Has it REALLY been that long?

Oh man! I didn't realize how long it'd been since I last posted! For the sake of being OVERWHELMED with all I have to say I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching to make me stick to FIVE things on this lovely Friday!

Shadow day is always a hit! We ventured out on a breeze day in April to measure our shadows every hour-hour and a half. It is such a fun but crazy interrupted day! We love seeing how our shadows move and shrink throughout the day. One of my grade level partner's kiddos said "my shadow shrunk like my underwear does in the dryer!" Out of the mouths of babes!

We just started our shape unit last week and have been using tons of foldables from Blair Turner's Interactive Notebook!

We also played some guessing games, asking questions to guess our shape. The questions were: how many sides does the shape have? How many vertices does the shape have? How many corners/angles does my shape have? Are any of the sides equal length? Are the sides parallel?

We worked hard through April and are just now wrapping up our Fairy Tale unit. Some of my high flyers used this 3-way comparison chart to compare 3 different versions of Cinderella. They did such a nice job showing the very specific similarities and differences!

 

If you haven't heard of any of the I Read to You, You Read to Me books you definitely have to check them out! We LOVED the fairy tale version to get us started on fairy tales and they are WONDERFUL for fluency AND point of view... so many uses! 

My kiddos were obsessed for nearly a month, asking to do more activities with them! Definitely check them out if you haven't! There are also a Mother Goose, Scary Tales and Fables versions too!

Finally, I'm hoping to do a full post on having a student teacher, but here's a peak at my student teacher playing a Mystery Place Value game!


WOW it felt awesome to post again on here :) Thanks to those of you tuning in!

Book Talk Tuesday with freebies (7.22)

I'm linking up again with Mrs. Jump for Book Talk Tuesday.

Today I'll be sharing Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptol. It is an African Cinderella Tale.

One of my favorite reading units is Fairy Tales. We read a bunch of different Cinderella stories and compare and contrast the stories in a variety of ways. Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters is one of my favorites for a few reasons. First are the beautiful life-like illustrations and secondly, it teaches a wonderful lesson about being kind and thoughtful.

In this story, there are 2 sisters: Nyasha and Manyara. Nyasha is kind and loving whereas Manyara is opposite from Nyasha in every way. She is bad-tempered and unkind. Manyara is often unkind to Manyara, but Manyara does not complain to their father and instead tends to her garden and befriends a snake named Nyoka. When the family hears that the kind is searching for a wife, the family plans a journey to meet him in hopes he will take one of the daughters as his wife.

On the journy, Nyoka transforms into various forms. Manyara is rude and selfish when confronted by Nyoka's forms, whereas Nyasha is kind and self-less. (SPOILER ALERT) In a surprise ending, Nyoka ends up being the king himself, and rewards Nyasha's kindness by taking her as his wife. The contrast of the two sisters shows that good things happen when you are kind.

Reading Level: DRA 30
                 Guided Reading N
                 Lexile 720L

Resources:

Web Resources:

• Scholastic Lesson: Go here for lesson ideas, including cross-curricular connections
• Reading Rainbow: Watch the Reading Rainbow episode of Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters
• Literature Guide: This link has before/during/after questions and various activities to go along with the book

Vocabulary: Here are some words you may want to pre-teach... ignored, considerate, acknowledge, transfixed, proclaimed, bountiful, garments, enclosure, grieve, silhouetted, commotion, hysterically, millet, grove, plumed, chamber

*When there are so many vocabulary words important to the reading of a story, I like to do a jig-saw. I make groups of 4-5 students and give them 2 vocabulary words. They fill out the vocabulary 4-square (below as a freebie) together. Then, I rotate the groups so that 1 member of each of the original groups is in each of the new groups. The group members then each "teach" their 2 words to the other group members. I try to have the starting and ending groups prepared ahead of time, because otherwise the switch to jig-saw can be chaotic and wastes time.*

Activities:
Before Reading:

• Do the vocabulary jig-saw described above so students have at least a basic understanding of some of the difficult words in the story.
• Talk about where this fairy tale originates to give students some background knowledge.

During Reading:

• If you've taught fairy tale elements (see my post on fairy tales here) have students hold up a stop sign when they hear a fairy tale element in the story. We kept track of which stories had which elements throughout our entire Fairy Tale unit.
• Have students compare and contrast the 2 sisters while reading. Keep track of the observations they make about the sisters by using a chart paper t-chart or have the kiddos each get a copy like the one below (another freebie) and keep track on clip boards throughout the reading.

