April 27, 2013

Well we survived MAP testing this week, and we are thrilled with the results.  Our students put forth their best effort and were successful (thank goodness).

This week we tried to keep our lessons filled with hands-on activities since they used all their energy in the mornings taking their MAP tests.  We had fun reading Lisa Blau's reader's theater script called "Talking Trees."  The students got into small groups to read this nonfiction script.  Then they created a graphic organizer to record the main ideas and details.  This was difficult, but the students enjoyed the challenge and were eager to it.

The end of the script informed the readers of the importance to conserve trees, which is one of earth's most valuable resources.  To connect with the script, as well as celebrate Earth Day, we decided to make our own recycled paper.  This simple project elated our children.  Below are the step-by-step instructions.

Tear a strip of toilet paper into small pieces.

Add water to cover the toilet paper, and shake until it becomes pulp-like.

Pour it into the square frame which is placed on top of a screened can.

Use a sponge to push out all extra water.

When all extra water is out, lift it off of the screen and let it dry on a paper towel.

After the paper completely dried, we decorated them and made them into magnets.

The next activity included writing an extended response.  In the script the Redwood Tree says, "Trees are one of earth's most valuable resources."  Forming an opinion and supporting it with arguments is an important writing component of the Common Core.  So the students had to decide whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement and support it with evidence from the script.  Below are some of their responses.

Brain Pop Jr. has a great video called Reduce, Reuse, Recycle that we showed our students.  We just wanted to solidify the importance of conserving our natural resources.  

Our next hands-on activity came from Steve Spangle science.  We recommend checking out his site if you have a chance Making Science Fun.   Below is his video that we used to help our students make their own growing newspaper trees.  We did modify his instructions by only using two pieces of newspaper rather than ten.  It was super simple and again elated the students.  One student was overheard saying, "This is so cool I am so doing this tonight at home."

Here are some of our trees.

These are the main reading, writing, and activities that we did this week.  We look forward to sharing more with you next week.  Have a great week.  If you are in the same boat as us, good luck with MAP testing.  We wish you well.

Kim and Anne

April 20, 2013

Hi Everyone,
Unfortunately our home town of Lombard, Illinois got pummeled with rain last Wednesday and Thursday.  The weather was so severe many towns, including Lombard, cancelled school.  This is unheard of in April in Illinois.  It seems like everyone is underwater and trying to clean up.  Therefore, we need to put our blogging on hold until next week.  We promise exciting reading, writing, and science activities that go along with natural resources and recycling.

We hope you have a wonderful week and were not impacted by the horrible rainstorm.

Kim and Anne

April 14, 2013

Good morning!  This week we spent an abundant amount of time getting ready for Open House.  We wanted to make sure we finished up on all of our exciting projects so our students' parents could see how hard they work all day long.  It seemed like a whirlwind, but it was worth it.  The kids were so proud of their accomplishments and their classrooms.  The most popular attraction was the podcast the kids performed of I Am The Dog I Am The Cat.  If you remember, that was the book we used for our lesson on adding voice to our writing.  Unfortunately we cannot upload the podcast due to several children not having permission for their work to be on the internet.

This week in math we introduced the students to fractions.  We did many fun activities and projects with fractions, but our favorite was making fraction pizzas inspired by Amy Lemons.  We gave the students two ten-inch circles to make their pizzas.  The bottom red circle was the "whole" and the top yellow circle was divided into six equal parts.  Each part need to be decorated with different toppings.  Then the students wrote fractions that described their pizzas.  Below are pictures of our pizzas, but if you would like a more detailed lesson plan you can visit Amy Lemons' teacherspayteachers store.

We could not let this project be completed without incorporating a bit of writing.  We asked the students to work in groups to brainstorm endings to this sentence starter: Numerators and denominators go together because... The students did a great job persevering through this challenge.  We felt it was important for the students to engage in this activity to solidify the meanings of these two words before we move on to fractions of a set.  These fractions always prove to be more difficult than fractions of a whole.

Our reading theme continues to go along with our Social Studies concepts.  We introduced Natural Resources this week.  We began with a concept mural as a pre reading strategy to front-load the students with information they would be reading about in their Social Studies texts.  At the end of the lesson students wrote about what they read.  

The concept mural is a strategy developed by Pamela Farris and can be found in the December/January 2006 issue of the Reading Teacher.

The following day we showed a Brain Pop Jr. video on natural resources as a review.  Another student came up with a brilliant idea.  He suggested we take notes on the video.  The kids were really excited to do this, and we were really excited that they wanted to incorporate writing while watching a video.  Writing notes reinforced the concepts of natural resources more effectively than just watching the video.

We are now in the middle of reading a reader's theater script titled "Talking Trees."  Our focus for this reading lesson is on determining the main ideas and details.  After reading the scripts in small groups, the students had to decide what the main idea of the entire script was, as well as what smaller main ideas were embedded in the script.  We are recording the main ideas and details on a graphic organizer, which we will share with you next week.  We have not decided if we are going to perform and podcast this script.  It all depends on if our students suggest it or not.  We are really interested in letting them lead the direction of the lessons.

Have a great week. We will see you next Saturday on the blog!  

Kim and Anne

April 6, 2013

We had a fun and relaxing Spring Break, and we hope you all did as well.  It was good, however, to get back into our routine.

We had an exciting breakthrough this week.  All year long we have tried to encourage our students to become independent thinkers, to take lessons to another level, to take ownership of the lessons, and to kind of run the room while we facilitate.  And it finally happened!!! We read the book I Am The Dog I Am The Cat. The purpose was to reinforce the idea of voice in writing by having students identify the voices of the two characters in this book.  In the middle of the reading one of our students said, "Hey, I have a great idea.  Everyone could read a dog part or cat part.  We can try to sound like them."  You could have knocked us over.  It was one of those moments of "Why didn't I think of that?"  We have been using this book for years!!!! So our lesson plans took a turn.  We typed the book into a reader's theater for the kids to perform.

To ensure students used voice in their performance, we needed to have a discussion about the moods, feelings, and attitudes of the cat and the dog.  The students chose their character and then practiced their parts in two separate groups--the dog group and the cat group.  We had to model a lot to try and help the students become their character.  This was a challenge, but it was a fun one!  After three days of practicing in separate groups and as a whole group we were ready to perform.  The students recorded their performance in a podcast.  We will be doing some editing this weekend by adding sound and pictures.

To take this voice lesson one step further we went back to our original writing lesson.  We brainstormed a list of other pairs that could go together such as cookies and milk, fish and worm, brother and sister, bird and worm, rabbit and carrot etc.  After choosing their character pairs, students worked in groups to discuss what these voices might sound like and words the voices might use.  Then it was time to write.  We are still in the middle of our rough drafts, which you will find below.

Students are also working on the flap books they will use to publish this writing.  Below are samples of that, too.  You can find our complete three-lesson writing plan called Writing With Voice at our Teachers pay Teachers store.

This week we decided to keep the blog short and sweet.  Talk to you online next week.  Have a great week.

Kim and Anne