How does it look to swallow a chick?

Welcome back readers! This week we are going to discuss the reading strategy “visualizing” and share an activity that could be used to teach children to visualize.  With spring in the air we wanted to share a book to get everyone in the spring and Easter sprit! The title of our book is There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick by Lucille Colandro.

In this story there is an old lady and she first swallows a chick, next she swallows some straw to cover the chick, then she swallowed an egg and didn’t get sick. The story continues with the same rhythm as the lady continues to swallow different items. Children would think it was so funny to hear a story about an old lady swallowing non-food items.

A way to use this book to teach children visualizing would be to read the book to the children and do not show them the pictures. Encourage the students to close their eyes and picture what they believe the old lady and the chick look like. After the students have done that, ask them to use their mental pictures to draw their own version of the story. Last, read the story to the children again and show them the pictures. Encourage a class discussion to compare what the children visualized and what the real characters looked like.  

CLICK HERE for a reading of the book.

I Wonder...Did a fish steal that hat?

Welcome back friends! 

"Making Inferences" - which simply means making predictions or reading between the lines.  Play the part of a detective while reading!  Look for clues about the story before you read, make predictions of what is going to happen based on the title or picture on the cover or few couple of pages.  Use evidence from the book, and your background knowledge to ask and answer questions while reading, such as "I wonder what .....?" or "I think....will happen" statements. After reading, review if any of your predictions were validated.

This Is Not My Hat, by Jon Klassen is a wonderfully unique book with a surprise ending!  This Caldecott medal winner is a good book to use to reinforce the idea that pictures can help us make predictions and the text can also help us infer meaning. From the very first page with the statement, "This is not my hat, I stole it"  to the last three wordless pages  where you see the big fish swimming with the hat, will have your students making predictions from the start to the end.

The story is about a small fish swimming along with a tiny hat on his head, readily admits he has stolen it from a HUGE, sleeping, fish!  He never really justifies why he took it, and he swims along thinking no one will ever know he took it.  He hides in tall weeds, where he believes he is safe and that he will be able to keep the hat. Does he get away?  Will he be able to keep the hat?  Why did he take the hat? Who will help the big fish find his hat? Can the big fish find the little fish? Will he care or notice his hat is gone?

 Make your own inferences as you listen to the read aloud:

 

An activity to go along with your read aloud:
Begin by showing the student's a list of words (without showing the book):
big fish
little fish
hat
thief
plants
 
Write down on chart paper their predictions about the plot, setting, or characters from the words about the book.  Next, do a brief picture walk, tell the children to focus on the characters eyes - what can they infer about the characters of the story? What do they notice about their behavior? How does the author use color to convey the tone and mood?  Be sure to show them the last three pages that are wordless -  the ending is left up to the reader to figure out. You can have students debate what they think happens at the end, and give reasons to support their position. Do any of your students think the little fish got away? If he did, what might happen next?
During the reading, have students look for clues to validate their predictions and jot them down on paper.  Finally, after reading, have the students complete the making inferences chart using the clues and evidence from the book, and their background knowledge.

  http://firstgradeadventureinteaching.blogspot.com/2013/02/inferring-in-first-grade-good-book-to.html

We hope by sharing this activity and book with you, it gives you an idea of a fun way of introducing the strategy of making inferences to your class.
 
Send us your comments - we love to hear from you and learn ways you might use this book in your classroom. 
 
Have a great week!

A Stormy, No Fun, Boring Kind of Day!

                 

Hello readers! We are back this week with a blog to give you some ideas when teaching children how to make connections while reading. The book we have chosen to discuss this week is Rain, Rain, Go Away copyrighted by Scholastic and illustrated by Viviana Garofoli. Not only is this book a great read aloud but it is also designed to sing with the traditional tune of Rain, Rain, Go Away. We enjoyed exploring this text and its many possibilities for learning!

In this book there is a boy and a girl that really want to go out to play. However, the rain has come and it is too messy to have a fun day outside. The children suggest that the rain come back on Saturday or an April Day. They say the sun wants to come out to stay so rain, rain, just go away! At the end of the book the children got their wish and the sun came out and they got to play. The rain was gone and the sun was their to brighten their day! 

Lesson & Activity;

This lesson would be used as an introduction lesson to "making connections" and could be used at a very young age. This particular story we selected would work on the concept of a text to self connection. Since this lesson is all about making connections, it would also be fun to start this lesson off by singing Rain, Rain, Go Away.

