We wrapped up the week by reading another great David Shannon book called Good Boy, Fergus! We learned that Fergus is a West Highland Terrier and is really David Shannon's dog. As I read the story to the students, I asked them to be thinking about how this book compared to the David books both in writing/illustrating style and in content. After reading the story, the children listed Fergus' character traits and evidence from the text to support their opinions. Turns out that Fergus is quite a bit like David; he gets into all kinds of trouble! I then asked the children if all the evidence shows us that Fergus is NOT a good boy, what might be a better title for the story? They came up with an array of clever titles, which we listed on a graphic organizer. Finally, I challenged the students to think more in-depth about the author's message in the story. If all the evidence suggests that Fergus is not a good boy, why on earth does David Shannon call the story, Good Boy, Fergus? I was so pleased that the kids seemed to understand the author's message. In fact, they even came up with some ideas I hadn't thought of before. One student said, "Well, I think that David Shannon is trying to tell us that even though Fergus does bad things, his owner still loves him anyway." Another student chimed in, "That reminds me of David. His mother still loved him even though he was naughty." A third child said, "I think David Shannon was trying to train Fergus by showing him how to be good and using positive words." Hooray Room 125. What great thinking! The students are also working on written extensions to the stories during center time. They have three options from which to choose (making a personal connection, comparing the David stories to the Fergus story, or describing character traits with evidence).
Friday we read what is probably my favorite David Shannon book: A Bad Case of Stripes. We'll be talking more about this story on Monday.
We took three unit tests in reading last week on which everyone did very well!
Last week we wrapped up our latest math unit on fact families by doing some review and then taking the post test. Most students did quite well on the assessment. Our new math unit will focus on geometry. I expect this theme, which is very hands-on, will be lots of fun for everyone!
Our Writer's Workshop focus has been on realistic fiction. This has tied in so nicely with our shared read alouds in our author's study. The books we have been reading by David Shannon are such wonderful examples of realistic fiction to which children can relate. We also used the mentor texts You Can Do It, Sam, Big Al, and When Sophie Gets Angry--Really, Really Angry to talk about the components of realistic fiction and begin to write our own stories in that genre.
The children had a wonderful time on our field trip to see Junie B. Jones. They were all wonderfully behaved and made me very proud. After we returned, we did a written extension about the play for morning seatwork.
Coming up this week:
Literature/shared reading: A Bad Case of Stripes and Alice the Fairy
Writer's Workshop: More fun with realistic fiction
Math: Introducing geometric concepts
Science: Solids and Liquids
Don't forget reading logs are due Wednesday!
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