After Reading:

• Have students compare/contrast Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters with the Classic Cinderella (or other Cinderella story). 
• This can be as simple as using a Venn Diagram. 
• Students can work in small groups, partnerships or independently. 
• If time is limited you can also have students write 1 way the stories are alike and 1 way they are different as an "exit ticket." 

Thanks for stopping by for today's book talk, if you love teaching Fairy Tales as much as I do, this is a must-have for your Fairy Tale collection!
Tune into my blog tomorrow for Whole Brain Wednesday!

What a Great Week!

This week has truly been fabulous. Launching Daily 5, studying caterpillars, and the beginning of Fairy Tale & Shapes units, wooh!

So in honor of a wonderful week, I'm not only linking up with Doodlebugs Five for Friday but I also created a FREEBIE to go along with Daily 5, hooray! as well as a shapes freebie and am linking up with Teaching Blog Addict for Freebie Friday!

First things first... If you're looking for the freebies, scroll down to #2 for a Daily 5 freebie and to #4 for a shapes freebie!

If you read Tuesday's post, you know Daily 5 is my new obsession! I am so proud of my kiddos and how well they have adapted to the change to our normal centers schedule. I truly can't wait to start Daily 5 on day 1 next year!

If you missed the post on my ravings of Daily 5 and CAFE, check it out here. And be sure to stay tuned as we visit my former across-the-hall-neighbor next week. I can't WAIT to post a blog about her adorable room and fabulous teaching!

I hope you enjoy the pictures (from the post linked above) of my kiddos trying out Daily 5 this week!

If you know anything about me and my classroom, I LOVE cute, I LOVE bright and I LOVE fun when it comes to my classroom decor! For all these reasons I have created a Daily 5 Freebie that features a full page poster and half page poster for each Daily 5 (plus computers if you use that instead of or addition to the 5 rotations). Hopefully next week I'll have pictures of those up in my room, possibly as a clip-in system. I also will be extending this freebie to include CAFE as well, but that might not be until the summer, so if you want them for next year, keep your eyes open ;)

Click the image for a direct link or click here to go to the product page on my TPT store.

My FAVORITE thing to teach in reading is Fairy Tales. If you want to check out another post of mine on fairy tales check it out here.
This year I created a new castle for my kiddos ideas of fairy tale traits to fill. They did an awesome job this year, adding a new trait to my list: special helpers; and the only one from my list that they didn't come up with on their own was special numbers!

In addition to identifying the traits in a fairy tale, we are keeping track of the Cinderella stories we read to see which traits the different versions have or don't have.

We've been doing exit tickets after we read each story for the kiddos to compare and contrast the one we just read to another version. I realized that I haven't really used exit tickets yet this year (which made me a little upset with myself). The kiddos thought they were "so cool" especially the first time because they had to hand in a ticket before they could get their snack... oh the little things that keep kiddos happy!

In math, we started our geometry unit... 2D shapes, 3D shapes and partitioning. I introduced 2D shapes and found that my kiddos were very familiar with the different shapes, but were a little confused between trapezoids, rhombuses and parallelograms. We made this anchor chart together which goes into detail for each quadrilateral.

To give my kiddos even more practice with shapes, especially those tricky quadrilaterals, we made a shape book. You can grab yourself a copy here. Just copy double sided (with rotation on or make each page go the opposite way), fold down the middle and staple!

We FINALLY did the culmination of our shadows unit! We actually did it this past Friday, but I had already posted my 5 for Friday post, so I'm including it in this week's Five for Friday!

We went outside 4 different times and traced and measured our shadows so we could see how shadows move throughout the day. The kiddos (and I) had a blast!

They also did a great job figuring out why their shadows changed... granted we had read about shadows earlier in the year, but the fact that they could pretty much all tell me their shadows changed because the sun isn't in the same place in the sky during different times during the day and because the Earth is rotating. Yay for my kiddos!


And a little bonus...
Check out how fast these caterpillars are growing!!!! In just a week... it's incredible!

Have a wonderful weekend!

The Korean Cinderella

Book 4 from my grad-class series...

