Hanging Out with Stellaluna -- Pt. 3

Now that you've read Stellaluna to your class, it's time to extend the learning.  One of my goals with this study is to change my students' attitudes about bats.  To this end, I invite experts to come talk to my class.  I'm fortunate to live in a college town (Go ILLINI!) where it is easy to find a bat expert.  A professor from the U of I's Natural History Museum is kind enough to spend some time with my kiddos and brings lots of cool artifacts.  Moreover, I have a personal friend who is a caver and professor at the local community college.  She also gives her time to my class.

In addition to these awesome resources, I like to read several non-fiction books about bats to my class.  A couple of my favorites are Amazing Bats by Seymour Simon and Bats by Gail Gibbons.

Armed with new knowledge about bats, my class then completes a Venn Diagram comparing bats and birds.  I have always done this with the traditional 2 ovals intersecting in the middle.   Yesterday, as I was perusing Pinterest, I found this idea for putting the diagram on a bat.  Well, duh.

Well done Kinder by Kim!

Being a "poet-tree nut," I just have to include some poetry writing.  We write acrostics --

and bat shaped poems -- 

 

and stories -- 

Because I teach first grade, I don't assign factual reports to the class.  I do, however, challenge my gifted/enrichment students to create a factual report -- 

We make a bat nursery with origami bats --

and share our learning with the school --

Can you see the echolocation lines in Katie's drawing above?  They are purple lines right beside the bat's head.  

We publish a class book with all of our poems, stories, and reports.  One copy goes in our class library, one copy is given to the school library, and each student takes a copy home.

If you would like more ideas for teaching about bats through Janell Cannon's Stellaluna, check out my Hanging Out with Stellaluna product on TpT or TN.  In addition to the activities already discussed, Hanging Out with Stellaluna includes math journal prompts, origami directions, and center ideas, such as this phonics center vowel sort --

I don't need a standardized test to assess my students' learning.  It's obvious.  

 

Spring Fling Sale! & $1 Words FREEBIE

Hurry over to my TpT Store or my TN Shop and enjoy 20% off of EVERYTHING!

Did you try the $1 Word clues I posted yesterday?  If so, here are the answers:

                   1. cookout          2. chimpanzee          3. violins & autoharp

You will get a lot of bang for your buck when you introduce $1 Words to your students.  The skills they will hone include:

·        Addition computation

·        Calculator

·        Vocabulary

·        Parts of speech

·        Base words

·        Prefixes & suffixes

·        Participles

·        Singular & plural

·        Compound words

·        Spelling & proof-reading

·        Dictionary & thesaurus skills

·        Study skills

·        Internet skills

·        Critical thinking

·        Problem solving

·        Cooperative learning

This is a seriously integrated unit.  Your students will learn to pay close attention to verb tenses and singular/plural nouns. Before too long, they will realize that prefixes and suffixes can impact their calculations.  Encourage them to make an anchor chart of common affixes' values.  

If you make your $1 Words a competition, I have created rules to make it demanding and fair.  In the spirit of teamwork, I require every student to have someone on his/her team verify their answer before giving it to me.  The "verifier" has 2 important jobs:  check the addition & the spelling.  If a clue is turned into me with a wrong answer, the team not only does not score a point, they LOSE A POINT!  If the spelling is wrong, even though the word is correct, the team LOSES A POINT! Your students will instantly become meticulous editors when they see their team lose a point.  Be prepared for some bad sportsmanship and quash it immediately. 

My students write their answers on the back of their "dollar bills."  Both the solver and the "verifier" must sign the dollar. Then I post them outside my classroom under the name of their teacher.  I post correct and incorrect answers so that students may check and challenge MY calculations.  Believe me, they will!!  If an answer is incorrect, I write "-1" in red marker across the face of the dollar.  This saves me lots of explaining.  Similarly, if a student submits a "bonus buck" (one with 2 correct answers), I write "+2" on the face of the bill.  I keep a running tally posted next to the teacher's name.  

If you are wondering why I penalize teams with a lost point for an incorrect answer, the reason is simple.  I have had students who "couldn't find the answer" turn in any old solution in order to get another clue; hopefully an easier one.  If you allow this, you will have expended a lot of wasted effort and paper in preparing the clues.  But perhaps more importantly, you will have allowed your students to evade a challenge.  All of the clues are solvable.  Perseverance is a good thing, as well as a trait of G/T students  If everything you give them is easy, you're not really meeting their needs. 

