Hi Everyone! We have survived another frigid week in Chicago, but it seems the worst is yet to come, as the forecast calls for horrible weather at the beginning of next week.
Before moving into expository writing, we decided to have one more crack at adding sensory images and supporting details to our writing. We did this by introducing similes to our students. We began by reading the books, My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks by Hanoch Piven, and Crazy Like a Fox, A Simile Story by Loreen Leedy. We also read two simile snow poems, and students had to identify the similes. Then, students had to write their own winter similes. We weren't sure how they would turn out, based on their oral responses, but we were quite pleased with the results.
We started the non-fiction part of our Native American unit. Kim found a great formative assessment to gage how much background knowledge students had about them. It was called, "Agreement Circles" from Page Keeley's book, Science Formative Assessment. It was a physical way for students to not only demonstrate their background knowledge, but to also defend their thinking. Before reading the poem called Native Americans, students were given pictures of different Native American ways of life, and they had to sort the pictures however they wanted. The poem introduced students to the different cultural regions and ways of life for the Native Americans. It was a complex poem, but after discussing it, the students were then able to resort the pictures that matched the different cultural regions.
To complete the lesson, we made a map of the different regions and revisited the "Agreement Circle." The students were more decisive, and able to defend their thinking with specific information they had learned from the poem. It really was a good formative assessment!
We had more fun with polygons this week. We found that our students really didn't know the different types of polygons, so they needed lots of practice with them. We found a great polygon lesson from AIMS Education called "Pondering Polygons." The geoboard activity was a big hit, as well as the Pick a Polygon game.
Those were the highlights of the week for us. Hopefully we will have a five day week to write about next week! Keeping our fingers crossed!
Kim and Anne
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