were at a broken-down playground and fell down and got hurt.  

Then they worked on an individual assignment, putting the following sentences into their own words:

During my earlier years, I experienced much conflict with my male and female siblings who were born before me. Now that we are more mature, we have overcome some of our differences and have the ability to interact pleasantly.

Here are some of the new sentences the students came up with:

In my past, I argued with my brothers and sisters and over the years, we have learned to not argue. - B.G.W.

A couple years back, I had a lot of fights with my two older siblings. Now we're over and done with. - G.P.

A long time ago I argued very much with my older brother and sister. Since we are older, we put our differences aside. - S.L.

Now that I am older, my older brother and sister that I used to fight with, don't fight with me and I don't fight with them. - P.S.

What Ms. Moore Read in January and February

here are some of the most recent books I've read and recommend for my students. They're all available from the public library, but any donations towards getting them into our collection are most welcome! Cover images and descriptions are from Goodreads. 

Picture Books

From ant to butterfly to caterpillar . . . to zebra and then back again, Animalphabet is an entertaining puzzle as well as a gorgeous alphabet book to treasure.

Who can slither better than a rabbit? A snake! Who can growl better than a snake? A tiger! There are clever hints and peekaboo holes within the artwork that will amaze and delight young children as they learn to use the alphabet. 

Easy Readers

Winner of the 2019 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award. Fun-loving, mischievous Fox wishes he were a tiger. Tigers are big and fast and sneaky. So he decides to become one! Soon Turtle and Rabbit are joining in the fun. But will Fox want to be a tiger forever?

In Fox the Tiger, this winning trickster character and his animal friends learn that the best thing to be is yourself.

Middle Grade Fiction

For nearly a century, Victorian London relied on "climbing boys"--orphans owned by chimney sweeps--to clean flues and protect homes from fire. The work was hard, thankless and brutally dangerous. Eleven-year-old Nan Sparrow is quite possibly the best climber who ever lived--and a girl. With her wits and will, she's managed to beat the deadly odds time and time again. 

But when Nan gets stuck in a deadly chimney fire, she fears her time has come. Instead, she wakes to find herself in an abandoned attic. And she is not alone. Huddled in the corner is a mysterious creature--a golem--made from ash and coal. 

The Breakfast Club meets middle school mystery in this story of six very different seventh graders forced together in the aftermath of a vandalism incident.

When Theo’s photographs are vandalized and trashed beyond all recognition, there are five kids at the scene: The Nerd, the Princess, the Jock, the Weirdo, and the Screw-Up. All anyone will say is “It wasn’t me.”

Theo doesn’t care who it was, he just wants to stop being the victim. The sooner the school forgets the whole humiliating thing, the better. But his favorite teacher is asking the six of them to spend vacation week together “learning to trust” and getting to the truth. She calls it a Justice Circle. He calls it his worst nightmare.