How to Make Lemonade

It's been all about "How To" writing in Writer's Workshop for the last month or so.  One of our very first activities was to make lemonade together so that we could all experience a procedure together and then explain it for an audience.  That experience was the inspiration for this book, written by a second grader, who envisioned little men with miniature sized machines making lemonade for a regular sized guy.

How to Make Lemonade

First you wash your hands.

Next you cut the lemons.

Then you squeeze the lemon.

Fourth put the lemon juice in the pitcher.

Then fill a little pitcher with water all the way to the top.

After that get some ice.

Then put the ice in the pitcher.

Then get one cup of sugar and measure

Then put the sugar in the pitcher.

The last part of the work is to stir all of those things together.

Last, drink it and enjoy.

Wow!  Anyone else think I have a future author/illustrator on my hands?

Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash and other Rhyming Fun

The concept of rhyming seems to be particular difficult for my little English Language Learners this year.  So recently I took a couple of weeks to try to move them in the direction towards grasping the concept and being able to produce rhyming words themselves.  I happened to have on hand Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash in big book form. 

 

And who doesn't love Mrs. McNosh?  She's certainly not a traditionalist when it comes to doing the laundry.  Everything from the laundry to the mail to the turkey is fair game for a good washing.  As stories go this one is great fun with lots of vocabulary and rhyming practice thrown in too.  Here's a little preview of the story done by one of my students. 

 

I love the view of Mrs. McNosh in the top box.  Too cute!

In searching the web, I didn't find many resources out there to go along with this story so I made up a rhyming activity myself.  This is my first attempt ever to attach documents to my blog and my hand drawn pictures pale in comparison to all the cute clipart out there but the kids had fun so maybe yours will too. 

Feel free to print and enjoy the following activity.

For those who might be looking for some ideas for fun ways to practice rhyming with their students, there were two other group activities that we did to practice making rhyming words that are worth mentioning.  Let's call the first one Rhyme Around the Room.  I placed quarter sheets of poster paper around the room with one word at the top.  Groups of students were assigned a paper.  They used the marker and wrote as many rhyming words as they could think of in about 30 seconds.  After 30 seconds were up they moved to a new paper, read the words added by the group before them and then continued adding new words of their own. 

 

We'll call the second game Rhyming Encore.  The students were once again placed in groups and given a white board and marker.  I gave them a word such as "fish" and then the groups had to write down a word that rhymed with "fish."  As soon as they had a word they could share it.  Play continued until a group repeated a word, gave a word that didn't rhyme or wasn't real or couldn't think of any more rhyming words.  At that point, the group with the last valid word got a point.  



Just last Friday I was walking with one of my students at our Track and Field Day, our minds about as far away from the classroom and rhyming as they could be.  This student happens to be one of the ones who has had the most trouble with this concept.  He was playing with words as we walked and suddenly he came across two that rhymed, "Mat and bat - those are rhyming words!" he exclaimed.  Even if he didn't win any races, throw the farthest or jump the longest, that was a moment worth celebrating.  He understands the concept of rhyming!

Library Love

As I shuffled through one of my student's writing folders, I found a little love note tucked inside.

 

It's a sentiment shared by a great many Sahel students.  We are blessed with a spacious and inviting space, over 18,000 books and one amazing lady who has invested a great deal of money each year in providing us with new books. 

 

 

And then there is our librarian...

 

 

And boy, does she ever know how to create anticipation and invite participation! 

Before you know it you'll be paddling through the wilderness,

 





joining the army,

 

 

building a robot

 

 

or exploring the depths of the ocean.

 

 

Is it any wonder this place is the recipient of adoring fan mail?



Exclamation Mark

Never, ever, ever go into Barnes & Noble the day before packing your suitcases!  You are bound to come out with something to make them heavier...especially when you can't resist a good kid's book. 

I definitely couldn't resist Exclamation Mark by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld.  It is perfect for teaching beginning readers and writers about punctuation marks.  Though it features the exclamation mark as its main character, there's plenty of practice to be had with periods and question marks, too.  And all that practice comes packaged in a great story about embracing the things that make us unique.  Can't wait to put it to good use!  If you have a beginning reader or writer in your life make sure you check it out, too.

 

 

Some New Children's Book Picks

There's something about being able to put a children's book in your hands, flip through it's pages enjoying the illustrations and discovering a great new story that's just flat out nice.   Around back to school time, I was sad when I didn't discover any great back to school books to take back to my classroom.  But I wasn't disappointed last week when I visited my local Barnes & Noble bookstore.  I found a whole lot of inspiration and made a very long wish list.  However, I restrained myself and only walked out with three new books and here they are.

