Fifth graders enjoyed the story of Patrick McDonald, The Gift of Nothing. This small book with very little text is packed with humor. It is a story of friendship between a cat and dog. We continued our quest for knowledge using the computer lab in the media center.
Fourth grade continued with the Danny the Champion of the World video. We compared several of the events of the movie we have seen so far with the text. There were many changes when the book became the movie. We used a venn diagram to plot our discoveries.
Third grade continued to learn what it means to have courage. This week we watched a short video about Helen Keller who became blind and deaf from having a fever for so long when she was only 18 months old. We discussed different diseases and how we are protected against several of them now with the discovery of antibiotics and different vaccinations. Helen was most couragous and had a wonderful companion to help her throughout her life. Her name was Anne Sullivan. She also attended college and lived a very full life.
Second graders continued to delve into Bill Peet's books. We read a short humorous book titled Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watts. Scaredy is afraid to venture out of his comfort zone and is prepared for anything...almost. We applied this knowledge to the book written by Bill Peet titled Merle the High Flying Squirrel who never leaves his oak tree in the city. He wants to venture out west and does so in a most unusual way. We compared the similarities of the squirrels within the two books and discussed how connections are made.
First grade enjoyed Tomie DePaola's most famous book, Strega Nona. Poor Big Anthony does not pay attention! This gets him into a most unusual situation...until Strega Nona comes to the rescue. We discussed how stories have a beginning, middle and end...so we retold the story in our own words...the beginning...the middle....the end. Ciao~
Kindergarten classes are learning the differences between fiction and non-fiction. We looked at non-fiction books about dinosaur digs with fossils. then we enjoyed our fiction story titled, Can I have a stegasaurus mom? Please! We followed up with a game of musical books. While I sang the students walked around tables with both fiction and non-fiction books. When I stopped, I shouted either "fiction" or "non-fiction"...the students were to choose the correct type of book. They are brilliant!
