One Great Day of Reading

Sunday, December 6, 2015

What is Earth's most precious resource that keeps all living things alive, but is not readily accessible to all people? Water! After many weeks of studying water and its properties, our students have recognized how important water really is, and how lucky they are to have it at their fingertips. 

On Friday, we did something that we have never done before. We had a reading marathon, called One Great Day of Reading to raise money to give to The Water Project.

Leading up to this day, our students did many reading and writing activities to learn about water and our global water crisis. One of our favorite sites that gave us a lot of information about what causes the crisis was eschooltoday:your cool basics on water shortage.

Our science unit on water and weather led us to recognize the scarcity of water in places on Earth. The students made a mural of the water cycle that they visualized while reading The Water Cycle Adventure, which can be found on Enchanted Learning.

One of our last activities in this unit was to write about the importance of water. We used The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown as our mentor text. The students used all of the notes that we had taken in our water readings to find a topic and supporting details about why water is so important to our lives.  They then wrote about it using the pattern we discovered in The Important Book.

We were thrilled that our One Great Day of Reading led to giving over $800 to The Water Project. As we continue to read A Long Walk To Water, we recognize that there is still a great need to give people around the world access to clean water.

The next time you drink a glass of water, remember how precious this resource is!

Kim and Anne

Friday, November 13, 2015

We're feeling lucky today!  It's going to be a great day.  Hopefully we will have as much luck as the boy in Lucky Leaf did.  Lucky Leaf is a fantastic picture book to teach the reading strategy of inferencing.  There are few words on each page, but the author gives many clues through the illustrations and the simple text.  Students can make meaningful inferences.  Our students kept track of what was happening on the pages and the inferences they made in their reading notebook.

More luck came our way when we ran across the poem "The Magic in The Moment."  It is a complex text that requires students to understand the meaning behind the figurative language.  Not only did our students have to infer they also visualized what was happening in the poem.

This poem was a great paired reading with Lucky Leaf.  We had the students complete a venn diagram to compare and contrast these two texts.  This was a challenge, so we provided the students with support.  Completing this venn made writing our compare/contrast paragraph a huge success.  We topped it off with a fun chalk leaf project.

We can't believe there is only one week left before Thanksgiving break and Parent-Teacher conferences!  Have a great break.

Kim and Anne

Amelia Bedelia

October 30, 2015

The last two weeks it has been all about Amelia Bedelia. We initially just intended to have students read an Amelia Bedelia book to introduce them to homonyms during our word block. But, the kids fell in love with her, and so we ran with it. This was the perfect opportunity to capitalize on their excitement and introduce the Common Core Standard 3.9: Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters.

We decided to differentiate reading lessons to meet the needs of all of our students. We split into two groups. One group read and discussed Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia as a whole group. Then, they had comprehension questions that they had to answer with a partner. The other group read with a partner Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia. They answered comprehension questions while Kim facilitated.

Next in our plans was to have the kids read as many Amelia Bedelia books they could in a two day Reader's Workshop setting. They were allowed to choose their titles and whether they were going to read independently or with a partner. We knew it would be fun, but the students flipped out! They loved the freedom of choice. As they read, they needed to keep track of her character traits.

After the two day Reader's Workshop, the students had to choose two of their favorite Amelia Bedelia books to complete a compare and contrast Venn diagram. We used the Venn Diagram to write a compare and contrast paragraph. To make this difficult task easier, we used two different frames to assist their writing.

After all of their hard work, the students created a water color scene portraying one of Amelia Bedelia's character traits or one of her mix-ups.

Happy Halloween!
Kim and Anne

Greg Tang

October 18, 2015

Hi Everyone,

This week we had a great opportunity to go to a Greg Tang Math Workshop. It was over two days, and we each went to one session. The first session was called Clever Connections: Strategies, Standards, and Skills. This session focused on different algorithms and mental math strategies that can be used in the classroom. He showed us strategies and ways to manipulate numbers and break them apart. Because our number system is based on tens, he is always asking students to find and make tens when adding and subtracting. We have been trying to teach our students to do this during our math talk time. It is is difficult for them because it is such a new way of thinking, but we can see its benefits.

The second session was called Smart Math Strategies and it focused on the fifteen different types of word problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. He taught us how to help students navigate their way through a problem using his six-step framework. This framework helps the students understand what the numbers in the problem mean, which then makes it easier for them to solve the problem. There is a huge emphasis on problem solving in the Common Core, and as you move through the grades the wording of the problem becomes much more complicated. As early as second grade, the problems are more complex. That is why the framework is so important.

