Story Writing and Investigation

We had a very busy week in Room 20!  This week we began a new read aloud called Wishtree by Katherine Applegate.  This book is a fantastic lead into our Trees and Forests Inquiry starting at the end of the month.  We had a lot of really 'thick' questions about Wishtrees and spent some time investigating their history and purpose around the world.  We learned that Wishtrees are very popular in Japan specifically but there are similar trees across the continents. Even Scotland has a history of nailing coins into trucks of trees for wishes.  We are looking forward to Wish Day which is May 1st.  For now we have started our own wishtree in the classroom.

Students are also circling back in their story writing to think about the many parts of a story and what makes a great story so enjoyable to read.  We focused on two picture books called Out by Angela May George and Salt In His Shoes.  Students worked to identify the setting, characters, beginning, rising action, falling action and ending.  The retells were filled with lots of interesting details that definitely made the stories their own.

We finished off our Evidence and Investigation Inquiry with a visit from Constable Anita Swanson, a 12 year member of the RCMP's Major Crimes and Auto-Theft units.  She shared a ton of pictures, photos and videos from her work and explained in detail how investigators in the Forensic units across Canada gather information to put criminals behind bars.  It was incredibly fascinating and impressive to see how much collaboration is required for this highly intense and creative work.