Today I read My Many Colored Days to a small group of kindergarteners from Wheatley Elementary. I was curious to see if they would be able to make the correlation between feelings and colors. Before I would read some of the pages, I would show them the illustrations and ask them “How do you think he/she is feeling today?” Sometimes they would have an idea from just seeing the picture. After I would read I would talk about the emotions that were expressed. I would ask them if they have had [specific color] days like the described in the book. I would ask them to share about days they have had like that. When I was finished, I talked about our emotions and how some days we feel mad, sad, happy, etc. I am pretty sure this was my first time to read to children. I was actually a little bit nervous. The students were overly excited and at times just kept talking and talking. But itt went well for the most part, the children listened and shared their experiences with me. In the end I think it was a success… I shared a book I like with children.
Seuss, Dr. My Many Colored Days. Illus. Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher. New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 1996.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Craft Lesson 5
Craft Lesson 5
Resources
Mora, Pat. Yum! MmMm! Que rico!. Illus. Rafael Lopez. Madison Avenue NY: LEE & LOW BOOKS Inc., 2007.
Discussion
Kids can learn about food as natural resources. It is important and interesting to know have an understanding of where the foods we eat come from. Yum! Mmm! Que Rico! is a great book to begin teaching children where foods come from.
How to Teach It
I will begin by reading Yum MmMm! Que! Rico! to the class. I will have students color and cut out pictures of each food from the book (and more if wanted). Using a large world map, we can place the cut outs on the corresponding country of origin. Using the map for visuals will allow the children to grasp the concept more clearly.
Resources
Mora, Pat. Yum! MmMm! Que rico!. Illus. Rafael Lopez. Madison Avenue NY: LEE & LOW BOOKS Inc., 2007.
Discussion
Kids can learn about food as natural resources. It is important and interesting to know have an understanding of where the foods we eat come from. Yum! Mmm! Que Rico! is a great book to begin teaching children where foods come from.
How to Teach It
I will begin by reading Yum MmMm! Que! Rico! to the class. I will have students color and cut out pictures of each food from the book (and more if wanted). Using a large world map, we can place the cut outs on the corresponding country of origin. Using the map for visuals will allow the children to grasp the concept more clearly.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Read Aloud Plan
I will be reading My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss to one child who is in kindergarten. I chose this book because it is one of my favorite children's books that I have read so far and I'm hoping they will love it as well. Also, it is developmentally appropriate for this age group. I am curious to see if they will be able to understand the correlation between emotions and feelings.
Ch 12: Children's Literature, Briefly
I like how history is referred to "the story of ourselves" and it involves studying differing viewpoints and making personal judgments.
Historical fiction can make learning about history much more exciting for children; it makes history much more personal and real and authentic when compared to textbook history. It allows children to make connections and can help them develop a sense of time.
Tunnell, Michael O. and James S. Jacobs. Children's Literature, Briefly. 4e. Upper Sadle River NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008.
Historical fiction can make learning about history much more exciting for children; it makes history much more personal and real and authentic when compared to textbook history. It allows children to make connections and can help them develop a sense of time.
Tunnell, Michael O. and James S. Jacobs. Children's Literature, Briefly. 4e. Upper Sadle River NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008.
Yum! MmMm! Que rico!
Mora, Pat. Yum! MmMm! Que rico!. Illus. Rafael Lopez. Madison Avenue NY: LEE & LOW BOOKS Inc., 2007.
The illustrations were great... bright, colorful and loud. I mostly liked that the book was not only entertaining but also informative.
The illustrations were great... bright, colorful and loud. I mostly liked that the book was not only entertaining but also informative.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Craft Lesson 4
Craft Lesson 4
Expressing Emotion through Art
Resources
Seuss, Dr. My Many Colored Days. Illus. Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher. New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 1996.
Discussion
Every person experiences all different emotions including children, of course. However, the might not be able to recognize and understand the emotions. Students will be able to express mood and feelings using color schemes. Using color to express emotion can be therapeutic and can get students to think critically.
How To Teach It
After reading My Many Colored Days we can discuss as a group emotion and feelings. While going through the pages I will ask the students “What emotion do you think this is?” or “What do you think this feeling is?” I will share with the students some emotions that I have felt and will ask the students to share an emotion they have experienced with me. I will provide the students with paper and colors. I will have them draw an emotion using different colors and/or animals. I will have them refer to the book if needed.
Expressing Emotion through Art
Resources
Seuss, Dr. My Many Colored Days. Illus. Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher. New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 1996.
Discussion
Every person experiences all different emotions including children, of course. However, the might not be able to recognize and understand the emotions. Students will be able to express mood and feelings using color schemes. Using color to express emotion can be therapeutic and can get students to think critically.
