March - May Literacy Events

Most recent listed first.

May

Focus: Farm, Castles, World Games (France-Monet), Frogs and Tadpoles

Oral Language

  • fieldtrip to Open Gates Farm (Highly recommend this fieldtrip, very well organized and lots of experiences. Experiences included a horseback ride, milking a cow, seeing milk separated, discussion about farm safety and eggs, how to make homemade ice cream (and we got to eat it) Farm is located West of Edmonton and South of Stony Plain).

  • Discussion of farm experiences charted and later typed up to add to their I Can Read Binder also did this for our Castle unit.

  • Discussion about France and what it is known for. Real emphasis on car racing - since this was our World Day event

  • more interest in the Titanic sparked further discussions with Mr. Watts - focus on the internal workings of the ship this time versus what happened to it

  • discussions with Mr. Watts about bees and wasps

  • life cycle of frog eggs to tadpoles to frogs (discussion about tadpoles and polliwogs)

  • discussion about the way things look from different perspectives. This evolved out of an art project we were doing and how to add the plasticine items to go with the sand and water that was the background. Some backgrounds were prepared for a top view, while others were for a side view.

Comprehension activities

  • castle research around who lives in a castle and what they do, posted in the classroom alongside their paintings of these people

  • baking cupcakes for Mother's Day Tea - following directions

  • making French Toast to correlate with our study of France - following directions (we passed on the idea of frog legs)

  • sequencing of pictures of the life cycle of a frog

  • comparisons of frogs and toads

  • comparisons of characteristics of how some fish are the same and how they are different

Writing

  • Share what they learned about in their journal (farm fieldtrip, St. Mary/Monica Meets the World track and field event, caterpillars, tadpoles and chicks)

  • Class poem, each student writing a line with me helping with the spelling or my parent helper. I like dragons, fire-breathing dragons, red dragons, etc.

  • Pattern story to present to mom's at our Mother's Day Tea

    • I like it when
      I like it when
      But I love it when

      •

    • Inspired by the story I Like it When

  • tooth shaped book for T is for. . .

  • labelling of life cycle and sequencing of pictures to make a book

Stories

  • Merlin's Castle

  • Good Morning Farm by Fisher Price

  • No, No, Titus by Claire Masurel (farm dog story)

  • I Like It When by Mary Murphy

  • Terrybrook Dragon (high level vocabulary, lots of discussion around what some of the words meant)

  • Independent book for letter K

  • How Big is a Foot (related to size, used more for math activities)

  • Jack and the Beanstalk (discussion about giant steps)

  • Little Critters book Just Me and My Mom by Mercer Mayer

  • Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

  • Bigfoot Cinderella

  • VIDEO Linnea in Monet's Garden

  • Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (to go with explorations of France

  • The Moon Was the Best (a book about Paris)

  • Kate's Castle

  • Have You Seen Birds by Barbara Reid (book for pictures for visual points of view)

  • Henny Penny by H. Werner Zimmermann (book for pictures for visual points of view)

  • Tadpole Diary (big book) by David Drew

  • Look Out for the Big Bad Fish by Sheridan Cain and Tanya Linch

  • It's Mine by Leo Lionni

  • Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni

  • Frog Jump (a counting book) by Steven Kellogg

  • Fish Eyes by Lois Ehlert

  • Mr. Gumpy's Outing by John Birmingham

Poems/Songs

  • Chicken Soup with Rice we did each month with our calendar

  • Old King Cole

  • Sing a Song of Sixpence

  • The Fuzzy Caterpillar

  • Tadpole, Tadpole

  • The Frog (song by Mr. Watts)

Word Study

  • Letter K to support our learning of kings and knights

  • invitations for mom, sounding out what letters were needed as a whole group

  • letter t to correlate with Titanic and tadpoles

  • wordplay with "og" family to correlate with song log and frog

  • identifying words with sticky notes that they know in the poem The Fuzzy Caterpillar

Guided Reading

  • started using time for ELI to correlate with the kindergarten funding for this. Activities include playdoh letters, wikki stick letters, tracing letters in pudding, sand, using emergent level readers and reinforcing book knowledge strategies (i.e. Front of the book, back title, author, capital, small letters, difference between letter, word, sentence, beginning letter cues, picture cues.)

