It's Monday! What Are We Reading?

We decided to join into this Monday blog tradition today! We wanted to share some of the books our 4th grade class has been reading.

CAPTURE THE FLAG by Kate Messner

There are three main characters in this book.  They are Anna, Jose and Henry. The flag from the Smithsonian was stolen. Right now there is a huge snowstorm so the characters are stuck in an airport and they think the person who stole it would be in the airport.  They have two suspicious characters.  They meet a boy named Sinan. Senator Snickerbottom thinks his family or part of their orchestra stole the flag.  

We read this book during read aloud time near the end of the day every day.  We jot down our ideas in our notebooks.  We sketch pictures and make predictions in our notebooks too.  We also talk about the book. We are learning to just jump into the conversation and keep it going.

GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE DINOSAURS by Mo Willems

In this book, there is a little girl named Goldilocks. And there are three dinosaurs. There is a mamma dinosaur, a papa dinosaur and a little dinosaur from Norway. The three dinosaurs wanted to eat Goldilocks so they made chocolate pudding to distract Goldilocks. They made sure she could get in.  Goldilocks went to take a nap...

This book is related to Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  But Goldilocks got "caught in the wrong story".  Mo Willems put the pigeon in this book (and in every book he writes)  so look for it!  There is a funny lesson at the end.  We think this book is for all ages.

PICTURES FROM OUR VACATION by Lynne Rae Perkins

In this picture book, there is a family who went to a farm to visit their grandparents.  Before they went they got cameras. It rained a lot while they were there. It rained for days. Then they went to a beach and had fun.  It rained again. They went to a party. The pictures in the book are photos of their vacation. They weren't all that good.

This book is realistic fiction. It helps us write personal narratives.  It helped us think about looking at pictures and remembering what our life was like.  

THE ESSENTIAL 55 by Ron Clark

This book is called The Essential 55 and this book is by Ron Clark.  He is a 6th grade teacher.  He has 55 rules in his classroom.  Once in a while our teacher, Mrs. Sibberson, reads us a rule.  We've read four rules so far.  One is about Doritos. One is about saving spots in the cafeteria. One is about saying thank you and one is about bragging. For 10 minutes, we highlight the important words that we want to talk about.   We are learning to share our opinions and learning about other people's opinions. We go into groups and we are learning to keep the conversation going.  

A BUS CALLED HEAVEN by Bob Graham

A Bus Called Heaven is by Bob Graham.  It teaches us to be leaders.  It's about a bus called Heaven and a towing guy. The towing  guy is trying to tow the bus. But the people didn't want him to because it is important to them. They worked together to make it into a kind of "clubhouse".  A girl challenged the towing guy in table soccer.  Whoever wins gets to decide what happens to the bus.  If you want to know who wins, read the story.

MARSHFIELD DREAMS by Ralph Fletcher

This book is about Ralph Fletcher's childhood.  We read a story in our class called "Statue".  The story is about when Ralph Fletcher pretended to be a statue. His parents wanted to buy him.  They bought him and took him home. They put him in the front yard without him moving.  This is only one of the stories in the book.  This is the only one we've read so far.

Ralph Fletcher drew a map in the front of this book to help him think of his ideas.  He drew a map of his neighborhood. Some of us drew maps of our neighborhoods, parks, and houses to help us think of personal narrative ideas.

We'd like you to read it and tell us what you think of it in the comments.