Notebooks, Notebooks, and More Notebooks

I recently introduced another interactive notebook to my class. We use the writing notebook, the math notebook, the grammar notebook, and now. . .the reading literature notebook. I thought my kids would moan because that's what kids do when something is repetitive. Even something I would think they enjoy. They just get sick of the same thing over and over again. Sometimes I think they moan just for the sake of moaning. Have you ever had your kids copy something from the board and you have them erase a word and change it? They moan. You would think you had them throw away their papers, start over, and rewrite a ten page essay. Really all you've done is have them change a to the. 

We just used a simple school journal.

So, like I said, I told my students we would start a new notebook and they cheered! Whew! This handy-dandy notebook has been pretty handy. The Common Core standards can look pretty complex, but the kids are handling them very well. 

At the moment we are working on comparing and contrasting two versions of the same story. 

Two versions of the same story. Armadilly Chili is one of my favorites. The illustrations are beautiful.

With our notebooks, we are comparing and contrasting the characters, setting, plot, and central message. 

Here the students completed a notebook page for both The Little Red Hen and Armadilly Chili. Using that information, they completed a Venn diagram.

My favorite part is the Central Message cake. This notebook page includes common central messages. After reading a story, the kids take out their notebooks and look through the candles to find the central message of the story. I'm going to be honest, I had trouble determining the central message of a story as an adult. When I hear kids discussing this, I'm amazed.

Central Message cake

 So the kids are happy because they think we're doing crafts and I am happy because they sound like high schoolers. Interactive notebooks have to be the best thing since sliced bread. 

BOLD Beginnings!

Each year I'm dying with excitement to teach Bold Beginnings. It's like I want to just jump right in and skip every other important piece of writing because once I teach kids about Bold Beginnings, their writing becomes amazing! 

So last week my world became complete. I was able to teach my 2nd graders the best thing ever, BOLD BEGINNINGS! Yay! I love it!

OK, rewind. . . I was also really impressed by how well my students picked up on this temporal words activity. 

We put together the temporal word notebook page in out Interactive Notebooks. The students will use it to reference while writing. Right now, the kids are writing a personal narrative after tons of class practice.

Interactive Notebooks, where have you been my whole life?

I just love how the kids have these notes to look  back on. 

OK back to the Bold Beginnings!

It all started with this book.

It's filled with sounds heard throughout a city, which is a great way to introduce onomatopoeia.  

 That's a real life kid page right there.

We put together this notebook page and wrote a Bold Beginning under each flap. The kids had so much fun making the Oo oo! Ah ah! noises of a monkey.

Once we tried out each B.B., we chose a new topic. . . Halloween!

Kids worked in groups to write all four of the B.B.

Here is our collection of Bold Beginnings.

The thing I enjoy most about teaching writing is teaching kids to let go of spelling. 

"Don't worry about your spelling!" I say. And once kids let go, you get some great writing.

More practice. More fun!

Today my students had to apply this new learning to their narratives. Each was able to write four different Bold Beginnings to topics of their choosing. I was so proud of them.
The best part, they had fun writing!

Mission accomplished.

Book Talk Tuesday: Day of the Dead

I'm linkin' up with Mrs. Jump's Class for Book Talk Tuesday!

I love fall! I love the colors, the weather, and the holidays.

I especially love reading this story to my students.

 

Day of the Dead, by Tony Johnston,  follows a family getting ready for the Day of the Dead celebration by cooking tamales, baking pan de muertos, and decorating with cempasuchil.

The bright, beautiful pictures draw the children in and the Spanish words keep them interested as  they listen to their teacher either try to read the words or read them with ease, which is amazing to little ones.

After the kiddos hear this story, which introduces them to Dia de los Muertos, they make a vocabulary book and an easy reader to practice reading some new words.

 Following the book making, the students make several different crafts--a calavera, or skull mask, a painted cat skull, la banda, and a tissue paper marigold all of which are seen at a Day of the Dead celebration.

