Moon by christine kennedy on Prezi

Moon by christine kennedy on Prezi

Donors Choose

I started using Donors Choose few years ago. http://www.donorschoose.com/ I wanted class sets of books that would compliment my curriculum. Donors around the country have to pick your project through the website. You can choose whatever materials you would like and write up a proposal. I teach American History so I chose The Discovery of the Americas by Betsy Maestro. I also use a Social Studies textbook but it is pretty old.This book gives the students so much more detail and the pictures are great. The story of Phillis Wheatley's life fascinates me so I got a class set of the most beautiful book: A Voice of Her Own: The Story of Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet. This is a great book to practice all of the reading strategies with. She lived in Boston at the time of the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party so it is a terrific choice for teaching the Revolutionary War. I also got three class sets of Eve Bunting books from Donors Choose. Every year I do an author study on Eve Bunting. I particularly like Gleam and Glow, Smoky Night, and Fly Away Home. Not all of my projects have been funded but I have to say I have done very well by Donors Choose. Christine

Text features

Children do not automatically use text features. This is why lessons which explicitly teach text features are so important. One idea given to my by the great Nancy D. is to go on a text feature "hunt" using a variety of nonfiction books and magazines. Have the students work in groups and list which text features they found in the various books (see poster). Next, have them do a project/poster on any acceptable topic which involves using 6/7 different text features to create a page on their subject.I will try to post a copy of one in the future.Christine

Harriet Tubman week

I love to read the story Go Free of Die: The Story of Harriet Tubman to give the children lots of background knowledge about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. Its an easy fast paced suspenseful read. We usually finish it in 2-3 days. My next stop is Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine. This is another story where a slave escapes but this time he mails himself to freedom in a box. The pictures are just beautiful. I also like to read the picture book Harriet and Sojourner by Catherine Clinton. I have a lesson I will post in the future on comparing and contrasting the two women. I also like to use Nettie's Trip South by Ann Turner. It is the unforgettable story of a young northern girl who travels south right before the Civil War breaks out. She sees a slave auction and it changes her life. The book is written in letters to her friend back home. After reading all of these stories the children have some solid information on what slavery was and how the Underground Railroad worked. The obvious question the kids ask is, "Does slavery still exist today?" I then talk to them about Iqbal Masih, a young Pakistani boy who was sold into slavery by his family at age four. I have them research Iqbal's life. Iqbal is a modern day hero. Children are amazed by his story.  Christine

What I am reading right now

I am reading as much of the Comprehension Toolkit by Harvey/Goodvis as I can get out of the library. The Toolkit Texts (gr 2/3) (gr 4/5) are interesting. They are short nonfiction stories and articles to use in small group or whole group instruction. You can print them out with color pictures from the CD. I liked the variety of content: Science, Social Studies, Biographies and more. I am always looking for nonfiction with text features that you use to comprehend the text like maps and graphs.The gr 2/3 book had some stories with great text features. Christine

root words or base words

Learning a bit about how words are built can be of great help to a reader. When children begin to examine words more closely they discover how words are related to each other. I have enough of this "tree" poster for group work. I like to have the children study 10-20 common roots (base words) at the beginning of the year and do exercises  like this one together matching roots and prefixes and suffixes together to change the meanings of the words. Christine

SMART Boards in elementary school

I want to try this SMARTboard application. Its from Laura Candler's website http://www.lauracandler.com/ Instead of pulling names from a cup to call on students or make groups you can do it on the SMARTboard. http://www.lauracandler.com/filecabinet/misc/TheHat.pdf See Laura Candler's website for free materials. I also like her poetry cards. They cover our 5th grade standards pretty well. Christine