This week's large project revolved around our social/emotional curriculum called the 4R's from The Morningside Center. The 4R's are Respect, Responsibility, Reading, and WRiting. We practiced all four this week!
On Monday, we read The Big Orange Splot by D. Manus Pinkwater. The book tells the story of Mr. Plumbean and his neighbors. Mr. Plumbean lives on a "neat street" - one where all of the houses and lawns look the same. One night, a bird drops some orange paint on the roof of Mr. Plumbean's house. Rather than washing it off, Mr. Plumbean designs a dream house for himself - complete with palm trees, and alligator in the front lawn, a clock tower, and bright colorful murals. His neighbors are not too happy. But after speaking to Mr. Plumbean about their own dreams, they decide to create their own dream homes. By the end the neighbors all agree that having different homes that reflect their individuality is better than all of the homes being all the same.We talked a lot about this story. What is the author trying to say? Why did the author write this book? We will continue discussing this story this coming week as well as we create our classroom community.
We then created our own dream homes and wrote about them. Here are our dream homes:
