Whether you have been back for one week or two, I hope that your week has been a wonderful one!
Well, I cannot tell you how great it feels to be back here to share some fun literacy lessons with you.
Since last I posted, so much has changed! This year I made the move to country New South Wales with my family and have taken up a position teaching Kindergarten, and I could not be happier!
Anyway, down to business!
This term I am teaching a unit on animals in English where we will be exploring an animal each week and writing informational texts about them. To introduce the unit, this week we have looked at fiction and non-fiction texts and their features. I amd super excited to share our activities from this week with you!
Fiction vs Non-Fiction
On Thursday we began by reading ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and ’Caterpillar to Butterfly’ then compared and contrasted fiction and non fiction texts. Some of this involved some pretty silly questions from me!
For instance:
Reading the story ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’...
“On Friday, he ate through 5 oranges but he was still hungry. A little egg lay in the light of the moon. That night he had a stomachache.”
Somehow, reading out of order didn’t make sense, and there were plenty of giggles at silly Mrs Gibson! This led a discussion comparing how we can read non-fiction out of order, one page at a time, but a fiction story has to be read from beginning to end.
By the end of the lesson we had a fairy comprehensive list of the differences between. Fiction and non-fiction.
Non-Fiction Text Features
On Friday we delved in a little deeper to Informational Text Features. In pairs, everyone looked through non-fiction books (lucky I have a good stock of them!) and identified different features of the texts that are different to fictional stories. Some were easy to find (like the glossary, photographs and page numbers) while others were a little trickier. We had a great time exploring all the texts and by the end we had found all of these non-fiction features!
Seriously, is there anything better than seeing your classroom scattered with 5 and 6 year olds reading together?
While we were investigating the difference between fiction and non-fiction texts on Thursday, this question came up - "What is a Label?" Now, of course we have talked about labels before - many times in fact, but apparently this is something that just has not sunk in.
Soooo, what did we do? What else? We investigated labels!
Friday afternoon we looked at this chart (and I could not resist using a Creative Clips puppy for the modle - I mean, how stinking adorable is he??!!) and discussed exactly what a label it. Together we added 'Animal Feature' words to our word wall on green post-its and labelled our puppy using them as a guide. This was a shared pen activity where multiple students came up to the board to label different body parts.
After we had chatted a bit about how to label - including the use of arrows, all the kiddies split into groups to label their own pet. And of course on each table was a cute stuffed cat or dog from Target to help them identify key features and make it just that little bit more engaging!
By the end of the lesson, we definitely had a much better understanding of what a label is!
Well, we are now well and truly ready to start our learning next week on our first animal...OWLS!
Until next time my friends,
Seriously, is there anything better than seeing your classroom scattered with 5 and 6 year olds reading together?
What is a Label?
Soooo, what did we do? What else? We investigated labels!
Friday afternoon we looked at this chart (and I could not resist using a Creative Clips puppy for the modle - I mean, how stinking adorable is he??!!) and discussed exactly what a label it. Together we added 'Animal Feature' words to our word wall on green post-its and labelled our puppy using them as a guide. This was a shared pen activity where multiple students came up to the board to label different body parts.
By the end of the lesson, we definitely had a much better understanding of what a label is!
Well, we are now well and truly ready to start our learning next week on our first animal...OWLS!
Until next time my friends,
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