At least it is new to me!
http://www.sharemylesson.com/mypublicprofile.aspx?uc=2289298&page=1&SFBC_FilterOption=8
Aligned to common core standards! Worth checking out!
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Bats
One of the many things I miss about teaching is the opportunity to be creative. (I know, it seems that the powers that be are doing their very best to take this away from teachers. Sad.)
A friend asked me to sub in her third grade classroom for two consecutive days and allowed me to create a project for her students.
This is the result of the two days.
Students answered the question about whether or not they have ever seen a bat by stamping the bat stamp in the yes or no column on our survey.
They answered the first two question in their 'bat book' that is from http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/bats/ws12.htm. They took a few minutes to talk about what they know and what they wanted to learn with their team.
Then we read the book Bats by Gail Gibbons. On chart paper we logged interesting facts as we read the book. We discussed the diagram in her book. We talked about the bat life cycle. They completed the back page of their 'bat book' and set it aside for later.
Students drew the border line around the construction paper edge using a ruler.
On a separate piece of paper students drew the (1) life cycle of a brown bat and labeled it.
My example shows the little brown bat life cycle from www.kidzone.ws as I didn't have time to draw it.
(Just so you know, ahead of time I cut paper for all of the learning I wanted presented on the poster. I've done these before where spaces were bordered for learning presentation and some students have a tough time recreating the spaces they see. As I was short on time I thought the paper would help with spacing and it also created some fun. There's just something about pockets and little books and folding paper.)
They folded the life cycle paper in thirds and applied glue to the middle section on the back. It was glued in the bottom right corner. I stressed getting it close to the border lines but not covering up the border lines.
Next they drew a (2) diagram of the parts of a bat and labeled it. It was glued next to the life cycle.
The 'bat book' presented a problem as it could not be glued to the poster without losing information or taking up too much space (and some of it upside down!). A pocket was created to hold the book. I think this might have been the highlight of the poster.
Using a rectangle, the ends were folded under. Glue was put on the folded under part and along the bottom of the paper (under the folded part, too). The (3) pocket was placed on the poster next to the diagram. I'm sorry I don't have a picture illustrating making the pocket.
If we would have had more time I think it would be fun to write a story with a bat as a main character. I read Bat Love the Night by Nicola Davies to the students. This would be a great opportunity to work on descriptive words and adding voice to writing.
A friend asked me to sub in her third grade classroom for two consecutive days and allowed me to create a project for her students.
This is the result of the two days.
Students answered the question about whether or not they have ever seen a bat by stamping the bat stamp in the yes or no column on our survey.
They answered the first two question in their 'bat book' that is from http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/bats/ws12.htm. They took a few minutes to talk about what they know and what they wanted to learn with their team.
Then we read the book Bats by Gail Gibbons. On chart paper we logged interesting facts as we read the book. We discussed the diagram in her book. We talked about the bat life cycle. They completed the back page of their 'bat book' and set it aside for later.
Students drew the border line around the construction paper edge using a ruler.
On a separate piece of paper students drew the (1) life cycle of a brown bat and labeled it.
My example shows the little brown bat life cycle from www.kidzone.ws as I didn't have time to draw it.
(Just so you know, ahead of time I cut paper for all of the learning I wanted presented on the poster. I've done these before where spaces were bordered for learning presentation and some students have a tough time recreating the spaces they see. As I was short on time I thought the paper would help with spacing and it also created some fun. There's just something about pockets and little books and folding paper.)
They folded the life cycle paper in thirds and applied glue to the middle section on the back. It was glued in the bottom right corner. I stressed getting it close to the border lines but not covering up the border lines.
Next they drew a (2) diagram of the parts of a bat and labeled it. It was glued next to the life cycle.
Using a rectangle, the ends were folded under. Glue was put on the folded under part and along the bottom of the paper (under the folded part, too). The (3) pocket was placed on the poster next to the diagram. I'm sorry I don't have a picture illustrating making the pocket.
During math time the students completed the Bat Wing Span book. I had hoped we would have time to survey students about myths (http://www.bats4kids.org/) and feelings about bats to create data for graphs and to analyze, but there wasn't time.
I created the book using Publisher. The wing span chart was created in Excel using data I found on various websites.
If you don't know how to make a little book, I found this video to help. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmPZlFBR6I8
We completed the (4) book and added it to our poster.
