We've been working this week to publish our animal non-fiction books. The kids made final changes on Monday morning then learned how to share a document with me electronically. We are now working to create our covers and paste/tape our typed work into the books. The kids have done so much over the course of this project. Just a few things I can name off the top of my head are...
Read non-fiction text
Read for specific information
Use text features to locate information quickly
Determine/Differentiate importance of facts
Access information from visual features (maps, photos, diagrams, etc)
Sort information
Create big ideas/categories for information
Organize information in a logical manner before writing
Write informational text
Use a mentor text (published book) to inspire new sorts of writing in our work
Turn facts into writing that invites the reader in
Type an extended document
Cut/Paste/Format photos from the internet to a document
Use bold, italics, and underline
Plan the layout of a book
Work on a project for an extended period of time
Access their Chrome accounts from home
Share a document electronically
Learn about animals
Use animal measurements to create fractional/scale representations
That's a good, good list. I'm so incredibly proud of all the kids. They each took on this work in their own way and persevered. In fact, they remained awfully energetic throughout the entire process. We'll finish up the books early next week and share them out with the school on Friday afternoon between 12:00 - 1:30. We'd love for you to come if you can!
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| We used books in the room as mentor pieces to help us plan how our covers might look. As you can see on my cover, I took a number of ideas from my mentor book. |
We have also been researching some of the Native American tribes living in the geographic area that came to be South Carolina. We began this work with a study of stereotypes. As mentioned in earlier newsletters, the kids poured over images, ads, videos, and interviews to learn of all the ways society works to make sweeping assumptions about a group of people as though they are all the same. Sometimes these assumptions are based on partial truths and other times they are based on outright lies. Studying stereotypes was a wonderful way to begin thinking about Native Americans - a group that is oft stereotyped. The kids created small sketches showing all they thought they knew about Native Americans and then wrote a short narrative underneath explaining what they had drawn. We listed these on the board under the headers "Look", "Speak", "Behave", and "Live". After we had them all listed we looked back to see which ones we suspect could be stereotypes. The kids then broke into groups and began researching the Cherokee, Catawba, Edisto, and Yemasee tribes.
However, before researching these tribes we thought aloud about how the South Carolina State Standards might have chosen these rather than the other twenty-five or so tribes that were also living in this area. The kids ideas included:
These were the biggest tribes
These were the strongest tribes
These tribes had the most artifacts remaining
They were randomly chosen
They weren't alike and showed variety
They did something important
They were the most interesting
The idea that history holds many facts and someone has to choose among these is a perspective we will often take over the course of the year.
The kids are now working in their groups to share their information in a mural/informational poster. Here are some pics of the kids at work...
That's it for this week. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving!!!
Chris
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