Learning is fun!
Posted in picture book lesson
Last week in the Jackson Library, students read Hair Love/Amor de pelo and Crown. We discussed how styling our hair can be fun or frustrating and how we should be proud of our heritage and the physical characteristics that it gifts us. The kids drew new hair designs on bookmarks before they checked out books.
Crown bookmark – design the haircut
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amor de pelo bookmark –diseñar el corte de pelo
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Kindergarten had fun in the Jackson Library last week creating games for Little Blue and Little Yellow to play!
Posted in holiday, picture book lesson, and seasonal books
Last week in the Jackson Library, kindergarten had fun creating Groundhog Day puppets- see pattern below. First graders practiced listening and sequencing with Mr. Groundhog Wants the Day Off. Did you know that Plano ISD has a subscription to Tumblebooks? The Spanish version of this story is featured on Tumblebooks. Maybe Tumblebooks will add the English version of this story next year. As students listened to the story, they drew lines to match the gifts all of the animals gave to Mr. Groundhog for his big day.
Mr. Groundhog Wants the Day Off Eng
Spanish: Tumblebook
Groundhog-Wants-the-Day-Off stu sheet
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Spanish
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Posted in apps, holiday, picture book lesson, reading skills, and technology
Last week in the Jackson Library, third graders used Google’s Toontastic app to retell the story, The Monsterator by Keith Graves. This app is great because it is free, it allows them to draw their own setting and characters, it offers them options to customize their music and record their voice, and it even adds scrolling movie credits. Check out their creations!
The-Monsterator-Vocabulary-Quiz1
Posted in displays and deco, holiday, picture book lesson, and technology
Last week, in the Jackson Library, fifth graders had fun writing spooky haikus! This idea is from the book, Boo! Haiku. To get our brains warmed up, I showed the kids some student samples from a couple of years ago and then had them draw a spooky scene. Thinking about how to describe the scene helped the kids to get ideas for their haiku. The bilingual classes chose to write in English or Spanish. Other helpful tips: scatter SPOOKY words1 & spookywords2 on the tables as vocabulary enhancers, don’t ‘require’ use of the form/template- many kids wanted to write their poem rough draft right next to their drawing… Check out their spoooky creations!
MODIFY LESSON: SPOOKY words1
Posted in current events, picture book lesson, and science
Fifth graders learn how to track a hurricane after reading A Storm Called Katrina. We discussed Louis Armstrong and listened to his cornet skills. I showed them some elephant ear plants and we discussed why we are reading this story now and not in January. We talked about coordinates and mapped out Katrina’s path. The author’s use of imagery and foreshadowing was the reading focus of the lesson. We discussed what a levee is and showed photos of a levee break. The kids turned and talked with each other at their tables about the one thing they would grab if their home was about to flood. The author is very good at making the reader empathize with Louis and his family. You could tell the kids were really thinking about what the people in Louisiana had to endure and the resilience of the parishes rebuilding after every disaster.
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Hurricane Tracking
NOAA chart – use for copy center
Posted in bilingual, and picture book lesson
Last week in the Jackson Library, first graders had fun reading a silly story. During the video of the read aloud It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny (No es facil ser un conejito), the kids actively listen for why the bunny did not like being a bear, pig, etc. and drew a picture about what was bad about being that animal. There is no snake in the story, so they had to imagine what would be bad about being a snake and draw the bunny doing that in the last box.
English
Spanish
Posted in books online, character education, picture book lesson, and social-emotional learning
Last week in the Jackson Library, both English and Spanish-speaking second graders had fun with a silly book! We watched the English and Spanish videos for the book, We Don’t Eat Our Classmates- Los compañeros no se comen and then drew a picture of something we can do to demonstrate being a good friend.
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English- We Don’t Eat Our Classmates
Spanish- We Don’t Eat Our Classmates
Posted in picture book lesson, and reading skills
Last week in the Jackson Library, fourth graders created character maps for the two main characters in the book, Me First! First, we looked at Pinkerton the pig’s actions and drew conclusions about his personality. Then we looked at the Sand Witch’s behavior and summarized her personality with a few words. The kids love this story!
This week in the Jackson Library, fifth graders explored the fascinating picture book, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. First, we discussed topiaries and looked at pictures. Then we discussed foreshadowing and prepared ourselves to find how Van Allsburg uses the literary technique in his book. During the story, we completed the puzzle and discussed the vocabulary words. During check out, the kids rotated on the computers to play a Quizdini game about the book. After the story, the kids had to decide if the magician tricked Alan or if he really knew magic. It looks like FOX/Disney might be adapting the book into a movie version soon!
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