During Science time we review what we read earlier by reading and talking about the following website. http://www.globio.org/glossopedia/article.aspx?art_id=45&art_nm=Bats
In writing we started a paragraph about what we have learned about bats.
The next day we started off with the book Stellaluna by Janell Cannon.
As we read we logged differences between bats and birds. Using a venn diagram from math-aids.com (I added clip art of a bat and a bird) students compared and contrasted birds and bats. The (6) venn diagram was ready to be added to the poster. On my example we waited until we had the facts and opinions done and then added all three to the poster.
The little 'matchbooks' are a fun way to add (5) facts and opinions to the poster. Once again we were running short of time so I limited the facts to two and the opinions to two.
We added, reviewed, edited, and rewrote the (7) paragraph about what was learned to the piece of notebook paper custom cut to fit the space left on the poster. For kids who like to write a lot, a second sheet was added and students were instructed to not write on the top line. I used that as a glue line to attached the top (first page) and their writing was two pages, the top one flapped open.
Finally, the best part! A chance to (8) illustrate a bat. I didn't give them paper for this, it was done to the poster paper.
To finish the poster a (9) title and border was added. Students who finished early could add an illustration of another bat on the pocket and fact/opinion matchbooks.
If we would have had more time I think it would be fun to write a story with a bat as a main character. I read Bat Love the Night by Nicola Davies to the students. This would be a great opportunity to work on descriptive words and adding voice to writing.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Matchbook Text Features
Possible Common Core Standards:
RI.4.7
I was given the opportunity to come up with a reading activity for third graders within some parameters. This will be done during core reading, writing, and science for a total of about two, two and 1/2 hours. I will not have access to computers with the students so we are cutting and pasting.
The topic the students will learn about is earthquakes. Since we are in the middle of the country and rarely experience earthquakes the students are very curious about them.
The students will read and discuss Seymour Simon's Danger! Earthquakes. We will look for text features in the book. Because I will have limited time, I found text features about earthquakes on the internet to use for a project. Usually I would have the students create their own. The text features will be glued on a 'matchbook' and students will label the them. They will write one sentence about what they learned from the feature. There is a spot on the 'matchbook' for students to write a short (two or three sentences) paragraph about which text feature they liked the most. Finally students will write about earthquakes using the information from the text features, the book we read, and the websites listed below.
Here are a couple of websites we are going to visit.
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/videos/earth/whatisanearthquake.html
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
Here's a picture of my sample of what the students will do:
(I try hard to make sure I give credit for the graphics as it is not my intention to violate any copyright laws. If you think I have, please let me know. I noticed the safety list doesn't have the reference on the picture. That is being corrected for the students.)
RI.4.7
I was given the opportunity to come up with a reading activity for third graders within some parameters. This will be done during core reading, writing, and science for a total of about two, two and 1/2 hours. I will not have access to computers with the students so we are cutting and pasting.
The topic the students will learn about is earthquakes. Since we are in the middle of the country and rarely experience earthquakes the students are very curious about them.
The students will read and discuss Seymour Simon's Danger! Earthquakes. We will look for text features in the book. Because I will have limited time, I found text features about earthquakes on the internet to use for a project. Usually I would have the students create their own. The text features will be glued on a 'matchbook' and students will label the them. They will write one sentence about what they learned from the feature. There is a spot on the 'matchbook' for students to write a short (two or three sentences) paragraph about which text feature they liked the most. Finally students will write about earthquakes using the information from the text features, the book we read, and the websites listed below.
Here are a couple of websites we are going to visit.
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/videos/earth/whatisanearthquake.html
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
Here's a picture of my sample of what the students will do:
 |
| This is the top part of the matchbox project. |
 |
| This is the inside of the matchbox. |
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Number Sense
So many of my students didn't feel comfortable with numbers. They saw numbers as something to fear. I did the following activities with my second graders and then again when I taught fourth grade.
I made a set of cards asking questions about a number. Each set of cards was printed on a different color of tagboard. I usually made one set for a group. Because each set was a different color it was easy to keep the sets of questions together. If a card ended up on the floor, I knew who to give it to based on the color. I kept the number of questions to less than twenty. Each group was given a number to use with the questions. Sometimes they took turns flipping a question over and all would write the answer on their boards. Sometimes one would answer the question with the others checking, then another child would answer the next question with all checking, and so on.
