Second Grade Judges - Round 2

We made it through another batch of potential Caldecott nominees! Next week, the second graders will be voting for their favorite from the books below as well as the ones from Round 1. 

simonandschuster.com

Boot and Shoe 
Author/Illustrator: Marla Frazee

Kirkus gave it a "Best of 2012" recommendation.


Little Dog Lost
Author/Illustrator: Monica Carnesi

Based on a true story! Here is one of the newscasts: 

And an update a year later.

hachettebookgroup.com

The Monsters' Monster
Author/Illustrator: Patrick McDonnell

When three "monsters" create a new creature, will he be fearsome or will he say "Dank you!"? McDonnell's site includes a downloadable monster mask, a matching game, and a maze.

 
 

In So Many Words ... Paraphrasing Practice

The sixth graders are learning about how to avoid plagiarism. After we discussed the skill of paraphrasing (and the need for a good vocabulary ... or at least a thesaurus!), the students wrote original sentences and then paraphrased each other. Here is some of their work:

Original: I like to mow the lawn.
Paraphrase: I adore cutting the grass.

Original: The disruptive pupil was dismissed from the laboratory. The child then jogged to the principal's large, messy room.
Paraphrase: The annoying classmate was asked to leave the science room and then ran down to the principal's big, unclean office.

Original: I love my hand!
Paraphrase: I am fond of the body part attached to my arm.

Original: My unicorn poops rainbows and throws up sparkles.
Paraphrase: The purdy pony poops colors and vomits glitter.

Original: I want to go to the party. It's supposed to be fun.
Paraphrase 1: I am tempted to go to a social get-together, which is gonna be sensational.
Paraphrase 2: I would love to go to the awesome party.

Original: My professor gave us no homework.
Paraphrase: We had no homework today because our teacher said we didn't have any.
 

Teeth on the Loose!

So many first graders have been telling me about their loose and missing teeth, I decided to make a lesson out of the topic.

First we read one fiction and one nonfiction book about loose teeth. Then students wrote down one fact they learned. Here are some of them:

• We have canine teeth that are like a dog.
• You start losing your teeth when you are about 6 years old.
• You have 20 teeth when you are a kid.
• Your flat teeth are for grinding.
• If you eat too much sweet stuff, you can get cavities.
• Roots are the things that hold your teeth together.

Finally, the kids each placed a tooth on a chart showing how many teeth they've lost so far. Can you use it to answer the questions below?

• How many kids haven't lost any teeth yet?
• How many kids have lost a total of 2 teeth?
• Have more kids lost a total of 1 tooth or a total of 5 teeth?

A B C D E F G ...

I have realized that everyone needs help remembering the order of the alphabet. For reals. So before I set the third graders loose finding information in the encyclopedia, they practiced figuring out guide words. As of today, the highest score is $128,000 and belongs to M.W. in Room 9. Will Room 8 class beat that score on Friday??

See how well you know your alphabet by taking this quiz.

Around the World

The fourth graders are starting a geography unit, learning about different countries around the world.

First, we reviewed the continents and oceans. Do you know all of them?

Then we went over the concepts of longitiude and latitiude, which they'll use to find the countries they pulled out of a hat (ok, a plastic basket) in the atlas.

Here is a refresher if you need it:

Second Grade Judges - Round 1

I've been monitoring Caldecott short lists and have selected a bunch of potential nominees to read to the second grade. Maybe between now and January 25th, we'll be able to pick the winner! Here are the ones that both classes at Garden City have voted to keep so far:  

Boy + Bot 
Author: Ame Dyckman
Illustrator: Dan Yaccarino

Extra Yarn 
Author: Mac Barnett
Illustrator: Jon Klassen

"You can't knit a sweater for a tree!"
"Actually, you can ... "

See examples of Yarn Bombing ... There's even a Tumblr!

This is Not My Hat
Author/Illustrator: Jon Klassen

Z is for Moose
Author: Kelly Bingham
Illustrator: Paul O. Zelinsky

Make sure you watch the credits! Guess who voices Glove????

Most Borrowed Books - December

Source: houghtonmifflinbooks.com

• The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
• The Curse of the Cheese Pyramid by Geronimo Stilton
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
• A Ball for Daisy by Christopher Raschka
• Black and White by David Macaulay
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney
• Drawing: Fashion Design by Tiffany Peterson
• The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
• Zia by Scott O'Dell