That's a Fact, JACK!

Finally! It's here! No, not Christmas, but the next best thing...FACT AND OPINION WEEK-woohoo!  

I have been waiting for over a month to use my adorable, precious, can't stand how cute it is, Duck Dynasty Clip Art I purchased from melonheadz awhile back. I have used it in random places here and there, but I wanted to go all out for Fact and Opinion Week, and oh baby did we ever!

To start off the week, we viewed a little PREZI on fact and opinion {if you've never heard of or used PREZI before, please check it out.  It takes a minute to get used to, but it's crazy cool} and introduced our Anchor Chart for the week.  You could pretty much hear a pin drop in the room when I was going over this.  They were in awe of Si, Willy, and Jase and they fact that they were giving them information about our skill for the week.  Maybe I should start wearing a Si mask to school...

We read, "When the Leaf Blew In," and charted facts and opinions while reading.  The students then completed our differentiated, "Where's the Facts, Jack" cut and paste.  The higher level learners had to add an additional sentence to each column.

To bring a little autumn & science into our room, we created a KWL chart on LEAVES!  It was really surprising how much prior knowledge was lacking when it came to this topic.  Each table created their own chart, and shared information with their table mates.   We then posed questions as to what we were hoping to find out about leaves and why they change colors.

To help us out, we watched two short video clips {here and here} on leaves and WHY they change color.  We talked about some unknown vocabulary prior to.  We also used "photosynthesis" as one of our vocabulary words for the week.  They thought they were "so fancy" because they knew a 5 syllable word. :)

To accompany our reading lesson, we read a Science Spin Weekly Reader, Leaf Story.  We read this together as a class and the students reread it with a partner to build fluency.  After reading, we finished off our KWL chart with something they learned from either video clip or their Weekly Reader.

Second graders made their own fact and opinion trees--using one color representing facts, and the other opinions. **Not, Duck Commander themed, but still presh....

Aren't they the cutest helping each other out :)  #meltsmyheart

We used our, "THAT'S A FACT, JACK" and "HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY," fact and opinion cards to identify statements as such.  It was soooooo stinkin' fun hearing them shout, "THAT'S A FACT, JACK!" or "HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!" as I read each statement aloud! We did this at the start of each lesson to help get our brains revved up.  They also LOVED this fun little fact and opinion song.  I have to admit, I was singing it for the rest of the day...

To accompany our weekly story, we worked with a friend to complete one of our Duck Dynasty Fact and Opinion Graphic Organizers.  Students then gave their own opinion on the story and why they felt that way. 

...and then Friday came. Also known as, "Duck Commander Day!"  Students rocked their camo or Duck Dynasty attire to help keep with our theme for our Fun Friday Centers!  And you can bet your duck tail I was rocking my camo pants and pink Duck Commander T-shirt, too!

Here's a look at how our Friday went down...

Meet the Robertsons :)

Differentiated Comprehension Passages

Fact and Opinion Game: Meet Me at the Warehouse!

game pieces :)

I used the bases from Shoots and Ladders along with some packing tape to hold everything in place

Look at that face! I think she was enjoying herself :) :) :)

PROVE IT! Who's the better brother: 

Phil vs. Si   or    Willy vs. Jase

We used the passages from "Meet the Robertsons" to help with justifications

I can relate.... #texttoself

That's a Fact, Jack! Statement Sorting

Students then chose three sentences to alter {if the card stated a fact about Si, change it to an opinion about Si}

We had so much fun with our Duck Dynasty themed activities!  If you would like to use any of the above materials in your classroom, you can download the unit here! Let me know what you think of it and how much your students loved it {which I know they will!}

Try It Out!

Try using a stuffed animal such as this Sock Monkey to promote student participation in your class.  As we read and pause to ask {higher order thinking} questions, I toss this sweet little guy to one of my students to answer the question.  They then pass it to a friend to share their answer.  Try it out and see how many hands will be in the air!  

Our class' "Talking Monkey"

Have a wonderful weekend!

~Jamie

Halloween: Friend or Foe?

When I think about Halloween, I first get REALLY excited about pumpkins, mums, candy, and FINALLY getting to enjoy some cooler weather. With that said, this year I felt completely ripped off! I got a whopping 14 Trick-or-Treaters last night, the weather has been nothing shy of 80 degrees every day, my mums are pretty much dead corpses, and as far as the pumpkins are concerned...well, the pumpkins are ok...for now...

