Podcasting for Fluency!

Hey there! Listen up!

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We have started podcasting to practice oral language and improve oral language development. Not only are we having fun, but we are learning how to speak loudly and clearly and developing new vocabulary too.

After podcasting we listen and reflect on our work. Our first podcast was about an adventure that occurred during our week long October break.

Listen to your podcast, then reflect on what you think you did well and write about that. Then, think about what you would like to improve when we podcast again. Set some goals for your next podcast.

Moving On Up!

Inspirational Sayings

What are inspirational sayings?

They are one or two sentences that have a powerful message and really make you think. You may only have to think for a few seconds to understand the message, or you may have to think longer and maybe talk about the saying with friends. When you do begin to understand the message you usually think, “Yeah, that’s really true!”

Think of an inspirational saying that you find meaning in. It may be one your parents have taught you and repeated your whole life. Or it may be one that is taught to all of the children of your culture as they grow. If you have one in your first language, that’s great! Translate it the best you can so that we can understand it. Then write about what you think it means. We can share some of our favorite sayings and comment on one another’s. We can inspire each other!

So, first write/translate your inspirational saying in English.

Next, write what you feel it means to you.

Then, read and comment on other sayings.

Let’s broaden our minds and do some deep thinking!!!

Anchor Us In Your Scene!

You are all developing your realistic fiction short stories and are doing a fabulous job!

Let’s see how you are "anchoring your reader" in your scenes so that the reader is there with your main character and can actually see the movie in their minds as your scene unfolds.

Choose a scene you feel you have done a good job of creating the setting. It should be one where you have also used dialogue and small actions to show, where the character/s are, and what they are doing.

Write that scene on our blog and let’s see if we are there with you!

Fascinating Fiction Stories

You are all writing your own realistic fiction stories. You know that in stories the main character really wants something and that problems arise that get in the way of the character getting all that he or she wants. The  problem gets worse and worse and then more problems occur that the character has to deal with.These problems or struggles the character has and how he or she deals with them is what keeps your reader hooked and want to continue reading.

You have mapped out your stories on a story mountain. Please briefly share with us the main points on your story mountain. What does your character want? What gets in the way of your character getting what he or she wants. What other problems does your character have? How does he or she struggle to solve the problems?

And finally, how will the problem/s be resolved?

Be sure and write your response in a word document first so that you may revise and use the spell check, then copy and paste it into our blog.

Poetry Favorites

Poetry can take you places, create scenes in your mind, lead you to look at, and think about things in new ways. It can make you laugh or make you cry.

You have all been writing wonderful poems in your classes. Choose your favorite original poem and write it in this blog post. Then write a reflection on why it is your favorite poem. How did you come up with your idea? Was the poem easy or difficult to write?

Please write about the literary devices that you used in your poem. Did you use similes, metaphors, personification, figurative language, onomatopoeia, repetition or any other of the literary devices that poets use? If you have two favorite poems, then share them both with us and your reflections on them too!

Learning About the Past through Historical Fiction

We have begun a new reading unit called Historical Fiction. This is a genre that takes us on journeys with the characters in our books into the past. It can be a bit difficult to understand sometimes as we travel back to times that we don’t know because we weren’t alive then, and to places we have never visited. To read and understand Historical Fiction we must stop often to visualize the time period and piece together, like a puzzle, the lifestyle of the characters and the important events on the time.

Think about one of the Historical Fiction books you have finished.

* Write about the time period the book took place and how you know this.

*What did you learn about the time period that you did not know before you read the book?

*Why did the author write the book?

Be sure to use the "tracking your thinking" notes in your Readers Notebook to do this reflection!

Watch this video on Gold Mining in Canada. Then click on the link Gold Mining Game to journey to a gold mine and mine for gold.

You can travel to Cariboo Gold Mine in this Gold Mining Game !

Mid-Year Successes & New Year Challenges!

You have come to the end of your first semester in fifth grade! Wow, it seems as though the semester has zoomed by! And you all have made such wonderful progress!

It’s time to reflect  back on this semester.

What has been difficult for you? What has been easy?

Think about your progress in learning English. How are you advancing in your reading, writing, listening and speaking skills?

What are your goals for next semester? What would you like to improve upon and how do you plan to do this?

What other New Year’s Goals do you have for the coming year? What do you want to achieve in other areas of your life besides school?

Please write your reflection using all the tools you have in your writer’s backpack. Be sure to reread, revise and edit your writing before you post it.

Happy New Year! : )

Sharing Our Nonfiction Learning!

We have been reading nonfiction books and discovering all sorts of information that we never knew before. After noting on post-its and then sorting our post-its to help organize our thoughts we then reflect on the information we feel is most important and that we want to hold onto, to take from the books with us.

Think about one or several of the nonfiction books you have  read on a topic.

What learning have you held onto? What information will you take with you stored in your brain? What would you want to  share with others? What questions do you still have about the topic?

Share your learning in a reflection post so that the rest of us can learn too!

Get Ready for Nonfiction Reading!

We are beginning a unit of study on Nonfiction Reading. But what does that mean?

Well, we know the suffix non means not , so we know that nonfiction means not fiction . This means we will be reading and learning about all sorts of topics that are real. We’ll read informational texts, newspapers, magazines and journals. We can read about anything we want to know more about.

Think about what you already know about nonfiction texts. Write what you know about this genre.

Then write some of the topics you are interested in learning more about. Think  and write some of the questions about this topic that you want to find the answers to.

We can share what we learn right here on our blog!