Showing posts with label The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Show all posts

Friday, April 27, 2012

 Repeat Read Alouds


"Here are the ones who know magic:
The young
The old
The brave
The honest
The joyful."
We just finished reading aloud Waiting for the Magic, by Patricia MacLachlan.  Oh my goodness, this book is amazingly sweet, but addresses some relevant issues.  Willian, the older brother is narrating the story.  His dad walks out on the family, so William's mom decides they need a dog (the dad never liked animals) they end up with four dogs...and a cat!  Throughout the story, the animals start to talk, but only the ones ready for the magic can hear them.  As a class we guessed which character was the young, the old, the brave, the honest, and the joyful.  And I wish I had pictures of their faces when they realized one of the characters was finally "hearing" the magic.  Precious!

Do you have "must read" chapter book read alouds.  When I first started teaching, I was intrigued by teachers who could read the same chapter book read alouds every year.  Especially with books I just thought were, okay.  Now that I have been teaching for a while I have realized I have started a shelf of chapter books that previous classes have loved so so so much, that I have to read the next year's class and the class after that, and the class after that.....

My two repeat offenders are The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo and Toys Go Out by Emily Jenkins.  Both about toys/dolls....hmmm....




And now Waiting for the Magic will be added to the list.

Happy Friday,
 

Friday, March 2, 2012

 And the Science Never Ends...

We did our last experiment today.  Super similar to yesterday except that we looked at the diameter of the straw instead of length.  The goal is to get us really familiar with the Scientific Method, before we move into our marble inquiry unit.
Hypothesize and Plan:
 Cooperatively choose who will start:
Rock, Paper, Scissors is always a fair way to decide...
Here the three different straw diameters we used:
 More Measuring:
Here is a the data collection form we used.

Next week we are celebrating Dr. Seuss Week.  (We chose not to do it this week because of Leap Day excitement AND the 100th Day of School)  We have a door decoration activity and my class really wanted to do The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  (One of the the best read alouds ever...If you have not read it, quit reading this blog, find a copy, and start!)   However we hadn't finished the book yet, so we marathon-ed our way through and finished it today.  I have never seen a group so into a chapter read-aloud.  I think we read 3/4 of the book this week and my kids begged not to stop!  Now that we have finished the book, we can start planning the door.  Then I found this somewhere on the web and thought I would share.
Happy Finally Friday,
Laurie