We encourage you to check out Greg Tang's website. There are tons of games and strategies that our students have loved working with. But the best thing on the site is the Word Problem Generator because you can change the type of problem,  the operation, and the numbers students work with. He also gives hints for each problem, which include a model. Once again, the model is part of the six-step framework, and it makes it easier for students to see an equation and solve the problem.

If you ever get the opportunity to go to one of his workshops, we would strongly recommend it. He will be having a big three-day convention in Kansas City this summer. For the first 150 people to register, there will be a fourth day that is free.

Hopefully, this will help you with your math instruction. Have a great week and enjoy math!

Kim and Anne

Friday, October 2, 2015

Hello Everyone! Happy Friday!!!  It was a wonderfully busy week here at Madison School, but we have decided to keep our blogs short and sweet, in which case we chose our favorite activity of the week to share with you.

As you know, science has been a great hit with our students this year, so we decided this past week was going to be all about Albert Einstein. We were able to cover several reading and writing skills using him as our focus.  We taught chronological text structure, how to write informational essays in chronological order, how to determine important information, and how to organize notes.

The students became fascinated with this science genius while reading several biographies about him. Some students read a one-page biography on him from My First Book of Biographies: Great Men and Women Every Child Should Know by Jean Marzollo. As a whole group, they determined which information was important and highlighted it. Other students read a more complex biography about Albert Einstein from Lives of Scientists: Experiments, Explosions (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull and Kathryn Hewitt. They too had to decide which information was important enough to highlight. In small groups, all of our students read a second biography about Albert Einstein from the question-answer book titled Did it Take Creativity to find Relativity, Albert Einstein.  Again, they had to determine important information and highlight it.
Eventually, all this information was organized into notes on chart paper.

Complex Text

Just Right Text

Really messy, but that's what happens when we work hard!

From our notes on Einstein, the students used writing frames to write their own biography on this man.  We differentiated this activity for our students, but everyone was required to write their biography in chronological order with plenty of supporting details.  They loved this writing activity because they had so much background information to use.

Typical Frame
There are two pages to this frame.

Complex Frame. Required students to write several supporting details.
There are two pages to this frame.

Now that our students know Albert Einstein fairly well, we are excited to reveal our new quote of the month on Monday.  It is one of his! It says..."A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." After we reveal the quote, we will have a discussion about what it means and how we can apply it to our lives. Then, we will sing a song that helps the meaning really hit home for kids. When it comes time to write what the quote means to them, our students hopefully will be armed with enough understanding to jot down their thoughts.

We are putting this up over Columbus Day weekend.  Hope you can check it out.

 Last month, the students really got a kick out of the bracelets and locker buttons we gave them to wear and display all month. Our students are still referring to that quote, which states "It's okay to not know, but it's not okay to not try."  It seems to help them reflect on their efforts throughout the day. If you would like all of our quotes and activities they will be up on our teacherspayteachers store after the Columbus Day holiday.

Well, we said this was going to short, but it seems we got a bit long winded.  That's usually the case with us--we love talking shop.

Until next time...
Kim and Anne

Mad About Science

9/19/2015

Science has been a big hit this year. Once again we started off with the Steve Spangler Orb experiments to introduce the scientific method. The kids absolutely loved it, and came up with great new questions to ask.

We took advantage of their high motivation and enthusiasm with science to introduce them to nonfiction descriptive text structure and note taking. To show them how to make main idea headings and supporting details for their notes, we read aloud the first part of the book, What Is A Scientist? and modeled note taking for them. Then, in collaborative groups, students read about specific fields of science from this book and another resource. They added to the notes we started, and then presented their findings to the rest of the class. They loved being teachers. We feel so lucky because we got a bonus lesson teaching the main idea and details of the book as we introduced descriptive text structure.

After taking notes, we introduced informative writing. This was our first crack at writing paragraphs that included a topic sentence, supporting details, and a closing sentence.  But, it connected perfectly with our teaching of nonfiction descriptive text structure. The students were going to have to describe what a scientist is, and what they do. After introducing the elements of informative writing, our kids started "cooking" their ideas for writing by creating a scientist sticker scene that we bought from Oriental Trading Company.

Finally, it was time to write! We had the students work in collaborative teams to write their first informative essay of the year. We were so proud of not only their results, but also their effort. They were presented with a challenging task, and they persevered through it, and had success! This was a great way to start the year!

We look forward to telling you about more of the connections that are happening in our classrooms. We know we have an exciting and engaging year ahead of us!

Kim and Anne

Friday, September 4, 2015

We have we been you ask?  Well, most of August was spent writing our math curriculum for the district.  It was a daunting task and is still not complete, but we feel good about what we've accomplished with some of our colleagues.  We were also getting our classrooms set up, and meeting and planning with our two new team members.  As exciting as it is to begin a new school year and to meet new kids and families, we have forgotten how busy this time of year is.

