Wednesday, November 12th

Today we talked about mood, tone, and theme within stories and poems.  Students took some notes on the definition of each term and then practiced determining the mood, tone, and theme within short passages and books that we've read together.  Then I read one of my favorite poems, The Bagpipe Who Didn't Say No, to the students and they worked with partners to determine its mood, tone and theme.  We also discussed good public speaking practices for literary cafe.  Some students missed part of the lesson so they can click on the turtle picture below to access the Prezi presentation.

During social studies students watched three short videos on DiscoveryEd about the Battle of Little Bighorn.  Students created a Venn diagram with the perspectives of Native Americans and the U.S. government about the battle.  Then students made a T-Chart with facts about the cause and effect of the battle.  We will finish up the activity tomorrow with a discussion about the details they heard/saw in the videos.

We also read Gathering Blue and students were able to discuss the moods, tones, and themes within the book.