Introduction to Procedural Writing

Last week, we read the story 'Bone Button Borscht', which is a version of the famous 'Stone Soup' story. As a class, we talked about what the story was trying to teach the reader, which was how we often have more than we think we do, when it comes to being asked to help others. However, we also talked about how the story is basically a recipe to make borscht, and this was the perfect kick-off to our unit on procedural writing, as a recipe is essentially a procedure. Procedural writing is where the author makes a list of ingredients/supplies, and then lists the steps (in order) that the reader would need to complete the task. The goal is for all of the students to eventually write up a procedure for something that they are an expert in. Before we get to that, however, we'll be doing a number of activities in class, first where I model what procedural writing looks like, followed by the class working together to write some procedures. Yesterday and today, I showed the students how to write a procedure, by picking something I'm an 'expert' in (racing in a triathlon), and creating a list of supplies and the steps needed to successfully compete in a race. Below are a couple of photos of our learning together - stay tuned to see what we're up to next...

 



Winnipeg Youth Orchestra

We were lucky enough to end the school week (there are no classes for the students tomorrow, as it is a city-wide in-service day) today with a special concert by the Winnipeg Youth Orchestra (which is made up of students from Grade 6-12). It was a fantastic performance, and they played some Tchaikovsky, a Cuban-inspired piece... and then ended off with the William Tell Overture! Here's what some of our students thought of the performance:

The last song sounded like something from a horse race... or a baseball game! - Braedon and Zoey
It sounded FABULOUS! - Kaelyn
It was like a journey through music. - Emily
It was awesome, and I really enjoyed it. - Easton
It was amazing, but most of the time I didn't know what was happening, because it would go loud and soft, fast and slow - it was confusing sometimes. - Jaida
The last song reminded me of Ariel, when her dad is coming out of his palace in The Little Mermaid. - Kayleigh
The second song almost made me do the conga! - Taryn
It was the loudest music I've ever heard! - Nolan
The last song sounded like it was from the Roadrunner cartoons. - Maegehn

Being celebrated as writers and artists

Yesterday, we received an invitation from our principal (Mrs. Cross) to meet her in the front foyer of the school. As you read in an earlier post, April was our classroom's month to share some of our writing on the bulletin board in the foyer. Well, Mrs. Cross was so impressed with our work that she wanted to tell the students in person, and celebrate the writing and the art that the students had done. It was so heartwarming to see the reactions on the students' faces as Mrs. Cross spent time going over each of their poems and paintings, highlighting different aspects that each of them had incorporated into their work.

April Fool's writing

As we told you about on Tuesday, we've been doing some April Fool's writing this week. Well... we finally finished today! If you want to read about the students' favourite pranks they've been a part of, click on the April Fool's Jokes tab at the top of the blog, and read all about them there - enjoy!

Art on display - foyer and Artsonia

Every month at Radisson School, a different class puts some of their writing on the bulletin board in the foyer, so that we can share some of the great work that our students are doing with visitors to our school. For the month of April, our class was in charge of this bulletin board, so we put up some art and poetry. Just before Spring Break, the class studied Arthur Dove's painting called Gale (1932) as a class, and reflected on it in their journals, and then used their reflections to write haiku poems about the painting, and things that it made them feel or wonder about. Finally, they created their own watercolour paintings inspired by the artist's work. To check out their Art, scroll down and click on the 'Artsonia' tab on the right-hand side of the blog, and open the exhibit called 'Stormy watercolours' - we hope you enjoy them!

New book reviews

Some of the students of Room 18 wrote new book reviews in March - check them out below:

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

April Fool's jokes

April Fool's Day took place this year over spring break - this is unfortunate, as I like to 'pull one over' on my students, and have them do some writing around it. However, I showed the class this video, which they were very excited to see, after I told them it had something to do with Pokemon and Google. Here is the video:
 

Afterward, we talked about it - the class thought it was really cool, and wished that they could participate in it, as one of the students noticed that the deadline (April 2nd) had passed last week. Then, another one of the students noted that she had almost thought it was an April Fool's joke. I then informed them that it was an April Fool's joke (at which time, many of the students tried to convince me that they hadn't fallen for it... but we all know better!). I then showed them the Google Nose video from April Fool's 2013, which I used to fool my whole class last year. If you don't remember it, here it is:

I then had the students use these videos as inspiration, and write about the best April Fool's joke they've ever been a part of. Keep your eyes on the blog, as we'll post them when we're done!