Comparing/Contrasting Two Books

We read several books written by Eric Carle this week. Two of our favorites were The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Grouchy Ladybug. Today, we reviewed what happened in the two stories by writing what was the same and different between them.

Caterpillar:

• Started in an egg.
• Had a tummy ache.
• Ate through a lot of food and was big and fat.
• Turned into a beautiful butterfly.
• Had 1 character in the book.
• Made a cocoon and stayed in it for more than 2 weeks.

Ladybug:

• She was grouchy.
• Wanted to fight the other animals.
• Went home and was wet and tired. Then ate and became friendly.
• Got smacked by a whale's tail.
• Had a lot of characters in the book!

Both:

• Characters were hungry.
• Main characters have antennas.
• Both have legs.
• Setting was outside.
• Both have red on their bodies.

CAFE Mini-Lesson Retell a Story Using Pictures

One of our mini-lessons this week focused on reviewing how to retell a story using the pictures. We read Eric Carle's story The Tiny Seed both in whole group and in our listening station. I placed pictures from the book in a mixed up order on the easel. The class worked together to place the pictures in order of what happened in the beginning, to the middle and in the end of the book. While we placed the pictures, we also retold the story without opening the book one time!

Poem of the week....My Apple

This week's poem was called My Apple. There were a few tricky parts that our tongues got a little tongue tied. After practicing both at home and school we were able to figure it out and read the poem very well! If you can tell, some of the students have their clothes on backwards and inside out. It was a spirit day here at school...we aren't just confused! =)

CAFE Mini-Lesson...Author's Purpose

During our second mini-lesson, we discussed what the author's purpose was in writing the book The Grouchy Ladybug. We know authors have three main reasons for writing a book 1) To teach us something. 2) For entertainment/for fun. 3) To persuade us of something. After reading this Eric Carle book, we decided he was wanting to teach us something. When I asked the class what Eric Carle wanted us to learn after reading the book I had several wonderful responses. A few of the responses were to not be mean, to treat others nicely, use polite words and not fight with anyone. After talking about what we were supposed to learn, we practiced with a partner using polite words. We first practiced how you greet someone when you first see them in the morning. Each group created their own polite conversations and then we came back and shared a few. Next, we practiced how to be polite if your friend is using a marker and you would like to also use that marker. After the students worked together on that topic, we shared a few for the class. We decided it is much better to be a friendly ladybug then a grouchy one any day. I am hoping to see many friendly ladybugs these last weeks of school!

CAFE Mini-Lesson...Retell

Our first CAFE mini-lesson today was reviewing a previously taught strategy to "Retell a familiar story using the beginning, middle and end." We are doing an author study this week on Eric Carle and read the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar. After completing a few other activities with the book, we practiced retelling the story using our pocket chart and pictures to help guide us along with the important details. I started off with the days of the week on the chart and we discussed how the author used the days of the week to tell time and how on each day the caterpillar ate or did something different. Students took turns retelling the story as I placed the next picture in the chart. After all of the pictures were placed in the chart, we retold the story as a class using the pictures.

Daily 5 In Action!

After I conferenced with a strategy group this morning I looked up and noticed what a wonderful job my students were doing during their Daily 5 choices. I took the opportunity to take a quick video around the room to showcase how following the I-Charts and doing the right thing is still shown towards the end of the year here in April!