Character Analysis

NEW BLOG POST!!! Yayy.  I am so happy to be blogging again.  My computer was out of commission for awhile.  Thankfully I did not lose files but my keyboard was not working.  Then I tried to use my husbands computer and it stopped working as well.  Thankfully now we have fixed and back up keyboards! woohooo. Anyway, I have a short post for you today.

This week in reading we are focusing on character analysis.  My students have been having a hard time telling me details about the characters so we decided to focus on traits and feelings of characters.  We first defined what each meant.  One of my students was dead on with definitions while most of the others had no clue what the difference was. It was great.  He sometimes struggles with confidence so we celebrated this knowledge to the fullest.  He was very proud after that!

Anyway, then we came up with some examples.  The kids had some great ideas for character traits and feelings. I think the fact that the school focuses on virtues really helped in this area.

Then we practiced together identifying these things through our read aloud. I am currently reading Shiloh which has some dramatic events in it to really help with this.  We were at the part where Marty confronts Judd and lots of emotions are shared by each character.

During their independent reading time, I asked the kids to grab 2 different colored flags and mark the traits and feelings that they found in the books they were reading.  I was quite surprised how many of them struggled identifying these things on their own.  Good thing it is still early to keep reinforcing these ideas.

After the reading time was up we gathered back to the carpet to share our ideas and what we found in our stories.  The students then each added a trait or a feeling to our chart. Here is the finished chart.  I was quite pleased with this lesson and think the rest of the week will really make this concept stick.

Happy Hump Day!!

TPT Purchases are fun!!

I very much enjoyed the TPT sale this year.  I was worried when school was getting close to starting, and then did start, that the sale was never going to happen.  I had made my wishlist early and was ready for it, hopeful it would arrive soon!  I went to town buying things.  But of course I then saw Farley's instagram where she had a thing called Big Border Mega Bundle and I was hooked.

I quickly looked it up and decided it was totally worth it!! I have been searching for borders and attempting (and failing) to create my own.  I LOVE this product.  There are so many items in the packet. If you want only a portion she has smaller packets too.  Here is the link to the Big Border MEGA Bundle.  Seriously. Do it!

Anyway, I got to creating this weekend.  At first I attempted to put like 5 of the cutest borders, headers, page dividers in my one document.... It didnt work.  So I simplified. One maybe two things per paper! ha.  I dont know how I am going to choose each time I need a border.  A much better issue than the one I was having before.  I made a couple things but decided I should at least share one!

Here is my handout to go in the students reader's notebooks for Read to Self and Read to Someone.  It might be a little not useful for every, what is the word I am looking for. I dont know, but it might not work for everyone, but if it works for you feel free!  Reading Handout Freebie

Simile and Metaphor Lesson and Freebie

We have been working on similes and metaphors this week.  With the vast majority of my class ESL, this has been extra difficult for them.  But we have not given up.  The goal was to focus on them as tools in writing.  We began by reading some stories to see how "real" authors use similes.  These books really helped us look at similes and metaphors.

    

      

The first two are quite simply simile books with a simple story.  The last two were much more fun for my kids to try to find the similes and metaphors as we read aloud.

After reading so many stories we made an anchor chart together.  Each student had to come up with a simile or metaphor to place on the chart.  I asked the class for the definition of each and wrote that very poorly at the bottom.  Some did not get the idea of it very well, so I knew we needed a little more practice.

As a wrap up to the lesson/concept we turned our thinking to writing and how we can use similes and metaphors to better our writing.  I had them describe a character or something that was happening using similes and metaphors.  The rules/expectations:  3-6 sentences,  a simile and/or a metaphor, neatness, color picture.  Most of them did really well.  Here are some samples.

EDIT:  Here is my sample and the chart we made together.  Overall I thought the lesson went great.  It was actually part of my formal observation so I was very pleased.

It was only after beginning this post that I realized I could have made the project cuter! So I whipped this up.  One of my first 'products'. Any feedback would be much appreciated!!  Thanks

Comparing Fiction and Non Fiction

We have been studying fiction and non-fiction stories the past couple weeks. We have discussed how to write summaries for each and how they differ.  We then looked at how characters in a story can differ.

We read "Red Writing Hood" in our basal readers and the boys about had a heart attack when they were asked to play a girls part! It was hilarious (for a second) and then annoying (the 10 minutes after).

Then we read Wolf! by Becky Bloom to see a different fictional wolf that wanted to learn to read.  

We then read Wild, Wild Wolves and a Coyote & Wolves book both non-fiction.  

We discussed the characteristics of the wolves described.  We talked about how they looked and what they did.  This was very hard for my class to separate. One is real and one isn't..... that is all you need to know in their minds.  

I then asked them to illustrate and explain what we just talked about and the task grew impossible.  I eventually got some great work from them.  Sometimes kids just over think things.  They thought they had to come up with new information rather than using what we had just talked about.  Here are some samples of the students work.  I was quite pleased.

Well, tomorrow I will only have half of my class as the other half will be out at Elementary Track Meet. I assume they do track meets in the morning here to avoid the heat, but it is difficult to do anything at school when half of the class is missing!  I guess we will just have to have fun without them!

The Stars Aligned!!

The stars truly aligned for me and my class today! It was BEAUTIFUL!!!!

I had checked out the book Just A Dream by Chris van Allsburg from the library a few weeks ago, but it wasn't until last night that I actually read it.  You can get your copy of the book at amazon.  The book was perfect for what we were doing!!

Initially I had thought it was related to persuasive writing, but I did not get that at all!  I did however think it was perfect for our pollution centers that we were doing AND for inference that we were studying in reading.  Did you hear that.... it aligned with TWO, 2, dos, song (Thai for 2), subjects!!!

I was inspired by this picture from Stephanie at My Life as a Third Grade Teacher.  It isbeautiful and she gave me/everyone the advice of pre-planning the Evidence parts so that is what I did.

It sounds like I did the rest a little different than she did though.  I found wonderful places for inference throughout the story Just a Dream.  I made my chart like she did and placed my evidence sheets in the book so I wouldn't forget where we needed to stop!  I read my piece of evidence and asked what I already knew about the topic.  Then I asked what my inference could be!  I wrote the last two sections as we discussed them.  And I had my helper student glue it on the paper for me.  I wish I would have had the students write the other two pieces of chart so they had more ownership of it.  But it turned out great!!

While I was reading this book, some of the students were able to catch that it was about pollution!! I did not mention it, the book does not actually mention it.  I was so so so proud of them for being able to make that connection.  After we were done with the book, we did discuss pollution and they all finally got it.  We also discussed how Walter changed the future by choosing to recycle, throw things away, and plant trees.  We talked about how we could change our own futures!!

It was beautiful. My class enjoyed it and I truly thought the stars aligned to make 2 subjects that we were focusing on appear in one book!  Hope your day is beautiful as well!