Let's Take a Dive! Ocean Unit in Review--Part One

Our kids have been studying the ocean habitat, ocean food chains, and animal adaptations.  The following are some activities and resources our students have enjoyed in this cross curricular unit.  This is Part One of our sharing...

Guided Reading 

There are numerous nonfiction text resources related to the ocean.  Here are some of the text I used in guided reading groups.  

Ocean Life by Brenda Z. Guiberson (Scholastic Storia eBook)

Ocean Giants by Kate Waters (Scholastic Storia eBook)

Weird Sea Creatures by Laura Marsh (National Geographic Kids Leveled Reader)

Great Migrations: Whales by Laura Marsh (National Geographic Series)

Splash! A Book About Whales and Dolphins by Melvin & Gilda Berger (Scholastic Storia eBook)

Each group focused on problem solving the meanings of unknown words.  This is a continued focus at all levels and all of the texts provided opportunities to problem solve and make predictions about new words.

Ocean Zones & Ocean Animal Profiles

Students learned about the oceans zones and the special adaptations that animals have to help them survive in each of the zones.  Students also researched an animal and created an ocean animal profile.  You will notice more animals in the sunlight zone, as 90% percent of ocean life is found in this zone.  Students also made ocean zone accordion books.

Feel free to download a copy of the ocean animal profile sheet here!

Scuba Kid Craftivity and Poems

The scuba kids turned out super cute!  Students chose to write a lantern or haiku poem, followed the rules of writing the type of poem chosen, and typed their poem for display on their scuba kids' bellies.

Tessellated School of Fish!

My kids have created tessellating fish in past years, but this year we used a new technique.  Students tore blue paint tape to create stripes on their fish.  These areas resisted watercolor and created white stripes on their tropical fish. The kids loved how they turned out, but the tape was not as easy to remove as I would have liked--had to lay them on the heater to get the tape to remove easily.  Will be trying a different tape next time... :0)

A giant googley eye was the icing on the cake!

Ocean Animal Food Chain Pyramids

Found this idea last year on First Grade Wow! What a great visual to help students understand the food chain concept as it relates to the ocean.  This can be used for any food chain, of course!

Sides--animal illustrations, names of animals, producer or consumer labels.

We have even more great ocean unit ideas and student work to share! Stop back to read more from Courtney!

Thank You, Mr. Falker, & Others--Plus RAA Goodies!

It's another snowy weekend in Illinois!  Is it really March 2??

Must Read ELA & Character Ed Mentor Texts

Glad to be linking up with Amanda and Stacia from Collaborative Cuties for their Must Read Mentor Text Linky! This week's topic is language arts--perfect timing for what we have been exploring the last two weeks.

Wanted to share my journey with the kids this past two weeks in exploring the challenges characters face in realistic fiction and how they respond to those challenges (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.) While ELA standards have been a focus, so too have the character lessons to be learned--invaluable!

Our journey began with one of my all-time favorite picture books, Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco. This text immediately came to mind as a story of challenges, responses, and triumph.  It is the story of Trisha (Patricia Polacco) and her struggle to become a reader amidst loss, change, teasing/bullying, and low self-esteem.  Furthermore, it is the story of how she overcame her struggle with the help of Mr. Falker, her fifth grade teacher.

I read the text aloud to students, and with it came much thoughtful discussion.  We talked about the different challenges Trisha faced and how she responded to her challenges--what she thought, felt, and did in response.  Here is the organizer we created as an anchor chart.  Then students completed another organizer in which they described Trisha's responses. 

You can download these organizers by clicking here!

We went on to read a wonderful text, Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts.  Another great story for exploring character challenges and responses.  Jeremy wants "those shoes" so badly, but his grandma can't afford to buy them. One day he finds a pair at a second hand store, but they are too small.  He buys them anyway--with his own money.  Jeremy is eventually faced with a difficult decision--what to do with those too-small shoes...

This time, students got into small groups to discuss the challenges Jeremy faced and what he thought, felt, and did in response. 

A natural progression was the sharing of our own personal challenge and how we respond to this challenge.  I feel it's important for students to understand that the characters in realistic fiction are often "like you or me".  They are people we "meet" when reading and we can put ourselves in their shoes.  For this reason, I asked students to share some personal challenges.  We started by simply making a list of different challenges on chart paper.  We talked about how we all have challenges, no matter how big or small they may seem to someone else.  It is also important that we respect others' challenges--in sharing our challenges we learn more about one another. 

Students completed a graphic organizer related to their personal challenge. I wanted to give students the opportunity to share their challenge and how they respond, but I told them this was on a volunteer basis only.  I was pleasantly surprised by the number of students who wanted to share--almost all.  The maturity students showed as their classmates shared was amazing! Each showed respect and understanding as their fellow classmates shared personal challenges such as not being able to read well, trying to stop carrying a blanky at home, not being able to get words out, stage fright, getting embarrassed easily, difficulties with gymnastics, and more. What a wonderful character lesson, and as my fellow teaching mate said, "It was like therapy." 