I have a sort of love/hate relationship with Halloween in school.  I love reading Halloween themed books, talking about witches and scary creatures with the munchkins, and it of course kicks off the decorating season, but on the same token, it's the time of year where candy takes control over our little ones' brains!!!!  This year was no exception.  With Halloween being on a Thursday, it was quite the challenge Friday to get my friends up and motivated to learn for the entire day.  Leave it to construction paper and glue to save the day 45 minutes.

This week, we learned all about UNDERSTANDING CHARACTERS, while focusing on asking questions with the 5 Ws and 1 H.  Ok, understanding characters is something we will be constantly working on {traits}, but how hard is it to discuss the five Ws?!  At first you think, "Ok, we ask questions all the time while reading.  I don't need to spend five days on this..."  However, I quickly realized seven year olds have a hard time understanding WHAT questions are asking and the proper way to answer them. *This also come in handy while discussing word problems in math! Bigger bang for your buck I like to say :)

Here's a peak at some of the things we've done to keep our friends occupied during the candy trance:

Choose a Halloween costume for me to dress up as this year--I loved these!

They know how to get on my good side :)

We started off  the week reading some simple passages together as a class.  We discussed what each W meant and HOW to answer each type of question.  They totally loved Scardie {play on Goldie Locks}, and the fact she ate three bowls of eyeballs.  #yougottadowhatyougottado

Then we read one of my FAVORITE fall books, The Ugly Pumpkin!  This is actually more of a Thanksgiving book than Halloween, but I can never wait until November to read this one!  However, I can still keep up the cute little Squashes they are making until then. :)  

If you don't have this book in your classroom library, you are so missing out.  It's cute, sweet, and Ah-maze-ing for teaching character traits! 

After reading, we listed what the character was like on the outside and inside.  The way the character looked on the outside was very important to the story AND telling the different character traits the Ugly Pumpkin possessed.  *SPOILER ALERT: He's not a pumpkin...he's a SQUASH!

Click here to download

My sorry attempt at a squash...

Students used their Daily 5 Folders to help them list the trait that matched the characters words, actions, and thoughts.  Get it here!

The students brought in different types of squashes all week.  We had a nice little collection by Friday :)  When it comes to squashes, I say the uglier the better!

Students then chose a squash to transform themselves into!  They created a self portrait as THAT particular squash and listed character traits to describe THEM around it.  This was one of our Fun Friday Centers and are not quite finished yet.  I will say, the ones I saw are CRAZY cute! Can't wait to see and display our little Squash Patch!

Later in the Week we read/ watched, Room on the Broom here, another one of my favorites :) 

Students analyzed the characters to answer our 5Ws and one H questions, while listing character traits to describe the witch!  By the third day they were cake with choosing traits to describe a character's actions, thoughts, and words.

Day Four was a little more on their own.  We started with my cute little monster friend, Boo~Berry, and did some inferring with our question starters.  

We used WeGiveBooks.org to read, "Bump in the Night."  If you haven't had the joy of using this site yet, you are in for a real TREAT {no pun intended...}. It has thousands of book titles in the form of a BIG BOOK you can read from your smart, or white board with help from your students.  They can read the entire book to you!  It's great for increasing time in text!!

Of course, I had to let them make their OWN cutie patootie monster {while sneaking in some character traits in there of course}!  Let me just say, I LOVE seeing how creative seven year olds can get!  

To add the finishing touch on who, what, when, where, why, we learned what it meant to write a super, meaty, sandwich sentence using this template.  We first practiced together in our writing journals where students glued the template {we glued it on the back cover for easy reference}.  

We color coded our words as we wrote each part, which made it a little easier. 

Makes you wonder what's going through their little heads...

Next week, we're going to choose one of the sentence strips hanging around the room to illustrate!  I don't know about you, but my friends seem to think a stick figure will suffice as an illustration....nah...Mrs. P don't roll like that...

Ok, I have been wanting  dying to incorporate MUSTACHES into something, I don't know why, I just think they are ADORABLE {except on pretty ladies}.  As one of our Friday Centers, second graders made mustache questions we could ask ourselves while reading!  

They did this entire center unsupervised...I was across the room of course, but I did not even see this poster until it was done!  I was so impressed :)  

Horn Toot for the week goes out to my little nuggets for earning FIRST RUNNER UP in our school- wide poster contest for RED RIBBON WEEK!  Each student created a drug free themed app which we added to our giant paper iPad! They loved it. I loved it. Everybody Happy, Happy, Happy. 

Happy Christmas Thanksgiving Shopping!

May the Search be with You!

