Invisible Boy Reading Response

Our district schedule has us spending the first 20 minutes of our day on SEL skills. This is something that I will continue even after we are no longer virtual learners. I love the discussions we have been able to have about feelings and dealing with stress. We also talk a lot about including everyone. One of the articles that I read recently that really sticks with me is how dangerous it is for students to be alone at school. A student with no friends has a much higher chance of suicide and drug abuse. One of my favorite books to start this discussion is: 

The story is about a shy boy who feels invisible. Even his teacher doesn't see him. My favorite part of the book is the author has his character in gray until he starts being included-then he is in color. A great book to begin discussions on inclusion.

This one took my breath away. What an amazing representation.

To be in teams at recess

Using Poetry in 1st Grade

I love poetry! I always have. I think there's a lot we can learn from just reading poems in the classroom. Each week we take a poem-some of my favorites are from: Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Jacqueline Woodson. I read the poem to them on Monday. Tuesday I go over any unknown vocabulary. We discuss the meaning and literary devices and on Fridays the students illustrate (and when we are in the classroom write about ) the meaning. I want to see lots of details from the poem.

Here is the response from a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson called The Moon.

Halloween Costumes for Characters

I originally got this idea from Ian Byrd of Byrdseed.com fame. My students have Halloween on the brain (I don't have the heart to tell them it's going to be cancelled this year). We are reading the chapter book Wedgie and Gizmo:

I asked the students to imagine what Halloween costumes the characters would choose. Most chose what was expected-Wedgie is a dog who thinks he is a superhero and Gizmo is a self-described evil genius.The little girl does dress Gizmo up in a little tutu so I thought including that detail was good too.

 But here is what they came up with:

Painting Like Frida Kahlo-Virtual Version

There have been many adjustments for my students learning in the virtual world. One that I think is the hardest for them is not doing as many art projects. I work in an area of low economic development-I can't assign them to do something that I am not sure they have the materials for. Some of my students have no pencils and paper, I know they don't have glue and paint. So we adjust. :)

We learned about Frida Kahlo this week for Hispanic Heritage. I showed the students some of her self-portraits and asked them to think about how it made them feel. How do you think she wanted you to feel when you looked at it? Then I asked them to do their own self-portraits using the Pear Deck tool. Here's what they came up with:

Details: Changing the Setting

Continuing our work on using Details from Kaplan's Depth and Complexity this week. We read a different version of Cinderella every day. We read:

Cinderella set in space (love that in the end she turns down the marriage proposal to do the work she loves).

Mexican Cinderella story

set in Africa

Set in a chicken coop

Set in Alaska

So we discussed how the setting of these stories determined a lot of the details. And if we changed the setting some things changed but some things remained the same (attending a ball, living happily ever after). After that discussion, I asked the students to write where their own Cinderella story would take place.

Here are their Pear Deck responses:

New York (complete with the Statue of Liberty)

on a peaceful river

Halloween themed

Haunted House

Halloween themed

Changing the Details in Fairy Tales

Details is a concept of Kaplan's Depth and Complexity that I think often gets misunderstood. I've seen many teachers use this as identifying details in a story. Identifying details is not a rigorous activity. For me, especially with the young ones, I like to have them change a detail and then see what other details change. 

We are doing a unit on fairy tales right now. So we read Cinders, A Chicken Cinderella Story by Jan Brett.

 Many of the details of the original Cinderella remarkable stay the same even though the main character is now a chicken! I asked the students to think about what other fairy tales could have a chicken as a main character and what details of that story would change.

These are their responses (we are still virtual so these are the Pear Deck answers).