This week is Celebrate Literacy Week.  We have been participating in "identify the book" contests in the morning, keeping track of how many books we have read and our favorite activity so far has been reading to Ms. Appling's Pre-k class.  The students were very excited to go and read to the younger students.  I was very impressed with their enthusiasm.  I hope we can go and read to our new friends again soon.

Cassidy has a very attentive audience.

Christopher reading to his new friend.

Mrs. Odom's class during "drop everything and read (DEAR) time.

Mrs. Cooper's class enjoyed reading to Mrs. Breeding's Pre-K Class. Here is Deanna reading to a new friend.

Trinity is sharing one of her favorite books. 

Robert loves reading and his new friend is listening to one of his "good-fit" books

Here is Makenna and her new Pre-K friend. He looks so interested in this story!

Gunnar is sharing one of his new non-fiction books. 

Olivia and her new friend practicing "read to someone" 

Jharez is sharing a Dr. Suess book. He loves Dr. Suess!

Rossia sharing his book and JJ waiting patiently to share his.

Angel reading to Ryan and their new friend.

Comprehension Strategies in the Classroom

As a pod, we have been working on many comprehension strategies. The comprehension strategies are so important. Not only do they engage the students in the text but they also force the students to stop and think about their own thinking (metacognition). Being aware of their own thinking or being metacognitive will help them in their future schooling and in everyday life.

Here are some strategies that we have been working on: 

Making connections: Text to self (when a book reminds us of our own lives), Text to text (when one book reminds us of another), and text to world (when a book reminds us of something happening in the world around us).

During this lesson we compared two books: "Now One Foot, Now the Other" by Tomie DePaola and "The Two of them" by Aliki. As you can see  in our venn diagram there were many similarities between these two books. We made many text to text connections. 

 Visualizing: Making mental images as we read or making a movie in our mind.

Jacob is also practicing being aware of the movies that play in our mind while we read or hear a story!

Evan trying to get a mental image in his  head while Mrs. Odom reads a poem.

For this activity the students listened to a poem ("Honey, I Love" by Eloise Greenfield). As they listened the students stopped at various points to draw their mental images during the beginning, the middle and the end.  

The wonderful thing about our comprehension strategies is that soon the students will be using them  when they read any text without even realizing it. They will begin to use several strategies while reading one text. As you can see on our poem, some of the students were not only visualizing but also making connections (the green post-it on the chart is one way that we mark our thinking, in this case it was a text to self connection). Awesome thinking! 

We are working hard on getting good mental images!

Our mental images, beginning, middle & end. Notice that our mental images change as we read and that all of our images are different. If you ask your child they will tell why! It's because our schemas (or our background knowledge) are different!

We will continue to learn more comprehension strategies throughout the year. I'm so excited! Stay tuned into our blog for more updates!

Our Field Trip to Lowry Park Zoo

Ready for an awesome day at the zoo!

What a day! We can't believe what a fantastic time we had discovering all the interesting animals at the zoo!   The children had a wonderful time getting some hands on experiences and discovering neat information about some very interesting animals.  We would like to send out a very special "Thank you!" to all of the chaperones/volunteers who made this trip possible.  We couldn't do it without you! 

Its 7:15am and we are ready to go!

Bradley and Luke enjoying some time with the fish.

There is our safari guide! Oh, no that's just Caleb!

  

Jharod, Madison, Joanna, Jacob, and Timothy enjoying a sweet treat!

Sarah and Aaliyah sticking together.

We saw so many amazing animals!

The Okapi
This animal looks like it is related to the zebra but did you know it is a relative of the giraffe family?

I think we all fell in love with the newborn rhinoceros!

Jharez, Robert, Dana & Deanna enjoying the animals.

The orangutan resting in the shade

Mrs. Cooper fell in love with the baby orangutan. I could have watched him play all day long. 

Olivia and Delaney on the bus ride home. What an exciting day!

We cannot believe it is time for our big trip to the zoo!  Today, our students read a book about some of the things that they were most looking forward to about the zoo.  After reading and discussing, we did some writing that involved using the "Four Square Method."  The students had to fill in a square with three details and a conclusion sentence.  Some students got ahead of us and even put their writings in paragraph form!  Here are a few examples of some of their exemplary writing:

Sarah hopes to pet a giraffe, and see sea creatures!

Ashlee can't wait to buy a souvenir and hear a lion roar!

                                                         

Daniel wants to see the monkeys!

Aaliyah can't wait to see some elephants!

Mrs. Cooper's enrichment class has been participating in a chapter book study. The students were given a choice of four chapter books that they would be most interested in reading. Some of the students are reading independently, some are reading with a partner and some are reading in small groups. Each day that they read they take a few minutes to reflect on what they have read in their "My thoughts while reading" journals. The students are so motivated and are working so well together!

Makenna, Addison, and Emberlynn taking a moment to write about what they have read today. 

Olivia taking a break from Junie B. Jones to write in her journal. 

Olivia enjoying a Magic Tree House book.

Beau is writing about his book "Freckle Juice" by Judy Bloom

Today we studied Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and all the wonderful things that he stood for.  We discussed what it means to be an activist and shared the dreams that the children had for their future.  Here are some of the things they came up with!

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had big dreams, and we do too!

Luke wants to be a scientist.  Look at all those wonderful inventions!

Ashlee wants to be a veterinarian and a mommy, how brave is she?!

This week, we have many exciting things planned.  Tuesday we will be studying Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and working on a project that helps the children realize their own dreams!  Wednesday is another early release day and the children will be getting a quick preview of what they can expect to see at the zoo! Our guidance counselor, Mrs. Gant, will also be doing a special presentation to make students aware of child lures.  Thursday is the most exciting day of all, our field trip to the zoo!  This is the first big field trip that first grade has been able to take in several years and we are so excited about this awesome opportunity.  You should have gotten a paper sent home on Friday with all the information.  Please let us know if you have any questions.
Pictures to come!