MLK Wall Mural and Book Talks

For MLK Jr. Day this year, I teamed up with another teacher and we created this amazing wall mural of MLK!  The template came from Art Projects for Kids and was $5. - totally worth it.  Each student in the two classes used oil pastels to color one 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper.  Then we put it all together and created a huge wall mural. 

I can't take too much credit for the idea, because my co-worker, the amazing and talented Mrs. H came up with the idea. I then begged her to let me include my class :-)  Here is the final product!

How are you addressing this standard? 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.4 Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.

I am having my students do book talks.  I have them complete these at home and then present them at school.  So far, they have NOT gone well - uggghhh! 

I tried giving them a form to fill out that included title, author, genre, etc.  Then I had a beginning, middle, and end area to help them with their summaries.  What I ended up getting back was, "In the beginning he went to the store, in the middle their was a dog, and at the end he found what he was looking for..." 

So basically, they totally missed the point! It was torturous to listen to the presentations and the kids were completely restless and uninterested!

Luckily, I was browsing through Pinterest, and came across an interesting idea!  I had to modify it big time because it was for the upper grades, but I think the kiddos will have more fun.  Basically, I sent home brown paper bags, a paper (copied on construction paper) that they will complete, cut out and put in the bag, and use as index cards when they present.  On the front of the paper bag, they will illustrate an original picture that captures the main idea of the story. Then they will have the cards and the bag to help them present.

In addition, I have been modeling and showing them video clips of other students giving book talks to help them get a better idea of what kind of summary I am looking for.

I also posted video examples of students giving book talks on my classroom blog for parents to view.  You can check it out at mrszunigas2ndgrade.blogspot.com.  There is a link at the top of this blog to my classroom site as well!

I am hoping that this will drastically improve the quality of talks and interest in presenting and listening to presentations!  I'll let you know how it goes.  I should mention that I work in a Title I school, so at-home projects can be difficult for some students!

My Snowman Came Alive!

Even though I haven't posted much lately, I've still been working behind the scenes!  Now that we are in the second trimester in our district, we are working on narrative writing.  So, I created a fun winter/holiday writing activity called "My Snowman Came Alive!"  Students can create their own snowman, bring it to life, and tell about the adventure they have!  Check it out here!

So many fun holiday things out there!  I'm working on another winter writing activity/unit for after the holidays!  I'm home with a sick kiddo, so it could even be done fairly soon :-)  Love feeling creative!

 

 

 



Turkeys and a bit of October Art

Our Turkeys in Disguise project is due tomorrow, but we got a few in early!  The pictures below show the very beginning of our wall display and a few of the early birds :-)  Along with this family activity, we will have students complete a Don't Eat the Turkey Persuasive Writing assignment - created by my awesomely talented co-worker, Mrs. H.

Angry Bird

Fancy Lady

Musician

 

Futuristic Spider Man

 

 

They are coming out so cute!  I can't wait to see the rest tomorrow!

Here are a few October art projects and craftivities I did last month.  The bat acrostic poem template and bat craft came from Erica Bohrer's Batty for Bats unit.  My students had so much fun doing this! 

They also really enjoyed learning how to draw cats in pumpkins.  I used the step-by-step instructions from Kathy Barbaro.  She has amazing ideas for art projects on her blog Art Projects for Kids!

 

 

The bat drawing also came from Art Projects for Kids and Mrs. H. created the template for the bat couplet.  The kiddos had so much fun with one too!  The couplets were really fun too.  They enjoyed coming up with silly rhymes!