Teaching Nouns and Verbs with Poetry

This week my first graders are learning about nouns and verbs.  I found this poem Jump or Jiggle in my files from years ago.  I typed it up and added some new fancy graphics and fonts.  

I thought it would be the perfect poem to sort nouns and verbs.  We are going to highlight the nouns in green and the verbs in yellow.  Then for homework they will have to record the words correctly in the chart.

As always my poetry pack has a copy for your poetry basket, a student copy for a poetry notebook, and a homework sheet.  

Recreating My Reading Center

Develop the habit of Reading

“Adults reward themselves by snuggling up with their books”

D. Miller

After I read this quote in the book, The Book Whisper, I have been thinking.  It is always a scary thought when I am thinking because that means change is about to happen.  I started to look at my classroom in a new way. 

When you walk into my classroom this is the first thing you will see, my messy reading table and file cabinets.   I am using the file cabinets to divide up the space between the lockers and reading area.   What does this say about what is important in my classroom.  I want you to be able to walk into my classroom and know what I belief is important as a teacher.  

My reading corner is smushed in the corner and only a few students can fit in it.  I have heard my self say, “Pick your book and find someplace else to read.”

Wait….What….isn’t that the purpose of the Reading Center?

There is nothing more I as a reader look forward to than finishing my work so I can read at the end of the day in my snuggle spot. 

That is what I want my Reading Center to be…..more open…more space…more places for kids to gather, and snuggle in with a good book.  A place they look forward to going to and staying in. 

So I made some changes……I moved my large file cabinets to the other side of the room and now when you walk into my room this is what you see. 

Books….Lots and Lots of Books…

and cozy places to read…

 cozy pillows to read on

 I moved my reading table over to the right.....

  Now I feel when you walk into my classroom you can tell we are a room of readers.

Book Review: The Book Whisper

The Book Whisper

This book was written about Mrs. miller's sixth grade classroom and I thought the author had some wonderful points that could be applied at any grade level. 

Teach comprehension strategies and literacy elements that students can apply to a wide range of texts

I have been trying to reinforce the comprehension strategies and reading strategies one by one that we have been working on all year.  I try to model them as i read a new story during shared reading.  As the children read to me I try to point out the strategies they are using to the group.  Labeling them for the children so they realize they are using the strategies as well.

“Reading Changes Your Life.”

Reading unlocks worlds unknown or forgotten

Reading helps you escape

Reading shows you how to be a better human being.

This is such an important point that the author makes that it just reinforces my belief of why reading is so important. I did some soul searching and thought about how I had the books organized laid in my classroom.  One thing I noticed is that my students did not have enough room to spread out and read.  So i changed my classroom around and made more room for the children to buddy read and find books with ease.   

Providing students the opportunity to choose their own books to read EMPOWERS and ENCOURAGES them.

·      Reading strengths their self confidence

·      Reading rewards their interests

·      Reading promotes positive attitude toward learning

·      Reading has more impact on student achievement than any other activity in school.  Independent Reading should be #1 on our lesson plans.

I have been doing this for a while however, since I read this book I have been making the point to make sure that I am pointing my students in the direction of finding books that meet their reading needs and experiences. 

Develop the habit of Reading

·      adults reward themselves by snuggling up with their books

·      independent reading will help ingrain the daily habit

this is my ideal image of a reading spot.  reading bookshelves in a cozy area in Paris.  

There is nothing I like more then the end of the day when I can cuddle in my bed and read the last ten minutes of the day.  it is my dream to instill my love for reading in my students.  I take great pride in watching them enjoy themselves as they find a book they love.  Right now they love mo willems, they just cannot get enough of his books.  I have already pre-order his new books and so have a couple of my students.

 

Reading is what we do……Always………Everywhere!

Dory’s mantra from Finding Nemo

“Just Keep Reading!”

Gifted readers should read fiction  close to their age level and nonfiction at their advance reading level.

This is a great point, especially for me because I have so many children who read above grade level.  The trick for me is finding material that is appropriate for them. nonfiction is always my go to idea. 

Students who do not read regularly become weaker readers with each subsequent years. 

How do you TRANSFORM nonreaders into readers??????

·      heavy dose of independent reading &

explicit instruction with reading strategies

I would say this is true of all readers.  Readers just need the time to read. 

The Life Cycle of a Frog

the red eyed tree frog

 

Last week in our science book the topic was the life cycle of a frog.   I made a literature connection with two books during guided reading:  The red eye tree frog and Frog and toad books.

My class just loved reading about frogs.  We made a web with frog facts and then they wrote some sentences. 

We created some cute frogs to attach to our reports as well.  this was an easy and fun way to integrate reading, science, art and writing all into one lesson.  

Happy Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year Idea

I had lots of plans for the Chinese New Year however; we have had so many days off of school because of cold weather I have had to pick and choose what was important.  So I really did not get to everything I wanted to do. 

I read several good books about the Chinese New Year but these were our favorites:

Lion Dancer 

Zen Shorts

The Chinese New Year

 

Tikki Tikki Tembo

Then we made Chinese Lanterns to hang up in our classroom.  

  We tried to write Chinese numbers on our lanterns.  We had a speaker from the local Chinese restaurant to explain paper cutting to us.  She gave each child a fortune cookie.  They loved that.