I can't wait to read this book and get started on these projects. I just love the way the classroom brightens up!

This Week with our Interactive Notebooks II

So last week my students worked on adding details to simple sentences and to be more specific in their writing. The week before that, the kids learned about ideas and "juicy details."

Ideas

Juicy Details

Adding details

Be Specific

This week we took our knowledge of "being specific" and used a graphic organizer, called a funnel, to move from a broad topic to something more specific. 

funnel

Broad to specific

I showed the students a "photo album" (PowerPoint) of our pretend trip to the zoo. It showed the San Diego Zoo, some animals, a giraffe, a woman feeding the giraffe, and a giraffe's tongue. So we took a very broad topic (a trip to the zoo) and made it much more specific (feeding a giraffe at the zoo). I tell the kids that finding one specific part of a trip, day, birthday. . .makes your writing more interesting.

Now that we've covered the important components of Ideas, I will read various mentor texts to the class so students can see how authors use the trait.

On Thursday, I read Enemy Pie by Derek Munson.

The story is about a little boy with an enemy. His dad comes up with a plan to get rid of his enemy, which is to make an enemy pie.

There's so much  more to this story, but I was just getting to the point of the activity. It's a really cute story. I recommend it like I do every mentor text I suggest in the Interactive Writing Notebook.

After reading the book, we discussed the ideas the author used is his story. The story gets kids' imaginations going thinking about the ingredients in an enemy pie. So, the activity I created gets kids using their ideas to come up with the ingredients in the pie.

Usually my students put gross things in their pies. For some reason these kids didn't. Hmmm.

Next week we will begin a narrative using everything we've learned. I will expect students to choose an idea, be specific in their writing, and add details to make writing more interesting. Now that they have some tools, it should be fun!

Listen Up!

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump's Class once again for Book Talk Tuesday!

I want to share one of the first books I read to my class (excluding all of those first day of school favorites :)), Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! written by Wynton Marsalis.

 

Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! is a book about the sounds heard through a busy neighborhood. From the sound of a door opening to the sound of trucks rumbling and the sound of music playing.

When I saw this book, I thought it would be perfect for teaching writing.

 We always begin the year with writing a narrative about the first day of school. I like to get my kids started right away with Bold Beginnings--types of leads which make writing awesome! The lead, or Bold Beginning, I introduce to my kiddos is "Listen Up!"

I tell the kids we can start our writing with a sound, which will make our writing more interesting. Generally, they have no idea what this means. Who can blame them, they're six and seven. So I read the book and they hear and see the sounds the author is describing.

After reading the book, we discuss the sounds they heard in the story. We talk about how the author gets to decided how to spell the sounds and there is no right way. Then the kids get to practice! I give them this worksheet and let them make up some sounds.

 After they get the hang of this, we write our class narrative, which begins with a "Listen Up!" beginning.The kids use "Listen Up!" all year long. As soon as I read their first sentences, I'm hooked!

Here are some student samples from their narrative writing:

Blop! Blop! I can hear the fish making bubbles.

Yay! Whoo hoo! I heard excited kids.

Boom! Boom! I hear my favorite band.

Please! Please! Please! I hear myself whining. 

Book Talk Tuesday!

Linking up with Mrs. Jump's Class!

Armadilly Chili is a great book! It's a Southwestern version of The Little Red Hen. And the illustrations are beautiful! My students even chose this as their favorite book in 2nd grade.

In the story, Miss Billie is making her famous chili. She asks her friend Tarantula Tex to help her out, but he's going dancing. Then she asks Mackie the blue bird if he can help, but he's going to see a movie. Finally, she asks Taffy the horned toad, but she's busy roller skating. Feeling the Little Red Hen vibe? So she decides to make it all by herself. As the chili is simmering, Tex stops by after dancing and asks for some. Miss Billie tells him to get lost. Then Mackie stops by and asks for some chili, but Miss Billie denies his request. Taffy also stops by for some chili, but none for her.

As Miss Billie sits down to enjoy her chili, she realizes something is missing . . .