Actual Size

I love this book:

Here’s why:

1. Steve Jenkins’ books are awesome.

2. There is so much that you an do with this book!

3. Nonfiction texts suitable for reading a loud are sometimes tricky to find.  They can often be too long, or too wordy, or full of so many text features that don’t necessarily lend themselves to be read in full out loud. This text is simple, as the images are really the focal point of the book. 

4. The images in the text are actual size!  Large and small animals are included.  Some images only show part of the creature.  Others show the full animal.

5. It includes many features of nonfiction: comparisons, bold text, a glossary which gives more detailed information about each animal, and measurements.  Which leads me to my next point…

6. It includes measurements!  This means that it can easily be integrated into math(one con for fellow Canadians here, it’s all in imperial).  I had to convert the measurements to metric for my students, however that became another teachable moment in itself. 

Now, I have to credit a co-worker of mine for coming up with this next idea…

7. Once you’ve integrated this into math, it can then be integrated into art.

At this point I need to digress a little…

I teach a unit that combines explicit instruction on the features of nonfiction texts, inquiry, and report writing.  It is all done under the theme of stewardship for creation.  I will post more on this in the future…  So, during this unit, the students did some research on endangered species.  They all ended up choosing a species (each student had to choose a different animal), and researched the animal to write a report (Tony Stead is my guru on report writing).  It is here that we began to incorporate the artwork.

8. Now, I can’t take credit for this idea because it came from my grade partner, but nonetheless, it’s a great one and the kids loved it.  We created our own actual size artwork.  This was a time consuming project and required a lot of assistance from myself and classroom volunteers, but the kids really loved it, and they got a lot out of it.

Here’s a few samples:

So, first students had to do some research to get the dimensions of their animal.  Then they printed a picture of either the animal.  Since the students were told to focus on just one part of the animal, we had to then determine the measurement of that body part based on the total length or height of the animal. To do this, they cut out the picture of the animal and glued it onto some 1cm grid paper.  Then they had to determine the scale of each image using the actual measurements (for example,  if a bald eagle’s wingspan is 230 cm and on grid paper the picture of the wingspan measures 10 squares, then you know that each square represents 2.3 cm.  If the student was focusing their artwork on one wing, they would then look at the length of that wing on the grid paper and multiply that by 2.3). That part was the most difficult (obviously) for the students.  It required a lot of help from myself and some classroom volunteers, but it all got done and the kids loved it.  I really wish I had taken a picture of the half a killer whale fluke that one of my students did.  It was so big, but so awesome!

What are some great nonfiction texts you like to use with your class?  What are some activities you like to do with them?

Books, Books, Books

I love books!  Over the years I have amassed quite the classroom library, along with many many read alouds.  I keep my read alouds stored separately from the books I allow the students to read.  Once I’ve read a text to the students, I put it in a “Teacher Read Aloud” bin for the students to take from and read whenever they’d like. 

The books in my classroom library, which I consider to be the books the students have access to whenever they like, are all placed in plastic bins from the dollar store.  I have each bin labelled and on that label is also a sticker.  For example, my Canada book bin has a label with a map of Canada on it, and also in the bottom corner is a Canadian flag sticker.  Then, each book in the bin has a Canadian flag sticker too.  This way, the students simply need to match the stickers to know which bin the books go in.  This saves me from finding random books in random bins.  I do, of course, have an “I don’t know where it goes” bin too – just in case.

The storage system I use for my read aloud picture books is quite simple.  I have tonnes of these:

They are the Flyt magazine holders from Ikea.  I like that they are super inexpensive at $2.99 for 5, and they fit a whole lot of books in each.  I label each bin with the strategy/subject/theme etc… of the books it contains. 

Now, at this point I would normally post a picture of my classroom bookshelves, however, I am currently enjoying the last few months of maternity leave.  So… all of my read alouds and classroom library are in boxes in my basement storage areas.  I have yet to decide if I want to bring all of my read aloud picture books back to my classroom with me when I return or if I want to set them up on bookshelves in the basement. 

Since I have so many different texts, I decided I wanted a digital tracking system to help me easily input a text what I would use it for.  For this I use www.goodreads.com . Goodreads is actually a social networking site for book lovers.  You input books you’ve read, rate them, and they will suggest other titles for you.  If your friends have an account, you can see what they’ve been reading, and recommend books to them.  What I have done is use it to input all of my picture books.  I then assign each book to a virtual “shelf”.  This way, the next time I’m developing a critical pathway or looking for a text to target a specific strategy, I can search my Goodreads shelves easily and from any computer which will help me with planning either at home or at school.  It’s taken me a while to input my books, but now that it’s done, I’m extremely happy with it.  No more searching through my actual books and bookshelves to find a book that fits a certain topic.  Any way that saves me time when planning out my lessons is a win in my book. 

What are some ways you keep your classroom libraries organized?

Getting Started

New Year, new blog for me.  I am currently in my tenth year as a primary teacher in Ontario, Canada.  I love what I do, and as much as I love learning from others in my profession, I also love sharing these helpful strategies, tips, and ideas with others.  Most of my best practices are ideas that have come from coworkers, or have been found by scouring the internet (mainly via pinterest) for what has worked for others.  I most often change the original idea and adapt it to my needs. Therefore, thought it was my turn to begin sharing some of what has worked for me in my classroom with others. I’m also hoping that documenting many of my ideas on here, will also help me remember them when I want to use them myself!  Thanks for stopping in, and I’ll have more posted here soon!

Steph