The Korean Cinderella written by Shirley Climo and illustrated by Ruth Heller is a retelling that
according to the author's note is based on 3 variations of the Cinderella tales that have been told in Korea for centuries. This Cinderella story tells a story of Pear Blossom who when her father is too old to look after her, falls victim to the mistreating of her stepmother and stepsister. When her stepmother asks her to do tasks that seem impossible, she is helped by various animals such as a frog, birds and an ox. When finishing her last impossible chore in order to go to the festival, she crosses paths with the magistrate who immediately notices her beauty. She is afraid of him and runs away, losing a sandal. He uses the sandal in the typical Cinderella-fashion to find the beauty who ran away.

 Reading Level:
DRA: 34
Guided Reading: O

Themes:
Family Relations
Perseverance
Just Rewards
Fairy Tales

Teachers: here are some resources for you...

Web Resources:

•  Find discussion questions and a lesson plan to teach this book here.
• Have students go here to learn more about the Korean culture.
• Here is an extension activity with discussion questions and information about Seoul.
• Cinderella Unit
• Beyond the Glass Slipper Unit

Vocabulary:  blossom, matchmaker, omni, feeble, tokgabi, hull, rice paddies, hastened, magistrate, palanquin, jade, ewha

Activities:
Before Reading:

• KWL focusing on Cinderella stories.
• Anticipation Guide focusing on Cinderella stories.
• Directed Reading Thinking Activity: what do we predict will happen in this story based on what we already know about Cinderella stories.

During Reading:

• Question-Answer-Relationship: Ask questions from each level...
• Right there Questions:
•  What did the mom and dad wish for?
• What did Omni keep saying to Pear Blossom?
• Who does Pear Blossom marry?
• Think and Search
• Which animals help Pear Blossom and how do they help her?
• What tasks did Pear Blossom have to do around the house?

After Reading:

• Question-Answer-Relationship
• Author and You
• How is Pear Blossom alike or different from you?
• How is this Cinderella story the same or different from other Cinderella stories you have read?
• On Your Own
• Do you think the magistrate would have found Pear Blossom without the sandal?
• What do you think would have happened if the animals were mischievous instead of helpful?

Climo, S. (1993). The Korean Cinderella. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers.

Yeh-Shen A Cindrella Story from China

Here is this week's multicultural book for my grad class...

Yeh-Shen A Cinderella Story from China retold by Ai-Ling Louie is of course a Cinderella story…A long time ago, a beautiful girl named Yeh-Shen was being raised by her stepmother. Her stepmother and step sister were unkind to Yeh-Shen and made her do all the housework. She didn’t have any friends except for a fish she had taken as a pet and would give her anything she wanted. When her stepmother kills and eats the fish, Yeh-Shen thinks she will never have a friend again. But the spirit of the fish lives on through its bones to help Yeh-Shen. When the Spring Festival comes and her stepmother won’t allow her to attend, Yeh-Shen turns to the bones of her fish and finds herself in a beautiful gown and glass slippers. Will Yeh-Shen find her love at the festival?

Reading Level: DRA Level 38
                   Guided Reading P

Teachers: here are some resources for you...

Web Resources:

• Cartoon Version: Check out the cartoon version of Yeh-Shen at this link. It could be argued that there is some evidence of stereotyping, so view before showing your class and decide what your opinion is (and what the opinion of your parents may be) This could also be used as a conversation starter asking if there is evidence of stereotypes and/or comparing and contrasting to the book.
• Cinderella Stories: This link provides a list of a bunch of Cinderella stories as well as information about each story.
• Worksheets: Find worksheets on vocab, comprehension and more to go along with a reading of Yeh-Shen.
• History: I found some interesting information about the history of this story as well as a link to a neat video showing cave dwellings like Yeh-Shen lives in in the story.

Vocabulary: stepmother, undaunted,  finery, fond, marveled, banquet, ivory, glimpse

Activities:
Before Reading:

• Discuss: What is a fairy tale? How do we know a story is a fairy tale? What fairy tales have we read before?
• Teach Fairy Tale Elements, check out my post about fairy tales here.

During Reading:

• While reading, ask students to consider how this story makes them think of other Cinderella stories they have heard.
• Ask students to use think marks (sticky notes) while you read to keep track of their thoughts, connections, questions, etc. Get the think mark bookmarks I give my students to help them remember what to put on their stickies here.

After Reading:

• Read another Cinderella story (or if you already have...) and compare/contrast Yeh-Shen and the other version of Cinderella.
• Use a comparison matrix or simple chart as can be seen on my fairy tales post to identify which fairy tale traits are and are not in Yeh-Shen.