For the Joy of Reading

This week is all about reading…yay! Students will stop, drop, and read for ten minutes twice a day this week when the kindergarteners ring the gong. Please fill your rucksack with literature of all kinds, because variety is the spice of a reading life. We have two author experiences this week, in which fourth and fifth graders will workshop their writing with published authors. Friday, we show up in pajamas and read and read and read.

 

Poetry Month

We kick off poetry month this week by memorizing one of five poems selected by teachers. There is Dickinson, Hughes, Cummings, Silverstein, and Carlos Williams out there. Students chose the one that most appealed to them (or looked easiest) and will recite them at week’s end. Help your child practice this week, and enjoy the poems – they’re really fantastic. Look forward to daily poetry readings, a poetry-themed Chanterelle, and metaphors, metaphors everywhere.

Another field trip on the horizon…

We will head to the Blackhawk Auto Museum in Danville on Thursday, May 2. We will leave TBS at 11:30, so it’s a short afternoon field trip. They have an incredible collection of Western memorabilia that you have to see to believe. There’s also an amazing classic car exhibit to behold, if that’s your bag.  Please join us, we need drivers.  Thanks, Nina, for connecting us to the museum.

Homework

Reading

  • M: 30 min.
  • Tu: 40 min.
  • W: 50 min.
  • Th: 60 min.

Writing

  • Thursday: Write a poem in the style of Walt Whitman’s O Captain! below. Use 12 exclamation marks, make it about something you are passionate about.

Word Study

  • Take your Wordly Wise Quiz Thursday night so you don’t have to on Friday!!!
  • Memorize your poem!!!

O Captain! My Captain!

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
                         But O heart! heart! heart!
                            O the bleeding drops of red,
                               Where on the deck my Captain lies,
                                  Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
                         Here Captain! dear father!
                            This arm beneath your head!
                               It is some dream that on the deck,
                                 You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
                         Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
                            But I with mournful tread,
                               Walk the deck my Captain lies,
                                  Fallen cold and dead.