April is National Poetry Month, and all the classes are celebrating poetry in one way or another. Poems can be rhyming or unrhymed, silly or somber; some are easily accessible, and some are more dense. We’ve been setting up for our poetry unit by reading Feathers by Jaqueline Woodson The first week of April, my…
Angles and Lines
Last week and this, one group in my class is learning about lines, rays, and measuring angles in math. One of the interesting things about this unit is that it begins from ideas that students this age understand intuitively, on a level that was taught to them years ago — lines and corners and points…
Point of View
The books my students are reading now in their book groups are all chosen to reflect a theme of two cultures meeting, and either valuing one another or devaluing one another. In King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry, a prized Arabian stallion is sent as a gift to the King of France — but…