Finally, we ventured on to guided reading groups.  I chose some text to use based on students' levels and some needed character lessons. Click on each title to read a synopsis.

My Secret Bully by Trudy Ludwig

The WORST Day of my live EVER! by Julia Cook

Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun by Maria Dismondy

The Chalk Box Kid by  Clyde Robert Bulla

Oliver Button is a Sissy Tomie dePaola

In guided reading rotations, students have also been working on turning their personal challenges into stories, and they have been independently reading The Potato Chip Champ by Maria Dismondy (a read aloud from earlier in the year) and completing a graphic organizer related to our focus. You can download the organizer here.

I cannot say enough how beneficial this exploration has been.  Wonderful, rich texts make a world of difference.  I encourage you to check them out, if you are not already familiar with each.

If I were to choose one word to describe ALL of the texts, I would choose thought-provoking.

Fly on over to Collaboration Cuties to check out more language arts mentor texts.

Read Across America Goodies!

Just wanted to re-share a couple of Read Across America goodies from previous posts. Enjoy!

Fuzzy and Fun Read Across America Bookmarks

Seuss Inspired Snack Stew

All the best for a wonderful week ahead!

Winter Masterpieces & MORE BRRR! Oh--Five for Friday, too...

What is Five for Friday? Hugh? Oh, now we remember! It has been SO LONG...

 

Weighing in a bit EARLY because we are off today due to the sub-zero temps and wind chills here in Illinois. BRRR!  Some extra time to blog today--time that may not be available tomorrow... 

WINTER MASTERPIECES

Thought we would share some WONDERFUL winter art ideas in keeping with the cold...

We may have shared this fabulous website in the past, but Courtney and I cannot say enough how great this creative blog is---Art Projects for Kids by Kathy Barbo!! Love the kid artwork posted on her sight and the step-by-step directions she provides.  Here are a couple of Kathy's projects our kids have created--

Snowman on Skis

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one!  I get warm fuzzies each time I pass Courtney's bulletin board with her kids' masterpieces. These snow friends have character!!  Materials list--black paper, glue, and pastels.  Click here to learn more!

Abstract Winter Trees

SIMPLE but striking is always nice!  Our classroom paparazzi took a few pics of our abstract masterpieces.  My kids love to use watercolors, and they have become experts at mixing just the right color for their needs--beautiful.  We followed the directions pretty much to the T, but triangle templates were not necessary after modeling how to draw a tree.  Click here to learn more!

SCHOLASTIC's STORIA APP

Courtney and I have latched on TIGHT to Scholastic Storia--using it almost daily! If you haven't checked Storia out lately, take a look! Scholastic now allows the app to be loaded on multiple devices and enables teachers to create bookshelves.  As you probably already know, Scholastic offers oodles of nonfiction/informational texts for purchase in book orders.  You will be surprised at the number of these texts that are also available as Storia eBooks--many interactive.  Courtney and I have been using texts during core reading as well as during intervention time.  

 

MENTAL MATH SNOW FRIENDS

Our kids' mental math snow friend craftivities turned out great! This is just one activity we did when exploring the POWER of mental math.  Our kids are becoming addition mental math wizards!

You can find this craftivity and other materials to use with your kids in my packet, Snow Friends Mental Math. Just visit my TpT store!

 
 GUIDED READING & GUIDED MATH ROTATIONS: TO DOs

I have effectively differentiated instruction for my students for 20 years now--but as the expression goes, "Things get better with age."  I am sure many teachers use "to dos" to help guide their students.  I have found this a powerful tool to help build student independence--and I just started doing it religiously this year!  I found some great picture fonts from kevinandamanda.com that help students know if tasks should be done alone or with a partner/s. To Dos are slipped in plastic sleeves and put in work areas.  Also, I adore Kimberly Geswein's font and The Enlightened Elephant's cloud page border. Here are some examples of to dos that I use with my kids.

MATH DISCUSSION FANS

Problem Solving discussion fans are something my students use during guided math rotations.  They provide an independent, yet guided opportunity for kids to talk about math. My students have become great users of this tool! Check it out in my TpT store!

BE A WORD BUILDER EXTRAORDINAIRE!

I created the following word building activity sheets to give my students extra practice with various letter/sound patterns.  The letter/sounds chosen were specific to my students’ needs throughout the year.  I wanted to provide my students with more meaningful word work practice than simply letting them choose from different ways to write their spelling words.  My students also needed extra practice with chunking word parts.  Be a Word Builder Extraordinaire! has fulfilled these needs.  This product is newly listed in my TpT store!

Please enjoy a free sample of Long e: ee - Set 1 to try with your students!

Don't forget to fly on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to read more Five for Fridays!

All the best for a warm & cozy weekend--even if you aren't freezing!