CDC, Pre-K, and Kindergarten lessons:
We began seeing our CDC Multi-age class in the library mid fall. This is our mixed class of 3 and 4 year olds so many of the lessons I have done with them have been interactive. I know they can't sit for very long so I try to have them moving and participating with the story as much as possible. I have also done many of these same lessons with my Pre-K and Kinder kids and they have enjoyed them as well.
My Little Sister Ate One Hare by Bill Grossman
This story is a counting book and also a great story for practicing sequencing events. The little sister eats 9 crazy different animals and insects and then when she eats something normal and healthy (10 Peas) she throws up! After reading the story I handed out pictures of all of the items she ate and the kids had to come and put them in the little sister's mouth (a brown bag) in the order that she ate them.
Arlo Rolled by Susan Pearson
The previous lesson inspired me to do a lesson where the main characters were peas. So that is when I came upon the next two books that I read together.
Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
In Little Pea, Little Pea's main problem is that he hates having to eat his dinner which is...candy! However, after eating a few bites like his parents insist he finally gets dessert, which is of course, Spinach! The kids get a big kick out of that for sure!
In Arlo Rolled, Arlo is a pea who wants to get out of his garden and see the world. He avoids a lot of animals and insects along the way who may want to eat him and he eventually has a family (pea pod) of his own. I wrapped up these two fun stories with the Five Fat Peas finger rhyme, which was a good way to end this story time.
Ding Dong Gorilla by Michelle Robinson
Hi! Pizza Man! by Virginia Walter
In both of these stories the characters are waiting on a pizza, which is another crowd pleasing topic. In Ding Dong Gorilla, the main character is a little boy that claims that a gorilla came to his door to deliver the pizza and then of course proceeded to destroy the house, and eat the pizza!
In Hi, Pizza Man! the little girl wonders what would happen if things, other than the pizza man, came to deliver the pizza.
After reading these two stories I handed out a picture of a door and the kids drew something that they could imagine coming to the door and delivering a pizza to them. Some kids drew a character from one of the stories or something totally new!
Hug Machine by Scott Campbell
A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead
Our theme at our school this year is Compassion, so I decided to share these two stories to introduce and discuss this topic. Hug Machine was one of the books on this year's Texas 2x2 Reading List, and of course, A Sick Day For Amos McGee is one of my favorites. Both of these stories have characters demonstrating acts of kindness and thinking of others. After reading we brainstormed ideas of how we might be able to show compassion to our friends.
Primer, First Grade, and Second Grade:
The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf by Mark Teague
First grade was doing a unit on Fables and Fairy Tales so I thought it was a good opportunity to discuss this genre with several of the classes and also explain and read an example of what a Fractured Fairy Tale is. I think I have read this story before, but it is a great one to compare and contrast to the original story.
First grade was also recently completing a mystery unit so they asked me to introduce this genre to the classes. I used this mystery lesson story map last year, and the teachers really liked it so I did it again, but with a different story. I found this mystery vocabulary and story map on Scholastic's website and it is a great introduction to the genre. For our lesson we first went over some of the key vocabulary, and story elements to look and listen for, and then I read the story, Miss Nelson is Missing. I encouraged the kids to fill out the story map on their own while I was reading the story as best they could, but then after reading the story we filled out as much as we could together. They planned to continue this lesson in their classes so really it was just a brief introduction.
Miss Nelson is Missing by Harry Allard
Third Grade:
The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
Third Grade was also recently doing a unit on Realistic Fiction, so they asked me to discuss this with the classes and read some examples. I also set some books out so the kids could see the wide variety of books that can fall under this genre, but I chose to read one of my very favorites out loud, The Relatives Came. I LOVED this book growing up, maybe mostly because of the pictures, but I also thought it was a great example of realistic fiction to share, and the kids really liked it too.
Fourth Grade:
Mae Jemison by Jodie Shepherd
Fourth Grade is currently working on their yearly Biography research paper. This is a big project where certain research skills such as note taking, writing an organized research paper, and creating citations are introduced. Much of this project is possible due to the collaborations between the Fourth Grade team and myself. In one of our meetings we discussed that the students sometimes struggle with the concept of understanding what makes the person they are researching significant? That can sometimes be a tough question for a Fourth grader to answer, so in class we discussed this concept. Together we read a very short Rookie Biography about Mae Jemison. We brainstormed synonyms for the word significant, and after reading we discussed and wrote what truly made Mae Jemison significant.
Reading Programs:
Posters for books
Book reviews
"Wanted" Wall
As a stated in a previous post, our Pre-K through 2nd Graders this fall worked on reading the Texas 2X2 Books and our 3rd and 4th Graders read the Texas Bluebonnet books. They worked so hard as you can see above. We had a ton of kids promote books by writing reviews or creating posters for books, and just look at our Wanted Wall! These were the students that read 10 books and if and when they read all 20, they would earn a sheriff's badge on their picture. We almost didn't have enough room for all of the kids who achieved this goal!
In January we held our annual election where the kids could vote for their favorite book depending on the program they participated in. The winning books will be announced soon, and I plan to announce it officially to the kids, so I will be sure to report the results! I enjoyed that we included the entire Pre-School and Lower school in these reading programs this year, and I really think the kids had a blast and enjoyed the books. Currently for the spring we are starting to introduce a new reading challenge so I will be sure to let you know about that once it is underway.
