Give a Mouse a Cookie...

I decided on the book "Give a Mouse a Cookie" because it excites children and is very funny. There are a lot of things that the students could get from the book, this could be predicting what the mouse would do next, concluding what the author's message was, or even writing a new story from the young boy's point of view. The students could do a lot of hands on activities like do each of the activites the mouse did in real life, write down the sequence of their daily life, or even predict what the mouse would do next. This is a fun book and would be an exciting adventure for the class to go on.

I decided to do this book as a literature focus. I chose this because it is all I have seen done in my Reading Workshops that I observed. The teacher I observed does similar activies like I listed above. She would read one book and they would do author's message, infering and predicting, and point-of-views.

Being creative in the schools...

I have been observing a 2nd grade classroom for the past month and I have learned so much from the teacher. She makes learning fun for the students and is always so excited to teach. The last class I went to observe the students were getting ready for the "writing cafe". They had written poems in class and the following day they were to wear all black. The students were going to act out their poems for the class and pretend as if they were a cafe. The students were so excited and I even got a preshow. Everyone was having so much fun, and to think that these students were doing it while learning. I will use a lot of her techniques in my own classroom. Creativity is a key to a successful classroom!

Ms. Kimball's Class

I am observing a second grade class and I absolutely love the teacher I observe. She is not only an excellent teacher, but she is a great friend and role model for the students. I have been to her class during the reading and writing workshops. She is always there to guide their students, but she allows the students to do their own work at their own pace.

Reading Workshop: This was a workshop on inferring. She read aloud to the students and they had to listen for words that they didn't know. After the story was over she called on students to come up and write the words they didn't know. Then they had to use context clues, pictures, and their schema to gather a meaning of the word. And for each word she called on three different students to hear what their interpretation of the word was. Then after "circle time" they went into pairs. In the pairs they had to read to each other and while one was reading the other one had to come up with questions. The trick was that the questions had to be "burning questions". This allowed her the opportunity to observe each student individually.

Writing Workshop: During my visit she had the students write a poem on a topic of their choice. But, they had to use the 5W's, what, who, where, when, and why. Then after they wrote their poem they shared with the class.

This class is amazing because the energy is so high and the students are very well behaved. Each time I have been there the students did not sit at their desks and they were always moving around. And surprisingly they got their work done in a speedy manner and they were in an envirnoment that they personally feel comfortable in!