Comparing stories, Geometry, Maps and More

Good morning everyone! I'm finally starting to do the countdown. I don't know how many days are left, but I'm counting weeks. We have only four weeks left! I know some of you are already done or have only days left. It's crunch time now! 

Here are a few things we did this week. 

We read several versions of Jack and the Beanstalk. First, we read the original and they sequenced the story with a Read and Sequence sheet from my Fairy Tale unit. 

Then we read Jenny and the Cornstalk. 

This book is the perfect book to do a Venn diagram. As I read, they would raise their hands if they found a similarity or a different. I wrote it on sentence strips (if I had more time, I would've had them write it). Then we placed it on our  invisible Venn diagram. 

After reading, we made sure our sentence strips were in order. We sequenced both stories using the sentence strips. This made it easier to do our writing assignment which came next. I don't have a picture of it though. :( For shared writing, we used our class venn diagram to write about how these two stories were alike and different. I really wish I took a picture! I'll update this post after I get a pic.  I color coordinated it so the opening and closing sentences were one color, the similarities another color and the differences in yet another color. For this one, we retold the story together, putting similarities and differences as we went. The colors helped to see the structure of our paper. I love shared writing! It's such a nice way to teach those difficult writing skills. 

Kids did their own venn diagrams on their own too.

We also read Giants Have Feelings Too. I love this book because it shows the giant's perspective. 

Then we completed this worksheet:

I love this because it really makes them think about both "sides".

Here are two other books we read that are also really fun:

and for one of my guided reading reading groups, we read these from readinga-z.com

 

In writing workshop, we tried to do our own comparative writing. It is tough for them to do that on their own! Last week we had read two versions of Three Little Pigs and used sticky notes to write down similarities and differences. I took my sticky notes and organized them like this to show sequence. The similarities have just one sticky and the differences have two to show the two stories. For example, the two stories were the same until after the wolf blew down the houses. Then in one story, he ate the first two pigs but in the other, the pigs ran away to the 3rd brother's house.

It was way too hard for most to write a comparison like this (sequencing the story and comparing together), so  we used this format: Opening sentence. Name two similarities, two differences then closing. 

After taking this picture, I drew two lines at the bottom in that  same blue color for the closing. This was much easier!

 For Social Studies, we did map skills. One of the activities we did was make our own maps. I should've taken a picture when they were done!

This comes from Michelle's unit:

THere are so many cute activities in this unit!

In math, we are deep into geometry. We did a lot of activities  from Jen's fabulous unit:

They loved the geoboards! There are also tons of cute flashcards in here that I love!

I also used a ton of stuff from this fabulous unit:

I love this shape flip book and my students were SO excited about the Star Wars theme. 

Last but not least, I've been working on Kindergarten centers. It's late for this year, but maybe you could use it next year. Here's a peak at the menu. If you are a kinder teacher and would like to take a peak at it to give me some input before I post it, I would LOVE that! 

Cinderella Freebie and a Winner

Hi everyone! Just a quick post to announce the winner of my Fairy Tale pack and a little freebie for you all. Congrats to Brandy from Firstie Kidoodles! I'll email you my Fairy Tale pack tonight. :) I'll classroom post more action shots from this unit  later this week. I love me some fairy tales! 

Here's a little freebie for you all. I hope you can use it. :) If you download, I'd love to hear what you think. Your comments about your favorite fairy tales were so fun to read. :)

Click on the picture to download this freebie:

Clip art by Melonheadz

Head over to my Facebook page to see the other winner over there!

To check out the rest of this Fairy Tale literacy pack, click here. 

Fairy Tale Unit

Happy Mother's Day! I promised I'd show a full preview of my fairy tale unit. We are having so much fun with this. We will be doing more fairy tale activities this week because there is so much to choose from! 

Goldilocks: 

• character analysis
• Read and sequence
• Sequence writing
• cause and effect
• Author's purpose

Cinderella: 

• character feeling chart
• Read, THink, Match
• two story maps
• character analysis
• Writing about endings
• Comparing stories (T chart and writing)

Jack and the Beanstalk: 

• Character Analysis
• Should Jack Take the Gold? T chart 
• Read and Sequence
• Venn Diagram (to use with Jenny and the Cornstalk)

3 Little Pigs: 

• Cause and effect
• character analysis
• Read and Sequence
• 2 Story maps and summary page
• Venn Diagram
• T chart
• Comparing Tales writing page and graphic organizer

• My Side of the Story: speech bubbles with writing page
• Persuasive writing: convincing reader that a bad character isn't so bad

Hansel and Gretel

• character analysis
• Problem solution map

• Little Red Riding Hood: Read and Sequence and Author's Purpose
• Rumpelstiltskin story map
• Snow White: Character feelings comparison chart and Read, Think, Match (not pictured)

