Year: 2016

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a Snow globe?  Mrs. Ruhnke’s 5th grade language class imagined just that.  They began this activity by creating a Google Presentation showing what they would see, touch, hear, taste and smell in their snow globes as well as how it would make them feel.  They then wrote a “sloppy copy,” peer edited, typed their final copy and finally shared both their slideshow and essay with their classmates.  All in all, most agreed that a snow globe might be a fun place to visit, but they wouldn’t want to live there!

Students in Mrs. Shinn’s Academic Enrichment classes are trying out Lyrics2learn for the next two weeks.  Lyrics2learn is a brain-based, on-line reading program. It uses music to engage students with text and help them memorize information quickly as kids retain more and more information with the repetition, rhythm and rhyme used in the program.

Each day the question levels increase.  Each mini-lesson begins with literal comprehension on day 1, and ends with an open ended constructed response. The program uses this methodology with every story. The more kids know, the more they’ll show.  The program hopes to help the students using the program retain a higher percentage of the information they read.  The program is designed to help students learn to connect on high levels so they can then relate the text to themselves and the world. During this

period the third grade students will have access to this program at home too.