G Week Start

G Week (Grinch or Gru) is all about adding a fun twist to the learning we need to do. Our assessments indicate some of our students are struggling in different areas. We are working on these skills in our reading flex groups. We work on it in Social Studies and Reading. It is time for another dose.

To start G Week, our first learning was all about character traits. We need some practice developing the character traits terms. Our data also shows we have students who need to work on finding supporting details (evidence).

Ms. Leom modeled on the board, using her favorite story, Tacky the Penguin. That little odd bird just keeps appearing over and over again, all year long, for whatever learning purpose Ms. Leom needs an example. It is a memorable story, so Tacky is our go-to penguin.

Then, one class watched the 1970's animated version of the How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The other class watched the start of Despicable Me. Students used the following graphic organizers to write four traits of our character, and the evidence (supporting details) using what the character said, did, or thought.



Our second day of G Week is all about Comparing and Contrasting. For one class, we watched a short clip of the Snow Miser and Heat Miser sing their song. Then together, we modeled how to use the venn diagram graphic organizer. We went over the rules for filling out a graphic organizer (needs to be more than one word, avoid telling what it isn't, include at least three details in each section, and the contrasting should be connected, if you are able).

In the other class, we will use the book, Miss. Nelson is Missing. (Over two hours of research did not come up with a non-holiday related video example. I am sure there is something out there ... I just haven't found it ... yet.)



After teaching and modeling how to use a venn diagram to develop comparing and contrasting, we are comparing and contrasting our characters from early in the story and how they change to the end of the story. This will be developed over time.

Comparing and Contrasting is a skill that are tested on at the end of every Unit Assessment. It isn't formally taught until Unit 5 of our learning (early January). It is a skill that our data indicates we need to work on more.

These learning pages will be added to our Grinch/Gru portfolios when they are returned.

On deck, we will be learning about Cause and Effect (taught in Unit 6, toward the end of January). This is a skill that is difficult for fourth graders, so having an early introduction to it, preloading our learning, has shown in past data to boost our learning of the tough skill.