Fifth Grade Web Writers

We Must Bid You Farewell

It is the end of the year! The 5th graders are experiencing many emotions from excitement to sadness to nervousness (probably about going to middle school). The students have written letters to next year's 5th grade class. Make sure to check those out!

Well, have a great summer, keep blogging, and we'll see you next year!

Battle of the Books

What is the best book you have read this year? Make a poster with a summary or story map. The poster should be interesting and help your book win.

Who will win Battle of the Books 2008?

Look at the posters and vote:

• The Secret Garden
• The Mouse and the Motorcycle
• Frindle
• Bridge to Terabithia
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• Satchmo's Blues
• Woodsong
• Seven Loaves of Bread
• Diary of a Worm
• Dear Mr. Henshaw
• Across the Wide Dark Sea

Have You Ever Used A Frindle?

I bet you have. We are reading the book Frindle where the main character, Nick, invents a new word, Frindle. Read my story below and see if you can figure out the meanings of the made up words.

Joey is a real readfree. He is always reading, especially science fiction stories. One time he told me about a spaceship that had a beture. That was a crazy story. It was so interesting, that it made me get out a frindle and write my own goodlybook.

Creating Clever Comments

  Giving and receiving comments is an important part of blogging. We love getting comments from friends and others from all over the world. However, lazy comments are sometimes a problem. Let's learn more about making good, smart comments. Mrs. Davis has a list of clever comment starters. Also, read Patrick's post and comments for more ideas.

I want to see comments that will knock my socks off!

True Blogging

What is the actual process of blogging?  A former student, Derrick, describes the blogging process as:

The steps are first you read, then you think about what you are reading. The third step is to make connections about what you are reading and what someone else is writing. You may decide to write about what you are reading and even do some linking as you go!

Derrick really hits the nail on the head with his post on True Blogging.  Today, you will use the "true blogging" process that Derrick describes in creating your post.  The first step is to go to another students' blog and find a post that is interesting to you.  Think about the post you have read and make some connections to what you read and what you are thinking, feeling, and experiencing. 

Let's take a look at Zachary's post before we begin.  Notice that Zachary read Schyler's post first.  Then he took some excerpts from the post and pasted them in his own post.  He did not copy and paste the entire post though!  Don't forget about making the connection.  Tell your readers what you thought about as you read the post.  How did you feel?  Remember to end the post with a thought provoking question to encourage comments.

Let's Blog!

We're Baaaaack!

Sorry we have been away so long. However, the students have been working on their own "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories. These were challenging to write and get onto our blogs, but lots of fun as well. Look for them on some student blogs soon.

Also, we started a new unit in math--geometry!! Like most things in 5th grade it is also challenging but interesting. In order to study polygons we made shape billboards with a question. Check out my example. Who will be the first to reply with the correct answer?

Fun With Analogies

Think about this analogy: books are to reading as blogging is to.....

What would you fill in the analogy with? Whatever your answer may be, analogies are a fun way to think about relationships and really exercises our brains! Check out the student blogs for more fun with analogies.

 

Reflections on Podcasting

For the last few days we have written stories to go with the book, "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick". We created some great stories to go with these mysterious pictures. Next, we created podcasts of our stories. These are linked to each post. Read the stories while you listen to them (click the link to listen). Then leave a comment telling what you thought. Did we make any mistakes? What did you like about our story? Did it have a good beginning, middle, and end? How can we improve?

Thanks for your comments, and look for more podcasts in future.

Podcasts Help Us Proof!

Today's featured podcasters , Chloe and Josh, did a great job reading their own posts. As they were reading over their posts before I recorded them, they found a couple of mistakes though. So they made the neccessary corrections before reading it outloud for their audience.  Reading your work outloud is a great way to proof read your writing.  You should do this before you publish every single post.  To hear Chloe and Josh's podcast, click on the links below and download the mp3 file. 

Josh's Podcast

Chloe's Podcast

Besides proofreading, what other skills can podcasting help us improve?