WE LOVE PIGEON!

We have read all of Mo Willems' Pigeon Books. Now we are practicing our Reader's Theatres!

Place Value to the Hundreds

Students worked as individuals, partners, and groups to identify numbers. They used flats, rods and cubes with a graphic organizer. Students had to count each manipulative, draw them and record the number. Students then practiced reading their numbers through presenting in the Author's Chair.

Teaching Students to Evaluate

What students think matters. Students engaging with the text is essential. Teaching students to evaluate is an excellent format for getting students involved with the text.

How to start if you are teaching ELLs...

1. Define evaluating
2. Make connections...food critics, movie critics, book critics
3. Build on Background...have students evaluate familiar foods, films, and books.
4. Explain Reasoning...have students explain WHY they do or do not like something
5. Use icons to help students recall the concept...thumbs up and thumbs down works well.
6. Apply the skill to a new text you are introducing.
   

Give Ownership to Noticings

Horton Hears a Who was part of our Principal's Book of the Month activity. Students shared their noticings during the initial reading. By placing student initials after noticings, teachers give students ownership over ideas. They celebrate student thinking. They increase student participation.

My Understanding of the Writing Bulletin Board

The left side is Working Toward the Standard. It has student work from your current genre study. There is a rubric related to the genre study. Work has +,-, and x post it notes attached to it.
The right side is Meeting the Standard. It has student work from your most recently completed genre study. There is a rubric related to the genre study. Work has commentary on it.

Math Standards Board

What can you find on a Math Standards Board?

• 1. A problem solving activity
• 2. The standard it was created to meet.
• 3. Student samples that are Working Toward the Standard and samples that Meet the Standard.
• 4. An original, activity specific rubric
• 5. Commentary that celebrates and guides students towards next steps.

What Good Readers Notice

Good readers use reading strategies that have been explicitly taught and modeled.

Making Thinking Visible

Artifacts demonstrate that you value thinking. Students need ownership of ideas. By posting artifacts you create reference points and show that you value student ideas.

Possum Magic Text to World Connections

Grandma Poss wore glasses. In the world possums do not wear glasses.
Anthony

Possum Magic Text to World Connections

She made magic. Real possums climb.
Ana

Possum Magic Text to World Connections

The possum in the book does magic, but in the real world possums do not do magic.
Tamara

Possum Magic Text to World Connections

They sing. Possums in the the real world do not sing.
Jeffrey

Possum Magic Text to World Connection

The magic made Hush invisible. Possums are visible. Fidel

Possum Magic Text to World Connections

In Possum Magic they ride a bike. In the real world they do not ride bikes. They climb trees.
Katherine O.

Tens and Ones

Today we worked on tens and ones. Students worked with a partner. They used beans to make groups of 10. Then they added the leftovers. For example, 55 is 5 groups of 10 and 5 left over.

Informational Writing

Students are currently writing informational pieces. They are researching animals and taking notes on graphic organizers. Students are writing about sharks, bears, killer whales, spiders, penguins, and frogs.

Learn It After School Tutoring

Students that are participating in the Learn It Systems after school tutorial program have been working on money! Pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters!!

Marshmallow Geometry

In December, our class studied plane shapes and solids. We used marshmallows and toothpicks in ordre to build pyramids, cubes, and rectangular prisms.

Ordering Events

We are now studying time. Today we used the whiteboards and dry erase markers to draw things that we do in the morning, the afternoon and the evening. After the whole group activity, students used a graphic organizer and pictures to sort events according to the time of day they would be completed.