How To Teach It
After reading My Many Colored Days we can discuss as a group emotion and feelings. While going through the pages I will ask the students “What emotion do you think this is?” or “What do you think this feeling is?” I will share with the students some emotions that I have felt and will ask the students to share an emotion they have experienced with me. I will provide the students with paper and colors. I will have them draw an emotion using different colors and/or animals. I will have them refer to the book if needed.
Children's Literature Autobiography (Revised)
I am finding it somewhat difficult to write an autobiography on literature, mostly due to my poor memory of my childhood and adolescent years, and partly because literature was not a big part of my life. Reading, and being read to, was not a huge part of my home life growing up. I think this is, in part, the reason why reading was not always a favorite thing to do.
Though I don’t have many positive memories of reading, I am able to recall some enjoyable times. At home, I absolutely loved I Spy books. I think I had every single one of them, for every single holiday. I sat with my younger brothers looking through those books, even though we knew where everything was hidden since we would read them over and over. Another of my favorites was the Magic Eye books. I loved that I was the only one of my siblings who could see the hidden pictures. Even my parents had trouble seeing the images. I felt smarter than all of them! We also had Where’s Waldo. Those were okay, but not near as fun as I Spy. And, of course, we had The Polar Express. I can remember reading, or attempting, to read books in my closet. The entire bottom shelf in my closet was lined with Little Golden Books. It was like our little hideout, we would escape to.
Another place I read was in school. The furthest back I can recall was reading in the first and second grades. We would have books that we would take home every week in big plastic bags and we were to read them with our parents. I think our parents were supposed to comment on how the reading was going. I do not remember what any of the books were, but I can vaguely remember trying to read them. I also recall the book fairs. They were always set up in the library. We would go pick out what we wanted and mark it down on our lists. However, it was not very often that my books would actually be ordered. I can remember the days when the orders came in and feeling slightly left out because I would go home empty handed. In either fourth or fifth grade I remember reading a book I fell in love with. I am sure many other girls read this one as well: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. I think this was my very first novel. I felt so grown up reading it!
Junior High School offers almost no memories to my mind. Honestly, I do not recall much of anything from those three years, pertaining to school at least. The only reading I can recall doing is by Edgar Allan Poe. I don’t know why this is the only literature that sticks out to me. Most likely because of it’s dark nature, especially to a sixth grader. We read the poem: The Raven and the tales: The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart. I remember almost being scared while we read his work… the murderer being haunted by the sound of his victim’s heart beating in The Tell-Tale Heart. And the man (I recall a clown/jester like figure) luring his victim into his wine cellars to bury his drunken victim alive in The Cask of Amontillado….very creepy. I would actually like to go back and read these again. I remember being drawn to these pieces of his.
Of course high school literature involved a lot of Shakespeare. Like most everyone else, I read Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Beowulf. Nothing I was too thrilled about. I hated having to decipher everything! Further amongst the list of the mandatory high school readings were: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Of those I enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird the most. Outside of school I really enjoyed reading Chicken Soup books. I think I had all four of the Teenage Soul volumes. I found them very therapeutic and comforting during those oh so difficult and traumatic high school years.
That is just about all I can recall for my children’s literature autobiography. Nothing too exciting but it’s accurate. I do plan on reading more in the future for recreational purposes after I am done reading textbooks. Currently, I do not read too much for my own leisure. However, I have found some of the literature I have read in the past to be enjoyable. I know that I like reading and I would like to read more and plan on doing so.
Though I don’t have many positive memories of reading, I am able to recall some enjoyable times. At home, I absolutely loved I Spy books. I think I had every single one of them, for every single holiday. I sat with my younger brothers looking through those books, even though we knew where everything was hidden since we would read them over and over. Another of my favorites was the Magic Eye books. I loved that I was the only one of my siblings who could see the hidden pictures. Even my parents had trouble seeing the images. I felt smarter than all of them! We also had Where’s Waldo. Those were okay, but not near as fun as I Spy. And, of course, we had The Polar Express. I can remember reading, or attempting, to read books in my closet. The entire bottom shelf in my closet was lined with Little Golden Books. It was like our little hideout, we would escape to.
Another place I read was in school. The furthest back I can recall was reading in the first and second grades. We would have books that we would take home every week in big plastic bags and we were to read them with our parents. I think our parents were supposed to comment on how the reading was going. I do not remember what any of the books were, but I can vaguely remember trying to read them. I also recall the book fairs. They were always set up in the library. We would go pick out what we wanted and mark it down on our lists. However, it was not very often that my books would actually be ordered. I can remember the days when the orders came in and feeling slightly left out because I would go home empty handed. In either fourth or fifth grade I remember reading a book I fell in love with. I am sure many other girls read this one as well: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. I think this was my very first novel. I felt so grown up reading it!
