FLOTSAM

Last week I mixed things up a bit by starting class off with a book called The Fallacy Detective. I thought it would be a good month to see if the students liked it as a brain warm up before writing. We are going chapter by chapter. Last week we learned about what a fallacy is and what it means to have an inquiring mind. This week we learned that in order to be wise we need to learn how to listen. We played a game where everyone told one line of a story; they had to listen to what each student said before them to know what was happening in the story and then add their part. It would be great to talk about listening at home this week to help reinforce what we learned in class.

We had fun with learning visually this week. We looked at a book, Flotsam by David Wiesner, which is strictly a picture book. Each student wrote what they thought was going on in each picture. The book is wonderfully illustrated and takes the viewer on an amazing journey. They can rewrite what they wrote in class for a ticket or they can keep working on jokes.

Next week will be our last class of fall semester. Classes will start again on January 9 and 10, 2013. I have had a wonderful time with your children this semester. Seeing growth in everyone's writing and enjoyment of writing is such a thrill. I do have a few spaces open in each class, so if you know someone who would like to join please have them call me.