Fables Galore!

As part of the second grade curriculum, students in my classroom participate in a unit where they study the elements of fables. Once students understand the elements of a fable, they look at examples of fables and assess each one based on the elements as well as establishing what the lesson, theme, or moral is portrayed in that text. As a culminating activity, students create their own fable with a lesson, theme, or moral of their choice. In an effort to provide students with additional examples of fables, I created a digital story of a fable about a Leopard and Monkey centered around the theme of "you must work for all you get."

Next year when teaching this unit, I plan to include this digital story to show my students an additional example of a fable but also to show a way in which they can create and publish their own fables. This fable was created using Storybird which is a tool that I am still new to. In a previous post I shared my experience with using it for the first time. After more exploration with this tool and allowing my students some time to explore, I must say that I can better see the positives and abilities of this program. While there are still limitations to Storybird, I must say that the pros outweigh the cons and I plan to use this website more often with my students.




Please note that this just a rough draft of my digital story. If you have any ideas for changes or improvements to the story and/or ways in which this can be integrated into the curriculum, please comment and share them below.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update:

I have since used this fable in my classroom to introduce Storybird to my students and I have found that the students LOVED that I wrote this story and that they can become authors themselves using this online tool. Some other ways in which I believe educators can use Storybird in their classroom are:

- Educators can create assignments and grade using the program
- Educators can create a library on Storybird which students can access and see everyone's stories
- Teach a lesson on details by having students describe the images provided in the galleries
- Teach a lesson on expanding sentences using the details of the images.
- Use it for prewriting or organizing
- Teachers can use it to work on emergent reading skills with young readers
- Have students collaborate to create a story as a group
- Have students free write using the images to create a story

There are so many ways in which educators can use Storybird in their classrooms! How would you use Storybird with your students?

Organizing Anchor Charts

In my district, we use A LOT of anchor charts. I love them and have found that sometimes I end up with way too many of them! The problem I run in to is that I hang them up for the unit and then run out of room so I end up taking them down. Then I couldn't figure out where and how to store them so that they were accessible to students at any time. On top of that, hanging anchor charts has been quite an issue due to fire and safety regulations limiting the amount of wall space that we can use. So I turned to the internet, more specifically Pinterest. After searching for ideas, I stumbled upon this blog Teaching My Friends where Nancy, a fellow teacher, blogs about her ideas and experiences in the classroom. When you click on the link you will find the specific post where she describes her anchor chart organization system. I love her idea! She takes pictures of her anchor charts and compiles them into a binder where students can refer to when necessary. What is so fantastic about this idea is that it holds so many possibilities and is so flexible to use it in many different ways. Need to refer to an anchor chart in a small group? No problem, grab the anchor chart binder! Does a student have a question about a previously used anchor chart? Teach them to use the binder! The best part of Nancy's anchor chart binder system is that she has created a spreadsheet to serve as a table of contents so students can quickly locate the specific anchor chart that they need.

Source: Teaching My Friends blog

She even has the link so that you can download her anchor chart index page to keep track of the anchor charts you put in your binder!

I started using this system midway through this year and I love it so far. My students refer to it daily and it is so easy to just take a quick picture of the anchor chart, print it, and file it into the binder. I love Nancy's idea of making extra black and white copies of the anchor charts to put in the back of the binder so that you have easy access to it for small group purposes.

So tell me, how do you organize anchor charts in your classroom?

Success with Storybird

In class tonight, my colleagues and I worked together to create a picture book using an online tool for creating and reading books. This website was entirely new to me. The great part about this website is that there is a vast amount of artwork to use to create your story with. My classmates and I searched for artwork that was student-friendly and easily-lended itself to a picture book story. One part that I did not like was that when selecting artwork you were limited to one specific artist's gallery. This made for a sometimes small gallery and images that did not always work well together to create a story. None the less, we found an artist who had a series of images with a theme around one character. So together we created this story... Susie Goes Exploring. Our plan is to use this picture book in our classrooms when teaching inferences. The story is about a young girl who uses her imagination to go exploring. The students are then prompted at the end to infer where Susie is during all of her explorations which is ultimately at her house using her imagination. Take a peek and let me know what you think!