• First, the book should be read to the children. While reading the book make sure to stop and model "making connections" by giving the children examples of when you wanted to go outside and couldn't because of the rain. Don't forget to ask questions before, during, and after the reading to monitor understanding as well. Many of the children have heard the song before, however, some many have not.
•  Next, draw a picture of the day you couldn't go outside because of the rain as a model  to the students. (Explain the rain, temperature, sickness etc. could be a reason for staying in, not just the rain.)
• Then, place the students in groups of four and ask them to draw about a day they were stuck inside. After all members have completed their drawing, get them to share with the other group members. (While the children are working, provide each group with a copy of the book to reference the children and their rainy day.)
• Last, allow the students to hang art work somewhere in the class. Encourage students to look at all other classmates in their free time and ask fellow students to explain their "rainy day." 

*This information was found at readinglady.com.

 

Leave us your comments on how you might use this book to making connections!

 AND.....

Tune in next week for ideas in using a book and an activity to use when teaching one of the other comprehension strategies!

"Thank You, Mrs. Ross!"

   

People across the United States celebrate Flag Day on June 14 each year honoring the United States flag and to commemorate the flag's adoption.

Do you know the flag's history?
"Have you ever wondered how America got its first flag?  Some people believe that a woman named Betsy Ross made it." "Betsy Ross lived from 1752 to 1836 and she may have sewn the first American flag."

Imagine being a young woman working inside your husband's upholstery shop in the 1700's.  It's a time of war, and your husband is off fighting while you tend to the business.  One day, the General of the colonies' army comes in and requests your assistance in making a flag to represent freedom from England!

The Easy Reader's Biography book, Betsy Ross, The Story of Our Flag by Pamela Chanko is an excellent source for correlating the standard:
SSKH1:h The student will identify the purpose of national holidays and describe the people or events celebrated. h. Flag Day  
and introducing young students to the American legend of how George Washington commissioned Betsy Ross to create a flag for the anticipation of the declaration our independence and the adoption of making it our official flag.

In this book, the life of Betsy Ross is told in a narrative format on a level that is easy for young students to understand.  It depicts colorful illustrations that include historical facts on each page. Some interesting facts stated in this book include, "Betsy had 16 brothers and sisters. Her chores included helping with the sewing. She married John Ross and they owned an upholstery shop.  This is where George Washington (not yet President) commissioned her to create the first American flag". The book illustrates a comparison of the 1776 and today's flag with facts about the number of stripes and stars used. The book also states that, "It was on June 14, 1777, the design of the first American flag was made official."  Hence: The celebration of Flag Day. 



In closing, we will leave you with our own "take away thoughts" and a short music video to integrate music into your lessons.  Be sure to share your thoughts with us and how would you use this book inside the classroom?

Karen's thoughts:

The thing I liked the most about this book was the simplicity.  It told a story of the life of Betsy Ross, while including historical facts in the colorful illustrations.  I had thought it to be fact that Betsy Ross sewed the first flag before reading this book. I found it interesting to learn this is just a legend., and it really has not been proven to be a fact.  Teachers could use a Venn diagram to compare the two flags. as well as teach about celebrating Flag Day.  I think a great activity to use for the book is to have the students design their own interpretation of the American flag.

Whitney's thoughts: 

I found this book to be interesting because I never realized the first flag was not the actual original design. I would read this book as part of a symbols lesson and add many objects like the flag, along with other American symbols to spark the interest of the children. It would be great to teach children the flag represents American and teach them its importance. It would be fun to allow the children to imagine they were designing their own country and flag. I would ask the children to explain the meaning behind their flags.

Integrate a little music into your lesson....

Young children love music!  Check out this cute Flag Day song you could also incorporate into your lesson.   



Never Such a Wild Leaf Ride

The Magic School Bus

The Wild Leaf Ride is a book that starts out in Ms. Frizzle’s classroom. The students in her classroom have been studying different types of leaves and trees. The students have made a poster labeling the different types of leaves they have found however, they have a problem! They are missing the maple leaf! Ms. Frizzle and the students jump on the magic school bus to take a wild ride to find the missing leaf. They see the birds flying south for the winter, and learn how acorns can turn into trees while on their leaf hunt.  They even learn why the leaves change their color in the fall. After running from a squirrel and a bird the class falls in a pile of leaves and the lost leaf is finally found!

S2L1b; is the standard that we use chose to use for this assignment.  This standard says that Students will investigate the life cycles of different living organisms, relate seasonal changes to observations of how a tree changes throughout the school year.

