Our 4th graders are officially halfway through their second literary unit, Extreme Settings. The big question on everyone's mind is: How does a challenging setting or physical environment change a person? From distant planets to the highest peaks, our students are finding out!

We kicked off our journey by blasting off into science fiction with Ray Bradbury’s "All Summer in a Day." Even though it’s set on a rainy, stormy Venus, where the sun only comes out every 7 years, the students did an amazing job uncovering how Bradbury uses sensory details and figurative language to make a setting come alive.

We then headed back to Earth to get a little "grounded." We researched the incredible power of tectonic plates to see how the world’s most extreme mountains are formed. It turns out that our planet is just as wild as any sci-fi story!

To prepare for our next mentor text, we’ve been studying the SAS Survival Handbook. Written by John "Lofty" Wiseman (a legend from the British Special Air Service), this 800-page guide teaches us the tips and tricks needed to stay alive in the wild.

Why all the gear talk? Because we are about to start our next mentor text: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. We’ll be following Brian’s journey into the wilderness and discover how a challenging setting or physical environment can change a person.

As the sun sets over the horizon and the unit comes to a close, the students will be crafting their very own realistic fiction short stories. Using everything they’ve learned from Ray Bradbury, their survival research, and their recent hands-on experience at the Movement Climbing Gym field trip, students will choose an extreme setting and put their characters to the test. Will they survive the cold? The heat? The climb? We can’t wait to find out!