Is there anything more festive than a Christmas tree? I got this one up in my classroom and must say it was as much for me as it was for my kids. I spend most of my waking hours in these four walls, I want it to feel bright and happy.
We are working on ornaments to dress up this tree. I will show those to you in a later post. I think they will turn cute!
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I am also managing to squeeze in some holiday reading and just got a set of holiday poems written up and posted in just the knick of time.
We worked on one about a child who became overzealous in making a gingerbread house.
I liked using this one because it hit so many of our current reading targets.
Here is my CAFE board. I use this space to record our reading round targets.
We used the poem in our "Read with Partner" round.
Some of my students need fluency work in a huge way. They will read this poem multiple times, but have fun doing it.
Before reading, we worked on using our reading buddies to help us decode some multisyllabic words.
Third graders need lots of work with this.
We pulled "Eagle Eyes" and "Chunky Monkey" off the board to help us decode these two words.
Eagle Eye helps remind us to "look closely" inside a word for familiar word parts.
Chunky Monkey helps to remind us to break long words in pieces to help us decode or sound it out.
After reading it with a partner, they will add it to their poetry journals. Collecting poems in a journal allows them lots of opportunities to read and reread poems again and again.
Students are getting better at monitoring for meaning. My third graders are understanding that making a visualization or mind movie is a powerful comprehension strategy.
Here they had to sequence the making of the gingerbread house and show how it looked in the end. They had to read closely and carefully to catch the details.
This poem told a story with a problem and solution. Students recorded their understanding of
the story elements in their pictures.
The next day, the students work on answering the poetry follow up. This includes comprehension questions and some word work activities.
I love integrating math and reading, so I had my kids work on some math thinking connected to our poem. We are constantly reviewing past skills...they can't do it enough!
I have shared this set of holiday poems and math/language follow ups on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. You can check it out here:
How are you celebrating the season with your students?
Would love to hear!
Email me at youngdor8@gmail.com
or comment below!
youngdor8@gmail.com
