Week Eleven: The American Revolution and Harold

Week eleven is here!  It's a bit miraculous to think it is already the 11th week of school!  With Halloween approaching more bats and pumpkins and fall themed activities are starting to pop up.  Halloween isn't discussed much in classes because of respect for cultural diversity, but many things about fall and spooky creatures can be fun to include in lessons without actually talking about Halloween.

So this week 3rd graders watched a Magic School Bus about bats and then had check out time. 

Fourth ad Fifth graders are about to start their classroom unit on the American Revolution so Mrs. Jennings helped build a foundation for this learning with an introduction to the famous figures associated with this historical event.  Each student was passed a biography of a famous person, asked to read the biography and pull two important facts they learned.  Then one at a time Mrs. Jennings would ask students to tell the class what they had learned, she would type their response on the smart board.  Once all the famous figures were discussed they would use this information to fill out a bingo board and play the American Revolutionary bingo board.  Pulling facts from text is such an important standard and this lesson is wonderful at reinforcing this skill. 

Kindergartners heard Harold and the Purple Crayon, then watched a Harold video.  We also sang Flip Flap Jack and helped them put magnetic pieces on the board to build Flip Flap Jack- a man made of food!  I had never heard this song but I really enjoyed it.  An interesting developmental moment that Mrs. Jennings and I noticed was the difference between pre-school and kindergartners in respect to places felt or magnetic pieces on the board.  Pre-school kids are not concerned with where their pieces land on the board, however kindergartners are very aware of where pieces should go and want to make sure they have placed them just so.  

More Grimm fairy tales for the second graders as this week we heard The Brave Little Tailor.  We listened to the tale from our big Grimm's fairy tales book and then watched an animated version.  The version we watched was from Germany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simsala_Grimm.  Two characters Yo-Yo and Doc. Croc fly on their magic book through many fairy tales helping the characters succeed.  Most of the time the animated version is similar to the print version, however this time they were quite different.  In the print version the King did not want the tailor to marry his daughter for fear he was an evil monster.  In the animated tale the tailor did not boast or try to deceive the King about what he had done, instead the evil villain was another knight who wanted to marry the King's daughter.

Reading aloud is something I love to do but struggled with when reading from a text heavy book such as the Grimm's Fairy tales.  I often found myself leaving the page and recalling the story the best I could to tell the students.  I messed up with the ending of Hansel and Gretel so for the Valiant Tailor I wanted to try and read the text more accurately from the book.  It was tough.  I had to stop twice because I had lost my place and apologize to students.  Thankfully they were great about the issues and listened very well!  Still, I highly recommend reading the original text aloud to students, but perhaps photocopy and enlarge the pages you need prior to teaching the lesson.  This way the print is larger and might help you keep track of your place.  

CEBS Dispositions:

Values diversity - Willingly works with others from different ability, race, gender, or ethnic groups. Welcomes feedback and interaction with others. Listens carefully to others and respects the views of those perceived as different from self.

Values collaboration. Actively seeks out and incorporates ideas of others. Takes leadership in working with others to improve the overall environment. Regularly share information and ideas.

EPSB Code of Ethics: