Theme

This week we have been discussing theme.  We started off with an introduction to theme using this anchor chart.  I found an example similar to this chart on Pinterest.

I always like to create a "mini" notes page that goes with our anchor charts so the kids can add them to their reader's notebooks.  That way they can use them at any time, even when the anchor chart has to go away because we ran out of wall space!

Theme Mini-Notes Page

 

 

 

 

 

We focused a lot on the three questions from the anchor chart.  This really helped us think about and determine the theme.

 

What did the characters learn?

How did the characters grow or change?

Why did the characters act this way?

 

We used these questions after reading a story to figure out the theme.  We used a flipbook to write our evidence based on the questions.  Then, we wrote our theme for the story.  We added our flipbooks to our reader's notebooks.

 

 

Theme Flipbook

 

 

 

Some great books to use to get started with theme are...

 

Wings

by Christopher Myers

 

 

Theme: Bullying, Be proud of who you are, Be loyal to your friends

 

 

Elmer

by David McKee

 

 

Theme: It's ok to be different, Be yourself

 

 

A Porcupine Named Fluffy

by Helen Lester

 

 

Themes: Be kind to others, Friendship, It's ok to be different

 

 

Research Ideas!

We have been reading a lot of nonfiction articles in class and perfecting our note-taking and paraphrasing skills!  This week we put those skills to the test by working in groups on a research project.  The students took notes on a research topic of their choice.  Then, they created a small poster page with their information. 

Their final project was to use an app of their choice to create a digital project of their information. To learn about some of the great apps we used, click HERE!  (Their favorite was Chatterpix!)

We were so excited to share out digital projects, so we made a QR code linked to the digital projects and added it to the research page.  Now everyone can scan and see the videos!

 

Here's the research page we used:

Research Pamphlet

 

 

 

To see some more research project ideas, click HERE!

 

Introduction to Poetry

We are beginning our unit on poetry in reading next week.  We are starting with an overview of the four types of poetry they are expected to know. 

I'm starting with this awesome flipchart that my husband made. It describes each type of poetry and gives an example of each.  (You need to have the ActivInspire software to view this.  It is a flipchart made for use with the Promethean board.)

Poetry Introduction Flipchart

 

P.S.:..Please follow my husband's blog.  He has lots of great ideas and information about using technology in education.  Click HERE to go to his site!

As always, I made a small page of notes for the kids to add to their reader's notebooks.  They will refer back to this to quiz a partner and use it to complete a characteristics of poetry sort later.

Types of Poetry Notes Page

 

We are also going to review some of the elements of poetry that I know they learned last year!

I created this notes page that will match our anchor chart.  They will add this to their reader's notebooks to refer back to as we work through questions during the unit.

Elements of Poetry Notes Page

We will complete a sort over the types of poems we discussed.  Here it is...

Poetry Sort

 

 

 

 If you want to see the complete unit I used for my 2nd grade class, click HERE for the lesson ideas.

The pages and poems that go with the unit are below.

Poetry Notes Pages

 

Unit Poems

 

 

 

 

Writing Strong Leads

My kids really struggled with writing strong leads for their personal narratives.  I found this awesome anchor chart on Pinterest to give them some more ideas of how to write an exciting lead.

I wanted the kids to have those ideas right in front of them as they were writing to remind them to really think about their leads.  I also try to make a smaller version of all of my anchor charts so the kids can add it to their interactive notebooks.  It is great to be able to refer back to the anchor chart at any time.

Here's the version I made to add to the writer's notebooks:

Strong Leads

 

 

Plot

I recently discovered this awesome book for teaching plot.  It is so cute. The class loved this book!

 

This book is also a great resource to use for teaching writing.

 

I used this anchor chart about plot that I found on Pinterest:

 

I always make a small version of our anchor charts for the students to add to their reader's notebooks.  Sometimes I run out of wall space for all of our anchor charts, so it's nice to have it to refer to in the reader's notebook.

 Here's my mini anchor chart:

 

Plot

 

 

Studying a Character's Traits and Motivations

Discussing a character's traits is not new to my third graders, but we started by reviewing a list of character traits. 

Then we discussed some traits that we might use to describe ourselves.  After splitting my class into small groups, I handed them a bag of character trait cards.  They had to work together to decide which character trait might be used to describe each of them.

 They had to give evidence to their group about why that character trait could be used to describe them.  Each student used this sentence stem:  A trait that describes me is ___________ because __________. 
Then, each student glued their character trait in their reader's notebooks and wrote the sentence stem.

Here's the character trait cards we used:

Character Trait Cards

 

 

 

The next day I read this book to the class:

 

 

This is a super cute story!  It was a hit with the class! It's a good example to show how characters can change throughout a story.

 

 

Another day I read aloud:

 

 

This is another great read-aloud to show how a character's traits can change throughout the story.  We discussed what the problems and the resolutions were in the story to cause the character to change.

 

As we read these stories, we filled out a chart to document the traits and evidence from the text. We added this chart to our reader's notebooks.

 

Character Traits Chart

 

 

 

That's all I have for now!!

Leaving Tracks of our Thinking

This week we are working on monitoring comprehension.  I have been modeling how to stop and think about reading and also write about what we are reading.

I used this book:

Strategies That Work

By- Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis

This book has a lot of great lessons geared towards 3-5.  I used a lesson called "Following the Inner Conversation."  We used the mentor text: Gleam and Glow by Eve Bunting.  I love this book and the kids really enjoyed it too!

After a little modeling, the kids began to keep track of their own thinking on sticky notes.

A few days later, we went back to the text to dig a little deeper.  We did a close reading activity with just a portion of the text. I just took the very last page of the text. I read it aloud to them first as they followed along.   Then, each student used their own copy to read it again on their own and highlight the sentences that were meaningful to them and important to the story. The kids then used sticky notes to write about why the highlighted portions were so meaningful. We added this to our reader's notebooks.

Later, we went back to the text and read it one more time and just thought about why the fish were so important in the story and what would have happened if the fish were not there when the family returned home.  The class wrote their own responses and turned it in for a grade!  I used a rubric to grade the responses.

Here's the Gleam and Glow pages we used!

Gleam and Glow

I used this page as a guide for discussion during the lesson.

Gleam and Glow Discussion Guide

Here's the rubric I used to grade their responses.  (I use this rubric to grade most of our reader's responses.)

Reader Response Rubric