Gamma

General News ELA Update This week in ELA we continued to toggle between typing up our fiction stories and discussing our novel study of Freewater. We sandwiched our publishing in the middle of the week with Freewater discussion on Monday and Thursday. On Monday we went over our homework and discussed many of the twists and turns of the novel so far. Those first chapters are action packed and introduce many new characters quickly! On Thursday we were able to slow down and make connections between the characters by breaking apart the two major worlds of the book: Freewater and […]

General News We had a wonderful first week back from break! The Gamma class was hardworking, thoughtful, kind, and enthusiastic – as always! ELA Update This week we began by introducing our new novel study. We are reading Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson. This story is set pre-civil war, during the Antebellum era. It is a story of friendship and community. We started the week off by exploring the setting of the novel by taking a look at the Great Dismal Swamp. This massive, forested wetland once covered millions of acres in Southwest Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina. We read an

General News We’ll be having our bi-annual movie and PJ day next week on Wednesday, December 18th! This is a Gamma tradition to relax and celebrate all our hard work preparing for POP! It’s hard to believe it’s already the last week before winter break! ELA Update We had a fun week with more fiction writing! Early in the week we talked about descriptive language and the key role it plays in helping the reader engage with the story. We also talked about how authors create hooks for the reader by using different styles of leads. A few techniques authors

General News What a joy to be back in Gammaland after a lovely Thanksgiving break! Gammas hit the ground running on Monday with tons of energy and excitement! We are on a roll! We have our sweet Apollo on our minds and appreciate all the thoughtfulness and good cheer from Gamma families–thank you! ELA Update On Monday morning many Gammas came into class and went straight for the classroom library to pick out new books! It was very exciting to see them return to their classroom reading lives after break with such vigor and enthusiasm! We talked about how great

General News Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break! Don’t forget that Winter Faire is just around the corner–check your email for sign-up/details! ELA Update On Monday and Tuesday we worked on learning the difference between a simile and a metaphor, as well as the author’s purpose for using these literary devices in their writing. We worked through several examples of similes and metaphors and then went hunting in our genre study books for examples. Moving forward after Thanksgiving break we will start focusing on these kinds of literary devices as well as story mapping, character creation, and writing our own fiction