What’s Going on in Our World?

Let’s get back into studying current events! Choose an article below, from my favorite website Newsela.com, and use your nonfiction reading skills to attack the text! Are you hunting for facts? Are you thinking about time and place? Are you thinking about how this might change the world?

Education = Job Choice!

The more education you receive the more choice you have about your future job, and how much money you will make! The jobs that our class gets the most excited about, like being veterinarians, working with computers, or being a teacher, all require 4 years in college or more! Some people, who finish school, even get to make up their own jobs. Peter Rork, is one of these people! Read about his cool job here!


The Sheep are Making a Comeback!

As we continue studying current events this week we are going to look deeper into the text features that help us understand what we’re reading. Like we’ve learned before, text features are anything other than the main paragraphs of the text, that help us better understand the author’s intended message. Today, we are going to read a Newsela.com article on the Bighorn sheep in California. These sheep had almost become extinct and only 105 were left. Now there are 500 sheep! Read the article to discover how scientists helped save the Bighorn sheep!

The article comes with a great map to help you understand where these sheep are located. Study the map and see what you notice. Is there a key or legend to help you out? Do the different colors and shadings mean anything? Is it important to read the text on the map as well?

Today, as you read from a Scholastic News magazine of your choice, notice how the text features help you better understand the text!

Current Events!


We have gone current events crazy in room B11! This week we have read several news articles on topics currently happening around the world. There is so much going on out there! Here are two more articles for you to read.

Check out these headlines about children around the world:

Cheating on Big Tests in India to get the best Scores

No Grades in this Classroom!

As always, you can check out more about what is going on in the world at Newsela.com!

What if you couldn’t go to school?

On my favorite nonfiction reading for kids website, Newsela.com, there is an interesting article on children in Afghanistan who can’t afford to go to school. Read the article and let me know what you think. Can you imagine not being able to go to school? How would that change your life?


Shukriya, 8, sells toilet paper in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan. Although child labor is illegal in the country, it is still around today, due to a lack of enforcement and the need of many families to have as many members earning income as possible.

Rosie the Riveter Returns!

I noticed something interesting on my favorite nonfiction reading site for kids. Newsela.com is a great website that contains many current news articles written for students. When you click on the left of the site you can change the Lexile level of the article. A lower Lexile level will be easier to read and a higher level will be more difficult, probably on a middle school level. On Newsela I found this great article, The Original Rosie the Riveter had the Right Name for the Job! The article discusses the same Rosie we learned about in Andrea Beaty’s book, Rosie Revere Engineer! Take a few minutes to read and enjoy this article. Adjust the Lexile level on the left if the text seems too difficult or simple!


Here’s one of our favorite pages from Rosie Revere Engineer! (If you want to learn about powerful, smart women then check out this book!)

Think about the Genre!

When you’re trying to figure out the author’s purpose for writing, stop and think about the genre of the text. Thinking about the genre will also help you determine why the author included certain text features, like photographs, charts, graphs, and maps. Here are some genres to consider:

Nonfiction articles
Recipes
Directions
“How-tos” or procedurals
Persuasive Essay or editorials

Check out the articles below. Why did the author write them? Why did the author include those text features?

Easy Origami Heart
Roll A Burrito
Mountains of the World

Biography Research

Yesterday, we researched our entrepreneurs and inventors on the internet. We found some valuable information, but internet research is never as easy as it seems. Let’s take a step back to see what we did well and where we need support.

1. What key words did you use to do your search?

2. How many websites did you visit?

3. Did you stay on websites that were too hard to read?

4. How much research were you able to do?techies 5

techies 6 techies techies 2 techies 3 techies 4

Famous Inventors!

Currently, we are studying how events, individuals and ideas have influenced the history of local and regional communities, and why people become entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur is a person who creates a business or product for profit. There have been many famous entrepreneurs, like:

Henry Ford

Walt Disney

Oprah Winfrey

Steve Jobs

Bill Gates

Mark Zuckerburg

J.K. Rowling