Final

Today ended our author study on Aliki Brandenberg. To wrap up all of the content covered, I created a powerpoint for the children and their families (they were allowed to bring in a best friend or someone close to them into the classroom for the day) to watch.

 

http://www.slideshare.net/SavannahFrazee/aliki-42766128

(above link is to our powerpoint presentation)

Our students and guests had a lunch, correlated alongside Corn is Maize as well as many other foods they enjoy. We also had many craft areas where they could do activities with certain books. Some activities were creating their own dinosaur, making Indian hats, making paper corn stocks, looking at fossils, creating your own hand-print fossil, and a writing station where they can communicate and write to other family members who did not make the party.

Surprise visit!

Guess who came and visited our classroom?

ALIKI!

The students were beyond thrilled that she came to our classroom and read aloud one of our favorite books so far, Digging up Dinosaurs. The students were also permitted to have Aliki sign one of their books that had been previously purchased. Here are some that were signed:

 

my best friend

The next book we focused on from Aliki was the book, Best Friends Together Again.

 Moving away can be hard and feelings may arise of that your old friends may not like you still or have the same interests as you. However, Aliki puts that myth to rest and creates a book about two boys separated but still remain friends through the distance. As a class, we talked about our best friends and what it takes to be a best friend. Here is a few that made our very long list:

We also decided that we would use the form of communication, letter writing, as a way to tell one of our best friends about all sorts of things going on at school. We even set up a pen pal partnership with another surrounding elementary school and the students began writing back and forth to each other. They loved it!

quiet in the garden

Today we picked up on our discussion of crops. Yesterday we discussed corn but also took a look at other crops such as wheat, rye, oats, barley, and rice. There are so many more creatures and plants in our ecosystems that we may and may not be aware of. I read aloud, Quiet in the Garden.

Aliki's book focuses on all aspects of our environment, what we hear, see, and feel. From spiders to rabbits, there is so much to take in from being outdoors. There are also many different types of environments and students watched the video below in order to gain a better understanding of the many types.

We extended this thought on by taking a trip to the Kokosing Gap Trail. Our intention of doing so, is that children can become aware with this site in town in which you can take the environment in. They were able to take home specimens and pictures of all sorts of creatures, plants, and wildlife. Afterwords, we developed our pictures and labeled them in our own classroom book that we also binded together.

Corn is Maize

Our focus shifted to the book, Corn is Maize: The Gift of the Indians. 

 Did you know that corn can also be called maize? As a class we found out where corn came from, how it is grown, and the different stages it undergoes. Do you like corn? Most of us do, some don't.

 

We then took a look at the timeline on corn which told us not only when and where it came from but also the many uses of corn today.

Afterwards, we made Indian hats, for Indians were a huge part in the book and the understanding of how we have gotten where we are today.

 

Wrap up

Today, we wrapped up our mini dinosaur unit. We talked about all of the different dinosaurs we saw. From the T-Rex to all of the plant eating dinosaurs, the students gained a load of information. We discussed our favorite parts of the day and how big some of the dinosaurs were compared to us!

Afterwards, we decided that we needed to write thank you letters (a form of communication we might add) to Cosi and all of the parents that volunteered to join us on the trip to Cosi. Here are a few examples of student's cards to volunteers and Cosi.

Cosi Visit

Today we went to Cosi!!

Digging up Dinosaurs

Our continued focus is on dinosaurs. Today we read, Digging Up Dinosaurs. 

Dinosaurs have such hard names to pronounce! But the students loved looking and seeing different types of dinosaurs. Some included were: T-Rex, Brachiosaurus, and Corythosaurus. Some students even mentioned seeing the Jurrasic Park movies and how they even scared them! Digging up Dinosaurs also touched back on the formation of fossils and how they are discovered and researched. (as previously studied)

The video above was a fun song describing different dinosaurs and their traits. We also watched other videos regarding dinosaurs.

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We also took a look at a powerpoint with a few different slides containing dinosuars.
Dinosaur powerpoint

(Above link goes directly to the power point)
After looking at many different types of dinosaurs, from herbivore to carnivore, students were able to color and create their own dinosaur. A few different templates were given:

Cosi and Dinosaurs

Today I sent home a newsletter for the parents of the students. In my newsletter, I informed them that as a class, we are taking a trip to Cosi to see their dinosaur exhibit. Their exhibit directly correlates to our book we read later in the class, Fossils Tell of Long Ago.

 Fossils are time capsules in our history. Plants and animals that have passed and turned to stone are preserved. Scientists study fossils to help us figure out what, who, and when things came before us. Dinosaurs are one of the many fascinating fossils found.

Afterwards, we talked about how fossils are preserved in the stone. As an activity, we gave clay to every child. Each child was able to put their hand-print in the clay and write their name. We then sat them out to let them dry. They made their own fossils!

Feelings

What are feelings? Our class found out today about all different types of feelings we have at different times. Aliki's book Feelings was adapted into our lesson. Each page had different emotion and story to depict what the child is feeling.

We looked at different faces people make when they are showing different emotions:

But then each student was given the opportunity to draw how they were feeling at that exact moment. We as a class talked about how our moods change throughout the day, things may upset us or make us really happy so what we draw on the paper may not be what we feel at the end of the day. Here is an example of one of my students' artwork:

Mylee, "happy, happy, happy!"

All by Myself

Today we focused on Aliki's book, All By Myself! As a class we made a list of things we knew we could do beforehand, as well as things that we may need some help with, whether that help be from our parents or peers. Here is our class list that we came up with:

We then read All By Myself! It is a short simple book of all of the things the little boy does throughout the day. After reading, we compared what we can do, to what he can do.

Communication

Today we began the first of many activities in coordination to our Aliki study. Our first book we began reading was Communication. Before we read the book, we talked about many ways we communicate. Here is our list we came up with:

After we made our list, we began reading Communication. Throughout the book, it discussed several different forms of communication such as talking in person, on the phone, through mail, ect. But it also touched on how it may be hard to communicate with one another because of our thoughts and feelings. But communication is also listening to one another. 

 After the read, we decided to look at braille, a form of communication. 

We practiced all letters of the alphabet together and then we all wrote our names using braille. Here are a few students examples:

Introduction

Today we began our author study on Aliki Brandenberg. I gave the students a brief introduction on who she is, her accomplishments, and other facts on her in the power point below. This was just a brief outline of what is to come in the next few weeks.

Aliki Presentation