The phases of the Moon

This week we have been reading the book The Moon Seems to Change by Franklyn Branley.  Our first grade team at our school uses the Guiding Readers 2nd Edition sets provided by Deanna Jump and Deedee Wills.

This book taught us about the phases of the moon.  This book did not discuss the gibbous moon, which I feel is an important one to teach my students...so I did.  

I shared with them the 8 phases of the moon.

Instead of doing the worksheet that went with the book, I chose to do one of my favorite lessons with my students...Oreo Moon Phases!  This was a super fun and yummy way to learn about the moon phases.

I sent home with my students a Moon Watchers work sheet as optional homework.  This will give us a some real world experience.  Of course I encouraged participation with a prize to anyone that returns their Moon Watchers sheet.   Hey, what can I say...ya gotta do what ya gotta do!

Mrs. Wanke's Wonderful Whales: We LOVE pizza!

This week we read the boom The Runaway Pizza. We discussed how good readers think about what they read. We added the "tool" (strategy) asking questions to our readers toolbox. We talked about how we ask questions before, during, and after reading. My students even made the connection that when we ask questions before reading we are predicting. Something we learned how to do from the Candy Corn Bandit. (From the Inspiring Apple blog)

To celebrate our hard work we made pizzas that we could eat that would NOT runaway!

Mrs. Wanke's Wonderful Whales: We LOVE pizza!:  After reading the book The Runaway Pizza and working very hard on asking questions before, during, and after reading we decided to ...

Pinterest...a GREAT place to find lesson inspiration for Daily 5

Now that you have implemented the Daily 5 in your classroom, you need lessons to teach before sending students off to work independently. I am planning on dedicating an entire post about how I implement CAFE into the mix.  However, I wanted to share a lesson I did with my students this past week.  I was inspired from an anchor chart that I saw on Pinterest.

This is the anchor chart that inspired me!  I found it on Pinterest...of course!  I <3 Pinterest.  Seriously, how did I teach prior to this amazing sight?  I found it on http://theinspiredapple.blogspot.com/.  Fabulous blog, you should all check it out!

Each of the questions are tied to a Common Core standard.  The problem for me was that these were first grade standards and I teach second grade.  After checking out the second grade Common Core standards, I found lots of questions that students should be asking...for fiction and non-fiction. So I started by making an anchor chart titled, Questions We Should Ask When Reading Fiction. It is my intent to make one for non-fiction as well.

I also only wanted to introduce the first two questions.  I wanted to create the anchor chart with my students, model what this looked and sounded like before adding the next question to the chart.  I believe that if students are apart of the making of the chart, then they will be more likely to reference the chart later on. However, I do NOT want to create this again next year, so I will be laminating this cart after this year.  Next year though, I will cover up all the questions and reveal them as we learn them. 

Here is what I did for the my lessons for the first two days of introducing this strategy. I did each lesson prior to my first rotation of Daily 5.  

Day One: RL.2.1

I explained to my students that good readers ask themselves who, when, when, where, why, and how WHILE they are reading.

I read the book, The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting

I would read a few pages, stop and do a think aloud, modeling how I ask myself a who, what, when, where, why, or how question.  Then I would answer what I was thinking.  I would continue reading then I would pause and have students share with a thinking buddy a who, what, when, where, why, or how question.  The other partner would try and answer it.

Day Two: RL.2.6

I explained to my students that good readers pay close attention to who is telling the story.

I read the book, Almost to Freedom by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson 

 I read the first two pages, but paused before reading...being Lindy's doll baby was a right important job.  I asked students to turn to their thinking buddy and share who they thought was telling the story and how they knew. After sharing with their buddy, I ask students to share with me their thoughts.  Then I read the sentence...being Lindy's doll baby was a right important job.  I asked students if their predictions were right. 

I continued the book the same way as I had on with Wednesday Surprise, modeling who, what, when, where, why, and how questions and having students do the same with their thinking buddies. 

This book was longer, so I stopped after reading the page where Lindy and Miz Rachel were getting up in the middle of the night.  I told students I was going to level them in suspense. 

I will continue to post the lessons that I teach to go with each question on my chart and the finished anchor chart.  I promise in the posts to come I will touch on how this fits into CAFE, even sharing my literacy schedule to help it all make sense.  :)

Please feel free to let me know what you think!