A Thankful Friday Flashback

      Going to school this week was different.  I was so thankful to get to see my little second graders on Monday.  I was thankful when they were sweet, hyper, not listening...just really blessed to still have the opportunity to go to school each day and be their teacher.  Here's a quick look back at our week before Christmas break.

     During reader's workshop we worked on inferring character traits and comparing and contrasting characters.  We read The Gingerbread Boy and The Gingerbread Girl.  You can click on the pictures below to check out both books.

              

             First we read The Gingerbread Boy and recorded character traits on a chart.  The sticky notes are our evidence for why we inferred each character trait.

Here's my favorite character trait they came up with: overcooked!  :)

       After finishing the first story, we read The Gingerbread Girl and compared her to the gingerbread boy.  We used a great freebie from Danielle at Carolina Teacher.  Students worked with their turn and talk partners as a I read the story aloud to record their thoughts.

      In writing, we had a publishing party today to celebrate their growth as writers.  The unit we just finished was from Lucy Calkins and was called Writing for Readers.  It was all about making their writing easy for other people to read...aka conventions.  So, for the celebration, they had to look through their writing folders and choose their hardest to read piece and their favorite easy to read piece. I stapled them on a large piece of construction paper so they could share how they have changed as writers.  

     

         We also finished up snow globes to go with their snow globe writing.  They turned out really cute!

Check out the Batman snowman. 

       Last but not least, today we made snowmen inspired my Mrs. Carroll at The First Grade Parade.  I really don't usually do a whole lot of artsy stuff with my kiddos but the week before Christmas break is an exception.  Who could resist?  To make it math-focused, I gave my kids a start-unknown story problem where they got to choose the other known part.  Start-unknown problems are the hardest type for kids and the Common Core Standards state that second graders need to be proficient at them with numbers through 100 by the end of second grade.  So, I thought this would be some fun, extra practice.

      Happy Winter Break!!

Story Elements and a Sale

      I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  It's been nice to be off for a few days and spend time with my family.  First of all, I want to let you know that my Teacher's Notebook store is 25 % off now through Monday.  Plus, you get an extra 10 % off from the site for a total of 35 % off any item in my shop.  Click on the picture below to visit my shop.

      We only had school on Monday and Tuesday last week so I spent some time trying to help my students take what we learned the week before about story elements and "put it all together."  They all came in with solid background knowledge on characters but surprisingly many of them did not know/remember setting from first grade and plot was completely new.  They all know that stories have a beginning, middle, and end but in second grade, I introduce them to the words plot, conflict, and resolution.

     Since we are learning about culture right now, I read aloud a book called My Two Grannies.  It's about a little girl who has two grannies from different cultures- one from England and one from Trinidad.  They argue about what to do, what to eat, etc. with their granddaughter when they are babysitting her because they are part of different cultures.  In the end, they agree to take turns choosing activities.  It's a cute story about how culture can create conflict and how to get along with others who are different.  Click on the picture to check it out.

      As I read aloud, we filled out a story map together using sticky notes on a class size chart.  After we had everything filled in except the resolution and the important events at the end of story, I showed them the following anchor chart (without the words setting and characters written by beginning, conflict by the middle, and resolution by the end).  As I explained how stories are like roller coasters because they start slow and the excitement builds...I could see lightbulbs going on for many of my students.  

     Students were able to tell me which part of a story we meet the characters in and learn the setting, in which part we learn the conflict, and in which part we figure out the resolution.  We added that to the chart.  Then, we finished reading the story and filling in the story map.  The above chart was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest from First Grade Fresh.  That chart is below.  I used the same picture idea and changed some of the words I added to the chart to match what we were learning.  

    The Common Core Standards address this content in both first and second grade in the following standards:

    1.RL.5  Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types.

    2.RL.5  Describe the overall structure of a story, including how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

    Those standards are why I wrote "All fiction stories have plots" on my anchor chart because I want children to start to recognize the difference between fiction stories and non-fiction texts.  The roller coaster was a big hit with the kids and definitely caught their attention!

    How do you teach story elements to your students?

    Don't forget to check out my Teacher's Notebook shop while it's on sale.  I know I will be getting some things from my wish list.  :)  

     

Monday (I) Made-It

I finally made it for another Monday Made-It linky party with Fourth Grade Frolics!  Previously I posted that I was working on making some headings and strategy cards for the Daily Cafe menu that goes along with Daily Five.  Well, they're done!  Since The Sisters (authors of Daily Five and The Cafe Book) introduced the CAFE menu to their kids by comparing it to a menu that you choose from when you go to a restaurant, I decided it would be really fun and cute to make some headings and strategy cards with a coffee shop theme.  At the beginning of the year, I introduce the CAFE menu to my kids with a similar explanation.  I add that a lot of times, when adults have book clubs, they like to meet in fun cafes or coffee shops to talk about what they read and enjoy a fun treat like a cup of coffee or hot chocolate.  We compare that to what we will do all year in second grade...talk together about books!   So, here are the headings and strategy cards!

