Shared Reading: Henry's Freedom Box

We are celebrating Black History Month in Room 209. We spend time listening to music, watching videos and sharing stories. On Friday, we read the amazing "Henry's Freedom Box".

The Important Book

We shared and were inspired by this book today.

The Important Book Ppt from ruthdemshick

Random Acts of Reading Aloud - by Gabby

Today at first recess, me, Fiona and Vickie were walking around the playground looking for kids or people to read to. We were able to find six people and then we found three more and then one of them decided to read, so they decided to read to us, so then that made thirteen people.

It was World Read Aloud Day today and to read aloud today in the playground was Fiona's idea for us. And Pat gave the idea to all of us.

We read Robert Munch's "More Pies" and Dr. Seuss's "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish". It was very interesting to do instead of doing something different. It was very fun!

-by Gabby

Later in the day, I read out loud to the whole class from "The Land of Stories", and then we paired up with Roy's class and read aloud with them to celebrate World Read Aloud Day! At the very end of the day, your ticket out of the room was to decide on a way that you would celebrate World Read Aloud Day at home. I hope you're all enjoying reading with your moms, dads, grandparents, brothers, sisters and pets! Some of you are even recording yourselves reading for your cousins and friends! So many great ideas!

-Shauna

We Give Books - Your Holiday Homework!

Have you read your five wegivebooks books yet? Remember, for every book you read, the Pearson Foundation donates a book to a child in need! Enjoy five books with our username: room209 and our password: steve and let me know in the comments below.

UPDATE: When you are done a book, the website will ask you to submit an email address. You can submit my email address: shauna.pollock@ocdsb.ca

If someone doesn't have Internet access on holiday, he or she can read five books during the first few weeks back!

Also, if you're feeling particularly philanthropic and have some time in the second week of school break, why not visit freerice?

Happy New Year to you all! I'm enjoying my holiday with my HUGE family in Florida, and look forward to sharing stories with you when I see you next week!

UPDATE #2: January 10th, 2013 - So far, our class has donated 33 books! Gabby, James, Camden, Fiona, Miguel and Thomas have each donated some books and I have gotten emails to let me know! Keep it up!

The Land of Stories: Predicting

Students are practicing making predictions in their reading. In our class, we made some predictions about what we thought was coming up next in our read-aloud book, The Land of Stories. Each student shared his or her ideas on an anchor chart. Many had similar ideas, but all were creative in their own specifics.

After finishing Chapter Four with a cliffhanger, students used their Writer's Workshop tools and predicting skills to write their own versions of Chapter Five. Some of them were so incredible, I felt like I was reading ahead in the book!

The Land of Stories: Characters, Setting and Plot

As we continue our read-aloud of The Land of Stories, we are practicing reading comprehension strategies, such as:

-making connections

-asking questions

-visualizing

-inferring

and

-predicting

We are also learning about Plot, Setting and Characters. We had a great class discussion where students recalled three details that they thought were important and added them to our anchor chart. They could share details about the characters in the story, the setting (both the where and the when) or the plot (which we started mapping on two separate plot lines - a real life and a fairy tale one)

Talking About "The Land of Stories"

On Monday, we continued our Read-Aloud of "The Land of Stories" by Chris Colfer. 

We started off with a great discussion about characters, setting and plot.

We talked about how characters are the people and animals in a story. The setting is the time and place where the story occurs. The plot is the action of the story and you can organize your thoughts about the plot in a timeline.

Then, each student had a few minutes to think about what they thought were important details about the story so far, and fill out two sticky notes with information. Everyone shared their ideas and we got into a surprising level of depth. The students in Room 209 are great listeners and thinkers!

DEAR Time

In Room 209, we LOVE to read. Students beg me for more DEAR Time every day. DEAR stands for Drop Everything and Read.

Ask your child about what he or she is reading in class. Many students have 2-3 books on the go at a time and are keeping them in their "Book Apartments".