Diary of a Pig - reading response idea

Today's Teacher Tip Tuesday idea is: The Diary of a Pig

Have you read the Diary of a _____ books by Doreen Cronin?  So much fun.

There are diaries for a worm, a fly and a spider.  Each is more awesome than the last.  T

hey are written in the form of a diary, are witty and have fun illustrations and quick one-liners.  

I love them.  Kids always love them.

One of them mentions that a worms head looks just like it's butt.  What kid isn't going to love that?

A few years back, I happened to be reading Charlotte's Web to the class as my chapter book read aloud and broke these fun titles out during our writing block as a model of organization and voice from six traits.

Ever have one of those light bulb moments?  You know, the kind where you scrap your plans and go with something way better that "just came to you?"

That's when "The Diary of a Pig" was born.  We used Cronin's books as a model/inspiration and composed our own version based on the events in Charlotte's Web.

We discussed 1st person vs 3rd person.

We talked about style.  We chatted about the important parts that would be important to include. Not only is it fun and creative, but it is a fabulous way to check a child's level of comprehension on a text.

After reading a chapter (or chapters in some cases), I asked the class to compose a diary entry.

While the book doesn't specify dates, we used context clues to form a timeline and thus "date" our entries (Wilbur being a spring pig, Fern being in school, the crickets signaling summer, etc).

They were asked to include some words that they considered to be "key vocabulary."

The cover was designed to look like Cronin's.  We observed how each of her covers had a white background and each had a pencil as part of the illustration.  They needed to do the same.

After all of the books were completed, we made them available in the class library for a bit.  They took a lot of pride in this activity.

You could easily do this with other books as well.

All About Me Collage with a Twist

I was going to wait until the end of the summer to post this idea since it's a great activity for the start of the new school year.  I decided that now was the perfect time to post it.  This way you can start saving all of those magazines that you'll be reading at the beach over the next few months.

You will be reading magazines at the beach this summer, won't you?

Landlocked midwesterners are excused, but the rest of y'all are required to relax on the beach with magazines.  

Don't you just love this fun spin on the traditional "About Me Collage" and the usual profile.  Use the overhead to trace the child's profile.  (or make your life easier and use my photo trick, cut that silhouette out and then project that onto the wall...you know, because paper silhouettes don't wiggle and jiggle).

Next, cut out the profile from a large piece of black construction paper.  Have the kids make a collage about themselves onto a different piece of construction paper.  Place the cut piece over it and attach with glue.  

Need more back to school activities?  Check this out!

back to school ideas, back to school project get to know you activity get to know you activities

  

Open House Photos - Charlotte's Web Theme

I always like to do a theme for Open House.  I've recently blogged a bit about some of my former themes (Wizard of Oz, Mystery/Detective).  This year, we are very absorbed with the novel, Charlotte's Web so it seemed like the perfect choice.

A few of you had mentioned that June seemed like an odd time to have an Open House.  It kind of is.  In the past, we have always hosted the event in April.  Lately, we (the grades 3-5 teachers) have found it to be very challenging to balance prep for the event and prep for the state testing so we decided to make it later.  Testing didn't end until mid/late May and so Open House was scheduled for June 3rd.  I really liked the timing of it in some ways.  We had worked so hard cramming in the last two units of math for the test, that it was nice to just be creative and work on project-based activities.  The downside was that we were coming off of a gloriously sunny Memorial Day weekend and our mindset is NOT on hanging up new work.

Still, everything turned out fantastic.  I really enjoyed watching my friends create their masterpieces.  Watched is the key word because at this point in 3rd grade they amaze me with their ability to work independently.  

Below is our (to quote Charlotte's Web) Magnum Opus...Our Great Work.

Venn Diagrams comparing Wilbur and Charlotte along with a spider and pig made from Model Magic
The Diary of a Pig Books - This SO needs it's own post.  They are amazing!!!  I'll write about them in a few weeks.
Character Trait paragraphs: We brainstormed a list of character traits for the characters in the book.  Each child wrote a paragraph about the character and used details from the text to support the trait choice.  The illustrations were done in KidPix.

Watercolor barns accompanied by Acrostic Poems about the setting of the story.  I heart water colors.  I always have the kids draw in pencil and then outline in black Sharpie before painting.  They look amazing when they are done!

Another view of the watercolored barns.  On the counter is a bio poem written by each student with a photo of him/her attached.

Below are some random views from around the room.  One thing I did this year as a first was 8.5x11 inch black and white photos.  I LOVED this.  I simply printed a shot of each child on the computer and mounted it onto black construction paper.  They were beautiful and so easy to do.  I think they captured their personalities too which was cool.

Trioramas - Teaching Tip Tuesday

Today's Teaching Tip Tuesday Tip is: Trioramas

How's that for a tongue twister?

If you look at the picture below and squint, you will see that my shelf is lined with trioramas.

or you can click on the photo and the image will become bigger and then you won't have to squint as much

This was during Open House in 2007.  As a side note, I ALWAYS cover my open shelving during Open House to prevent little siblings from pulling books and manipulatives off of the shelves.

