Writing Sparks! Reading Logs! Fox Reports! Oh, My!

It always takes a few weeks for our students to adjust to the homework routines of our classroom. We greatly appreciate the family support in helping to make sure that this work is completed, as well as our students' efforts. Mrs. Harrington and I wanted to share a few writing samples from the first week of school, which we thought were excellent examples of Writing Sparks. The first is from Laura, who wrote about her summer trip to the pool:

Have you ever gone to a pool with a huge slide? Well I have, and I am going to tell you all about it. 

On the Way… 

As I am entering the room, I was almost amazed to see how it looks on the inside. While my dad is paying for us, I look inside only to see that on the side of the place is a big slide. But, I don’t think I will get on that ever! 

I am Getting In! 

And after I get dress, I run to the pool and jump in as soon as I can. My brothers and I want to go to the outside pool. My oldest brother, Ivan, wants to go diving. And, my younger brother, Adrian, wants to go and use the kid slide. And so we travel outside. 

Wow They are Brave! 

After my little brother and I got there he was scared but he got over it after a while. And he went down the slide and kept on doing that for a while. I glanced at my oldest brother, Ivan and he just dived in. I was really impressed that he did that. 

I am Not So Sure… 

And soon after all that, I decide to (with a little help), ride the big slide. Ivan convinced me by saying, “I will wait for you at the end.” I said, “okay.” 

And as I was going up I kept thinking to myself, “Should I got back? Or, keep going?”
When I got to the top I was really nervous. But I got it together and went down. It was awesome!! And I was so glad that I did that. It was fun. As soon as I finished the slide my dad said it was time to go. So we got our stuff and went home. 

I hope you know what it is like to go on a hug slide.

We also have a part of a story from Evelyn, who describes her first days with her new dog:

The next day my mom told us that her church friend had a free dog. At about 9:45pm we left to see the puppy. We got in the car and left. She said she lived in an apartment. In the apartments we got lost. Then we called the lady and found her house. The puppy had fleas and lots of hair. We took him home. 

The next day we got its food, leash, collar, bed and a little house. It slept outside. The next day we took it to the vet. They gave it a rabies shot. The poor dog jumped, he was so scared. She got rid of the nasty fleas. We took him to Petco so they could give him a haircut. At 8:15 he was finished. He was horrifying! He looked like a naked rat. He still has hair, but not that much. He is so cute now. He is our first dog.

It is so fun to read about our students' lives outside of the classroom. Please encourage your children to write at least three paragraphs each week, with about five sentence per paragraph. We know this may be tough for some kids, but we believe they can do it!

In addition to the Writing Sparks, we also ask students to read 30 minutes every evening. Fifth graders are expected to write 2-3 sentence summaries describing their reading for the night. We would like to see kids sticking with the same stories until they are completed. Please make sure these are returned to school on Friday morning for Mrs. Harrington and Ms. Kinsman to look over.

Finally, you have seen a few Fox Reports come your way. These are a great way for us to stay in touch with families. These are sent home almost every Monday night! You are more than welcome to write notes on your child's report before you send it back to school on Tuesday.

If you have any questions or concerns about our weekly homework requirements, please do not hesitate to ask. And, thank you again for helping build successful routines for your learners.