Promise to Kate

Our class will be supporting "Promise to Kate" for our "Seasons of Giving" project this year. Kate was born with myotonic muscular dystrophy which is an inherited gene that laid quietly in their gene pool. Kate's parents, Elizabeth and Dave Conte, founded "Promise to Kate," a foundation that embodies their promise to raise money to cure the disease. The money they raise goes to fund research but also helps families who need services of Wolfson Children's Hospital. Elizabeth is a teacher here at Chets Creek and she came with Kate to speak to our class about their organization. Our students were quite impressed when Kate signed the whole alphabet for us :). Our class made special ornaments that will be on display in the front lobby. In receipt of your donation to this wonderful cause you will receive one of these special ornaments. 

Oreo Turkeys :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Persuasive Writing

This week we have been working on our Persuasive Writing unit. We started our unit reading books with persuasion in them. We read I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff. We talked about the reasons Alex used to persuade his mom to let him have the iguana. Then we discussed whether or not those were valid reasons. Next, we learned that in order to write a powerful, effective persuasive letter, it is important to write about something you really care about. So then we brainstormed ideas we were passionate about through a heart map. Students came up with some great ideas! They then created a T-chart about what they wanted to persuade someone to do and gave reasons why they should agree with them. Finally, we used a planning sheet to organize our writing. We will continue to work on our Persuasive Letters and  then turn them into powerful persuasive essays. Stay tuned for our published work!

Author's Purpose

We have been working on the reading concept: Author's Purpose. Writers always have a purpose, or a reason, for writing. This week we learned how to pay close attention to clues in what we are reading to figure out the author's purpose. It was as easy as P.I.E.E :).