Recent Announcements 2019-2020
March 25th: At Home Online Reading Program
During this break from the classroom, I have signed our class up for an online reading program at home. Each student has their own Raz-Kids reading account and is set to their approximate reading level. They are terrific books! To access: A computer or Chromebook: Go to https://www.kidsa-z.com/main/Login Enter your teachers name as follows: pmjohnson Have your child click on their name. Their password is the first 4 letters (all lower case) of their last name as it appears on the school's attendance. Please let me know if you have any difficulties (through Remind or my email which is located on this page). Best regards, P. Johnson |
Students Building Strong Structures out of Paper
Students were given up to 30 pieces of paper and tape. Their challenge was to build a structure that could support a pile of books.     |
Visualising a Story
Recently, I read the story "Fuzzyland" to students. This story is about a warm fuzzies (which symbolize appreciations and kindness) and cold pricklies (which symbolize put downs and negative feelings). It takes place in a fantasy land. Students were asked to visualize Fuzzyland and then afterwards, work in teams to try and draw a map of it. The results were amazing!   |
The Power to Visualise
 RecentlyI introduced the second reading power to help with comprehension: The Power to Visualize. Students practiced visualizing different objects in their head such as rainbows, dogs and ice cream cones. We called these picture words since they were a lot easier to picture then say a word like at.
Afterwards I read them the following story:
I want you to visualize a lollipop. This lollipop is on a white stick and it has a wrapper on it. Visualize yourself holding this lollipop. I want you to notice the color and shape and size of this lollipop. Some lollipops are big, and some are small, some are round and some are flat —what does yours look like? Now I want you to visualize yourself taking off the wrapper. Listen to the sound as you take the wrapper off. Put the wrapper in the garbage. Now I would like you to visualize yourself taking a lick of the lollipop. What flavor is your lollipop? Take another lick. Now put the lollipop, if it’s not too big, in your mouth. Suck on it for a while. Listen to the sound it makes when it hits your teeth. Now take a bite. Listen to the sound the bite makes. Now crunch your lollipop and really get the flavor in your mouth. Some of the candy sticks in your teeth. Now visualize yourself as you take the lollipop out of your mouth. Look at what is left on your stick. Open your eyes. Students then discussed the following questions about their lollipop with a partner:
1. What color was your lollipop? 2. What size? 3. What shape? 4. What flavor? 5. After you took a bite, what did your lollipop look like? We concluded the lesson by discussing that people's lollipops are all different because they have different experiences.
The follow-up to the lesson was reading a book called Swimmy by Leo Lionni. Students listened to the story without seeing the pictures. Together, we drew some of the pictures we visualized in our heads and labelled them with words. Afterwards, we compared the pictures we drew from the actual pictures from the story. |
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