written by Emma Williams and Sofie Scholte
Most would think that a favorite time of day for any fourth-grader would be recess or maybe lunch. However, in the Swan River classroom, Reading is the top choice closely followed by Art.
Each day after lunch, students settle into a comfortable reading spot and enjoy their chosen literature book. Some students are reading Bone by Jeff Smith, Maximum Ride by James Patterson, Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi, and A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snickett. Others are reading Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan and one student is reading Brianna DuMont’s, Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents .
Teo Rysavy enjoys his independent reading time each day and says, “It’s fun to read!” Zoey McGee says, “It feels peaceful and quiet during reading time.”
After students read a book of their choosing, the class comes together to listen to a book they have selected as an all class read-aloud. Currently the class is reading Gabriel Finley and the Raven’s Riddle by George Hagen. This is a book about a boy and his raven. They are able to paravolate (merge with one another) and they go on an adventure to rescue his father. On their journey they share riddles to test that they are not encountering a Valraven! One of our favorite riddles from the novel states: What lies at the end of forever? Answer: r
So what role does creativity play in our community? Each week we practice a writing work we call Love of Words. Many of these assignments integrate Creative Writing and Art. One of our favorite writing assignments this year brought these two things together in a beautiful way. The activity was entitled a ‘one-pager’ and the task was to create a piece of art piece that describes a story. The work that we created was so incredible. According to Josie, “The one-pager is fun to do, and challenging.”
Below is an example of one of many amazing final works that the class felt was an exceptional example (artwork design by Onya Vandarci).
