Lower Level January

This was the first text we read in our new reading level! It is called “The Three Bears.” Students were so excited about this story, as it is one that they all were familiar with. We read to find out how this story was the same or different than other versions they may have heard in the past. This story also has a fluency component, as there is a “script” in the back. Each child took turns reading all of the different parts to practice their speed and prosidy of reading. For writing, we wrote about the story using beginning, middle, and end.

With this story, we discussed making inferences. We made predictions about what the surprise could be using evidence. We discussed that evidence could be from the text, the pictures, or your schema – what you know in your brain. We used all three pieces of evidence to make a correct prediction as to what the surprise was. On Monday, we will write about the story using the Beginning/Middle/End format.

In this text, Horse was going to have a talent show and wanted to invite other animals to perform. Students had to use evidence from the text to predict what Horse’s talent was going to be. We discussed how evidence can come in the form of the words (text), the pictures, or your schema (what you know). We wrote about our own talents.

Froggy, the main character, notices other animals looking at their baby pictures and he wonders what his look like. Students had to predict how a frog’s baby pictures might look different based on what they know about the life cycle of a frog. They predicted he would look like a tadpole and not recognize himself. We then used evidence in the pictures to predict how Froggy would be able to recognize himself. Each student wrote about what they could do as a baby and what they can do now. We focused on past and present tense verbs.

We then read a text in a series we have seen before. The text is called “A Walk with Meli.” This text featured some sight words we have not encountered in any previous text we read, so we practiced these words before reading. With this text, we focused on main idea and details, talking about what the story is mostly about and the details that tell more about that. We wrote a paragraph to summarize the story and discussed the concept of a topic sentence, three detail sentences, and a closing sentence.

We read a story called “Three Little Pigs and a Big Bad Wolf.” With this text, we focused on fluency and main idea (using the somebody….wanted…but…so…finally) model. Students were so excited about this story, as it is one that they all were familiar with. We read to find out how this story was the same or different than other versions they may have heard in the past. This story also has a fluency component, as there is a “script” in the back. Each child took turns reading all of the different parts to practice their speed and prosidy of reading. For writing, we wrote about the story using beginning, middle, and end.

Another text we read was “The Soccer Game.” It is about two characters who are cousins (Sam and Jesse) that some students have read about before. The two boys go to the park with their Papa to play soccer. We focused on the strategy of comparing and contrasting the two characters. We also talked about what the moral of the story is. We also discussed character traits and came up with a list of character traits about Sam and provided evidence from the text as to why the traits described him.

In this text, students had to use inferencing skills and evidence from their schema (what they know in their brain) and the text to determine what the monster was. For writing, each student chose an animal, cut up the picture into pieces and write about each piece and have the other students in the group guess what their animal is.

The first text was “Pictures of Hugs.” With this text, we focused on problem and solution. Meg wanted to take a picture of her cat but her cat kept on moving. Before reading, we practiced some phonics concepts that were common in words throughout the text – such as words with vowel teams (ex. ea) or words with a silent e (ex. use, chased) and how to decode these words. We wrote about the story using the first, then, next, finally format.

We also read “The Big Storm” about some favorite characters – Orson and Taco, two dogs who always have silly adventures. We created a big Venn Diagram where students brainstormed some similarities and differences between the two characters. After this, we worked on character analysis of one of the characters and talked about character traits and adjectives to describe Orson on the outside and the inside.

We read a story called “Goldie and the Three Bears.” With this text, we focused on fluency and main idea (using the somebody….wanted…but…so…finally) model. Students were so excited about this story, as it is one that they all were familiar with. We read to find out how this story was the same or different than other versions they may have heard in the past. This story also has a fluency component, as there is a “script” in the back. Each child took turns reading all of the different parts to practice their speed and prosody of reading. For writing, we wrote about the story using beginning, middle, and end.

We read “Papa’s Birthday.” It is about two characters who are cousins (Sam and Jesse) that some students have read about before. The two boys cannot decide what to get their Papa for a birthday present. We focused on the strategy of comparing and contrasting the two characters. We also talked about what the moral of the story is. We also discussed character traits and came up with a list of character traits about both Sam and Jesse and provided evidence from the text as to why the traits described him.