This was a morning that I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to do. I was just feeling tired, and a little overwhelmed. At school breakfast, I had a student say, “Mrs. Anthony, you look tired, did you get enough sleep?” (She’s a kindergartener and very wise) If a kindergartener notice I knew it must be bad.
long mornings…
Anyway, right after morning announcements I have a group of second graders for a reading class. I was going through attendance and what we were going to do for the day when a little girl suddenly said, “I could really use a hug this morning”. Before I knew it I had 5 second grade girls giving me hugs, and I truly believe from that moment on my day was changed. I am actually not a huge hugger, but with little kids sometimes it is not an option, and somehow this morning they knew exactly what I needed.
PETER REYNOLDS BOOK STUDY
These students have been diving into an author study on Peter Reynolds and let me tell you we are all learning a lot. Not only does this man write some of the most insightful books ever, but his variety makes for a perfect book study to encompass advanced literacy topics, as well as address social emotional needs of so many different students.
One of the main themes we have seen him conveying over and over is “Keep going, never stop”! Is this not something we all need to hear! We have opened up some great discussions about the fact that no matter what stage of life you are in or what you may be going through you must keep going. It is funny how often I am learning from my students.
BOOK STUDY OUTLINE:
Here is a link to the printables I reference in this study
Word Collector
- Magazine poems (cut words out of magazines and put them together to form poetry. Supplies: magazines, construction paper, scissors, and glue. You can give them a topic, or they can choose their own).
Sky Color
- Make a list of other things we think are one color but are really multiple colors?
- Write about and illustrate a dream you had or wish you could have
The Dot
- READY SET DRAW VIDEO WITH PETER REYNOLDS
- Create your own dot picture, and write a story about it
Ish
- Character Venn diagram of the main character of Ish and main character of the do
Be You
- As a class: come up with a large list of adjective and character traits, students circle with one color adj. that describes them, and circle with another color adj. they hope to describe them in the future.
- Talk about flow: scientific term for when you are so caught up in something that you lose awareness of your surroundings.
Journal: when has this ever happened to you? How did it feel?
Happy Dreamer
- have a discussion about dreams
- Adjective book: brainstorm positive adj. Or phrases. Create an ABC class book with these.
- Journal: This is a list of my treasures…
- Reading about kids starting non profits (here is a great article to start)
- Come up with your own non-profit idea (last 2 pages in packet)
- Create cards for people (family member, nursing home, hospital, holiday)
- Story map
- Create a star (paper or tin foil) and write on it “your north star” (something very important or a goal)
- Vocab. Choices, scarcity, opportunity costs
- Your daily Schedule activity
- Meditation (excellent videos for kids on youtube)
- Talk about your family dinners, compare and contrast, Create conversation cards to use at the table at home.
- Graphic organizer showing things we like to do alone and together (each make one)
I Am (this is a series of book)
- Reflection paper
- Journal entry: Creative writing topic of your choice with the theme “keep going, never stop”
- Talk about famous failures