January 26, 2013

It was nice to celebrate Martin Luther King Day on Monday, but short weeks always make us frantic because we plan too many fun activities to fit into four days.  We were disappointed when they all didn't get done, but what did get done was fabulous!

To kick off the week in a fun way, we introduced idioms to our kids during Word Block.  They thought our read aloud book, There's A Frog In My Throat was hilarious.  We chose this book because all the idioms were about animals, which connected with our science unit. After reading and discussing the idioms, each student illustrated their own animal idiom, which then became part of our class book. 

What a cute way to show, "The Cat's Got
Your Tongue!"

With the cold weather, we got very familiar with
this idiom this week!

We have uploaded the frames for all of the animal idioms that we used at our Teachers Pay Teachers store. (Teachers Pay Teachers) We've also included blank frames for students to write and define idioms they have found from other sources. One of our students came up with this idea because she wanted to write more idioms during Daily Five. What a way to take the lesson to the next step!

To reinforce the concept of theme during guided reading, students read fiction animal stories that paired up with our nonfiction reading in science. One of the books we used was Unlovable, by Dan Yaccarino. The kids fell in love with the main character, Alfred, and enjoyed discovering the theme of this book. After reading and discussing the story, as well as analyzing the main character, Alfred, we worked to determine the theme of this story. We did this by listing the important plot events, and discovering how they affected Alfred. Then, we looked for the event that caused a change in Alfred. The important plot events, coupled with the character change, is where the theme can be determined. The kids were so connected to Alfred, coming up with the theme was not difficult.

Our Character Web

Our Plot Points Chart

After brainstorming different ways to write the theme, students chose the one they liked best and wrote a full response. But the best part was when they got to paint their favorite scene! 

Here's Alfred on our bulletin board!

If you want more details on the three activities we did with this book, check out our Teachers Pay Teachers store tomorrow for the full lesson plan. (Teachers Pay Teachers) Connections to the Common Core State Standards will be included. 

We hope you had a great week this week, and a terrific one next week!

Kim and Anne