Penguins as a Model for Animal Research

It felt so good to be back in my classroom with my students this week! They worked so hard and I was so wiped out by the end of the week. Glad to be back either way.

Oh how I love Saturday mornings without anything on the schedule. My son is busy doing batting practice in the basement. My daughter is using the living room as a dance floor to practice ballet.  My husband is cooking breakfast, so I thought I'd sneak in a little post.

We started our penguin research this week. We research penguins as a group so my students have a model for how to do their animal research later in the year. We started out by doing a close reading activity with this book. It's my favorite nonfiction penguin book.  We spent the whole week digging into this book during our reader's workshop lessons.  I have a whole collection of penguin books (which are available to the students), but really digging into one or two helps my students understand the importance of using good strategies with informational text.

Throughout the week, we added details to our can/have/are anchor chart.

 Any words that were new, unfamiliar or super interesting to us during our reading were added to our penguin vocabulary anchor chart.  At the beginning of reader's workshop time, I give the classroom iPads (we have 2) to students who will be in charge of recording the special vocabulary for the day.  That allows me to keep reading/teaching while they use the Educreations app as a white board to keep a list of the vocabulary we should add to the anchor chart for the day.   Then I can take a screen shot of the new vocabulary words to use it with a small group later or email it to parents so the students can discuss our new vocabulary at dinner.

This is a screen shot one of the iPads
 after one of the reader's workshop lessons this week.

Here's another one.  This student chose to write lots of words that we
discussed even though we
knew the definitions of some already. 

We'll add more to this vocabulary chart next week
as we continue our research.

When the anchor charts are complete, I'll take pictures of them and add them to our Reader's Workshop Anchor Chart book.  Then students can go back to reread and  revisit the things we've learned long after I've taken the charts down in the room.  We have a writer's workshop anchor chart book as well. They are  favorites in our room!

The students also completed their own can/have/are sheet and a vocabulary wheel for one of the words from our chart.  They choose their own word from our Penguin Vocabulary chart to use in the wheel and I ask them to write down things that will help them explain the word to a partner.  When their wheels are completed, they find a partner who has a different word and share/discuss their thinking. I move around during that time to make sure students are accurately defining the word since they may or may not have included the definition we discussed in their descriptions on the wheel.  

The resources I use for this unit are all found in my Nonfiction Penguin Unit.  It even includes pieces to make the anchor charts.  You can check it out by clicking on the image below.

When we finish this research project, the students will be well prepared to do their own animal research project.  They will choose their own animal and we'll use my Animal Research Book to guide them through the same kind of process we used to study penguins.  This was my very first Tpt product and it's my best seller.  I should probably update the cover...ha!  Add that to the to do list.

It's sunny and 10 today, so it's finally nice enough for a long dog walk. Not kidding... these poor dogs really need some exercise (and so do I)!  Happy Saturday!

Informational Text Themes for Reading Month

At my school, we've been busy planning for March is Reading month. 

We decided we wanted to focus on informational texts to increase the exposure our kids are getting to nonfiction books. I created the Information Highway for my staff to use. It is full of resources to use with students as they travel on the "information highway"!

The resources are geared toward 4 different themes (food, music, exercise and animals), 1 for each week in March. The Information Highway includes teachers planning pages, a family letter, an official passport, bulletin board/anchor chart pieces, two different reading logs for each weekly theme, writing activities (how to writing, poetry, opinion writing and research writing), class book covers, a sticky fact form, a vocabulary builder and two learning snapshot forms.

 
Stay tuned as my class travels on the Information Highway.  I'll be sure to post pictures throughout the month!

I'm still going to take my own class camping (during March) too!  We'll use the Camp Read  a Lot resources for that adventure.  There are lots of good informational texts about camping.  So, it will go well with our Information Highway theme. Last year, lots of teachers said they used my Camp Read a Lot unit at the end of the school year as well.

 Back to resting I go...
 

March is Reading Month Planning

At my school, we are beginning our planning for March is Reading Month.  We'll have a school-wide theme, which has not been agreed upon yet.  I also take my own kids to camp for one of the weeks!  Well, I should say that my kids come to camp...in our classroom!

Last year, my class went to Camp Read a Lot (which was really a classroom campout in our classroom). I honestly think it was my favorite week of teaching (in 15 years)! My little campers (and their camp director) had so much fun!

 Here is a picture of the outside of my room all set up for camp!

 We used the table in the picture as our camp registration table. As I welcomed the campers on the first morning of camp, one of my parents worked at the registration desk to register each camper. The registration form is in my Camp Read a Lot (Classroom Campout Fun!) product.

 I did my campout during the last week of March, 

but it could be done at any time of the year.  

I'm thinking it would also be lots of fun at the end of the school year.

 

Don't ya love my teepee?!?!  It's actually not mine.  My friend, who teaches across the hall, let me borrow her teepee.  I had another teepee (from our library) and 3 small tents (borrowed from parents) set up in my classroom throughout the week.

We had a theme for each day of camp.  The themes were Read Under the Stars, Hike and Read, Campfire Stories, S'more Reading Please and Camp Sing a Long. Activities to go with the theme for each day are also included in my Camp Read a Lot (Classroom Campout Fun!) pack.

Here is a picture of my kids on Read Under the Stars day. I hung glow in the dark stars from the ceiling so the little campers could read with their flashlights.  I also played one of those sounds of nature CD's since there are always crickets chirping in the dark at camp.

You can read two more posts about Camp Read a Lot  here and here.  

You can also check it out at my Tpt store!  

Weather, Wind and Words

We do a weather unit each year. We use a unit from the Battle Creek Math and Science Center. Our unit is a 16 week unit that we originally worked on for 16 weeks straight. Last year, we decided to try breaking up the lessons in the weather unit. That allows us to teach each type of weather in the season that we are most likely to have that kind of weather in Michigan. So far, that seems to work well for our little learners. 

We started our weather unit 2 weeks ago. So far, we've covered the seasons, tools that measure different types of weather, temperature and wind. 

 Here are my favorite books for our wind lessons.

We made this anchor chart to help us describe the wind, since we record weather data each day.  It's not exactly fancy (and I might have to remake one with the fancy kind of scrapbook paper that I love), but it gives us something to refer to as we record our data.  We added the senses part, because we were working on writing a poem about wind.  The students wanted to include the senses that we use to sense wind on our chart.

Weather related vocabulary is a big part of our unit.  I made a set of weather vocabulary cards to use in a pocket chart throughout the unit.  The set includes 40+ words and two different graphic organizers for weather related vocabulary. 

 Here is a picture of my weather vocabulary chart 

with the words we have learned about so far.

You can click on the image below if you 'd like to check it out in my Tpt store.  

Enjoy your evening!

 

Vocabulary Wheel

Since my students have been working hard on their animal research projects, we've been focusing a lot on informational text features.  I am working on polishing up a packet about informational text to post on TpT.  It should be ready in the next few days. 

Here is a vocabulary wheel that you can download.  It will be included in the informational text packet.
Wouldn't it be nice if I could figure out how to post a picture that you could click on instead of just the words?  Any advice?

Vocabulary Wheel

Hope you can use the vocabulary wheel!