Collective poetry

On Tuesday we read a beautiful poem "Valentine for Ernest Mann" by Naomi  Shihab Nye.  I was a bit worried it might pose a challenge for students to understand the poem, and some of it was confusing for them, but through a discusdion they were able to see the big idea.

The poem includes lines:

...poems hide. In the bottom of our shoes,

they are sleeping. ....

The students talked about how sometimes the beauty isn't visible outside, but inside; or how some people can speak poetically about everyday odjects and places; and sometimes you just have to have an open mind and look at a different perspective to find poetry.

On Wednesday we took some time to review what we had learned about writing poetry. Each student used post-its to give advice "If you want to write a poem.." and organized the lines in the order that made most sense to them.

As a result they had some poem drafts. Then we worked together to choose some lines from each poem to create a collective poem.

If you want to write a poem

Keep your eyes open

Open your heart

Wonder

Carry your notebook with you

Think what to write about

Don't try to write a poem

Just write

Write interesting words

Words that flow

Like a piece of music.  

Look at the beauty in words

Make an image in the reader's mind

Make it easy to read

Feel the emotion

Revise, revise, revise

Poems about animals

For the next two weeks at least we will continue reading and writing poetry. Today I shared different poems about animals. I read several poems about the same animal. It is amazing how differently the poets can write about the same topic, some playing with rhyme, some with rhythm, some with images, and some have complicated ideas hidden in their words. 

Now it was the students' turn to think and get started with some animal poetry. The key to it was not thinking about writing poetry, but rather envisioning a specific animal and collecting words, phrases, and images about it. The next step is to use the collected bits to combine and revise them into a poem.

This week: in the words of the students

In the world of math, area has taken over our math unit. Since Monday our carpet has been covered in squares. Everyone has been enthusiastic in this unit. We have all understood and learned a lot.

Poetry has been ruling  over our writing/reading unit. After reading tons of poetry books we have tons of poetry knowledge. Jack Prelutsky, Shel Silverstein and Judith Viorst are poets. Poets use interesting words. They think and carefully use words to make fantabulastic poems. Whenever we read them, some of us feel like writing them when we grow up, and it gives us inner happiness.

In the wonderful world of UOI we have learned, about inventions. Since our topic is Technology and Inventions. We have learned that inventing is a process. You might fail a few times but it wil maybe turn into a invention.

Poems, poems, poems

 Baskets of poetry books greeted the students on Monday. In April we will have fun reading and writing poetry. This week we are reading, reading, reading - quietly and aloud. We are looking at what the poets write about and how they write. 

We created our own poems using an interesting technique. We used the titles of books to combine words and phrases to express ideas. As a result we had book spine poems.

Here are three examples from me:

Boy

So you want to be an explorer?
Jump right in
Splish, splash
Wish for a fish

Creatures of Earth, Sea, and Sky

Good sports

The great frog race

Splish, splash

Bing, bang, boing

Handsprings

The frogs wore red suspenders

The long, long letter,
this is just to say
wonderful words.
Days like this
I like to be me.

This week: in the words of the students

 This is what the students say about learning this week:


Assessment:

This week we had our three MAP tests. First we had reading, then we had math, then language. When we have our MAP tests we have to sit quietly and take our time. When we are done, we raise our hand and the teacher takes our score, then we take our books and read until everyone has finished. The MAP tests make your brain ache. The challenge on a MAP test is that it asks you questions you haven't learned because the test doesn't know you. The test helps teachers to know how good you are, and how easy or hard things to give you.

We write reflections for the portfolio. Writing reflections is challenging because some things you have to write about are difficult like: who are you as a reader and why do you like to read...

There is not only one answer. Writing reflections makes you think harder. It is good because it helps you tell parents what you are good about. It's good for us, so we can see what we are capable of.

UOI:

Inside UOI we are making projects. Some people have partners and some people don't. Since our topic is energy, we picked a form of energy, so now we are working on the texts When we are done, we will share it with the lower school.

Reading:

This week  Ms.Terje  is reading The Tale of Despereaux for  snack/read aloud and we do work, like for example we tell the feelings of the main character. We learn how to write about reading. We think along when the teacher reads. You get to listen to a story.  This story is about bravery, about being different, and it tells you how some might feel when you treat them badly because they are different.

In independent reading people choose what they want to read, and read.

Independent reading

In Literature Circles we discuss about a book. The main idea is to be cooperative, work with a team. You need notes to make a good discussion, so you remember your ideas.

Math:

In math we learn to multiply. We practice on paper or apps on iPad. The important thing with practicing times table is that when you practice a lot, it will be in your head. Learning is about practicing and being enthusiastic.

Book Week

Human Library

Mother tongue reading

Teddy Bear Picnic

Reading/viewing Newbery winner and honor wordless picture books

Class presentation about Sports: writing for different purposes

Authors reading their picture books to Grade 1

We also visited the Foreign Language Library, saw presentations by other classes, squeezed some math and UOI in between Book Week activities.
We finished the week with Estonian Culture Day activities, a dance session and a concert.

