Characters Have Feelings! and a Freebie

     Last week we focused on characters, their feelings, and how story setting affected their feelings. On Monday and Tuesday, we read two different stories about the beginning of school. We charted the characters, setting, and feelings for both stories as a class. On Monday I modeled. On Tuesday I modeled the first one, and then allowed students to to tell me the rest and support with evidence from the text.

     On Wednesday we read Pirates Go To School again. Then we created an anchor chart about character feelings and discussed examples from the book to add as our chart example. Then students recorded characters, feelings, and setting from the book.

     You can grab this freebie here. The students did really well with this activity independently. 

Snowmen and Text to Self Connections

    We've been working on making text to self connections. We read My Snowman by Deanna Jump, and then wrote and illustrated in our reader's notebooks a time we counted down to something we were excited about.

    Then we read Snowmen at Night and wrote a way we are like the snowmen and a way we are different from the snowmen. Then we illustrated a picture of ourself and the snowmen.

What I Know is True about Reading

I read the class one of my favorite books I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. The old lady has many books and has swallowed lots of things leaves, snow, a chick, etc. Afterward, I shared with my students something I know is true about reading. I can read my favorite book over and over. Then they shared with their partner what they know about reading. Then we talked together and created an anchor chart about what we know is true about reading. The students were amazed at what they already know about reading! Then before going to their literacy workstations, they wrote and illustrated in their Reader's Notebook what they know is true about reading.

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