Polar Bear Research and Nonfiction Book

    We began by sharing our schema (what we thought we knew) about polar bears with our partner and then adding it to our schema chart. We rolled a question die and then listened for the answers while reading. We finished by drawing the topic (polar bears) on one side of a sticky note and then drawing/writing one fact on the other side of the sticky note.

    We reviewed nonfiction text features like diagrams and table of contents.

     We completed a tree map by listening for things polar bears are, can do, and have. We filled in one branch of our tree map each day. I wrote on our class tree map as students wrote on their own. We stretched out the words and I filled in the word chunks.

    We illustrated and wrote two facts about polar bears for our book. Each day we wrote to inform about polar bears during our writing time.

 
  Here's a picture of our class diagram, schema chart, and tree map.

Pumpkin Time!!!

We started by talking about what schema is and then discussing with our partners our pumpkin schema. We corrected misconceptions and added new learning throughout our study. We also reviewed the characteristics of nonfiction/informational text. We reviewed identifying the topic and details of informational text.

We learned about the parts of a pumpkin and each part's purpose. Students worked in small groups to paint a part of the pumpkin for our pumpkin brace map. After the paint dried, students work together to build our brace map and label the parts. Students then shared a part of the the pumpkin and it's purpose with their partner.

We used pumpkin candy to create positional patterns. Students identified and extended patterns I modeled for them. Then they worked with their partner to create a positional pattern. Then we shared and extended patterns partners made. Of course what's the fun of working with candy if you can't enjoy a little bit of it! Then we created and recorded patterns using our thumbprint as the pumpkin shell and our pinkie print as the stem. We labeled our patterns and identified the core (the part of the pattern that repeats).

We also sequenced the pumpkin life cycle. We illustrated and labeled the life cycle on a flow map.

We created a circle map using descriptive words for pumpkins as a class. Then we created our own pumpkins/jack-o-lanterns and used words from our circle map to write a pumpkin poem.