Estonian Handicraft

Book Week 2014

 Book Week 2013

Our annual Book Week is about to start.
This year's theme is: Healthy Mind in Healthy Body

It will get started with a book themed slumber party this Friday night
and continue with many different events throughout next week.

Please consider volunteering for mother tongue reading. You can sign up in the lower school hallway.

Ms. Kadri as updated the ISE Book Week wiki. Take a look here.

Learning about characters

This book has two amazing characters, so I keep coming back to it each year, when we learn how readers pay attention to characters. On two days during the snack time I read it out loud to the students.

Here is what readers pay attention to when thinking about a character in order to understand the story:

Writing about reading

We like to talk about the stories we read. Spoken words disappear. We could record them, but the you need a tool  for listening. How could we record our thinking so it would be visible in a journal or in a classroom?

This week we are looking at different ways to present our thinking.

For a whole class work I purposefully use picture books. We can read the story in a shorter amount of time, they are more accessible to English language learners, and we can focus on comprehension and strategy practice.

I read:

Then students reread the text, highlighting what they thought was important or made them react and think.

Today students worked alone or with a partners to create a summary, a time-line, character comparison and thought bubbles with visuals.

Listening to beautiful language and talking about interesting stories

On busy days it may be difficult to keep to the routine of reading out loud, but we have managed. I may not have had time to read several pages from a chapter book, but it is possible to slip some poems into small pockets of time.

This book hosts a collection of poems about words, poems and books:

This book is filled with poems of apology:

This book has a wonderful combination of illustrations and poems with a twist:

In addition to the read aloud and some individual reading, we had two Literature Circle meetings. One of the groups is reading the Lightening Thief. This is a fast-paced adventure with many characters and where contemporary world is mixed with Ancient Greek mythology. I am in a group with 5th grade boys and read My Side of the Mountain. This on the other hand is a book about a boy who chose to live alone in a forest. He is learning how to survive and finds time to observe the nature and his inner thoughts. The biggest question my group is discussing is how realistic is the book and what choices would we make if we were in the boy's shoes. We will have two more weeks of Literature Circle meetings. During the third week of February we will have a book week and our schedule is mixed up. We will pause with the Literature Circles and resume after February break.

Reading like a reader, reading like a writer

Adding to our conversational skills has been the focus of reading this week. We have worked with partnersto practice how to share our thinking, how to listen to a partner, how to invite the partner to elaborate and clarify, and how to add to the conversation.

We have used both picture books and poems to dig deeper with understanding and practice how to talk about ideas. I hope that what we do in class transfers to the Literature Circle discussions.

In addition to reading like a reader, we have looked at the texts as a writer. Some books are filled with marvellous language. The book below is about a boy who has never seen a sea and his mother describes it in the most wonderful words.

How to have a discussion about literature

Every Tuesday and Thursday the students gather for Literature Circle meetings. They have read the agreed nukber of pages and usuaally have jotes witht them. Sometimes they simply take turns reading their notes. The goal for them is to have a natural discussion. This week in class we learn ways to share our thinking and expandin it. 

On Monday we looked at possible thinking stems we can use to get started.

We practiced using these thinking stems with this read aloud:

Today we added questions we can ask to invite the other speaker to clarify, extend or support their thinking.

We used another picture book to try out these questions.

Reading

 

I chose The Paper Bag Princess  for a read aloud book to review the different reading strategies. 

Since we started a new round of Literature Circles we talked about ho to prepare for it. Readers use post-its to mark pages where they catch themselves thinking. And later use some of the marked places to write down their thinking in more detail.

At first some students can get over excited and use a whole package of post-its and mark every thought crossing their mind. To help them to choose a bit better, I shared some "signposts" that a reader may find and should pay attention to in literary texts. (Idea from a book Notice and Note)

When I reread The Paper Bag Princess, they were able to find again and again signpost in the book.  When I was reading The Velveteen Rabbit, the students were able to name the tough question the main character asked and identify the words of the wiser.

I hope that with more practice, the student will be able to pay closer attention to their Literature Circle texts and individual reading.

Next week we will inquire into what can we do and how could we speak to have a rich and interesting discussion during the Literature Circle meetings.

Mid week review

Every day we practice a bit for the winter pageant.

We have continued with daily math and word study.

We are writing short fictional narratives.

We have continued speaking about inferring as a strategy to support and enhance our understanding of the texts we are reading. They all wrote me a letter with an example when they inferred supporting it with the evidence from the text.

 We put on the music and danced. Before we danced we began to define what is a dance. We decided that it is movement that has purpose and usually is connected to music. We also agreed that it requires physical exercise. We were not sure whether it always has a story, can it always be called a sport, how dances formed, what kind of movements different dances have, or how to make a dance if you want to. we decided that we can find some answers by watching dances but in some cases we should ask an expert.

Practicing for winter pageant

Every year ISE has a winter pageant. It is a combination of a play, music and dancing. This year the script was inspired by our UOI "Family Stories." Grade 3 students also have the honor of being the main characters.
Yesterday Ms. Karolina and Doc. Shepherd (the directors of the pageant) came and the students practiced read and acted the play through from the beginning to the end.

I can't wait to see the end production.