The first is The Monster's Monster by Patrick McDonnell.  I found this one looking through all the Halloween books.  I'm not really big into Halloween so I like the fact that it isn't a scary book even though it's about monsters.  Basically there are three little creatures that are endlessly debating about which one of them is the scariest monster.  Finally, they put their heads together to create the scariest monster ever.  He comes out looking like Frankenstein but he happens to be a very grateful monster and that changes the atmosphere completely.  One of my favorite aspects of the book is that the change in atmosphere is reflected in the illustrations which go from being dark and gloomy in the beginning to sunny and bright at the end.  I think it would be a great book to use at the beginning of the year to talk about using good manners and being polite.  I also think that it has lots of potential for use in my Writer's Workshop.

The next book is called Mousetronaut and it is written by the astronaut Mark Kelly.  This is a partially true story about a mouse that embraces space and ends up saving the day in the space shuttle.  What I love about this book is that Mark got the idea for his story on one of his missions where there was one little mouse out of eighteen that didn't cling to the mesh during the mission but instead floated effortlessly around the cage.  This book would be great to use during a study of space.  But it would also be a great mentor text in Writer's Workshop when talking about where authors get their ideas from. 

 

The last book I purchased is It's All About ME-ow by Hudson Talbott.  This book is written from the perspective of an older and wiser cat giving advice to kittens and preparing them for a life of charming their humans.  It has a little bit of history, some great diagrams and advice and a whole lot of humour.  It would be a great mentor text for how to or process writing and for writing from a perspective other than your own.  If you wanted to encourage your writers to include things like diagrams and captions this would also be a great example after which they could model their writing.



These books make me anxious for a new little crop of writers!

Perfectly Perfect Picture Books

I love picture books so who could resist this linky party!  It's so hard to even begin to choose favorites but just for fun I'm going to share a few that I find I constantly come back to for one reason or another while teaching.

1.  Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox

Julie Vivas is probably right up there on my list of favorite illustrators which means this book already has something going for it.  But I also love the relationship Wilfrid has with his elderly neighbors and the kindness he shows to them.  It's such a great book for discussing memories too.

2.  Tumble Bumble by Felicia Bond

This is another book in which I love the illustrations.  I come back to this one whenever we talk about rhyming words because there's lots of fun to be had here.

3. Heatwave by Eileen Spinelli

Let's just say this one makes the list because where I teach in West Africa we can all identify with it!

4.  Wolves by Emily Gravett

This one makes the list because it's written by a British author and I'm not sure how much exposure others might have to her writing but she really is quite a clever storyteller.  Rabbit checks out a non-fiction book about wolves and becomes so engrossed in reading up on their characteristics that he fails to notice that he has placed himself in harm's way.  Like I said, "Clever Storytelling."  Definitely worth checking out!

5.  My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza

Who can resist the illustrations or the tale of the tricky little protagonist contained in this picture book?

Well that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of my favorite picture books!  So I'm wondering for all my non-teaching readers what was or is your favorite picture book?

Marvelous Moosetache Monday

Something fun had to be planned for our last Monday to make up for the shocked looks on my students when they came into the classroom and found everything down off the walls and a bare bones classroom as we prepare for a summer paint job.  So Marvelous Moosetache Monday it was!

I discovered this freebie over at Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives that capitalizes on the moustache craze and gives students the chance to collect data and craft their own graph while sporting their own "stache."  Then I was cleaning my book bins and ran across Margie Palatini's Moosetache about a moose with an unruly moustache and his attempts to tame it. 

Could there be a more perfect combo? So I ran with it.

Using this template, I created a moustache on a stick for everyone.  We started the morning by selecting our moustache and posing with it.

Then we decided on a question for our graph.  I encouraged them to choose something that had to do with our school year.  So we had questions like "What was your favorite hot lunch?", "What was your favorite recess activity?" and "Who was your favorite teacher?".  Then we went next door and using our moustaches declared in our most sophisticated voices, "I moustache you a question"  followed by our question.  After collecting data from the third graders, we returned to our own room to survey one another and complete our graph.

Later we read Moosestache and I had the children imagine what they would do with their own moustache named after them.  They were braided and twirled, used as wings and blockers in a soccer goal.  Amazing!  As each person revealed their "stache",  I had the rest of the students write describing words on post-it notes which we placed on the person's picture once they were done.  Here's what mine looked like.  I couldn't for the life of me come up with anything for my Bethstache to do but create an old lady hairstyle so I went with it. 

