Stellaluna

Who doesn't LOVE the precious story about Stellaluna?!?  Knocked from her mother’s safe embrace by an attacking owl, Stellaluna lands headfirst in a bird’s nest. This adorable baby fruit bat’s world is literally turned upside down!  Love this story and the theme of friendship.

We used the Big Book version of this text all week for Shared Reading.  
   On Monday, I read the book and we focused on new vocabulary.  As much as I can with new vocabulary, I try to get the students up and  using  their bodies to help them remember the new words.        
   On Tuesday, we read the book again and I had the students work on fluency.  The girls read the text for Stellaluna in the character's voice and the boys read the bird's part.  
   On Wednesday, since we have been studying adjectives, the students described how Stellaluna felt at the beginning, middle and end of the book.  Great way to describe how character's feelings change as the book evolves, as well.  I got the idea from this beautiful lady here.

I really love the inferencing that one little angel did with the middle part of the book.  She said Stellaluna felt small inside.  I asked her why she thought that and she said that when "Momma Bird was yelling all the time at Stellaluna that it made Stellaluna feel like she couldn't do anything right.  If I was Stellaluna, I would have felt small inside."  Wow!  

On Thursday, we talked all about finding the text evidence to support our answers.  What a fun, engaging, interactive way to get these little babies prepared for next year's STAAR test!  (I never thought I'd see the day that I was putting in a plug for the STAAR test, but there you have it!) ;P

I gathered up as many copies of Stellaluna as I could find and split the students up into collaborative groupings.  I gave each group 2 of their adjectives on a piece of paper.  They were then responsible for searching and finding the textual evidence to support their answer.  The "scribe" wrote the answers down for the team.

I really love collaborative groupings.  It is such a life long lesson to learn to work together as a team.  To learn to distribute responsibility and listen to others' ideas.  

Afterward, the group selected an "orator" and they read their findings while the rest of team showed the page where the text evidence was found.

I cut out what they had written and taped it next to their adjectives.  I love to fill my room with student work, so this will eventually make it up on the wall for the students to re-read and reference.

On Friday, we watched the Reading Rainbow version of Stellaluna and had a special snack of mangos!  Awesome learning was had by all! :D

Word

Funday Monday!

I absolutely LOVE the beautiful bright colors in this Mudpie silk sleeveless dress.  To make it work for teaching, I paired it with my favorite white blazer from Jcrew.

I know, I know, you're not supposed to wear white after Labor Day but in these parts, where it's October and still hitting the 90's, we make some fashion concessions!  ;P  

Dress: Mudpie Blazer: Jcrew Shoes: Thierry Mueller

Frida Kahlo

September 15 through October 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month.  It is a month of paying tribute to the generations of Hispanic Americans who have positively influenced and enriched our nation and society.  My teammie next door was conquering a Diego Rivera mural so we decided to tackle a very difficult guided drawing of his wife, the very famous Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo.  Of course, we always start off by reading a great book!  You can find it here:

Because I didn't have the best directions for the kidos to follow, like I normally do for guided drawing, we did the best we could.  

 I think for 2nd grade they turned out so beautifully.  They loved adding the extra eyebrows!

Because Frida was a painter, I wanted to for sure have the students paint her portrait.  Lo and behold I completely forgot that watercolors were not on this year's supply list.  :/ hmpf  Soooo we used our tempera paint (Prang brand-the best in my opinion) and painted away.  I did not use special paper but used plain white cardstock.  It's not the best for durability, it does tend to roll up on the edges if you live in a humid state.  Hello Texas!  ;P

Love, love, love how these beauties turned out.  What a great tribute to a very talented lady!