I love finding simple playground structures that allow for endless fun, adventure, and imagination. Unlike most of Canada’s sadly-safe, plastic structures, intuitively designed to thwart litigation and bore kids, these two lovely dragons of steel are indicative of what you can find all over Japan’s school yards. These reside in an elementary school in Wakasa near the Japan Sea (the starting point of the Wakasa half-marathon).

Just like old playground equipment, I enjoy studying poems with kids that use a full range of “tricky and hards” words that can lead to further word investigations. Jack Prelutsky’s poetry never disappoints. For example in the poem, ‘a Pizza the size of the Sun’, the word resplendent shares the same base as splendid and splendor.

“...a pizza too massive to pick up and toss,

a pizza resplendent with oceans of sauce.

In addition to really fun poetry, this month classes are reading really exciting books. You don’t need to be a child to enjoy these stories:

The Library Card, by Jerry Spinelli

Muggie Maggie, by Beverly Clearly

Among the Hidden (Shadow Children), by Margaret Haddix

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, by Rick Riordan

Fudge-a-Mania, by Judy Blume

Magic Tree House: Eve of the Emperor Penguin, By Mary Pope Osborne

Hatchet, by Gary Paulson

Matilda, by Roald Dahl

Dirt Bike Rider(Wolf Hill), by Roderick Hunt

spelling investigations

A fun list highlighting the role of the final silent <e> and the beginning of my favorite - the homophone list.

writing books

This month we have started to write books based on the original text. Each story comes with it’s own characters, end of book quiz, and back cover blurb. Mai, a beginning grade 4 student, writes about her sister who has just saved a horse from a burning barn.

silly poems

We also played around with some rhyming couplets. Kei and Sayaka, both grade 5 students, enjoyed the humour and the alliteration of some favorite food.