One Book...Endless Connections

Have you ever heard of the Global Read Aloud? I hadn't until my professor pointed me in the direction of the Global Read Aloud Blog and after exploring their blog I couldn't find a reason not to participate in this project. Reading aloud to my students is one of the best parts of my day and my students enjoy it just as much. I never really knew the power of read alouds until this past year. Midway through this school year, due to schedule changes I suddenly had an extra half-hour to read aloud to my students. When selecting a book I wanted to find one that the students would lose themselves in. I found just that! I read aloud The BFG by Roald Dahl and for two weeks my students were transported into Giant Country. Every day they would beg me to read just one more chapter and inevitable learned the value and purpose of a cliffhanger! Since this story, my students have been anxious to get their hands on any and every book by Roald Dahl. One student begged her mother to take her to Barnes and Noble for her birthday so that she could buy more books by her favorite author Roald Dahl! The power of read alouds has truly taken over my classroom.

As I explored the Global Read Aloud blog I was searching for a way that I could incorporate this into my classroom and I was nervous about the ease of implementing this project when our curriculum is so packed as it is. What I found is that this project is truly what you make of it. The purpose is to connect teachers and students using one book. However, it has expanded to include more than one book to meet the needs of teachers across the grade levels. The blog was easy to maneuver around and I was able to access the list of book choices for the 2014 Global Read Aloud. After looking at the reviews and age level recommendations for the book options I decided to select The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo as it is written by an author that we do an author study on. Now that I have signed up to participate in the 2014 Global Read Aloud I am anxious to find activities and ways to prompt my students to reflect on the book on their own blogs next year. I am looking forward to this journey and using this project as a platform to get my students blogging next year using Kidblog. Check back for updates of the 2014 Global Read Aloud next school year!

Magic Wings - An Animoto Adventure

As part of the science curriculum for second grade in my district, students study life cycles with a close look at butterflies and mealworms. Earlier this year, my students raised butterflies and learned the different stages that it goes through during its life cycle. It was so exciting when we went outside to let our butterflies go! As the unit continued, the students chose one insect and did an intensive research project which included the insects' habitat, life cycle, food, body parts, and fun facts. As a culminating activity, the second graders took a field trip to Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory where they were able to see and learn about numerous reptile and insect species as well as experience thousands of types of butterflies flying all around. The students learned a lot and enjoyed seeing what they had studied so deeply at the beginning of the school year.

In my graduate class, EDUC584, I was required to create a film using Animoto. I was excited about using this new technology tool because I had never used a tool like this to create a video. I was nervous and wondered if it would be very "user-friendly" but sure enough, I was able to input images from our field trip with ease and with the backgrounds and music that Animoto offers, I easily created a video that I think the students and families will enjoy during our end-of-the-year celebration. Take a look!



I am thinking about using this video as a launching pad to showcase the literacy work that my students have been working on regarding their insect exploration from the beginning of the year and their written work explaining their experiences on our field trip. The opportunities to use Animoto are endless and I am looking forward to incorporating more videos from Animoto into my classroom teaching!

Pumpkin Book Reports

In an effort to increase family involvement and to provide opportunities for students to practice public speaking, students complete monthly thematic projects. One of my favorite monthly projects in the Fall is the Pumpkin Book Report. With this project, students work with the families to create a character from a book using either a real pumpkin or a paper drawing of a pumpkin. The sky is the limit as students use their creativity to recreate a favorite character from a beloved book.

Baby Mummy from Where's My Mummy

Piggie from the series by Mo Willems

A. Wolf from The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs

Mike from Monster's Inc.

Since this project is done during the month of October it is one of the first monthly projects to be completed each year. The best part is that students get excited about reading and they are free to use their imagination to make their pumpkin into a character in whatever way they want to. Of course there are rules to the project: Students may not carve their pumpkin in any way and they must complete a written book report which fully describes the character from the text. Students present their pumpkin book report to their peers and families are invited into the classroom to celebrate the students' hard work.