After our family unit, we studied communities and did a lot with community helpers. Then we took our first “trip” of the year. We called the unit “Things in the Sky”, and we studied weather, seasons and clouds. We got busy (Isn’t it crazy how busy October gets?!) and didn’t blog about that part of our unit. But we did want to include an anchor chart and great way to attack a difficult strategy. During our study of weather and clouds, we focused on the asking questions strategy. This is definitely a tough one for students, especially first graders. So we made anchor charts that showed different types of questions. The Café Book by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser suggests trouble-shooting strategies. They recommend using plans for questioning laid out by Taffy Raphael. If you Google her name, lots of information about the four types of questions come up. We used those for our teaching. We also used the “Into the Book” website (http://reading.ecb.org/index.html). It has some great activities and videos that show kids how to use the questioning strategy.
With each read aloud, we planned questions of each type. Then we wrote them on sticky notes and put them in the book. As we got to each questions, we read them aloud and the students had to identify which type of question it was before answering it. Here is an anchor chart just about the weather questions from the books we read in the unit.
Here is an anchor chart that just has the strategies on it. This has proven very effective. Our kids are still referencing it and identifying questions as one of the four. We hope that as they become even more comfortable, they more regularly ask the different types of questions on their own.
We changed our literature tree with the change of units. We read several of Cynthia Rylant's Henry and Mudge books - the ones about seasons like Puddle Trouble and Sparkle Days. The students each made a Mudge then wrote their names and their favorite season (i.e. "___ and Mudge's favorite season is summer.") and added a seasonal decoration.
After the weeks on weather we blasted off to outer space! During the week that we studied space, we read lots of non-fiction books and really worked on main idea and details. We spent one day each on the sun, the moon, the stars and the planets. Here is an anchor chart that shows how we explored space and identified main ideas and details in the books we read.
We also read a book (And I can't for the life of me remember what tht title was, but as soon as I can think of it, I'll add it!) about building a rocket out of shapes. Then the kids created their own rockets and labeled them. They also wrote descriptive paragraphs in the style of the book about their rockets.
Our Reading Response Journals are a favorite Friday afternoon activity, and they are turning out so cute! At the end of our Space unit, we read Poor Pluto written by the third grade students at Tokay Colony Elementary School in Lodi, California. It’s a great story, and our students loved that kids not much older than them wrote their own book! In the response journals, they students wrote whether or not they think Pluto should be a planet. (Trying to get them started on opinion writing. Gotta get those Common Core Standards covered!) Then they glued a circle into their journals and added either a happy or sad face, depending on their opinion. Here’s what they came up with (clockwise from top left): Pluto should be a planet because it is a part of a family. Pluto should be a planet because it has been a planet. Pluto should be a planet because is it part of the Solar System. Pluto should be a planet because it belong up out of space.
