A Very Hungry Scholar

I love taking a story and having the kids take the message and apply it in a different way. This is, I believe, truly higher-level thinking. We read the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and it's a book that if they attended Pre-K, they have usually heard before. I asked them to think about the word "devour" and how you can also devour knowledge (I have some students who do that daily!). I simply wrote some days of the week on the board and asked them to give me a story that would be called the "Very Hungry Scholar" instead of caterpillar. What do scholars devour? This was one of those days where some of them didn't get to finish because was a little time-consuming for our language arts activity-but here are the ones who did it:

Pot O' Gold Substitutes

We are officially on Spring Break! Yay! I think the kids and I were both counting down with equal enthusiasm yesterday. :)

The one thing I don't like about being off is that we will miss all the St. Patrick's Day fun! I read about these really challenging activities on: http://engagetheirminds.wordpress.com .

I'm a big fan of S.C.A.M.P.E.R. and love to use it particularly for holidays or with the theme we are doing for the week. Since we weren't getting much in the way of actual work done Friday (did I mention it was the day before Spring Break)....I thought we'd do something creative.

Terri gave me the idea to have them substitute something for the pot of gold you would traditionally find at the end of the rainbow. I loved what they came up with:

She found herself at the end of the rainbow-sounds like the title to a self-help book doesn't it! :)

I think maybe she still has Rumplestiltskin on the brain.

 a party

A box of footballs--one of my boys who is a die-hard fan, can you tell. These guys play at recess with an invisible football, so I guess that would constitute treasure to them!

Pot of Toys

Presents

A picture (now that would stink-finding just a picture of the treasure!).

Money, diamonds and necklaces.

I had to crop the print because the name was right in the middle of it-but this one wrote a dog (inside the box).

Thanks Terri for the great idea! Hope everyone is enjoying their day (even if you're not on Spring Break right now, not rubbing it in or anything! :)

Happiness Is.....

I have always been a list-maker! I have a journal from when I was a teenager with all kinds of lists in it. My favorite one is "Things I Love"-it's such fun to look back on the flights of fancy of our youth! Many of things are still the same.

This was our class book for February (I know getting it out a little late). Going with the theme of the month, I asked the kids to write about what makes them happy. We are also working on punctuation-therefore the list format with commas.

my mom fixing breakfast

my mom gives me what I want.

a rainbow, my teacher

Underground Ethics

We talked about a number of people for Black History Month in February-one of them was Harriet Tubman. I think the Underground Railroad story is a great one, but sometimes difficult for the little ones to wrap their heads around.

Now if you know me, you know that ethics is one of my favorite concepts of Depth and Complexity to teach. In the beginning the kids are just trying to give you the answer they think you want to hear. As the year goes on however, they start really beginning to voice their own opinions and are learning to justify those opinions. I asked them to write about whether or not they would have helped slaves escape on the Underground Railroad. I very vividly remember learning about Anne Frank in high school and really mulling over whether or not I would have been courageous enough to help someone in the same situation. I do think it's a tough question and I think they really answered it honestly.

I would not help the soldiers because if they caught me I might go to prison.

Yes because they are important.

Yes, because what if they are really hurt.

In the 1800's I want to help because I love them.

No because I might get caught and I don't want to go to jail.