Now that we have a week and a half under our belts, we can blog again.  We want to tell you about more of the books we read over the summer.  We can't wait to use them with our new students.

This first book we chose to read because it correlates well with our first reading unit on tales.  It is called Isle of the Lost, by Melissa De La Cruz.  It takes place after all of the fairy tales have been told.  The villains have been banished to an island of their own.  They cannot use magic and must live a life of misery and hardship.  It is interesting to learn how the characters from various fairy tales interact with each other.  The end leaves you hanging, wanting to read the next book in the series called The Descendents by Rico Green.  It is the perfect book to introduce allusion.  The book allows for deep analysis of the characters and their actions and how those actions affect others in the story.

Another book that will go along with our tale unit is Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff.  This book takes place before the tale of Rumpelstiltskin.  Rumpelstiltskin is only twelve years old.  Everyone calls him Rump because he does not know his real name, which is unfortunate because he lives in a kingdom where your name is your destiny.  While searching for his identity, Rump has many obstacles to overcome.  Again, allusion can be taught with this book because there are other fairy tale characters referenced.  This would also be a good book for discussing point of view.  It would be really fun to compare this book with the original tale.

Throughout the year we will share new books we find exciting.  

Enjoy the long weekend!

Kim and Anne

July  24, 2015

This has been a great summer of reading. We are super excited to share all the reading we have done with you. It is like a shot in the arm to have new children's literature to share with our students. It has inspired us, and we can't wait to share our enthusiasm with our students. We know motivation is the key to reading success, and we are confident that our students are going to be begging us to take these books home to read. 

It has also been a great summer of writing. We are taking a class from Learner's Edge called The Writer's Notebook. We have gotten several new ideas to enhance our Writing Workshop lessons, and we have an exciting kick-off  party planned to introduce our students to the Writing Notebook.  Over the next few blogs we will share that and other resources with you. Today, we just want to share a few of our favorite picture books. We've been spending so much time reading these books, but at this point in time, we don't have a definite lesson plan for using them. That will come soon. This is just our recommendation of good books you can read. 

The first one that caught our eye was Peanut Butter and Cupcake by Terry Border. This is a book that we will definitely use in the first few days of school. It has a wonderful theme and message. We will want our students to complete a project and respond to the message. Somehow, we will make sure a cupcake is involved! This book is all about friendship, making new friends, and accepting others.

Another good book that we will use as we introduce the 6-traits in writing is What Do You Do With An Idea? by Kobi Yamada. We feel like this book is like an allegory of the writing process, and how an idea can grow into something special. It also addresses some of the struggles and fears that occur along the way.

A Boy And A Jaguar by Alan Rabinowitz is a true story about the author's struggle with stuttering, and how that led him to "being the voice for jaguars and other large jungle cats. As a boy, animals were the only ones he could talk to without stuttering. He promised them that once he found his voice, he would speak for them. He kept that promise, and is still doing that to this day. This has a message of believing in yourself, overcoming fears, and keeping true to your goals and desires. This is another good book to read at the beginning of the year when you talk about setting goals and reaching them. 

The last picture book we want to share with you today is titled, This Is A Mouse by Richard T. Morris. Along with A Boy And a Jaguar,  this book is a Monarch Award Nominee for 2016. With this book, the main focus would be fluency, and using the punctuation to add expression and to understand what is happening. This book would be perfect to use after introducing the Christina Smekens voice chart. From this link, click on the chart of punctuation marks link.This book can also introduce students to the concepts of foreshadowing and irony at their level. The foreshadowing comes into play on the front endpaper and the title page. 

We hope you can find the time to read some of these books if you haven't already. We included the thoughts off the top of our heads on how we would use them. If you have other ideas, we'd love to hear them!

Kim and Anne

What About Me?

Friday, July 10, 2015

Exciting news (for us anyway)!  We have finally completed another TeachersPayTeachers lesson plan. It seems to always take us quite awhile because we want to make sure our lesson plans are rigorous enough to go with the Common Core.  We decided to create a lesson plan for the tale What About Me?  by Ed Young because we are going to kick off our year with different types of tales.  If you check this lesson plan out and have any questions, let us know in the comment section.


Next week we plan on beginning our fairy tale lesson plans.  Hopefully we won't run out of time to get them completed before school starts.  We will share some of those lesson plans with you as we complete them.

We are still reading fabulous children's and young adult books.  We still plan on sharing these great titles with you.

