Book Browsing

To familiarize my students with the books in my classroom library and to prepare them for Read To Self (part of Daily 5), I introduce the I-PICK strategy for choosing books (from Daily 5). I bring in a variety of shoes... some of mine, some of my husband's and some of my children's shoes. I talk about going running and then show them a pair of my daughter's flip flops. Would these work to run in? No, they don't fit me and they aren't for the right purpose? How about my high heels? No, they do fit, but they aren't for the right purpose? But my running shoes will work. When my husband rides his bike, he wears his special biking shoes. When we go to the beac or to 7 Peaks, I wear my flip flops. And so on.

Just as we need shoes that fit us and that are designed for the right purpose, we need books that fit us too. Just because a book is a good fit for our friend, doesn't necessarily make it a good fit for us. So we use the I-PICK strategy:
I pick a book:
P: Purpose...why am I reading the book?
I: Interest...does this book interest me?
C: Comprehension... does this book make sense? Can I understand it?
K: Know the words...can I read most/all of the words?
(For more information about this, I highly recommend the book Daily Five.

After I introduce this strategy, I show them how my classroom library is set up and the books are labeled. Then I pull some of the book boxes off the shelves and let them browse through books at each table (giving them about 3-4 minutes at each table and then letting them move to the next table) so they can choose about 6 or 7 books to put in their book bag. I watch and assist and listen in. This year, one of my students told me he only liked sports books. So I let him choose a couple of sports books but then encouraged him to just look at books in some of the other baskets. Soon he was coming over to me to show me the other books he'd found that he knew he would love. He said, "Wow! There are a lot of great books here. I found a lot of books to read!"

After this initial time, each table is assigned a day to trade books at the beginning of the day, so they trade once a week. Three or four times a year, I have them empty their bags completely, and then allow them a chance to do another book browsing. They love this activity, and I enjoy watching to see which books they are choosing and listening in to their conversations about books.

Fascinating Fact Friday

I've been back to school for three days. It is going to be another great year!

Here is our next Fascinating Fact. Do you know what the tallest statue in the US is? Probably you do...the Statue of Liberty. But do you know what the second tallest statue in the US is?

This is "Our Lady of the Rockies". It is 90 feet tall. (The Statue of Liberty is 151 ft. from the base to the torch. If you include the pedestal and foundation, it is 305 ft. tall) This statue, "Our Lady of the Rockies" overlooks Butte, Montana. It is dedicated to all women, especially mothers. It was built by volunteers. They began building the statue in 1979, and it was completed in 1985. My family saw it this summer while on a trip to Canada. It is quite beautiful.

What new facts have you learned this week? Share them in the comments!

Fascinating Fact Friday

I've decided that since I love to learn new things, I am going to record one fascinating new fact I learn each Friday. I will post it here and also post it in my classroom.

My facts today come from my husband who was watching a show on Hulu Plus called I Predator. This particular episode was about lions.

*Lions can jump 35 feet! (The lion can outjump Olympic long jumpers!)

*A lion's canines are exactly four inches apart...the same width as a buffalo's throat, making for an easy kill.

*You can tell a lion's age by the color of its nose. Its nose darkens as it ages.

Have you learned a fascinating fact this week? What is it? Be sure to leave it in a comment...or better yet...blog about it and then put the link in the comments!

Kids Rules

A new decoration for my classroom:

Love these rules! Plan to talk about them regularly and help my students to live by them.

Car Trips

Summer is nearly over. This post would have been better at the beginning of the summer...but alas, I was enjoying my time off with my family so much that I didn't blog.

Summer is a time when many people (my family included) takes long car trips. This can be hard with young children, so I figured I would share some ideas to keep kids busy during these long trips.

1. Movies... if you have a portable DVD player or a built in one (or other device that can play DVDs). We sometimes will rent one or two from Redbox which can be returned to a Redbox location in another city or state. I also like to check movies out from the library (free!). Of course, there are other electronic possibilities as well...any kind of handheld device might be used for games or other activities.

2. Books on tape or CD... again, the library is my best friend. We check out books on CD from the public library to listen to as we drive. Harry Potter is a great series to listen to. My children also loved the Sisters Grimm series. They have enjoyed The Gecko and Sticky series. Along with others.

