How We Express Ourselves: Part 3

During the last chunk of our inquiry unit, my kiddos applied their knowledge of feelings and character expression through their own stories and Readers' Theater. 
Before I let my kiddos loose into their learning, we spent some time reviewing our character posters and discussing Shades of Meaning. 

Through our lesson, we started with one character's expression and discussed other words that meant the same thing.  The language that my students were able to generate, thanks to Mo's books, was incredible.  I wanted to see what students learned so with a partner they had to create A Shades of Meaning Card (thank you HomeDepot).

You can see that students started with the weakest of emotions and worked their way to the strongest.
Kiddos continued their learning during writing by starting new books.  Instead of just handing each student a book, they had to Draw It Out to plan their story.  Students we required to choose two characters, a setting, problem and solution.  They spent several days drawing out their ideas.  Once they had their plan I was able to give them their book during writing conferences. 

I am so proud of the writing they created; more importantly, they were proud of themselves as they shared during Author's Chair.
This inquiry unit took us through many stories, characters, emotions, and discussions.  In true inquiry form, each kiddo applied all of their learning into not just their book, but Readers' Theater. 

For over a week, students read and practiced their scripts (different Piggie and Elephant books).  They spent time making props, critiquing each other, and being loud!  I loved watching them interact with one another.  My favorite was seeing my struggling kiddos shine in their learning! 
After tweaking, rethinking, and planning this unit for the third year, I can say this year was a success!  I am so proud of the learning that took place.  The books and acting that my students did proved that it worked!

On a side note...

The Reading Strategies Book provided so many supporting lessons to our unit.  If you don't own this book, order it NOW!  You won't be sorry.

Joy Cowley Characters [and a contest]

I am a sucker for great text for my kiddos.  I guess that is one thing that makes me a teacher.  Yet, text that is accessible to my emerging readers is absolutely vital in my classroom.  I absolutely love Joy Cowley's books for this reason.  Her stories are fun, engaging, accessible, and contain adorable characters.

Hairy Bear is one of her endearing characters.  Throughout the Hairy Bear stories, he encounters problems that be must fix.  From a leaky roof to helping sad friends, Hairy Bear uses his problem solving skills to get the job done. 

Another one of Joy's characters is Miniboy.  He and his mouse are extremely adventurous.  According to my students, they are serious risk-takers. Miniboy and Mousie set off each day in the kitchen of the giants.  They have to keep their eyes open for problems they may encounter.  I love how Joy includes action in this character series, and that Miniboy and Mousie return to their home safely at the end of each story.

 

The Joy Cowley Collection is packed with so many fabulous characters, Miniboy and Hairy Bear are just two of them. 

 Right now, you can enter to win her collection packed with over 90 books.

 

Don't wait this contest is only going on until April 13, 2016.  Click on one of the images above to enter.

Who is your favorite Joy Cowley character?

How We Express Ourselves: Part 2

We are in it!  We have fully immersed ourselves in all things Mo Willems.  Last week, our inquiry unit on How We Express Ourselves was spent looking at character traits and how they relate to our PYP life.  If you are not familiar with the Learner Profile and Attitudes you can read about them here.
My kiddos read the Knuffle Bunny series, several Pigeon books, plus as many Piggie and Elephant books as they could get their hands on.  As a class we then created these three posters:

The posters are being used as a resource for books my authors are writing.
The discussions around each character provided a great knowledge bank for my students as they started planning out their next story.  Throughout the week they sketched the ideas that were floating in their heads.  This is similar to Mo and how he draws a cartoon every day. 

This week we are building our robust language banks, channeling the characters through readers' theater, and taking our pencils further on our papers.  Stay tuned!!!

Do you work at a PYP school?  I would love to connect and learn about your inquiry units.

How We Express Ourselves: Part 1

I have officially launched our How We Express Ourselves PYP unit.  This year's central idea was slightly tweaked to read, "Authors and Illustrators use character relationships to portray a message".  For the last week, we have tuned into what this central idea means.  Here is a peek at what my firsties have accomplished:

• "What is an author?" discussion and share out.  Our conversation produced this anchor chart:

• What do you know about Mo Willems?  My kiddos explained that he is not only an author, but also an illustrator.  We read about him using the same Close Read as last year.  We also watched this video segment.
• Very quickly after reading and listening to Mo himself, my students started telling me that they too were authors and illustrators (WOOHOO!)  My teacher smile has become huge!  I am so excited that they are already realizing this.

Stay tuned for Part 2 as we dive into Mo's characters and their relationships with the reader and each other.

Do you teach at a PYP school?  I would love to hear about your Units of Inquiry.

Mo Willems - Part 2

Our love for Mo Willems continued for many weeks.  We did several culminating activities, two being Readers' Theater and letters to the author.
Readers' Theater was a hoot!  Throughout the unit, we worked diligently on expression and reading fluently.  These two skills came to life as each of my kiddos acted out several of the Piggie and Elephant books.

I can't wait to do Readers' Theater again with our Fairy Tales unit.  I am hopeful that a few more students will come out of their shells before that time.
Our final Mo project was letters to the man himself!  You should have heard them as I explained the project.  Between the clapping and joyous screams, you could hear "we really get to write to MO WILLEMS!"

Their letters were adorable!  They explained which book was their favorite, asked him some questions, and even explained that they had written their own Mo inspired stories.

Do your students have a favorite author?

Mo Willems Author Study - Part 1

Teaching through author studies keeps my teacher heart beating.
Here is a little background...
I use our district adopted basal, StoryTown, to pace my reading/writing strategies and phonics skills.  I then find the corresponding CCSS.  Once I have my teaching points, I choose the author we will focus on.
Throughout the month of January, we worked on expression, speech bubbles, developing characters, retells, and so much more through Mo Willems' books.

We practiced speech bubble with Piggie and Gerald.

One huge focus was on character development.  We created these anchor charts to help with describing three of Mo's characters.

One of our art projects were these adorable Piggie and Gerald hats, which we wore for our Readers' Theater performances (more to come and these).

One of my favorite activities had students practicing expression as they pleaded to Stay Up Late.

Be sure to check back for part 2 of our Mo Willems' author study.