Since this story is based in the fall, we would want the activity to be as well. An activity we would want to use this book and standard in the class would be Fall Findings. Fall Findings is an activity that would get our second graders outside and excited about the changes of fall. After reading this book, we would ask students to get a notepad and pencil and get ready for a nature walk! I would ask each student to write down items that they see that is only popular to find in the fall. We would want the students to say things like leaves changing colors, leaves falling, cooler weather etc. After the students wrote down their ideas from the nature walk we would take them back to the classroom to share with others.  **This activity would be completed after a lesson on the fall season.                                            

Whitney Thinks:

This book can entertain a wide range of students and meet a wide range of standards. This book talks about seasons, leaves, seeds, birds migrating, and how squirrels save their nuts for winter. Therefore it can be used in many different classrooms many different ways.  Children  would really enjoy going outside and doing a nature walk instead of learning about fall in the classroom. Also, the book allows children to imagine riding in a magical bus and opens up and world of imagination. 

                                                                          Karen Thinks: 
I love Fall - there are so many changes taking place and the colors are my favorites! This book can be used to begin talking with your students about the life cycle of a tree. In the book it explains how an acorn turns into a tree. Many children love getting an opportunity of taking their lesson outside, and the Fall season is a perfect opportunity to get them outside observing the many changes  taking place all around them. Bring literacy into the Science lesson by having the students compare Fall to another season using a graphic organizer.

It's been another great week and we hope you will enjoy finding ways to use this book in your classroom.  Let us hear some of your ideas in using this book and share with us what your favorite season is and why.  Thanks for checking us out and we will see you next week!

Chrysanthemum - a type of flower?? Yes, and......Oh! So much more!!

Hello friends!
Welcome back to this week's edition of our literature blog!

This week's focus is not on the genre of the book, but instead, using a fiction book to teach a certain content that many students often resist - a math lesson. 

For all of you that just said, "Math lesson?!" Yes! Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes is an adorable story about a mouse with a very long, beautiful, perfect, name! Chrysanthemum absolutely loved her name.  She loved everything about it!  Ya'll, she was so proud of her name that she constantly recited it to herself, over and over! Until..the first day of school!  As the teacher took roll, all the children laughed and teased her about her name being so long.  It was so long it barely fit onto her name tag. Dreadful!  Absolutely dreadful!  Her name was spelled with thirteen letters - half of the entire alphabet! Suddenly, Chrysanthemum did not feel like she had the most beautiful, perfect name. It was horrible. She even dreamed of changing her name to something shorter - Jane. At least until the day she met the music teacher, Mrs. Twinkle.  Delphinium Twinkle!  She too had a long name that was a type of a flower, and was expecting a baby. In the end, meeting Mrs. Twinkle restores the love Chrysanthemum felt for her name and after delivering a baby girl, she names her, Chrysanthemum! After all, it is the most beautiful and absolutely perfect name!
So how is Chrysanthemum math?
It teaches children the concept of linear measurements, comparing two or more objects, determining which is longer, shorter, or equal, and using non-standard measuring tools to measure an object.  In this case - their name!
 How??
One way is using an activity that correlates with this book called How long is your name?   You can actually review it in its entirety on the CCGPS site.  Just click on the attached link at the end of this page and scroll to page 14.

The two standards used include:
MCC.1.MD.1 Order three objects by length; compare the lengths of two objects indirectly by using a third object.
MCC.1.MD.4 Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories; ask and answer questions about the total number of data points, how many in each category, and how many more or less are in one category than in another.  

Most children like their name and this activity allows them to compare the length of their name to your example name (maybe Chrysanthemum or your name), fellow classmates, and  to the entire class. Using linking cubes for each letter in their name, they compare the names within their small group.  They determine which is longer, shorter, or the same and record their findings. Have the students return to a common area.  Draw a table on the board and have each student take turns indicating the number of letters in their name while you chart them. Discuss who has the shortest and longest name in the class, and how using the linking cubes is a non-standard measuring tool they used to measure their name. 

This activity ties back to the story because like most children, Chrysanthemum also loved her name. The story is centered on the length of her name and as seen in the illustrations, it is very long compared to many of her classmates.  They have short names such as Jo, Kay, or Rita.  One student even points out to the teacher, “Chrysanthemum’s name is spelled with thirteen letters - half of the entire alphabet!”

In closing, we leave you with our thoughts:

Whitney's Ideas:

Until this assignment I have never thought of Chrysanthemum as being a math lesson but it can be! This book shows children how to count as well as compare the letters in their names. Doing an activity like this would be fun for children because they can count the letters in their names and compare it to their friends names. In this book we can also remind children how to treat others and not to bully someone because they are different.

