Fact and Fiction in 1st Grade

I have this fabulous set of books that have both fact and fiction about animals.  They make great beginning readers and come in a range of reading levels.

In first grade, we are learning to take notes from both books and online resources.  The purpose of this lesson was to practice taking notes without copying and recognize when writing is a fact or when it is fiction.  We read one of the books together, I demonstrating the note taking and they provided the fiction statements.

Then it was their turn.  They were first to read the book and look online at our database for more facts.  They then shut the book and exited off the database. They took notes and wrote their own fiction statements.  Here are a few samples from my first grade visitors.

Searching for Pair-It Books

This week in 3rd grade we are using the online catalog to find books that relate by subject.  We are looking for a pair of books, one fiction and one nonfiction.  I used this graphic organizer to help them pair up the books and see how the books relate.

I demonstrated 3 approaches to finding Pair-It books:
     1.  Start with a known fiction book first.  They found that specific title first, dug deeper into the the title details and discovered subjects related to that book.  They then searched for a nonfiction book with the subject they were interested in.
     2.  Start with a known nonfiction book.  They then followed the same steps as above, but looking for a fiction book to match the subject.
     3.  Third they searched for a subject they were interested in and found a nonfiction and fiction book that related to the same subject.

This library skills lesson gave them time to explore the online catalog and find books they could compare.

Words Matter!

4th and 5th grade are the target audience for this word study lesson.  The objective was to encourage students right before their standardized writing test to use more exciting words.  We also were able to compare and evaluate different thesauruses.

1.  I started with sharing apples.  "When going giving me a shopping list, you can't just ask for apples." I gave each student three different apples slices; Granny Smith, Red Delicious and Fuji.  After snacking we discussed how they all taste a bit different.  At my local grocery store (HEB) they have an awesome sign, like a number line, that shows the range of the tastes of apples from sweet to tart.  On the line it shows where the different types of apples fall.  So after the tasting, we talk about how you can't just ask for an apple, you must be specific.

2.  Next, I head to my dry erase board where there is a display of the word line and the word "good" with many synonyms of good.  Using my voice to suggest meaning I give examples of using good in a sentence, but with different meaning.  "I had a good weekend." I make sure one sounds like it was a fantastic weekend and one that was not so great.  We talk about how when talking we can kinda change our voice to give meaning, but what about in writing?  When we write we can't hear the voice, so we have to be pickier about word choice.  That's were synonyms come in.

3.  They all get out a thesaurus and look up the word "good".  We look at different features; list of words, definitions, word used in sentence, etc.  We look for the words on my chart and look for clues as to the meaning.  Looking up acceptable, for example, will show you that it means to meet minimal standards.  We place this word on the weaker, or not-so-good side of the word line.  We look up marvelous and find it is very good, excellent.  We move that word to the better, or stronger side of the word line.  

4. After looking up a few words together, we get out the online version of a thesaurus.  I like to use the Dictionary App or www.dictionary.com.  We try several more words together, finding how the different features of the online version make it much faster to find words and clues to their meaning.

5.  Next, the groups get their own set of cards and word line to justify where the words should be on the word line.  There are many great discussions going on at this point.

 

6.  As groups start finishing, I stop all and show them how to use www.wordle.net.  They take each word on the word line and assign a number starting at the weaker end with 1.  They then type each word into Wordle how ever many times indicated.  The result is an amazing display showing the strength of that word.  

7.  At the end, I take the lesson back to the apples.  "Words matter.  You can't just ask for an apple.  When you are writing you can't just say good.  Be more specific, let the reader truly understand the message you are writing."

You can find the printouts for this lesson here.

Kinders Learn about Dental Health and Animals

To help promote dental health with Kindergarten, I choose to read Doctor De Soto by William Steig.  Of course I had to get more than just a read aloud in, so with this lesson I promoted award-winning books, an author and a bit of research and critical thinking.
This 30 minute lesson progressed as such...
1.  First a general look at the book, the award it won and a promotion of other books by the same author.
2.  Next, I read the book while we predicted along the way, talked about the big story problem and discussed what the different animals ate that were presented in the story.
3.  At the end of the book, I went back to the animals that were treated in the story and suggested that not all animals would be welcome, as indicated on Doctor De Soto's sign.  We discussed the differences between meat-eaters and plant-eaters.  I had previously introduced them to our online database (Worldbook Online) so again suggested we log on and see what other animals Doctor De Soto would be willing to treat.
4.  With pre-selected pictures of animals, we predicted with a raise of hands whether or not Doctor De Soto would treat the animal on the card.  They helped me navigate to the site and find the information on each animal.  They had to make inferences by the facts given about what the animal ate whether or not Doctor De Soto would treat the animal.  There were clues like "nibbled on grass" or "hunted for animals" that were great for inferring.
5.  I ended our search by asking them what would Doctor De Soto tell all his patients (and them) about taking care of their teeth so they wouldn't get a cavity like the fox in the story.  Of course, they knew the answer!

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