I also printed the cards on blue paper. (There's nothing special about blue, one year I printed them on green.) I printed enough so that each child in the classroom had a set. I gave a set of 'blue cards' to parents at conference time and explained how to use them. I explained how the 'blue cards' were now a part of homework in the evening.
I put a picture of some of the cards below. To use them, choose a number. I expected second graders to use a number between 1 and 50 to start with and we worked our way to larger numbers. Actually, I started the same in fourth grade, but I worked them to larger numbers faster than the second graders. The cards are using the number 6 as an example.
The purpose behind the cards was to get the students thinking about numbers in more than one way and to become comfortable with them. Questions could be removed from the stack and new ones added as the year progressed.
My highest level students were allowed to use much bigger numbers and some of the cards were not used with them.
I made a set of cards asking questions about a number. Each set of cards was printed on a different color of tagboard. I usually made one set for a group. Because each set was a different color it was easy to keep the sets of questions together. If a card ended up on the floor, I knew who to give it to based on the color. I kept the number of questions to less than twenty. Each group was given a number to use with the questions. Sometimes they took turns flipping a question over and all would write the answer on their boards. Sometimes one would answer the question with the others checking, then another child would answer the next question with all checking, and so on.
I also printed the cards on blue paper. (There's nothing special about blue, one year I printed them on green.) I printed enough so that each child in the classroom had a set. I gave a set of 'blue cards' to parents at conference time and explained how to use them. I explained how the 'blue cards' were now a part of homework in the evening.
I put a picture of some of the cards below. To use them, choose a number. I expected second graders to use a number between 1 and 50 to start with and we worked our way to larger numbers. Actually, I started the same in fourth grade, but I worked them to larger numbers faster than the second graders. The cards are using the number 6 as an example.
The purpose behind the cards was to get the students thinking about numbers in more than one way and to become comfortable with them. Questions could be removed from the stack and new ones added as the year progressed.
My highest level students were allowed to use much bigger numbers and some of the cards were not used with them.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Fractions and Money
I'm not sure exactly where this would fit in the common core standards. Feel free to comment.
I like using a dollar bill for fractions and created a quick Who Has game to review what was learned.
I like using a dollar bill for fractions and created a quick Who Has game to review what was learned.
I know most people play the Who Has games as a whole group. I like for students to play it individually. I give each student a set of cards to play the game and walk around to help those who need help. To extend the game above, ask students to create more cards to go with the game. Remove the question on the last card and create more questions with answers. Remind them to keep track of their answers as they can't use an answer more than once.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Sheila Ray, The Brave (words for said)
Sheila Ray, The Brave
Author: Kevin Henkes
Possible Common Core Standards:
RL.4.3
W.4.3
How many times have you read a student's story and the word said is used for every conversation? Use Sheila Ray, The Brave to help your students understand the usage of other words make their writing much more interesting. First, cover all of the said words in the story with a sticky note with the word said. Read the story. Go back through the story page by page removing the sticky notes and logging the word 'substituted' in the story on chart paper. Talk about how it makes the event interesting. Ask students to watch for more 'substitute' words for said in other text. Keep the chart in the room for use when writing.
I like the way Mr. Henkes uses other words yet also uses said in his story. I think it is important for students to know it is okay to use said....just not every time. :)
Sheila Rae, The Brave (Word Study)
Sheila Ray, The Brave
Author: Kevin Henkes
Possible Common Core Standards:
RF.4.3
suffix -ed
Go on an -ed word hunt as a class or in small groups. Put each word on a card.
giggled
walked
tied
stepped
attacked
no-handed
closed
yelled
and more
Ask students to study the ending sound of the word. Do they all end with the 'd' sound? Ask them to sort them. This is a great springboard activity to getting the students to understand the sounds of -ed. I frequently had students spell words wrong just because they didn't understand this. You can continue the learning by adding to the word sort when reading other text and finding more -ed words.
Author: Kevin Henkes
Possible Common Core Standards:
RF.4.3
suffix -ed
Go on an -ed word hunt as a class or in small groups. Put each word on a card.
giggled
walked
tied
stepped
attacked
no-handed
closed
yelled
and more
Ask students to study the ending sound of the word. Do they all end with the 'd' sound? Ask them to sort them. This is a great springboard activity to getting the students to understand the sounds of -ed. I frequently had students spell words wrong just because they didn't understand this. You can continue the learning by adding to the word sort when reading other text and finding more -ed words.
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