Literature Circles

Throughout the year, students read books of their choice in a literature circle with 3 to 4 other classmates. This is where students take turns reading a story, completing job sheets that demonstrate the top 7 strategies used when comprehending, and then share their jobs at the next days discussion group. Students always enjoy this because they are in charge of their own learning. I like it because students are learning strategies that they can take with them and use independently to comprehend what they read.

After the students complete their literature circle books, they will work with their group to design a project to go with it. If you are interested in seeing what they have done, please feel free to visit our school and take a look in the hallway outside of our classroom. I think you will be as pleased as I always am to see how creative each of the students are! Ask your child about their book they are reading now!

To find out more about some of the books we're reading (past, present and future), please click on the links below.

Secrets of Droon
    Play this game to find out more about this fun book!

Frindle
    Test your knowledge of Frindle by playing jeopardy! Or, see if you can get 100% on these questions!

Biographies

Students will select a famous person to study and complete a biography study by reading different books about the same person in literature circles.

To learn more about the people we have chosen, please visit the websites below.

Core Literature Units
Each third grader in the district is required to read Sarah, Plain and Tall and Stone Fox before going into fourth grade (Go to  Core Literature on our districts web site). The following is an example of the activities that we will be doing in the classroom when the time comes to read these books for ourselves.

Stone Fox
    The students read Stone Fox, during the second trimester. This is a very touching story about a young boy named Willy, who lives on a potato farm in Wyoming. One day his grandfather falls very ill and Willy stops at nothing to help make him better. We will look at  how this courageous boy harvested all of the crops on his own and wee how he takes on a professional dog sled racer with pride to help his Grandfather get well. I think everyone in the classroom will agree with me and encourage you to read the book for yourself if you haven't already done so!
    The students will also complete many activities with the chapters in this book to help expand their learning and build their background knowledge of various subjects. For example, after reading chapter two, the students will create either a pamphlet about potatoes or designed a plaque on Willy to put in the Potato Hall of Fame.
Be sure to check out the project your child worked on when you come for your conference!

We use the following websites to research information needed to complete these activities.
Dole 5 a Day - A site that tells many facts about potatoes
Idaho Potato Expo - Another site with additional facts about potatoes

We look at what types of supplies other dog racers would need if they were going to be in a similar race. To find out more about dog sled racing for yourself, click here Dog Sled Racing

See more Activities.
Yukon Dog Sled Race
Stone Fox Activities

Book Buddies
    Our class is very lucky to have kindergarten book buddies from Mrs. Berube's classroom! We enjoy getting to know each other and reading fun stories every Friday afternoon. Please be sure to ask your child all about our  meetings!

Author Studies

Andrew Clements
Students will also be reading some of Mr. Clements most popular stories in their literature circles and on their own for independent reading. To find out more about Andrew Clements yourself, please visit the following websites!

To find out more about some of Andrew Clements titles, visit:

                                                          
Score Big Points By Reading!!

Every year, we challenge our Pen Pals to a reading contest. To honor the annual basketball tournament time in February, our competition is held in the form of a basketball game held between both schools. Students keep track of the minutes they read at home throughout January and February and return these to school every Tuesday. For every 1,000 minutes the entire team reads, our class earns 2 points. If one child is able to read 300 minutes on their own, they score a 3 pointer for the team.   

Last year the Kennebunk Won...I wonder who will come out on top this year?

2008 season

Go TEAMS!!

2000/2001 season