In second grade we continue our unit on collections and collecting with A Collection for Kate by Barbara deRubertis. Kate signed up to give her collection report weeks ago the problem is she doesn't have a collection! She decides to wait and see what the other students present and only becomes more and more worried that she is not ready. In addition to our read aloud that spans three classes our students are also presenting their own collections. Your child may bring in one or two items from their collection to share with the class.
Ethan from Ms. Rigueur's 2nd grade went first with his collection of wrestling action figures. He was skilled in presenting and knowledgeable about all things wrestling. Students in his class asked excellent questions.
For Letter O we read Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems. As I post this update, we are preparing to get another blast of winter! Even with the pending snow storm we know that Spring is right around the corner and we will be playing outside more and more. Poor Piggie can't decide whether she loves or hates rain and in the end the two best friends work out a great solution. We discuss the difference between inside and outside, including inside and outside voices. We talk about all the different places you can be when you are outside; the park, the beach, a restaurant, your porch or patio and the playground. We also talk about the different things we do when we are outside, play games, go swimming and have a cookout! Students then practice drawing Elephant and Piggie outside. Practice drawing Elephant and Piggie with your child and make up stories for a fun family activity. Start by drawing Piggie with Mo Willems!
My students LOVE Baby Bird's First Nest by Frank Asch. They are immediately engaged when Baby Bird falls out of her nest and cries for her Mama. She makes friends with a little frog that lives in the pond near her tree and together they build a nest. I have a small collection of real bird nests that the children are able to touch and that adds even more excitement to the Read Aloud.
The production of the 2016-2017 Yearbook is underway! Seventh and eighth grade yearbook elective students use online software to design each page making sure that borders, backgrounds, photographs, headlines, captions and clip art capture readers attention and tell the story of our year together. All copy is spell-checked and checked for accuracy. Students learn the importance of collaboration and teamwork as they learn critical technical skills to create a product that celebrates community and captures the school's history. This is the 7th year that students have produced a school yearbook.
Media Elective students have been learning to storyboard. A storyboard organizes images and words in a sequence for the purpose of creating an animation or video. We can also use our storyboards to create our own mini-graphic stories. We used online software StoryboardThat to create mini-scenes and shared them with a visiting third grade class during out annual book fair.
Our digital storytelling did not stop there. We brainstormed a number of different ways we could use the software to support further study; creating public service announcements, telling a true life story, storyboarding an existing story book or making an advertisement for a product. The students decided they would like to make advertisements for products. In the photo, students storyboarded a Burger King Ad - more to come on having it your way!
The Lion and The Mouse is one of the most popular of Aesop's Fables. A fable is a short story that features animals that learn a lesson. We read the beautiful award winning wordless version by Jerry Pinkney. As a student, Jerry Pinkney struggled with dyslexia. He is one of our favorite author/illustrators at OG. Take a closer look at his work on his website.
My K1 students also had time to make their own lion and mouse puppets that they will bring home during February break. Be sure to schedule time for their "puppet show." I hope you enjoy their show!
Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes quickly becomes a favorite of my students. We discuss that tricky letter K - it sounds a bit like "C"ookie and of course a Cat is a big Kitten!!! What's going on? They laugh and start comparing "c" words and "k" words but the real confusion comes in our story when kitten thinks the moon is a big bowl of milk just waiting for her. Kitten is little and is still learning about the world. See more about this author and his other great books on his website . Watch an interview with the author and the story with your child below.
Media Elective students have been learning to storyboard. A storyboard organizes images and words in a sequence for the purpose of creating an animation or video. We can also use our storyboards to create our own mini-graphic stories. We used online software StoryboardThat to create mini-scenes and shared them with a visiting third grade class during out annual book fair.
