Getting Dramatic

During the first unit in ELA, we focused on understanding the characteristics of various genres.  One of our standards is understanding the characteristics of drama and its differences from prose.  In order to accomplish this, we spent the week turning traditional literature stories into scripts.  My little screenwriters did a great job identifying the dialogue, stage directions, and narrarator parts.  They were also soo creative with their costumes and props.  I was thoroughly impressed and we had a great time performing for each other on Friday.  Here are some photos from our performances.

The sun getting ready for his performance.

The sun with his tortoise shell.

Tortoise getting ready.

The Hare

Tortoise and the Hare waiting at the starting line for the owl to wave the starting flag.

Animals watching the race.

The hare sleeping next to the carrot patch.

And the tortoise wins!

The cast of Tortoise and the Hare

The Princess in How the Moon Came to Be

The excellent narrarator

The sun is in love with the princess

Shading himself so the princess will come outside

The princess flying up to the sun

The angry king and his servants

The princess has fallen into the ocean, but the silverfish are trying to put her back together.

Now they are throwing her back to her husband, the sun in the sky.

The princess, now the moon, following after the sun.

The cast of How the Moon came to Be

Science Notebooking

In the past two weeks we have set up our science notebooks.

Our Science Notebook Title Page

Table of Contents

 We learned science safety rules.

Science Safety Posters

And we learned about the scientific process

Love,
Mrs. Kelly

Teaching Genres

As we begin the year, the children and I work very hard on a couple of things: strategies for dealing with unfamiliar texts, communicating about literature using evidence, and identifying genres.

We begin school with reviewing the basics of using books and making good book choices as readers. We use basically the same beginning of the year mini-lessons school wide, but that doesn't always mean that by fourth grade they are making good book choices.  :-)  Several teachers in 4th found this cute acronym for choosing books on pinterest.  It adds a little variety to our usual charts, in my opinion.

 

After some procedural lessons, we worked on identifying genres.  We started with basics of fiction versus nonfiction.  I had the students bring the books they were reading at the time to the carpet and we brainstormed what made fiction and what made nonfiction.  After reinforcing a few points, we used our post its to write the title of the book they were currently reading and then place it on the correct side of the chart. 

I discuss with the kids that while fiction and nonfiction are broad descriptions of genres, by fourth grade they are expected to be able to be more specific about what type of genre it is.  We brainstorm and list genres that go under each fiction or nonfiction umbrella.  Later we explore book baskets and attempt to identify the genre on a post it.  This gives me a really good insight into how good they are at identifying genres based on the blurb, pictures, etc. of a book.  I do a lot of teaching as I go from group to group and discuss their different choices.

Another way that we reinforce identifying genres is to list the genres of class books that we read together. The students also keep a reading log in the RRJ that requires them to list the genre of the book.

 Another thing we spend a lot of time on at the beginning of the year is strategies for approaching comprehension questions on an unfamiliar text.  Since their LEAP reading section  (and almost every other standardized test they will ever take) will be composed entirely of unfamiliar texts, this is a valuable skill.  We practice lots together and go over how to "attack" the test. 

After we get back to hurricane Isaac we will move into before, during, and after comprehension strategies while we continue to discuss genres.

Love,
Mrs. Kelly

Social Studies Notebooking

So our notebooking has started off well.  We have set up our notebooks and began using them over the past two weeks.  Here are some photos of our progress.

We started off my creating our title pages.  As one student stated, "I have never used colored pencils, glue, and scissors so much in my life!"  Sadly, I believe that is probably a true statement.  Where has childhood and developmentally appropriate education gone in America?? Just my opinion, and I will resist the urge to digress further down that path.  Back to the notebooks.

This student decided to use his ruler as a straight edge for his American Flag.  We are thinking already.  Love it!

Our Table of Contents so far.

Our first activity is the strands of Social Studies. 

Behind each flap is a basic definition of the strand and then a picture.

The Wordsplash for our first Unit- Map Skills.  This serves as a brainstorming activity of the things the students already know.  Love the labels on this one!

Reviewing the continents and oceans.

Map Vocabulary added as we introduce new concepts.

I Live In..Foldable

On the side of each photo is a sentence explaining the exact hemisphere, country, parish, state, etc. we live in.

So that is what we have so far in our Social Studies Notebook. The kids love the foldables.  If you are a teacher, do you feel that your students learn better with these types of interactive notetaking?  If you are a parent, has your child enjoyed projects such as these?  Do they seem to remember the information better as you go over it with them at home? Leave a comment!

Love,
Mrs. Kelly

The First Days of School

Well thanks to an unscheduled hurricane break, I have some time to catch up on my blogging!

 On the first days of school, I told my kids how lucky I was to have them in my class.

 My husband sent flowers to celebrate the first day of school.

 And our whole class got to know each other and committed to love and care for each other all the days of our school year!  ;-) 

Hope your year got off to a great start!

Love,
Mrs. Kelly