Kim and Anne

Weather

June 26, 2015

We loved our weather unit that we completed at the end of the year, but we are not loving this Chicago area weather. It's been cloudy, dreary, and gloomy. It doesn't feel like summer at all. Hopefully, you are enjoying better weather than we are!

We were able to transition nicely from water, the water cycle, and clouds straight to weather. We first had students make a model of the layers of the atmosphere. They labeled each layer and wrote what happens in it. Here is a sample of that.

We wanted to have our students understand the components that make up our weather, so we had them work with a partner to read the information on the BBC What is Weather? site.  While reading, the partners had discussions about their reading to answer the questions we created for them.  The answers were not as easy to come by as we thought they would be.   For more added fun, the students went to another BBC weather site that was very interactive.

From there, we began our nonfiction reading about violent weather. We used the book Storms by National Geographic. The students took notes on the details about thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. We found a fun, familiar Steve Spangler science project to do- Tornado In a Bottle. We bought enough connectors so students could work in small groups to create their own "tornado." Then came the challenge. The students had to connect what they learned about tornadoes from their reading to the tornado in the bottle. We found a great explanation on a site called sciencewithtoys.

The last thing we wanted to share with you from this unit is our weather idioms. We used the book Birds of a Feather: A Book of Idioms with Silly Pictures by Vanita Oelschlager to review what idioms are. Then, each student got a weather idiom of their own. They had to show their understanding of the meaning of the idiom through a written sentence, and then a draw a silly, literal interpretation of the idiom.

Well, we are keeping our fingers crossed that the sun will come out soon, and it will feel like summer. One good thing to come from these dreary days is that we have had time to look for, and read some new children's books that we want to share with our class next year, and with you next time we blog!

Kim and Anne

Clouds and More Clouds

June 9th, 2015

School is out! Yesterday was our last day. We can't believe how the year flew by! Last week we said we would share our cloud activities with you, so here they are!

We first read information about the three main cloud types online. One of our favorite sites was Weather Wiz Kids, but there are a ton more out there. After we took notes from this site, we color coded categories we found within our notes. This helped us with our organization when taking notes from other sites. Eventually, this would also help us organize our expository cloud writing.

To solidify our understanding of the cloud types, and to add on a fun project, we painted a chart of the cirrus, cumulus, and stratus clouds. We included their elevation, and we tried to our best to use the paints to make the clouds look realistic.

After taking notes for a few days, it was time to write our expository piece on clouds. Before we could start, one of our students came up with a fantastic idea on his own. He suggested that we create a Google Slideshow of the information, instead of just typing it in Pages. We couldn't believe how the class bit on that, and how engaged they were. Each slide show included photos and video to go along with the writing. These are some screen shots of part of one of them, since we cannot share them to the public.

While we were writing, we read the book, Cloud Dance by Thomas Locker. It is a beautiful prose picture book. We wanted the kids to experience different types of genre on the topic of clouds. Cloudette, by Thomas Lichtenheld is another delightful fiction story on clouds. It is filled with literary devices, such as puns, alliteration, allusion, and idioms.

Lastly, our kids got a kick out of reading Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. After reading, we wrote a Found poem together. This was the first time writing this type of poem. It was a fun challenge!

It's not quite vacation for us yet. We have math committee work for the next few days. But after that, we plan to take a few days to breathe! See you soon!

Kim and Anne

Water, Water, Everywhere, part 2!

May 29th, 2015

Good morning, everyone. Our students are in an assembly so we thought we would get a jump start on the blog and get back to where we left off with our water and weather activities.

Last week we talked about how we introduced the vocabulary words evaporation and condensation with our students. From there, we went into the water cycle. We read and completed a Sketch to
Stretch with the Reader's Theater called Water Cycle Adventure. The purpose of the Sketch to Stretch was to help the students visualize what happens to a drop of water in the water cycle. We also used this visualizing to create a mural of the water cycle.

To connect with our theme of water and weather, we used the MAC program Numbers to create a circle graph showing how much of our earth is covered with fresh water, salt water, and land.  This led to a lively discussion about the importance of conserving our natural resources.

Our next step was learning about clouds because they play an important part in the water cycle and our weather. Before we did our research about the different types of clouds (that will shared with you in our next blog), we decided to start with reading another African Tale about a cloud that changed the weather. It was called, Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema. We used Christine Boardman Moen's idea called Crayon Conversations from her Better Than Book Reports: More Than 40 Creative Responses to Literature to summarize the tale. It was a lot of fun and it stretched their thinking because they had to do it independently. We felt they were ready for it because we have done many summarizing activities throughout the year.

That's all for now. We look forward to sharing more cloud activities with you next time.

Kim and Anne