Reading is Thinking!
What is the difference between a retelling of the main idea/events and the theme of a book?
When we focus on the main idea, we talk about the characters and the actual events that happen in a book. Theme is much harder. For this we ask ourselves...what is this book really teaching me? For this we have to infer or read between the lines to understand what the message, lesson or moral of a book is.
We have done this all year orally with the books I read aloud but now we are moving towards more independent work.
First partners sorted cards about possible main ideas and themes.
We created a list of some common themes in books.
Then we read Henry and Mudge the First Book by Cynthia Rylant all together as a class. We shared out some ideas and then they got to work on a story map I created that pulls together our character work, main idea and theme.
Here are some examples of what this looks like in first grade:
Now the kids have "shopped" for a series that they would like to read. They will read these with a partner or small groups and complete the story map that we used for the Henry and Mudge book.
Our reading work has paved the way beautifully for our realistic fiction writing unit
Here are some stories in the works...
In math the students learned how to use an open number line to add double digit numbers. We will use open numbers lines a lot in second grade.
Building number sense....can you find where the 60 from the equation is on the number line? The 30?
In their math books they used any strategy they wanted.
Mathematicians always justify how they get their answers!
We use the smartboard a lot to share our math thinking and discoveries.
The students learn a lot from one another.
Fun Four Winds-bird calls and songs
Make up your own bird! These were amazing!
Little yogis-they still LOVE to explore yoga!
Have a lovely week!
