We've been working hard on this year's Shakespeare play-- Much Ado About Nothing! As part of our study and preparation for our play, we learned about the life and times of Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth.
Fun facts:
Did you know that Shakespeare created about one-third of the words and phrases he used in his plays and sonnets? In fact, he invented over 2000 words and expressions. We use many of them today! We honed our research skills during library and language arts. Each student researched a topic of his/her choice and created a filmstrip report. Then, they completed bibliographies. We've worked hard on essay writing skills this year. We played a game called "Writing Ninjas" where we focused on:
1. Using all words in a question to answer the question 2. Writing a 3-part thesis 3. Writing 3 topic sentences based on the thesis statement 4. Adding specific details that match each topic sentence 5. Writing conclusion sentences 6. Adding a hook and background information at the very beginning of an essay, so the reader knows what you're about to write about 7. Drafting a conclusion paragraph - restating the thesis and then explaining briefly why what you're talking about matters For our January book reports (due February 4th), we did oral presentations using 7-10 items in a bag. We had to practice telling fluent stories about what happened in the books we read.
For December's monthly book report, we made our own games. The game had to show the title, author, theme, protagonist/antagonist, and events from the story. Other than that, games had to be complete, colorful, neat, and creative. We had a great day playing the games students made. I'm almost looking forward to our next indoor recess when we can play again. Here are just a few of our awesome creations! For our November book report, we wrote 16-24 line poems using a rhyme scheme. It was a bit tricky trying to describe our books and rhyme at the same time, but we did well. Here are some samples:
EPHESUS CAST SYRACUSE CAST
Our second book report was a map. We had to illustrate and explain the beginning, rising action, climax, and falling action of a book we read independently this month. We even used the map key.
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May 2017
AuthorKaren Redmon originally migrated to SLC from Memphis, TN. She has a Bachelor's in International Relations from BYU and a Master's in Teaching from Westminster. She's taught 4th, 1st, and 5th grades. Her interests include: camping, hiking, swimming, dancing, singing, pottery, sewing, theater, music, reading, and most of all-- learning. Categories
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