Author Study- Mem Fox

I really enjoyed the many author studies we did each week. We did an author study on Mem Fox and did many activities that I wasn't able to get pictures of but I have a few.

Below are a few of the stories we read by Mem Fox. We focused on characterization and comparing characteristics between these stories.

With"Feathers and Fools," we focused on the characteristics between the two birds in the story. We created a Venn Diagram as a class and discussed similar and different characteristics! They did such a great job!

With "Hattie and the Fox," the students individually created a graphic organizer to list character traits. I traced the cover of the book and gave students construction paper to tear an glued onto their hen. We used a googley eye which was a cute touch!

The last story was "Boo to a Goose." Instead of character traits on this book, I decided to have the children write something they "would do,but wouldn't do." In the story, the author writes silly things like, "I would......, but wouldn't say, "boo to a goose!" The ones the students wrote were hilarious!

State Sybols

We also learned a lot about our state symbols. I created a Power Point, but I'm not sure if I can post the attachment from my iPad so I will have to look into that. I am still new to blogging, so I will figure it out eventually.


We learned about the Texas Flag, state mammal, state tree, state flower, state song, and much more! They loved it all! I wished I would have gotten more pics of the things we did but below are a few pics of the blue bonnet. They used paint and their thumb prints for the petals.

Since this was Texas week, we had the students take home a Boot to decorate however they wished. I read a book called "Armadillo Rodeo"! The kids loved it just as much as I did! ;) After the story the students described their boots on paper, but without telling each other which boot was theirs! For example, my boot is smooth, shiny, and colorful. The students had to guess whose was boot whose! The kids really enjoyed this because they really had to use good describing words so their classmates could figure it out without giving away too much!

Retelling

We really focused on how to orally retell stories during guided reading, and whole group, and had the students tell a partner during their "read to self" center. We practiced writing the parts of the story as well and instead of just writing the Character, setting, problem, and solution, I had them write at least 3 main events that lead to the solution of the story. We practiced whole group, small groups, partners, and then individual practice.

Below is a picture of the written retelling on s sentence strip and created the character (walrus) out of construction paper to create a fun activity for the students!

Below is another picture of written retelling. We read a story called "The Three Tamales," and after we wrote, we rolled them up like little tamales! :)

National Symbols

I meant to talk more about The National Symbols week! We did a lot of fun activities and learned so much, but I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked! We learned A LOT of interesting facts about the US Flag, Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell, the Bald Eagle, and a few other important symbols of America. Below we made a graphic organizer listing things we knew about Bald Eagles and then the students created bald eagles by tracing their hands for the wings! It came out pretty cute!

So behind on my blogging!

So I am really behind on my blogging! How embarrassing, but luckily I saved some pics to share! I am also finished with my student teaching! It was a bittersweet kinda day for me!

Before I discuss everything I have learned about my student teaching I want to share some of the Writing skills we have learned! One of the skills we learned was how to write a letters! I really loved showing the students how to write letters properly, because it is a skill they will always use and they loved it! First, I introduced the 5PARTS of a letter! (Heading, greeting, body, closing, signature) I taught them a little song to go along and it really helped! I used the Gradual Release when teaching this skill. After the first day of introducing the parts of a letter, we put together a large poster letter as a class, then  I made 5 huge poster letters (at home) and had the students work together in small groups to put the letter together in the correct order. The next day I had the students pair into partners and put together a letter and glue onto construction paper. Below is an example.

So after we learned the parts of the letter and what goes into those parts (ex. Date into the heading, name- signature), I gave them the opportunity to practice writing letters to a friend in the classroom. This week was also dental week and so we also read cute stories about the Toothfairy, for handwriting I read "Dear Toothfairy!" 

This story went perfect with our writing skill, because of the letters that were written back and forth 

between the little girl and the Toothfairy! The students LOVED IT! So as a class we wrote a letter to the Toothfairy asking her questions and a few other things the kids thought would be fun to tell her, such as, we were learning about money and how to write letters and we were taking care of our teeth! I told the kids I would put the large envelope to the Toothfairy under my pillow to see if she would write me back! ;) the students loved me for that! Lol Below is the silly envelope I "put under my pillow for the Toothfairy!"

The kids could not wait to see if the Toothfairy would actually write back! Guess what!? She did! ;)

Below is the TINY letter the Toothfairy wrote back to the class! They thought it was just FABULOUS!

These are a few examples of the letters the students individually wrote to the Toothfairy and created a fairy from paper! They enjoyed this!