PIE Day

Today is PIE Day in Milaca Elementary's fourth grade classes! (What is that?! You may ask ...) It is a learning extravaganza! We are learning about Author's Purpose - or why author's write.

To start our lessons, Ms. Leom had her high school helper, Nick scoop out our pie samples. We had apple, pumpkin, and blueberry.

Our high school helper, Nick scooped our our pie

 Next, we watched Enemy Pie. Actress Camryn Manheim read the book and shared the illustrations with us in class.

Our learning strategies we are developing are SUMMARIZING INFORMATION and REALISTIC FICTION. This book allowed us to develop these skills. We were also able to tell this book was told from the first person point of view (the narrator was a character in the story, and it uses "I", "my", and more). We summarized the book. In Ms. Leom's class, we had a great learning opportunity, because it took us a long time to summarize the book. We had a tough time getting to the most important details. The extra ten minutes, helped us think-aloud and develop strategies (list ALL the parts you think are important. Combine and pare down the choices until you can retell the most important ideas in 2-3 sentences). In Mr. Greninger's class, the first student she called on, succinctly (in the fewest words possible) summarized the book. She wasn't prepared for it. Funny how sometimes the best learning comes from a struggle!

Next, Ms. Leom re-introduced us to Author's Purpose. We had a mini-lesson on it earlier in the year. We reviewed the three reasons author's write, gave meanings for each, and shared examples.

our work in process

It was time to move and be active learners. We made chef's hats, or "thinking hats" according to Ms. Leom. Once our hats were finished, we were able to taste test pie. We graphed our favorite kinds of pie.

graphing our favorite kinds of pie

Next, we took notes about author's purpose.

It is important that we review what we learn at the end of our lessons. It is also important that we know WHY we learn the strategies and skills. Being able to identify author's purpose is a strategy that successful readers use to understand a text.

Ms. Leom's class

Then - the best part of the day - Ms. Leom gets to share the "learning magic" with ANOTHER group of fourth graders!!!

para, Ms. Sherri helped scoop the pie

listening to the book, "Enemy Pie"

making hats

Mr. Greninger's class

So the next commercial, story, movie, book your child shares ... consider asking him/her the author's purpose. It is more than a learning extravaganza. It helps readers understand what they read. It matters!