I highly suggest that.  It also serves as extra display space for more creative works of art. :)

Anyhow, back on topic...

Trioramas are great little projects and can be used as an extension in most subject areas.

They are very easy to create: 

1. Take a 12X18 piece of construction paper (in your desired background color...I usually go with blue for sky) and cut it down to 12x12.

2. Fold the 12x12 paper in half two times and then unfold it to form an X crease on the paper.

3. Start at any corner and cut along the crease until you reach the center.  Stop there!

4. At the split, fold one triangle under the other to make a 3D Triorama.

I realize that might sound confusing.  Just grab a pair of scissors and a piece of paper and try it.  You'll be amazed at how simple it is.

The photos in this post are from the Open House that I did a Wizard of Oz theme.  We had read the book in class and were in the process of putting on the play.  There assignment was to write about their role in the play and to create a triorama as a visual.  They used construction paper and paper-pieced most of the components.  The key to making them look so awesome is to have them outline everything in black Sharpie.

I heart outlining in Sharpie.  It makes everything look super amazing.

I much prefer them to the old showbox diorama for 2 reasons. 1. They can be folded flat which makes storing them until display time very easy. 2. They are all uniform which makes for a nicer display.  If you've been reading along for awhile now, you realize that my obsession with organization would prevent me from looking at mismatched shoeboxes without breaking into hives.

Below is a list of ideas for other triorama projects.  Leave a comment letting me know what you would use them for.  I love new ideas!

 Other trioramas I've created include: significant scene from a book, animal habitats, Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indian homes (I attached two together to create a scene for each), my community (each student made part of our town) and a math project where the students needed to design a house within a budget.

creative classroom ideas, literature extension, project-based learning

Mystery Theme Open House Ideas - Whatever Wednesdays

Today's Whatever Wednesday Topic is: Open House Themes/ Mysteries

Our annual Open House is coming up in June. I have discovered that I love doing a theme for Open House each year. It gives the projects a focus, makes everything feel coherent and keeps me on task. A couple years back I did a Mystery Themed Open House. In the weeks leading up to the Big Night we read lots of mystery books. I used a lot of the elements that my teacher hero, Beth Newingham has so generously shared on her website. The kids loved the theme and it made for some fun projects to showcase at Open House. This would make a great classroom theme as well.

I already shared the Story Cubes and Silhouettes a few weeks ago. Below are some more ideas you might want to use. Click on any photo to enlarge it,

WANTED POSTERS: Each student created a character for himself and wrote a story explaining their alibi and why they were innocent. The alleged crime was: Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar.

CRIME SCENE TRIORAMA: After writing their own mysteries based on a Nursery Rhyme (i.e. Was Humpty Dumpty Pushed? Who really scared Miss Muffett?) we made trioramas based on their writing.

MYSTERY NUMBER: There are clues written on the front of the page with the question mark. You can lift the page to reveal the mystery number.

MAGNIFICENT ME: LOVED THESE!!! Each child painted a self portrait and wrote a bio poem about themself. I printed their poems on an overhead transparency and attached it to the magnifying class cutout. So stinking cute!

JUST THE FACTS: This was another favorite. I took a picture of each friend wearing a detective hat and a trenchcoat with a badge. The printed page read, "Just the Facts About (insert student name)." The children then wrote interesting facts about themselves on the paper. I mounted each onto brown cardstock, rounded the corners and used aluminum foil to make them look like clipboards.

I SPY: Each student wrote a descriptive paragraph about an object. I took a picture of each with the magnifying glass held up close so that it magnified one eye. They were lots of fun.

HANDWRITING ANALYSIS: Third graders learn to write in cursive. They each wrote the alphabet in cursive and then wrote clues about themselves in cursive on a separate card. The parents tried to match the clues to the "handwriting sample."
SCAVENGER HUNT: When each child arrived, I had a badge (came in packs of 4 from The Dollar Tree) anda clipboard waiting for each of them. The clipboard held a scavenger hunt for the night to complete with their families. This encourages them to show off all of their work. The hunt included things like, "What is the third word in the third sentence of your I Spy paragraph?"

Story Cubes - Teaching Tuesday

Today's Teaching Tuesday Idea is:

STORY CUBES

I had my class create these story cubes for Open House a couple of years ago and they made a great display.  Each student read a mystery book and completed six activity pages in response to the reading.  You can alter the project to include anything that applies to your grade level. Some ideas include:

• characters
• setting
• problem / solution
• beginning / middle / end
• recreate the cover
• summary
• facts learned from the book

Google "cube template" to find an outline that works for you.  I made a transparency of a cube template and projected it onto posterboard to create large, sturdy colorful cubes.  It is a bit time-consuming and works best with a hot glue gun so I would suggest having a parent volunteer help. 

I placed these on a table for open house, but they also look great hanging from the ceiling as well.