Look at Our Stories

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It took us a little while to post this story, so Ms. Enos's English Language Learners may be writing books by now. It's hard enough to learn to write.  It's hard enough to learn a new language.  Look what they can do! 

Who Wins the Race? Our Third Grade Class.

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As we mentioned last post, Ms. Bishop's third grade class has been studying a book called Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner. The kids have used this adventurous, rich tale to learn how to do many different analytic and writing skills.  They are also working on many of the new Common Core standards, as you can see.

Here are some of the interesting ways they are accomplishing these tasks.  Who says learning can't be fun?

In fact, here is a close-up example of one of the articles.  Nice job, Dominick!

The kids learned so much.  We learned so much too.  The only thing we don't know is how their poster got wet!

Author Studies Start Early at the Perkins

As you will see in our next post, the kids in Ms. Bishop's class did an indepth study of a book they read.  They looked at plot and characters and many other aspects of writing.  That is a third grade thing to do--but, not only a third grade thing to do.

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Ms. Smith's kindergarten class read three books!  They did what we call an author study.  They read several books by the same author (and, in this case, an author who draws his own pictures too).  They talked about the books, their different plots or stories.

Unlike the third graders, these kindergarteners then voted on which story they liked better.  They also had to support their choice with a reason.  Here are a few examples:

Plants AND Language Skills Grow in Spring

It's spring and many Perkins kids are studying units about plants, the earth, water and how things grow.  Imagine trying to understand all these new subjects when you have to learn the words that describe them at the same time.  That's what's going on in Ms. Enos's class of English language learners.  Many of these kids are newcomers to our country and to English.  So there's a lot of learning going on.

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Here are some of the new vocabulary words they must learn to even start their units.

 

Sometimes it's easiest to connect a word to a picture.

A simple sentence in English often starts with the subject (I, in this case), follows with a verb or two (can pick), an article (the), and noun (carrot).  It seems simple when you grow up with this pattern.  

Most languages have different forms of every verb and you must learn which one is used with which subject.  Some languages often don't bother with the subject because they just change the verb.  Still other languages think of nouns as feminine or masculine and you must know which they are to put the feminine version of "the" or "an" in front of them.  

Sounds hard, doesn't it?  Any language is hard when you don't know its rules (or its words!).

Luckily the English language learners at the Perkins have plants to look at as they study how things grow.

 

They also have Ms. Enos to help them study English and watch their skills grow.

It's National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month and we're happy to post our kindergarteners' experience with the wonderful words of Langston Hughes.

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This month gave Ms. Breneus a chance to fulfill a Common Core Standard twice over, because poetry is considered to be poetry, of course, but also nonfiction as well.

It was mostly a wonderful opportunity to have the kids talk about rhymes and images.  They could see how words can make you feel something inside.  Once they had finished discussing Hughes' poem, Dreams, they wrote and drew about their own dreams.  See some of the results below.

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Hold on to your dreams, kids, make them happen.

Common Core Has Many Uses, Part 2

For our last post, which you can see by scrolling down below, we showed one way Ms. Murphy's second grade class practiced the skills outlined in one of the new Common Core standards for second grade.

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 Last time you saw some of their letters to their parents, using evidence and reasons to convince them to grant a request.  This time they are "auditioning" for the advertising business.  Do you find their presentations compelling?

 

What will you buy next time you're at the store?

Common Core Has Many Uses

This is one of the new Common Core standards for second grade.

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Ms. Murphy's class is learning how to use research and evidence to support their opinions about history, animals, and other topics.  They are also learning that this Common Core Standard W.2.1 is very important in daily life.  One assignment they had was to write their parents and try to convince their mom or dad about something using reasons, logic, and evidence.

Are you convinced?

 

Writing a First Book

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First graders have questions.  They also are learning ways to get answers.  Each student in Ms. Hicks' class picked an animal they were interested in.  They read about it, decided what was important to report and wrote it up.
  

 

 They made covers for their work.

 

Then they presented their findings, complete with illustration.

Pick a topic, research it, organize the information, write a draft or two to make it better.  That's the same thing every writer should do--from a first grader up to a National Book Award winner.

 

  

Good work, kids.  Remember, a lot of professional authors don't even do their own illustrations!