Summer Reading Challenge

Did you know? Students who don't read over the summer tend to lose - on average - 3 months of learning.

See below on how to help "The Summer Slide!"  

Help students get ready for their best and most magical summer ever and stop the summer slide with the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. Now is a good time to stock your classroom library with popular titles for readers at all levels. PreK-K Summer Reading Challenge Book List  Grades 1-2 Summer Reading Challenge Book List Grades 3-5 Summer Reading Challenge Book List  Grades 6-8 Summer Reading Challenge Book List Grades 9-12 Summer Reading Challenge Book List Bridge the Summer Reading Gap 5 Prompts for the Teacher-Student Reading Conference 7 Tips for Effective Book Talks

Making a Difference Project

Today we began our "Making a Difference" research project. Students will research an individual that has made a positive impact on our world. Students will research how their chosen individual has made a difference, how they inspire others, background information about the individual, and more.

Students will create a Google presentation with this information and present it to their classmates.

Project Resources
Project Requirements
Example "Make a Difference" project
Project Rubric

Zack Rago from Chasing Coral

Zack is a Pomona High School graduate and a Colorado kid through and through. He graciously came to visit us and chat about Chasing Coral, the Netflix documentary he helped create, and answered all of our questions about coral reefs.

Chasing Coral

We are watching Chasing Coral on Netflix for the next couple days to prepare for Zack Rago, our guest speaker on Monday, April 30. Zack is a graduate of Pomona High School and CU Boulder, and is our "Person Who Is Making a Difference" this year.

Please ask your kiddos about this amazing documentary!

Things We Wish Peoples Said More Often

The Line and Nothing Will Change

We analyzed these videos to determine similarities and differences in their message and delivery.

Analysis Questions:

1. What is the overall message of the videos? Give evidence.

2. How do these videos relate to making choices? Be specific.

3. How does the speaker's word choice and tone affect the meaning of the video?

4. What words or phrases are important to the messages of the videos and why? 

5. Connect these videos to our overarching concept of MAKING A DIFFERENCE. 

Natural Disaster Brochure Project

Today we chose topics for a brochure students will be creating about a natural disaster. At the start of class today, students chose a natural disaster they would like to learn more about. They then were able to search three separate instances of that disaster that they'd like to focus on for their research.

Some examples of topics and subtopics are:

Blizzards

1. Colorado Blizzard of 2003
2. 1972 Iran Blizzard
3. 1940 Armistice Day Blizzard

Hurricanes

1. Galveston Hurricane, 1900
2. South Florida Hurricane, 1928
3. Hurricane Katrina, 2005

Students should be ready to dive into the majority of their research and take notes in their Language Arts spiral notebook on Monday. The timeline for this project is as follows:

Monday & Tuesday, April 9 & 10 - Complete research on (3) subtopics
Wednesday, April 11 - Plan layout of brochure
Thursday & Friday, April 12-13 - Create brochure

The brochures must have nonfiction text features to enhance the reader's understanding of the topic. Students identified and reviewed nonfiction text features earlier this week.



Example completed brochure
Rubric for this project