Nonfiction Text Features: Diagram Lesson

Teaching and studying nonfiction is one of my favorite units to expose my students to.  I love that we get to take all of the foundational reading skills that they have developed and blast off to the next level of learning.  We are no longer just reading to enjoy books, but we are reading to LEARN and grow as learners.
This past week, we spent time learning about diagrams and captions.  These two features are packed with information so we spent several days really diving into them.  Much of our nonfiction reading has been done through National Geographic Kids and Hameray Publishing.  They both have an immense library of nonfiction readers that are perfect for my firsties.
For this particular lesson, we used Penguins from National Geographic Kids.  The students worked in teams of 4 to read and discover 4 traits that make penguins unique.

The focus was not on the entire book, but just on the diagram of the penguin.  Students worked to read and summarize their findings.  They took turns recording their discoveries in a 4 box.  You can grab a copy of it here.  I also included a general version that could be used with any other animal or plant diagram.

What is one of your favorite nonfiction text features to teach your students about?  Leave a comment below and let me know.

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.

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.

PYP Part 4 - Applying What We Learned

Once students had read, experimented, discussed, watched, listened, and created it was time to apply.  The final piece of our How the World Works unit was for students to create their own nonfiction penguin book.  My team and I used Matt Glover's writing approach for book creation with the help of several TPT products (image links will take you to the products).
Students began the process by reading and discussing many different penguin books.  Throughout their reading and being read to, they completed a Penguin A-Z book and an All About Penguin book.

Once students had read, recorded, and conferenced they used their new resources to write their own All About ____ Penguin Book.

The final books were magnificent.  Students used several nonfiction text features throughout their books, as well as the knowledge they gained throughout the unit.  Overall, I am very happy with the final products of our first PYP unit.

Check out some of the other penguin fun we had during our unit:

My student made shape penguins.  They turned out so cute and were the perfect way to kick off our shape unit in math.

I created these life size examples of the little blue and emperor penguins to give the students the realia they needed to make connections.

Students also worked together to compare their height to that of the little blue and emperor penguin.  I love when they work together and discuss their learning!!

Happy Learning!

PYP Part 3 - More on Animal Adaptations

The plethora of rich text available to students is wonderful!  One of the books we used during our How the World Works unit was What If You Had Animal Hair?, by Sandra Markle.

This is an marvelous book that uses facts about animal hair in relation to kids being able to have the same adaptations as the animals in the book.  It was the perfect follow up to our discussion on animal habitats and why specific animals live where they do.
Each student got to choose which animal's hair they would want to have and create an artistic representation, with a reason why.  I was blown away by the creativity of my class.

How incredible are those?

Have you used this book in your classroom?  I would love to read about your thoughts!

Don't forget to head over to Instagram for a chance to win my favorite things giveaway!

PYP Part 2 - Blubber Glove

A large piece of the PYP is world learning, but inquiry is the focus.  Our first BIG dose of inquiry took place through our Blubber Glove experiment.  Of course, before we could inquire about something new we needed background knowledge.  As I mentioned in my part 1 post, my teaching focus was nonfiction text elements through penguins.

Students inquired together on the 4 main adaptations of penguins.  We used the National Geographic Kids series to read and discuss.  Students used the captions to document their learning of the adaptations.
We then went deeper with the topic of blubber.  Students participated in a whole group Close Read.  You can grab a copy of the Close Read I wrote here.  This broke down the importance of blubber.
With our background knowledge flowing, we dove into our Blubber Gloves (How to make a Blubber Glove below).

Students placed Vaseline on one hand and placed it in the icy water.  This simulated the temperature and the oils on a penguin's feathers.  Students then placed the other hand in the Blubber Glove, thus experiencing how blubber keeps the animal warm in such drastic weather.

Students answered questions about the learning and incorporated the vocabulary they learned throughout our unit.  to say it was a BLAST is an understatement!  My students are still talking about this activity.

How to make a Blubber Glove:

You need 2 large ziplock bags, duct tape, crisco, and a spoon.

Begin by, scooping large amounts of crisco into one of the ziplock bags.

 Next, place the second ziplock bag into the bag filled with crisco.  Then, fold over the top and secure with duct tape.

Finally, move the crisco around the glove balancing it out among the sides and bottom.

What is your favorite inquiry project you have done with your students?

PYP Part 1 - Animal Adaptations

This year, my school is in its exploratory year of the PYP.  I have had the privilege of attending trainings and professional development, but they only skimmed the surface.  It wasn't until my team and I created our first planner that I felt I had any bit of an understanding of the program. The month of April was then consumed by my our PYP unit.  (For those of you not familiar with IB, I highly recommend checking out this link.)
We decided to take a topic we were familiar with and tweak it.  My teammates and I went with nonfiction text elements through penguin research.  In the PYP world that resulted in How the World Works.

The best part about this unit is the interaction among my students.  I try very hard to get them to work together, but this way of teaching forces them to.

Even though our focus shifted to penguins, we began our unit with a look at habitats around the world and adaptations that animals need to live there.  You can see my students working together on a habitat galley walk.
We also spent some time watching snippets of the Kratt brothers.  PBS is amazing!  I learned so much from this show.
Of course, we also integrated our Art Friday's into the unit.

This project allowed me to use all of those off brand pencils that don't sharpen, but it also REALLY tested my students' spacial skills.  They had to show the desert and ocean habitats using dots.  It was tricky for many, but it pushed their art abilities which I LOVE!!
Be sure to tune in over the next few weeks for more on this PYP unit.

Do you teach at a PYP school?  I would love to hear about your experiences!

Thankful!

This past weekend, I had the privilege of learning with an amazing group of educators.  It was an intense weekend of learning, and I still feel like the face down kid, but it was an inspiring weekend.

A little background...my school has entered its exploratory year of the PYP (original post).  For those of you not familiar with the Primary Years Programme, it is the beginning piece of the International Baccalaureate model.  This model is made up of a lot of what I am doing as a teacher, but with added components and terminology that seem frightening at first (hence the facedown student).
I am thankful for this learning!  Although it might seem overwhelming, it is what is right for my kiddos and me.  I make it a goal to learn one new thing everyday, and this weekend took my goal and laughed at it.  The amount of learning my brain soaked up was extreme, I left each day unsure on how to process it all, but I know with time and experimenting it will happen.

What are you thankful for?