We had so much fun learning about Fairy Tales this week in class. To begin this unit the students made crowns to transform themselves into kings, queens, princes, or princesses. We discussed all of the features of a fairy tale. (Once upon a time, magic, good character, bad character, the numbers 3 or 7, and they lived happily ever after). The first story we read was Jack and the Beanstalk. I read the story to the class and they sequenced the events in the story on their own beanstalk. We talked about how this story is told from the main character Jack's point of view. Next, I read the story Trust Me, Jack's Beanstalk Stinks which gives the Giant's side of the story. The students did an excellent job filling in a speech bubble for Jack and the Giant arguing their point of view. Finally, the students planted bean seeds. We will see if our own beanstalks will grow up to the castle in the clouds. The next Fairy Tale we read together was The Three Little Pigs. The students wrote about the characteristics of the big, bad wolf. They used evidence from the text to support their writing. The students decided that the wolf was mean because he was chasing the pigs. He was sneaky because he tried to get into the house from the chimney. He was also angry because he was huffing and puffing to try and blow their houses down. In order to hear the wolf's point of view we read the True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Again, the students filled in speech bubbles from pigs and the wolf's point of view. Finally, we decorated milk cartons to look like a house of straw, sticks, and bricks to retell this Fairy Tale. Our class went down to the kindergarten classes to read and retell this story. The class read the Fairy Tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Together as a class we discussed words in the story that appeal to our senses. These words let us know how the characters feel throughout the story. I also read the story Believe Me, Goldilock's Rocks from Baby Bear (Sam's) point of view. During math we worked on graphing. We collected data about our favorite good Fairy Tale character, our favorite bad Fairy Tale character, and our favorite Fairy Tale. The students created a bar graph, pictograph, and pie graph. Together we answered questions about these graphs. It has been such a fun week learning about Fairy Tales! I hope the students had as much fun as I did!! They all lived happily ever after....
0 Comments
The students learned that good readers create a picture in their mind to help them comprehend text. We read the story Green Giant. Together we highlighted words in the story that helped us visualize. Finally, the students drew a picture of their mental image. This year the students have learned many strategies to help them comprehend what they are reading. They learned that good readers make predictions, ask questions, clarify and summarize while they are reading text. The class was introduced to a new strategy that all good readers do while reading: making connections. The students learned that they can make text to self, text to text or text to world connections to whatever they are reading. Text to self means that they are able to connect an event or character to something that has happened to themselves, family or friends. Text to text means they can connect the text, event, or character to another book, show or movie. Text to world means they can connect the events in the story to something that happens in the world around them. They did an amazing job making connections. One story we read was called "Hobbies." The students made many connections to the story such as music, gardening, collecting and sports. The students also read the story "Mother's Day." The students made text to text connections to television shows they have seen about mothers day. They connected the story to the world because mother's day is around the corner. They also made many text to self connections of their own mother's day memories. In the back of our room we have a "Making Connections" board. Anytime a student makes a connection to a book they read they can add a connection form to the wall. This week during our phonics block we have been focusing on the sound of bossy r: ar, or, ir, er, ur. In order to help the students practice reading these words they went on a word hunt around the room for bossy r words. When they found the words they had to read them, sort them by sound, and write them. After completing the word hunt the students were able to choose bossy r words to illustrate. They turned each word into a picture representation. It was so much fun! I even had kids asking to do more of this activity during indoor recess. I turned their picture words into a bossy r book that they can look at to practice. |
Archives
May 2017
Categories |