Over the course of the competition (2 - 3 weeks), my students go through clues at lightning speed.  Thus, I have created more than 400 clues to meet their demand.  You can get more of my clues through my series of $1 Word products, available on both TpT and TN.  (I have not posted ALL of my clues yet.  But more will be coming as soon as I format them. Patience is a virtue!)  You may be interested in:

You can find all of these products at my TpT Store or in my TN Shop.  Of course you will want to start with the $1 Words FREEBIE!

FREEBIE

Remember, EVERYTHING is 20% off through Sunday!

$1 Words FREEBIE

Do you ever shop at the Dollar Store?  I have to say that I rarely do so, but my sister shops there a lot and gets some of the most amazing bargains.  Recently she picked up some lovely gift bags, greeting cards, and even some baby socks for my soon-to-arrive grandson.  Hmmm, I may have to schedule a trip soon.  

In the meantime, her shopping foray made me think about $1 Words.  If you teach intermediate students and/or G/T students, you HAVE to do these with your students!  What??? You don't know what $1 Words are!!!!!

Settle in while I educate you, because it's about time you teach it.  

A $1 Word is any word that has a value of exactly $1 when its letters are added together using the following chart of values:

There is a book by Marilyn Burns about $1 words available on Amazon for $11.92.  It has gone out of print from time to time, so if you are interested, there are currently 8 available.

As the title indicates, it is a riddle book that leads children to $1 words through pictures and riddles.  I love that because too often teachers assign their students to find $1 words without any hints.  Please don't do that to your students.  It completely overwhelms them and makes them frustrated.  How exactly would YOU approach an assignment like that?

Ahh, but I have a solution to offer.  I have composed over 400 clues that can be copied and distributed to your students.  

Try to solve these:

Undoubtedly, you reached for a calculator.  Did you use a thesaurus or dictionary?  Perhaps not; it is the 21st century, after all.  But, those are options you will want to offer your students.  It's a great way to get them to learn about a thesaurus!

In the spirit of the 21st century, however, you can introduce them to thesauri on the computer.  My personal favorite resource is a Reverse Dictionary.  It allows the students to type their clue and then receive a list of words that satisfy that clue.   [Please be aware that the Reverse Dictionary is a dynamic site.  You will get different lists each time you try it with the same clue.  My warning is that, as a dynamic site, it will, rarely, give an inappropriate word.  I have not yet found a way to prevent this.  So, you may wish to preview the list before you set your student free to peruse it.]  

Try the Reverse Dictionary yourself here.  Now, arm your students with a calculator (excellent practice) and their list of possible words.  Then sit back and watch.  It is soooo very rewarding when the 1st $1 word is found!  The successful detective is bound to spring up shouting, "I found one!  I found one!"  Now all the other students will be doubly determined to find one for themselves.

These clues would make a great math center.  They could also be given out as a sponge activity.  In my school, however, I use them as a grade level challenge.  (I'm the enrichment teacher who runs a pull-out program.)  My 3rd graders can hardly wait for the annual challenge to begin!  I think it may be the highlight of their year.  :o)

Pitting each class of 3rd grade enrichment students against the others brings out a flurry of activity that makes the entire rest of the school stand back in awe.  Enrichment students  beg their classroom teacher to allow them to come to me to get another clue as soon as they solve one.  This is spurred on, of course, by my public display of each team's score on a daily basis.  

You are probably curious about the Bonus Buck above.  Quite simply, that clue has 2 possible answers.  I reward the students with 2 points if s/he can find both answers.  Check back tomorrow for the answers to the clues.

In the meantime, if you are intrigued by $1 words, you may wish to check out my $1 Word products.  Begin with the freebie:

You can find it at my TpT Store or in my TN Shop.  It will give you a much more complete understanding of the competition I run and 45 FREE clues!

Before I close, I found the following linky parties that you may be interested in checking out:

Donna at Math Coach's Corner is having a math linky party.  She has it divided into grade levels for your convenience.










Jeannie at Kindergarten Lifestyle is having a K - 2 linky party.  Check it out, too!