The Worm Family Has Its Picture Taken

In fourth and fifth grade, we are practicing the Somebody / Wanted / But / So / Then method of summarizing a story. 

We read The Worm Family Has Its Picture Taken - written by Jennifer Frank and illustrated by David Ezra Stein - as a class and then the students worked together to write these summaries: 

Mrs. Worm 

wanted to take a picture with her family. 

But Emma wanted her family to be more colorful, 

so she got a box of a bunch of accessories. 

Then they looked drippy. 

Mrs. Worm 

wanted to remember her family, 

but she had such a small brain that she couldn’t. 

So they decided to take a picture. 

Then they made the word “Cheese” with their bodies. 

Emma 

wanted her family to have a picture like her friends’. 

But she wasn’t like her friends. 

So she was sad. 

Then she decided to order what her friends had: colors, hair, and teeth. 

The family 

wanted a family portrait to hang up in their house. 

But when Emma saw her friends’ family portraits, she felt bad. 

So they dressed up. 

Then the photographer couldn’t recognize them. 

Emma 

wanted to have a special picture like her friends, 

but all of her friends’ pictures kind of made her sad because she wasn’t like them. 

So she got stuff to look like them. 

Then the photographer didn’t recognize her family. 

The family 

 wanted to take a picture, 

but they looked drippy and Mr. Muskrat didn’t know who they were. 

So they took their costumes off, 

Then Mr. Muskrat recognized them as Emma’s family. 

Emma 

wanted her family to take a picture, 

but Mr. Muskrat didn’t recognize them with those big goofy buck teeth. 

So they took all of it off. 

Then they took the picture and it was “perfectly perfect.” 

The family 

Wanted the photographer to take their picture 

But he didn’t recognize them. 

So they took off their costumes. 

Then they turned their bodies into letters and spelled “Cheese.”

Mapping the Library

The first activity we did in the older grades this year was mapping the library, recording on a diagram where each section of books lives. Here are some students in action

.

Hey, Riddle, Riddle

At the beginning of the school year, I asked kids in grades 3-5 to warm up their brains by working together to solve riddles. Can YOU figure out the 3rd grade ones? 

1. You are a cyclist in a cross­-country race. Just before crossing the finish line, you overtake the person in second place! What place did you finish in? 
   
   
2. Jimmy's mother had 4 children. She named the first Monday and the second Tuesday. The third is named Wednesday. What is the name of the fourth child? 
   
   
3. You are driving a bus. At the first stop, 2 women get on. The second stop, 3 men get on and 1 woman gets off. Third stop, 3 kids and their mom get on, and a man gets off. The bus is grey, and it is raining outside. What color is the bus driver’s hair? 
   
   
4. Which is heavier? A pound of feathers, or a pound of rocks? 
   
   
5. What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it? 
   
   
6. In my hand I have two coins. Together, they total 30 cents. One isn’t a nickel. What are the coins?

I had to wait to post pictures of the students until we got the new photo permissions list. 

Book Talk Books 2023-2024

I can recommend books all day long, but sometimes (often?) kids' opinions and tastes differ greatly from mine. Therefore, on checkout days, I have students in grades 3-5 recommend books to each other via book talks - short little "ads" for titles they love. 

Here are their recommended books from the past school year - most popular at the top. Series and graphic novel favorites endure, so I've indicated NEW titles in those categories from last year. 

Already in collection

Series

• Babysitters Club 
• Dog Man 
• Wings of Fire 
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• Bad Kitty 
• My Weird School 
• Super Potato 
• Percy Jackson 
• Captain Underpants  
• Elephant & Piggie
• I Survived 
• Owl Diaries 
• NEW: Charlie Bumpers 
• NEW: 5 Worlds
• NEW: InvestiGators 
• Magic Tree House
• Clementine 
• Amulet 
• A Dog's Purpose 
• Dork Diaries 
• Harry Potter 
• The Princess in Black 
• Big Nate 
• The Flying Beaver Brothers 
• Lost in ... 
• NEW: Narwhal and Jelly 
• NEW: Whatever After 
• NEW: Classroom 13 
• NEW: Bad Guys 
• NEW: Frog and Toad 
• NEW: Ranger in Time 
• NEW: 13 Story Treehouse 
• NEW: Chicken Squad 
• NEW: Ivy & Bean 
• NEW: Wayside School 
• NEW: Heidi Heckelbeck 
• NEW: Super Diaper Baby 
• NEW: Mr. Wolf's Class 
• NEW: Squish
• Ghosts of War 
• Last Kids on Earth 
• Cat Kid Comic Club 
• Bone
  
  

Picture books

• Pete the Cat books 
• Creepy Carrots 
• The Day the Crayons Came Home 
• The Missing Piece 

Standalone Graphic novels

• Allergic 
• Ghosts 
• Smile
• Sisters 
• Guts 1
• The Aquanaut 
• Chunky 
• Measuring Up 
• Sunny Side Up 
• NEW: Robot Dreams 
• NEW: I am Pusheen
• NEW: Freestyle
• NEW: Frizzy
• NEW: Real Friends
• NEW: Comics Squad
• NEW: Drama
• NEW: Clash
• NEW: Cardboard Kingdom
• NEW: Just Beyond: Monstrosity
• NEW: Doodleville

MG Novels

• Because of Mr. Terupt 
• Hatchet 
• Holes 
• My Life as a Potato
• The Lion of Mars 
• Masterminds 
• Ribsy 
• Vanished 
• The Crossover 
• Masterminds 
• Ollie's Odyssey 
• Nothing is Little  (RICBA nominee)
• Rump 
• Out of My Mind 
• Brian's Hunt 
• Coraline 
• Deep and Dark and Dangerous 
• Charlotte's Web 
• Zia Erases the World  (RICBA nominee)
  
• Coraline 
• The Real McCoys 
• The Mysterious Benedict Society 
• Bridge to Terebithia 

Nonfiction

• Weird But True 
• Michael Jordan on the Court 
• Titan and the Wild Boars 
• This or That? 
• Guinness Book of World Records 
• How to Draw ... 
• Basketball by the Numbers 
• Steph Curry 
• Killer Underwear Invasion 
• Glow: Animals with Their Own Night-lights

 

Books I will add to the collection

Series

• Total Mayhem! - added in January!
• Hooky - ordered!

Graphic novels

• Frizzy - added in the fall!
• FGeeTV: Switcheroo Rescue - ordered!

MG Novels

• Tuesdays at the Castle 1 - added in January!
• A Wolf Called Wander 1 - added in January!
• My Teacher is an Alien 
• The Traitor's Game 
• Fly on the Wall 
• Odder
• Million Dollar Shot 
• A Videogame Stole My Sister 

Coding with Cups - 4th Grade

We celebrated Computer Science Education Week a little late in 4th and 5th grade with the "My Robotic Friends" activity from code.org / Tinkersmith. Using a "coding language" of arrows and symbols, the students had to write a program that would build a particular configuration of plastic cups. Here are 4th graders in action.