We started our session with some mindfulness. We sat outside in the sun for 10 min. Then I asked PJ to write about it. This is what he wrote: Outside, I was sitting on a hard basketball court floor. I heard the birds singing, the wind, and a car door slamming. I also talked with my teacher. It was very beautiful. Ah what a great- OH MY GOD MY BUTT HURTS SO MUCH I’M LEAVING.

We then continued with his other writing, based on The House on Mango Street.

We read a news story and watched a 5 min. video about the power of kindness. Then we discussed the role kindness plays in our lives each day.

We participated in a school safety drill. PJ also continued to work on his writing vignette from Wednesday.

David read his vignette aloud. We discussed ways to improve, such as adding descriptive details and dialogue. He also fixed his grammatical errors.

We researched background info about the author. Then we discussed the definition of vignette, as the book is made of vignettes with a common theme. After reading the first chapter, David used the vignette as a model text to write his own description of a house and its inhabitants.

We read the next vignette in the book, called "My Name". Using the text as a model, PJ created his own vignette. Then we went back through his writing from yesterday, and he corrected the grammar and punctuation.

We read some of a short story, and then Kaitlin worked on her art project.

We read several short stories in the horror genre, identifying the theme of each and how the authors' use of imagery help to set the mood.

We researched background info about the author. Then we discussed the definition of vignette, as the book is made of vignettes with a common theme. After reading the first chapter, PJ used the vignette as a model text to write his own description of a house and its inhabitants.

Today we focused on finding the main idea of a paragraph. I modeled how we read the title to get a better understanding of what the paragraph is about. Then we read the paragraph aloud, noticing how the content relates to the subject from the title. Then Chris determined the main idea.