Don't Let the Pigeon Touch the Books!

In kindergarten, we are discussing book care in preparation for the students' first checkout. I decided to have them teach THE PIGEON some rules.

In case you haven't been introduced to the Pigeon yet, he is the star of a series of books by Mo Willems; the first one is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! We read that and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!, and I am happy to report that MOST students resisted his arguments (a few were willing to be bought off by his promise of five bucks).

Then we watched this video:

The students compiled a list of rules that the Pigeon should know. For example:

DO	DON'T
read your books	color in your book
keep them away from drinks	put lava on the books
turn the pages gently	rip the pages
bring your books back to the library	throw your book on the floor

In our next class, we drew our own Pigeons; Mo Willems has step-by-step instructions for drawing the Pigeon on his site. Then each student chose a rule to teach him. Here they are at work:

Common Core standards addressed: R.I.K.10 - Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding / SL.K.1 - Participate in collaborative conversations / SL.K.5 - Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail

And the Winner Is ... Unicorn!!!!

93 students chose from among
8 Mock Caldecott finalists, and
1 came out on top with
33 votes:

Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great by Bob Shea

Super Tuesday Voting in Action

Rooms 1, 2, and 4 voted for their Mock Caldecott favorites today ... winner will be revealed in the next post!

Exclamation Mark

Tiger in My Soup

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild

Open Very Carefully

That is Not a Good Idea

Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great

Room 3 Mock Caldecott Results

Mrs. Breton's students were the first to cast ballots for our Mock Caldecott ... with 35% of the votes, Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great by Bob Shea won Room 3. The official winner is announced tomorrow ... will it be one of our finalists? We'll find out soon!

Want to vote even if you're not in second grade? Go ahead!

Common Core standards addressed: SL.1 - Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1/2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. / SL.2 - Ask and answer questions about/recount or describe key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media. / RL.7 - Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events / W.1 -Write opinion pieces in which they name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion ...

Room 2 Caldecott Reviewers

It's almost time to vote for our Mock Caldecott winner! We added one last book - Picture Day Perfection - to our list this week. Mrs. Parenteau's class had time at the end of their library time to peruse some of our other nominees.

Open Very Carefully

That Is Not a Good Idea

Exclamation Mark

Picture Day Perfection

Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild

Open Very Carefully

Want to vote even if you're not in first or second grade? Go ahead!

Common Core standards addressed: SL.1 - Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1/2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. / SL.2 - Ask and answer questions about/recount or describe key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

Room 9 Dictionary Detectives

Before we move on to the encyclopedia, I wanted to make sure that third graders remember how to use guide words to easily find information in a print source. Everyone got a word to look up. The next step was for them to find the person who had a synonym for their word. Finally, they got themselves into alphabetical order.

I am happy to report that the students' skills have VASTLY improved since last year ... we finished up early, and they had time to check out extra books and play games on the computer. Here are some lesson-related games that you can try at home:

• See how well you know how to use guide words by taking this quiz.

• Synonyms Rags to Riches - can you make it to a million?

• Synonym Toast - I had trouble with this one ... it's fast-paced!

• Click When You See the Synonym

And here are the students in action:

Common Core standards addressed: 

• L.3.4d - Use glossaries or beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases.
• L.4.5c - Demonstrate understanding of words by relating them to their opposites (antonyms) and to words with similar but not identical meanings (synonyms). 

Most Popular Checkouts - 2013

Here are the top items that students checked out during the previous year:

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid series

  

  wimpykid.com
  
  We finally have a copy!
  If you're reading this, then you qualify
  to be one of the first readers of the book.
  Leave a comment below with your room #
  and initials, and I'll put you on the hold list.
  Just choose "Anonymous" from the
  "Comment As" drop-down list.

• I Spy books
• Geronimo/Thea Stilton series
• Bone series
• Zoobooks magazine
• Dork Diaries series
• Discovery Girls magazine
• American Girl magazine
• The World Almanac for Kids
• Guinness Book of World Records
• Big Nate series
• The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen
• Pigeon books by Mo Willems
• Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn
• Why Do Dogs Bark? by Joan Holub

Room 11 Collective Nouns

After learning about collective nouns, fourth graders created original ones for themselves. Here are some from Room 11:

 

Common Core standard addressed: L.4.5. – Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.