Listen. Connect. Empower.

We began our Reading Without Walls challenge with a " topic " challenge.  (See my previous post).  This week had us digging in to the " character " and " format " challenges. We discussed how a character might look different: Hair or eye color Length of hair Skin color Clothing - it could be from a different country or period of time We discussed how a character might live differently: The story takes place in a different time. The character has a different culture and celebrates different holidays. We don't play the same things.  For example, I am an indoor kid and like to play video games.  I am not like kids that like to run around outside and play. We speak different languages. The character isn't human. The character has an accent. The character lives in the forest. The character is homeless.  I have a house. 1st and 2nd grade students looked for a character challenge book and brought it to the rug.  On the rug students

The project To start the new year I decided to have my students take a closer look at their reading and challenge themselves as readers.  I used Gene Luen Yang's Reading Without Walls challenge. We would spend some time in our collection identifying a variety of books to challenge our reading selves. Our 1st challenge - topics we don't know much about What I learned My students WILL read outside of their comfort zone if I provide them with the time and tools to do so.  Having their friends invested in this journey with them played a huge role.  I watched books get checked out that have sat on shelves for ages.  Sharing choices was key.  Here was how Day 1 of the 2 day challenge went: The lesson We began by discussing what our favorite kind of books are - we all have those.  The challenge was to read outside of our comfort zone.  We talked about what might happen.  I proposed the 3 part challenge: Our return to school following vacation was rather rock

Our music teacher obtained grants to take the entire 2nd grade district-wide to see the Nutcracker .  We worked together to prepare our students for what they would see on the stage ( see my last post ).  Following the field trip, students wrote about their favorite part of the ballet.  One teacher decided to take her students' writing one step farther and venture into an unknown world to her - computer programming.  Together, we had these 2nd graders code their experience.  Within an hour and a half these 2nd grade students who had never used Scratch Jr before had created scenes from the Nutcracker like this battle scene with the Nutcracker and the Mouse King. I was coding with my 2nd graders during Library time and giving them choices for coding activities.  However, I decided to use my limited time wisely with this particular class and use our time to get familiar with Scratch Jr (a program they had never used before). Day 1: We learned how to use Scratch Jr and cr

Our music teacher came to see me one day, excited about the grants she obtained to take the entire 2nd grade district-wide to see the Nutcracker .  This fabulous experience would be absolutely FREE for students and she wanted to know if I would like to collaborate with her.  Of course! Quick aside and brief disclosure: I danced in a ballet company, taught dance for 14 years, and don't remember a time when I didn't dance, so I was beside myself with excitement. A rare pic from my former career  We decided that I would share the story of the Nutcracker during library time and create centers for students to further explore three pieces from the Nutcracker : March Trepak Waltz of the Flowers   She would have the students further experience the three musical pieces during music class and they would produce a written reflection in their classrooms.  My most exciting collaborative venture was a 2nd grade teacher that had expressed interest in coding.  We talked about