3. Kids' atlases... Buy (or check out from the library) some childrens' atlases, especially ones with pictures and facts. Then as you are driving from place to place, have them read about the state or states you are traveling through.

4. Buy postcards in each state or area that you travel through. Then have your children write a note about what they have seen and done and mail it to a friend or family member.

5. Bring along lots of blank paper so kids can write, draw, make up comic books or create their own paper dolls or paper airplanes.

6. Sing kids' songs. The library is a great place to check out both fun and educational CDs to listen to on road trips. Some of my favorite traveling memories as a kid were of my family belting out silly kids' songs as we drove.

7. Buy a few new toys to take on the trip with you. These can be surprises or you can let your kids pick them out. My sister has her children earn "money" for each 1/2 hour that they behave on the road trip and then they can spend their "money" in her "store"...a little bag or box of items she's purchased for the trip...items like magnetic paper dolls, hot wheels cars, an etch-a-sketch, coloring/sticker/activity books, travel games, or whatever your child will like.

8. I read this idea in Family Fun magazine a couple of years ago. I no longer have the issue to give exact credit...but you can hang up a string through your car and then every time you go a certain distance, move a little car along the string to represent the distance traveled. For example, every 50 miles, move the car two inches along the string. (You will want to measure the string and figure out the distances in advance.) Then your kids can see visually how much progress you have made and hopefully won't be asking, "Are we there yet?" when you've barely left your house. :)

9. License plate games: Look for license plates from each of the fifty states as you travel. You can work together as a family or turn it into a competition. You can just shout out the plates you see or you can create a list of the 50 states and try to mark each one off as you see it (or make tally marks to show how many times you see it.)

10. Another license plate game: Use license plates to practice math. Have your child add or subtract (or even multiply) the numbers on a license plate... For example, my license plate has the numbers 1 and 4 on it. It could be 4-1 = 3. Or 4+1=5. Or 4 x 1 =4. If the plate had 9, 6, and 3, then there would be even more choices... 9 + 6 +3 = 18 or 9+6=15-3=12 and so on.... This could be used for mental math practice (done in the child's head) or they could write the numbers down and solve it. You can choose which operation they should use (+, -, or x) or let them choose.

11. Have them complete math or language arts practice pages in a workbook. I sent home the math workbooks we used this past year and there were quite a few pages that were not used. (Many other teachers do this as well.) Kids can complete a few pages in the workbook. Or some workbooks can be purchased at the dollar store, Walmart, book stores and so on. Or rather than a math workbook or reading workbook, buy them a book of puzzles or other fun activities. Often these include math or reading practice and kids don't even realize it.

12. If your child isn't prone to car sickness, then have your child read.
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I hope that some of these activities will make your next car trip more enjoyable. I'd love to hear if you have activities you use on car trips that I haven't mentioned. I've shared some other ideas for making car trips fun and educational on a previous posthere.

Field Day 2012

Thanks to our amazing special ed teacher, Ms. Cahoon, we had a wonderful field day today. It was especially great for second grade because we just finished learning all about the continents and our field day was a "trip" around the world to play games based on the animals found on each continent. We began our journey in Europe with the terrier...as students used fuzzy, staticky gloves to carry balls (balloons) in a relay race. In North America, we played an opposum game where we passed leaking cups of water over our head. Then we traveled to the North Pole to have dog sled races. Our next adventure took us to_____________________ where we played tag. The kids without water bottles tried to tag those with water bottles. If you were tagged, you had to freeze until a team member sprayed you with water. Then in Australia we did kangaroo hopping games... using potato sacks, big bouncy balls and a trampoline and hula hoops. In antarctica, we acted as penguins and carried our eggs (a ball) between our legs to protect them. Then we reached the South Pole, and there were no animals. But it was quite cool as we enjoyed a frozen treat. Perhaps our favorite visit was to Asia, where the elephants used their trunks to spray water into buckets (and all over the kids holding the buckets.) Everyone got soaked during this fun game. Then in Africa, we used hulahoops. Finally, we sailed across the oceans. We did a "plunger" relay where we used plungers to carry a ball. Then, before we headed back home to our classroom, we took a group photo. Aren't we a nice looking class?

Summer learning

Just stumbled across a great article about how to help your kids continue to learn throughout the summer. I will be posting about this as well, but for now, I thought I'd include the link to the article I read. It's got some great ideas.Motherhood Matters--summer activities