Karen's thoughts:
This little book can be used in a variety of disciplines, but who would have thought math! Other ways I think will make the name game fun is to incorporate it in your teachings about money.  Put a monetary value on each letter of the alphabet and have the students add up the "value" of their name and compare it to the class.  Who has the most expensive name?  Later as an integrated math and reading activity discuss and review consonants and vowels. Identify the name and number of both consonants and vowels in Chrysanthemum's name. As a whole group tally the number of vowels in our names and make a class graph. Here you are also teaching graphing. I think these would be fun ways to gain student's interest in learning math. 



 Don't forget to check out the full activity at this website:
https://www.georgiastandards.org/Common-Core/Common%20Core%20Frameworks/CCGPS_Math_1_Unit4FrameworkSE.pdf       Scroll to page 14.

 

Egg fight? Corn fight? Snakes in the wash?

 

The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash
Welcome back to Karen and Whitney's blog! This week we will be discussing a fantasy fictional piece. The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble is the book we chose.  It has an engaging plot for children because they can’t wait to see what unruly thing will happen next on the farm. They are not sure if the boa will be caught once he got loose. This book has a lot of action with little dialogue. It has a fun cliffhanger ending where Jimmy gets one of the pig’s as a new pet.We found this book to be a fun way to teach cause and effect. We found this book to be exciting and we enjoyed it, hope you will too!

The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash is about a little girl's field trip experience. She tells her mother how it was sort of boring until the cow starting crying because a hay stack fell on him, because the farmer ran into it, because of the pigs on the bus, because they were hungry and the kids used their corn to throw at each other after they ran out of eggs, which caused the farmers wife to scream because the boa was eating her wash! In the end Jimmy left in such a hurry that the boa got left behind, but lucky for him a pig never made it off the bus.

What makes this a fictional story??

• Type- This story is fantasy fiction because it contains elements that are not real in our world. Examples: "The cow was crying" and the pigs jumping on the bus to eat their lunches.
• Plot- The plot in this story is conflict/resolution. The reason is because it contains person to person conflict between the students (throwing things at each other).
• Theme- The theme proves to be another reason this story is fiction. It is not directly stated. However, we can read and find that their are hidden morals that teach telling the truth and understanding the situation before jumping to conclusions.
• Setting- The setting in this fiction literature is detailed. It is on a farm with the farmer, his wife, and animals. They are on the farm during a school field trip.
• Point of View- This story is told in third person. It is third person because the little girl is telling the story in her imaginative point of view about the school field trip to the farm.
  

 Karen’s thoughts:
I think this book offers children a humorous side of a third party’s point of view of what might have truly been a boring field trip to the farm. The little girl uses a great sense of imagination when telling her mom about her day. This gives the story a fabulous plot and keeps the story interesting. The author does a great job at keeping the reader guessing what silly thing the children or animals will do next. There is an interesting picture at the end of the book where the farmer’s wife is knitting a long tube while the boa is curled up happily in front of the fire. This would be an excellent picture to share with the students and have them continue writing their version of the ending of the story. All of the components of the story could really happen….with one exception – cows don’t cry! Have you ever been on such an exciting field trip? There are so many possibilities in teaching with this book. It would be great to teach younger students about which animals belong or don’t belong on a farm. It has such a defined beginning, middle, and ending which could make it fun for retelling, sequencing, or reader’s theater. You could also teach students about playing together and it’s not nice to throw things at each other. You could discuss your expectations and rules before taking a field trip. Pets could be another topic.

Whitney’s thoughts:
I felt like this book was entertaining and fun for students. Most people read about a snake and are scared, like myself; however, this book gives readers a different opinion of a snake. When the pigs are on a bus eating the children’s lunch and a cow is crying you can bet it’s an interesting book. I would also want to show my students a hidden moral message. This message is that you need to know the full details before jumping to conclusions. If you have the wrong impression, you can make the wrong decision about what to do. In the book the children were in the hen house and a chicken laid an egg. When it laid the egg, it landed on Jenny’s head. She assumed that one of the other children threw it at her and in return threw one back. Because she did not know the full details, and assumed, she started an “egg fight”. I would make sure to point out it is always best to understand what happen and how it happen before just reacting, a life lesson not only for children but also for adults.

Before you leave please check out this smart board game....https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-vfpaed7O-cMzQzMDM1ZjYtOGRiYS00NzY1LTg0ZWYtY2JhNmQwMWE3ZTY0/edit?usp=drive_web&urp=http://pitnerm.blogspot.com/2011/12/day-jimmys-boa