For those of you that prefer to have yourself or your students write the strategy on the cards and possibly add an illustration, I have also included blank strategy cards for each category (comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expand vocabulary).  These blank cards have the corresponding background pattern and coffee mug to match the heading card.

Click on any of the pictures below to get them from my Teacher's Notebook store!

 

 

Heading cards

If you would like to have Cafe board headings and strategy cards in different colors/themes than you see here, please leave me a note in the comments.  I would love to create more if people are interested.

Along with my school project, I also made a little something for my home....inspired by Pinterest of course.  First, I saw these adorable frames called Organic Blooms that are only available through professional photographers and are a bit pricey.  So, I saw this pin that suggested making a knock-off version from a wood plaque and mode podge.

So, I went to Michaels to find a wood plaque because I couldn't find them at Hobby Lobby in fun shapes like the pin suggested.  For less than $3, I made my own version of those adorable frames.

I had to sand the plaque a bit before I painted it.  Then, I added three coats of Caribbean aqua.  To attach the photo I used double-sided tape.  I still need to add modge podge to seal it, but I'm not sure if I should use gloss or matte, so I'm putting that off.

That's it. My Monday Made-It.  

Feel free to follow my blog to see what I make for next week. :)

You can head over to Fourth Grade Frolics by clicking on the pic below to check out other Monday Made-Its too.

My Little Synthesizers!

Of the six main reading comprehension strategies....

• making connections
• inferring
• asking questions
• determining importance- non-fiction
• visualizing
• synthesizing...

I usually save synthesizing for last because it seems to be the most difficult for primary kids to grasp.  This spring, I tried something new to introduce each new strategy.  The book Comprehension Connections  explains how to use a concrete object to introduce each new strategy in order to give kids a context for understanding the strategy before trying to apply it to reading.  It's a great book, especially if you use a reader's workshop or Daily 5 format to teach reading.  Tanny McGregor gives tons of practical examples and ideas that you can try right away.  Click on the picture below to check it out.

So, for synthesizing, she suggests using nesting dolls (matryoshka dolls) to introduce synthesizing.  I put the nesting dolls on a table, gave them a quick background on the cultural aspect of nesting dolls, and asked them how the dolls reminded them of thinking.  There responses were impressive.  My second graders said things like,

• "It's like thinking because you know more the bigger you get."  
• "The dolls are like thinking because you're thinking gets bigger as you learn more."
• "In first grade, you know more than you did in kindergarten.  And, in second grade, you know more than you did in kindergarten and first grade."
• "The dolls are like thinking because they get bigger and as you learn more, your thinking gets bigger."

After a brief discussion, I took the set of nesting dolls and put them together starting with the smallest so that the kids could see how the smallest one fits inside the next one and so on.  Then, I asked them, "How did that remind you of thinking?"  Again, their responses were right on.  

• "It's like schema.  You have a file in your brain for different things.  When you learn something new, your schema file gets bigger just like the little dolls fit inside the bigger ones."
• "Your old schema goes together with your new schema."

Wow!  So, after a few more days of mini-lessons on synthesizing with music (I know an old lady....) and practicing with a wordless book, I felt like my second graders were ready to write their own definition of synthesizing.  They wrote a definition of synthesizing in their own words and decorated a set of nesting dolls since that was our concrete model of the strategy.  They did a wonderful job explaining synthesizing.  We also studied a few different sets of different nesting dolls and looked for common characteristics that we could include in our own (bright colors, flowers, dots/circles, etc.).

Here are a few examples:

Synthesizing means your thinking grows and changes throughout the book.
Like nesting dolls.

Synthesizing is you know a little about it and then you know some more and then you know a lot.

Synthesizing is when your thinking gets small then it gets bigger and bigger and bigger!
 Like nesting dolls!

Synthesizing is where your thinking is small.  Then it grows a little.  Then it grows more and more.
Then it's done growing.

Synthesize means my thinking grows as I get older.
Synthesize means you put all of your thinking in one file.

To get a copy of this activity sheet, visit my Teacher's Notebook store by clicking on the picture below.

Please let me know what you think.  How do you teach synthesizing to your primary students?