I don't know about you, but I love having my munchkins research--doesn't matter what, I just LOVE watching them discover new information and turn it into something spectacular, not to mention their doing it on their own!  They LOVE to be the know it alls experts, and more often than not, end up teaching ME something!  Oh boy do they just LOVE finding out that I "don't know something." {Them and B both!}

I don't know why, but NonFiction Text Features seem to be the "it" thing these days, yet they can be increasingly difficult for our little ones to identify, understand their purpose, and apply. To start us off, we discussed what seemed like millions several examples of text features, what they looked like, and their purpose.  We charted these using our very own nonfiction text features glossary using while reading this FABULOUS big book as a guide.  {Side note, if you don't have this book, you NEED to get it ASAP--so awesome for teaching nonfiction, text features, and how to read nonfiction books}.
We even completed a cute little cut and paste activity sheet that demonstrated what each text feature "looked" like.  We placed these in our reading notebooks for easy reference whenever we may need to go back and revisit them.  You can check it out here!

Defining Text Features in the form of ANOTHER text feature: the glossary :)  

We then went on a Nonfiction Scavenger Hunt using Abby Mill's printable and Scholastic Science Vocabulary Readers {2/group}.  Students were not to READ these books, which was puzzling for some of them to comprehend, but were to simply HUNT for the various text features present in their pieces of nonfiction {each group was given two readers in the event of one reader not having that certain text feature}.  They did an AH-MA-ZING job.  Even in our Daily 5 centers that followed, I could hear them naming the different text features during Read to Someone and Read to Self time {clouds part, cue angels singing}.

Abby Mill's Printable Freebie!

After students spent two days identifying, understanding, and defining text features, they were given their first research assignment!  Students {in groups of 2-4} were given an animal to research and present to the class.

First students visited the computer lab to take notes based on a given animal.  We used the National Geographic for Kids Website, and I must say it was perfect for my second graders.  It's filled with video clips, sound bites, maps, fun facts, and some very detailed photographs.  If you haven't used this yet, you NEED to...like tomorrow now....

Students used this handy dandy little note taking organizer to help guide their research.  This was seriously the BEST note taking guide I have ever used/ created!  When I saw how seamless it was working with my littles, I was kicking myself for not using it 6 years ago.  It was then when I began chanting, "Better late than never dummy darling."  They did so great and I love when they take charge of their own learning--Ten Finger Woo for them (shake ten fingers and shout "WOOOOOOOOOO")!

Get it here!

Students then met together in groups to read and highlight more information using hard copies of text {this was printed directly form the National Geographic Site, however parts of it may be a little overwhelming for your lower level readers.  I put these students in a group to research the same animal and retyped their information with simpler vocabulary and fewer words-took a hot minute, but it was well worth the headache to come later on and I'll be sure to file it in a safe and happy place for next year}. I also tried to level the animals as much as possible.  Those animals that included more reading and unknown vocabulary were given to my medium and higher level learners, while the animals that had less reading/ new vocabulary were given to my medium to lower level learners.  Groups were of mixed ability to help each other as needed.

Surprisingly enough, I hardly had to intervene during any of their researching--I did have to remind some of them to write only the IMPORTANT information/words, rather than complete sentences- {the look on their little faces when I uttered the words, "do not write in complete sentences," was priceless}. #didshejustsaywhatithinkshesaid? Yes friends, you heard me right. :)

 Having just come down from my Text Features high, I found a snazzy little way to combine my love of research and the ever present text features--a Nonfiction Text Features Research BOOK {very creative name, I know}!  The past week I have been helping my little ones in small group reading transform their research into an informative book, teaching about a certain type of insect or animal {hello science standards}!

On each groups' reading packet, I placed a post it with the names of students in that group, as well as how many times we've met by placing a CHECK mark to help me remember who I needed to meet with that day.  Sometimes it's just the simple things that can make your life SO much easier!

Our research books included...

-opening sentence (attention getters)

-diet

-body covering

-habitat {where & where}

-fun facts

Text Features added to our books were...

-bold words

-photographs

-captions

-diagrams

-table of contents
-glossary

We are putting the final touches on these bad boys and will hopefully get time to present a few each day next week.  My friends were so proud of their work and are so excited to get to publishing these into their {first} very own research book!  While students are presenting, I'm going to have the rest of my friends jot down a few facts from each groups' presentations.  I'm not sure if I'm going to have the students present whole group {together} or to set up little stations, in the form of a science fair, around the room and have an "expert" at each station.  Too many life altering decisions, I know! Either way, I know it's going to be a ton of fun and there will be a lot of learning going on on all parts.

If you'd like to use this packet with your little ones {aka save yourself a migraine}, check it out on my Teachers Pay Teachers store here!  Lemme know what you think :)  Happy Sunday!!