    April

    Focus: Easter, Castles

    Oral Language

    • discussion of expectations for Celebration of Learning Open House

    • discussion about the fieldtrip

    • focus on Emily Carr

    • brainstorm what they know about castles, and what they want to learn

    • discussion about weather

    • discussions about Easter stories and what happened at Easter with Jesus

    • discussion of the ways the movie and story of Where the Wild Things Are are alike and different, what's real or imaginary, fact or fiction

    • David Watt's visit (exploration of castle times), Nursery Rhyme song The Window, sleepy time songs, Titanic

    • Discussion of feelings and moods

    • Brainstorming words that describe dragons

    • Duckling visit - how to care for them before and after they hatch (brought in by a parent)

    Comprehension activities

    • collecting factual information about castles as part of guided reading

    • sorting of brainstormed ideas about castle life, identifying how to group the ideas, i.e. people, castle building, knights and armor

    • identifying what is alike and different between to types of media - Where the Wild Things Are movie and book

    • role play of story with student actors for One Monday Morning (a story about people who live in a castle coming to visit a boy each day of a week and not finding him at home)

    • listening for words in stories that describe dragons

    • identify something they learned about ducks after the in class visit of two ducklings

    Writing

    • Share what they learned about the heart in their journal (spring break, art gallery fieldtrip - nature painting)

    • Sentence of what you would do if you were king or queen for a day

    • Journal writing (long weekend, spring break, Easter, classroom egg hunt)

    • Patterned writing of When I feel wild I . . .

    • Labelling of castle figures

    • Interactive writing to compile a class poem about I like dragons or I don't like dragons

    Stories

    • Forest Fire by Mary Ann Fraser

    • Home Sweet Home ( bunny story)

    • The Golden Egg

    • Rabbits and Raindrops by Jim Arnosky

    • The Easter Story by Carol Heyer

    • The Easter Bunny by Mathieu Wolf

    • Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch

    • Where the Wild Things Are (Movie) by Maurice Sendak

    • One Monday Morning by Uri Shulevitz

    • Merlin's Castle by Laszlo Gal

    • Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

    Poems/Songs

    • Humpty Dumpty

    • Old King Cole

    • Sing a Song of Sixpence

    • Queen of Hearts

    • The Window

    • Six Little Ducks

    Word Study

    • rhyming riddles: These are just a few examples done as an oral activity

      • I am thinking of a word that rhymes with hair. It is something that you sit in. (chair)

      • I am thinking of a word that rhymes with hose. It is part of your face. (nose)

      • I am thinking of a word that rhymes with chief. It is part of a tree. (leaf)

      • I am thinking of a word that rhymes with best. It is where a bird lays her egg. (nest)

    • word family "all" from Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

    • adjectives describing dragons

    Guided Reading

    • collecting factual information about people and castle life

    Focus: 100 Day Celebration, Sleepover, Spring

    Oral Language

    • Brainstorming ideas on chart paper for 100 day writing activities

    • storytelling with the puppet lady

    • fieldtrip to Principality Foods, Pizza Factory

    • story and song explorations with musical artist in residence Mr. Watts (constellations)

    • discussion about the leprechaun's visit

    • brainstorming of spring ideas

    • discussion of changes from spring to winter

    Comprehension activities

    • part of literacy centers retelling of Wolf's Chicken Stew and last month's stories with props

    • following directions to make pizzas

    • story predictions for the story Clever Tom and the Leprechaun

    • cut words apart of sentences and put back together

    Writing

    • Weekly journal writing - for puppet lady, sleepover

    • In their one hundred book individual pages with the following prompts:

      • I Wish I had 100 . . . but not 100

      • I would eat 100

      •

    • Menu's, orders, price lists for restaurant center

    • Pattern book of green things

    • Interactive writing where teacher or parent helper and students share the pen to chart In Spring I . . .

    • Pattern books of In Spring I . . .

    Stories

    • The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza

    • The 100th Day of School by Angela Shelf Medearis

    • 100th Day Worries by Margery Cuyler

    • Miss Bindergarten Celebrates 100 Day

    • I'm Not Afraid of Anything

    • Everything I Need for a Sleepover

    • Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

    • Laura's Star

    • Clever Tom and the Leprechaun

    • Those Green Things

    • Are You Spring? By Caroline Pitcher and Cliff Wright

    Poems/Songs

    • Pulsate, Pulsate Constellation

    • Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

    • Star Light, Star Bright

    • It's Night, It's Day song from religion program

    Word Study

    • Take home messages re:  100 Day

    • "ay" word family to go with St. Patrick's Day

    Assessment

    • Self reflections on growth in calendar books and journals

    • Reflections on a star about what they have learned in reading, writing and math and a goal for what they still want to learn or get better at (these were hung up with their picture for our open house celebration of learning)