• Fairy Tale opinion questions
• Favorite story prompt with rubric (two formats)
• 2 Sentence writing pages

• Story maps for any fairy tale
• Read, Visualize Draw for any fairy tale
• Flip a Fairy Tale writing activity

• Comparing Fairy Tales writing prompt (to use with any fairy tale): 3 formats

• Comparing Stories chart
• Venn Diagram
• Comparing tales sticky note planning page and writing page

Word Work: 

• Enchanted e: Making words with and without silent e
• Syllable sort: two options
• Royal Words: real or nonsense
• Noun Sort

• Fill a Verb
• Summary Slide
• Sentence Scrambler
•  

• Read, Think, Match 
• Fairy Tale letter writing
• Mix a Fairy tale (with picture  cards and sorting mat to guide writing)

You can get this unit here:

   

If you would like to get this unit for free, leave me a comment below telling me your favorite fairy tale or fairy tale activity. I'll pick a winner tomorrow night! 

Swing by my facebook page for another chance to win!

Fairy Tales: comparing and summarizing

Last year I combined all of the activities that I've used over the years and made a little fairy tale unit. That is one of my favorite units! I thought that this year I would just pick and choose from that unit and my planning/prep would be all done. Sounds like a plan, right? Well clearly I have a problem! I just had to add to it and give myself more work. I can't help myself. You know how it is: every class inspires you in different ways. Every year I read the same fairy tales, but new ideas always pop into my head. Sometimes it has to do with a question from a student or something that a few of them need to work on. Not sure why it happens, but it does. Inspiration is all around us, so of course it makes sense that you would add to a unit  the next year. Well that's what I've done here! I LOVE all the additions. I'm having so much fun so far and there is so much more to do. Of course I can't fit it all   in, but then that leaves some new stuff for next year or the year after. No getting bored here!

So here's where we started:

My girls really wanted to read Cinderella and spend some more time with it. One thing that this class is working on is summarizing stories. So I wanted to give them some more opportunities to practice this skill. They can always tell me what is happening when I ask leading questions. First, we filled  out the graphic organizer. Then they filled out this summary page. 

 

For morning work, they completed this Read, Think, Match with the main characters. 

Here are a few other activities that you could do with Cinderella to shake it up from year to year.

~Comparing feelings at different points in the story with different characters.

~character analysis: stepmom 

~Alternate ending for Cinderella

~Opinion writing: favorite version of Cinderella with graphic organizer

~T chart for comparing versions

Next, we read The Three Little Pigs. 

I read this version first: 

This is one of the older versions. (I read this one because it is different than than the others that I will discuss later.)

For this book, students completed two different summaries: one focusing on the wolf and the other focusing on the pigs. 

 

They also filled out this Read and Sequence page. (They cut out the events and glued them in order)

Next, we read The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig.  As we read, I had students raise their hands if they noticed a similarity or a difference. I wrote these on stickies and placed them under the correct column. I was modeling this process of comparing because I was planning on having them do it during guided reading. 

After reading, they completed this simple T chart comparing the two stories. 

During reading groups, they got  the opportunity to practice finding those comparisons. They were instructed to compare their story to the first book we read (the yellow and orange one below). We  flipped through the book to review the story. Then they were given another version. Below are the two I used. One is from readinga-z.com (highly recommend buying a subscription) and the smaller one is from scholastic. (I actually own the whole set of easy reader fairy tales but you can download extra copies on their website). Readinga-z.com actually has three different levels of The Three Little Pigs so you can find one for all of your readers!

Students were given sticky notes and this student sheet. 

As they read their book, they wrote down similarities and differences. This was a great activity to do during guided reading. Some kids were able to fly with this, while others needed some extra guidance. 

 

My next step will be to use those stickies to write about those comparisons using one of these pages (three choices to provide different levels of support). 

This was a simple little comparison chart that we did that just compares the beginning, middle and end of each story. 

Our last version was of course the fabulous True Story of the Three Little Pigs.

This is something I created last year:

In the speech bubbles, they write what those characters would say (their perspective). At the bottom, they wrote about who they believed. 

And of course, a Venn diagram:

For a writing activity, they wrote about their favorite version. The planning sheet was done by me and we brainstormed ideas together. Most students had this page:

and some had some more support using this one:

Since three of the five versions have the same title (The Three Little Pigs), they wrote the author.

And  there are a few more Three Little Pigs Activities for another year:

~cause and effect

~Beginning, middle, and end

~Story map

These are just some of the additions to this unit. I'll be posting more later. To see the original unit and some more action shots with student work, click here. 

To buy this unit, you can get it at one of my stores.