Showing posts with label 2010/2011. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2010/2011. Show all posts

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Career Day

The students learned about various careers today thanks to the many volunteers that came to visit. The students learned about how to take care of pets properly thanks to Grand Prairie Animal Services. They also learned about fire safety and the role of firemen and paramedics thanks to the Grand Prairie Fire Department. Thank you to our school counselor, Ms. Terry, for planning this fun day for the students.

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Armadillo Rodeo

As a part of our Social Studies unit over Texas regions, we read Armadillo Rodeo by Jan Brett which is a story about an armadillo in the Hill Country of Texas who mistakes a red cowboy boot for a red armadillo. After reading, the students discussed the main idea of the story with their partner. They then wrote the main idea of the story and illustrated it.



Robots! Robots! Robots!

As we ended our Social Studies unit on inventors last week, the students had the opportunity to become inventors themselves. The students used two boxes (a great way to recycle) along with a table full of odds-and-ends to design and create their own robot. As a part of the process, each student had to write a plan that included the robot's name, what it was made from, how it works, and what problem it solves. We discussed that inventors need plans of their inventions with dates on them so that no one else can steal their idea. Along with the robot plans and writing, the students journaled in their inventor's notebook about as many inventions they could come up with. Who knows, maybe one day we will see their inventions and ideas in stores!

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The Goat in the Garden

Last week we read the read-aloud The Goat in the Garden. The Goat in the Garden is a tale from Mexico about a couple who can not get a mischevious goat from eating all the vegetables in their garden so they recruit other animals to help them. After reading the story, the students created a Flow Map together on the dry erase board to retell the story. They then completed story element maps individually to describe the characters, setting, problem, and solution.






Sunday, May 22, 2011

You're Invited! Reader's Theater Presentation

Please join us for performances of various Readers’ Theaters by your students. Reader’s Theaters are short plays, typically without costumes or props, that are written to help students’ reading development. They have been an important part of our reading work this year as we practiced fluent reading.

Date: Friday, May 27th
Time: 2:30PM – 3:15PM
Where: Moseley Cafeteria

Thursday, May 19, 2011

I Have A Little Shadow

This week the students read the poem "My Shadow" by Robert Louis Stevenson. After reading, we used the same brainstorming process that I wrote about in the post "Hey, Bug!" to list things a shadow might do and words that rhyme with those things. After brainstorming, the students again "popcorned" out ideas for the poem and the class voted on which ones they liked the best. They then worked together to write a final draft of the poem and illustrate it. It still amazes me how similar the illustrations are even though they worked in small groups - communicating with one another at its best!







Hey, Bug!

Last week and this week the students have been reading and writing rhyming poems. Poetry is a large part of our daily reading lessons as a way to focus on fluency. We began the lesson by reading the poem "Hey, Bug!". After reading, the students brainstormed things that bugs can do which we listed on the whiteboard. The students then brainstormed words that rhyme with those things that bugs can do. This gave them a starting point for their own rhyming poem about bugs. Starting with the topic word "bug" the students shouted out their ideas for the poem. We call this "popcorning" ideas. As students would call out ideas, I would repeat them and the students would decide which one they liked the best and we would add it to chart paper. We would continue the process until each of the beginnings words that describe what a bug can do were used at least once along with a rhyming word. We then went back and read the poem as a whole to see if it made sense and if it had a rhythm. Once everyone agreed on the completed poem, the students worked in small groups to rewrite the final version on chart paper, in sets of rhyming pairs. After the students wrote their portion of the poem, the students had to agree on what type of bug it was and how to illustrate it. Then each group went back and illustrated their part.









Computer Work Portfolios

Each week our class goes to the computer lab at least once. Because we usually go during our math block, our computer lessons tend to focus on math concepts. Below are a few movies that showcase the work the students have done this year in the computer lab. The students exported the pictures themselves and saved them to our school's shared drive. They are currently working on creating their own movies to showcase their individual work which will be uploaded to their KidBlog sometime next week.

Timimoto

A few weeks back we read the Japanese tale Timimoto. Timimoto is a story about a tiny baby boy, no bigger than your thumb, who was found by an elderly couple and raised as their own. As Timimoto grew older he wanted to go out into the world and explore. Along his way he had many adventures and trying times but ended up saving the day. After reading the story, the students worked in groups to create a foldable with boxes. In each box they retold one part of the story and illustrated it. They then cut the boxes apart and put them in order on a sentence strip. After each group finished their story sequencing, they shared their retell with the class.





Is It a Toad or a Frog?

A few weeks ago when we were studying the life cycle of frogs, the students read Frog and Toad from Reading A-Z. After reading the book several times during guided reading, the students worked in their groups to complete a Thinking Map of their choice - either a Double Bubble Map or a Venn Diagram. Both maps are used to teach the same concept - to compare and contrast two objects. The students used the reading strategy of looking back at the text to find their answers.


Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Garden Update

The students have been working very hard at taking care of their garden. Their onion and potato plants are growing quickly. Last week we visited the garden with Ms. Goolsbay's class to have a lesson from Mrs. Reed on feeding the plants and watering them properly. The students learned that the best way to water the plants is by watering at the base and not the leaves. They also learned that these types of plants need a large amount of water and they need it on a daily basis. Thank you to Mrs. Reed for helping us learn more about the garden.



Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Favorite T.V. Show

Each week the students write using The Write From the Beginning Program. The program teaches the students to write using Thinking Maps. Over the last several weeks we have been writing "to tell why." The students have written about their favorite food, their favorite color, their favorite toy, and this week they wrote about their favorite t.v. show. They first brainstormed their favorite shows on a Circle Map. They then chose one show to write about in a Flow Map. On the Flow Map they had to write three reasons why it was their favorite show. They also had to include adverbs in their writing. They then used the Flow Map to help them write sentences. After they were finished, the students came to guided writing with me to edit and revise their work. After revising their work, the students created their own television to illustrate their favorite t.v. show. Sorry there are no pictures - I forgot to take any!

The Little Engine That Could

This week we have been reading The Little Engine That Could. Yesterday the students created story element charts to describe the characters, setting, problem, and solution of the story. (Fellow teachers, you can download the chart here for free.) Then, as a whole group, we retold the story on a Flow Map. Today the students created their own version of the Flow Map in small groups on train paper. After writing their retell, the students colored their train, cut it out, and ordered it on their sentence strip railroad track. Each group then read their retell to their classmates. Following this activity, the students made connections to the story. We brainstormed things that they once thought they could not do that they now can do. They wrote their connections on mini trains and placed them on their tracks.











Are You a Frog?

Are you a frog? No! We discussed how students and frogs are similar and how they are different. They then wrote what they learned about frogs on a Circle Map. Using the Circle Map, the students wrote and illustrated why they are not frogs.




Symmetrical Butterflies

As a part of our study on life cycles, we discussed how most butterflies are symmetrical - their wings look the same on both side. To help the students visualize this, they cut out a pattern of a butterfly and folded it in half. We then put dobs of paint on just one side of the butterfly. The students then folded the other half on top of it to smoosh all of the paint. They then opened the butterfly to see that both sides now looked the same. I related this mini-lesson back to math and patterns. We talked about how the paint formed a pattern on the butterfly. We then added the butterflies to our garden display in the hallway.


Measuring Area with Color Tiles

To assess their understanding of area, I had the students create two seperate squares or rectangles using paper color tiles. The students then had to measure the area of their squares or rectangles. After measuring, they compared the two shapes to see which had the greatest and least area.

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