One of my students wrote down "teacherish" as their adjective.  Eeewww!  I hope not! :)

After lunch, we created our own Moose and gave him a moustache that could be styled in anyway imagineable. 

The kids came up with some pretty fun ones.  One of my parents had given me some lollipops so we also created two of these one for ourselves and one to share.

By this time we were almost "moustached" out, but we topped the day off with a moustache shaped cookie.  No better ending to Marvelous Moustache Monday than a few whiskers and some juice to wash them down!

For more activities to go along with Margie Palatini's Moosetache you can go here.

My Favorite Read-Aloud Chapter Books

Being a lover of children's books, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to link up with Run!  Miss Nelson's Got the Camera and her All-time Favorite Read-Alouds linky party. 

I'm not even sure it would be possible for me to pick a favorite picture book read aloud so I'm going to have to go with chapter books instead.  These are two that I have read to my second graders this year and they have been totally engrossed.

The Teddy Bear Tree by Barbara Dillon is one that was introduced to me in my first years of teaching.  I have found that first and second graders really connect with this book.  It's the story of a little girl named Bertine who plants a teddy bear's eye and ends up with a teddy bear tree and more teddy bears than she can handle.  One activity that is always fun to do after reading the Teddy Bear Tree is to have the students imagine planting an object of their choice and having it grow into a tree.  I've had students draw trees that grow money, jewels, candy and even paper.



This year was the first year that I read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane to my second graders.  Written by Kate DiCamillo, I think this book is especially great for the Third Culture Kids that I teach.  It deals with the issue of repeated loss which is an integral part of the Third Culture Kid experience and learning to love again despite that loss.  My students were so invested in the character of Edward Tulane that many afternoons they didn't even want school to end because they wanted to hear more.  I'll definitely be reading this one again!

So there you go - two of my favorite chapter books to read aloud.



Seeds, Kid Quotes & Rain

We are in the middle of a unit on plants.  We've planted some flower seeds and we are watching them, hoping against hope that they will sprout but we have some overzealous gardeners and I think they may be over watering.  In talking about the different parts of plants, we read the book A Seed is Sleepy.  The illustrations in this book are beautiful!  Not to mention, it fits right in with the work we've been doing with adjectives and it's filled with interesting facts about seeds. 

This particular page led to some funny second grade quotes.

After thinking for a few minutes, one little girl said, "That's really inappropriate."  Another little boy offered, "My sister can sew it some clothes."  Funny, funny little second graders.

Speaking of funny kid moments, you may remember Microwave Man, the little first grader who desperately wanted to use the microwave at the beginning of the school year.  He was back again this week.  I saw him standing in front of the microwave with his fully popped popcorn on a plate.  "You aren't trying to warm that up, are you?" I asked, "because you don't need to."

With a disappointed look he responded, "Well, it says popcorn (on the microwave)!"  Ha...we don't exactly know about microwaveable popcorn around these parts! :)

And now for the rain...

Sitting in my classroom after school yesterday afternoon, I was surprised by the sound of rain on the roof.  I hadn't noticed that the sky had been overcast but when I went out side the rain was definitely coming down.  It was just enough to wet the dry ground and plenty to provide a little time to dance in the rain and start a game of barefoot soccer in the rain.

Adjectives & The Old House

If you've never been exposed to the books of Pamela Duncan Edwards, you are missing out.  She is the queen of alliteration with books like Dinorella and The Worrywarts.  However, the focus of the book we read this past week, The Old House, is not alliteration.  Rather it was chosen as a great way to introduce a study of adjectives.    The house goes from being a rickety, lonely old house to a beautiful house, full of life and love.  My students were fascinated with the transformation.   After reading it, we made a chart using adjectives to describe the old house before and after its renovation.

Then the kids made acrostic poems using adjectives beginning with each letter of their name to describe themselves.  This idea has been floating around pinterest and is definitely not orignial to me but my kids sure had fun with it.  I also gave them the Awesome Adjectives book (a little dictionary of adjectives) from this unit to help them think of words.  Here's the longest name in our class:

She did a great job choosing and thinking of words on her own including the word itchy!  A few weeks back I wrote down a funny quote from her where she proclaimed that she was so hot that her elbows were itchy.  You don't hear that every day! :)

And here's the newest addition to our class. 

She is from Sweden and doesn't speak any English at all. I told her she could do it in Swedish but according to the lady who is interpreting for her there aren't many adjectives in Swedish so she went for English instead.

 

Well, there you have it - we learned a lot about about adjectives and something interesting about the language of the Swedes!