Hank read a Dogo News article about the Perseverence rover's successful Martian landing inside the Jezero Crater. We noticed ways the writer added to the enjoyment and understanding of the information by using photographs, diagrams, and embedded video clips. Next, Hank continued reading 'The War That Saved My Life'. We met a new and important character who describes herself as "not a nice person." Hank pointed out that although Ada repeats her claim not to be nice, her actions are those of a caring person. We made some predictions about Ada and Jamie's future with Miss Smith.

Ben began a new realistic fiction story, 'Stone Fox,' after examining the cover and table of contents. After reading chapters 1 and 2, Ben recounted the main characters and the story setting. We were also introduced to the overarching problem in the story, Grandfather's illness. Ben practiced thinking ahead and planning a course of action in a Lumosity game

As Hank continued reading 'The War That Saved My Life,' we noticed all the ways that the world is unfamiliar to Ada. We also learned that her mother had convinced Ada to believe it is somehow her fault that she has a club foot. In today's reading, Ada begins to question some of her mother's lies about her. We read closely to understand why Ada values freedom from her mother over freedom from Hitler and his bombs.

As we came to the end of 'Fantastic Mr.Fox,' Ben recognized that his predictions were very close to precisely the ending Roald Dahl wrote. We looked for the lesson Mr. Fox learned and used it to identify the theme of the story. Ben determined the theme was "Never give up, keep trying." He gave examples from his life where this theme would apply, sports and learning something difficult.

I decided to switch genres before we read another in the 'One and Only' series. We talked about historical fiction elements and how they differ from the realistic books we have recently read. After examining the cover illustration and getting a bit of background, Hank read the first two chapters of 'The War that Saved Me'. This reading required a bit more 'stop and talk' to be sure the meaning was clear. We also noted that our reading pace was slower with this book as the character's lives are such that we cannot connect in any way.

As Ben continued reading 'Fantastic Mr. Fox,' we focused on the language used to color our opinion of each character. Ben made some robust predictions about the pending resolution to the foxes' problems. We will look to confirm or disconfirm those predictions as we read.

Hank completed the book 'The One and Only Ivan' today. We discussed The big lesson that Ivan learned in the story and applied it to our lives. Hank defined the theme as " Everyone needs to belong." We looked back at the main characters and found evidence to support their desire to belong to a group. We also previewed the book "The One and Only Bob' to decide if that will be our next read.

As Ben continued reading 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox,' we looked at the writer's language, demonstrating his perspective on these characters. We noted the personification of the tractors and the dark adjectives describing the farmers. We also noticed the language describing Mr. Fox and his family as gentle, helpless, loving characters.

After reading several more chapters in 'The One and Only Ivan,' Hank used inference to answer questions about why George agreed to paste Ivan's artwork on the billboard, even though he could be fired for doing it. Hank connected to earlier events when explaining why Ivan decided to go into the box. We made some predictions about Bob's future based on his character traits.

After watching short trailers of two books, Ben chose to read 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' as his next book. He noted that this is a fantasy story, and we looked at other books written by Roald Dahl. As we began, Ben looked for evidence of Mr. Dahl's view of the characters. He found physical descriptions, character traits, and behaviors that clearly show the writer's belief that Mr. Fox is the more likable, attractive, quick-thinking, and mistreated character in this story.