Junior High School offers almost no memories to my mind. Honestly, I do not recall much of anything from those three years, pertaining to school at least. The only reading I can recall doing is by Edgar Allan Poe. I don’t know why this is the only literature that sticks out to me. Most likely because of it’s dark nature, especially to a sixth grader. We read the poem: The Raven and the tales: The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart. I remember almost being scared while we read his work… the murderer being haunted by the sound of his victim’s heart beating in The Tell-Tale Heart. And the man (I recall a clown/jester like figure) luring his victim into his wine cellars to bury his drunken victim alive in The Cask of Amontillado….very creepy. I would actually like to go back and read these again. I remember being drawn to these pieces of his.
Of course high school literature involved a lot of Shakespeare. Like most everyone else, I read Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Beowulf. Nothing I was too thrilled about. I hated having to decipher everything! Further amongst the list of the mandatory high school readings were: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Of those I enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird the most. Outside of school I really enjoyed reading Chicken Soup books. I think I had all four of the Teenage Soul volumes. I found them very therapeutic and comforting during those oh so difficult and traumatic high school years.
That is just about all I can recall for my children’s literature autobiography. Nothing too exciting but it’s accurate. I do plan on reading more in the future for recreational purposes after I am done reading textbooks. Currently, I do not read too much for my own leisure. However, I have found some of the literature I have read in the past to be enjoyable. I know that I like reading and I would like to read more and plan on doing so.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
My Many Colored Days
Seuss, Dr. My Many Colored Days. Illus. Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher. New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 1996.
I know that its a children's book however, I was able to completely relate to it. Especially the gray, brown, purple, bright blue, black, and mixed up days. I loved the illustrations. They just about make the whole book. They allow you to really grasp the feeling. I particularly like the illustrations on the happy pink day with the bright pink flamingos.
I know that its a children's book however, I was able to completely relate to it. Especially the gray, brown, purple, bright blue, black, and mixed up days. I loved the illustrations. They just about make the whole book. They allow you to really grasp the feeling. I particularly like the illustrations on the happy pink day with the bright pink flamingos.
Children's Literature Briefly: Modern Fantasy
Tunnell, Michael O. and James S. Jacobs. Children's Literature, Briefly. 4e. Upper Sadle River NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008.
I liked how modern fantasy is compared to metaphor. I never thought of it like this, but it is a great way to put it in perspective.
Also, the whole time I was reading I kept referring everything to Shrek! (the movie, it's a favorite.) Little did I know it is a children's book! Its listed at the end as a favorite picture book. I don't feel as guilty for thinking about a movie the whole time I was reading about books.
I liked how modern fantasy is compared to metaphor. I never thought of it like this, but it is a great way to put it in perspective.
Also, the whole time I was reading I kept referring everything to Shrek! (the movie, it's a favorite.) Little did I know it is a children's book! Its listed at the end as a favorite picture book. I don't feel as guilty for thinking about a movie the whole time I was reading about books.
Literature Festival
The literature festival was overall a valuable experience. I took with me important information that I will be able to utilize in my own classroom. I liked that there was a variety of sessions that we could choose to attend. Most of them were valuable learning experiences and offered great advice.
Janet Wong’s session was most enjoyable to me. She was by far, the most entertaining to listen to. It was a great way to start the festival. Not only was she entertaining, but she was also motivational and insightful. Because of her, I left the festival excited about reading and possibly writing poetry. I especially liked her poetry suitcase idea. I think that it is a great and easy way to implement poetry into the classroom that will also be fun and amusing for the children.
The session on classroom management was extremely insightful to me. This is one are that I am particularly nervous about for my own future classroom. Dr. Stocks was very knowledgeable and offered many great ideas for effectively managing a classroom. I feel better about teaching in the future and will most definitely be referring back to her ideas.
I also attended “Oral Histories in the Classroom.” This session was okay. They had a couple of good ideas that I might use in my classroom such as, using aerial image. I agree that this is a great way to get children excited about using maps. I feel like I may have benefited more from a different session.
Overall, the Literature Festival was a beneficial experience. It is neat that we had such well known authors take time from their lives to come to our university and share their ideas, experiences, and insights with us. I feel more confident about my future as a teacher. I feel like I have taken with me many great ideas and wonderful advice from very knowledgeable people.
Janet Wong’s session was most enjoyable to me. She was by far, the most entertaining to listen to. It was a great way to start the festival. Not only was she entertaining, but she was also motivational and insightful. Because of her, I left the festival excited about reading and possibly writing poetry. I especially liked her poetry suitcase idea. I think that it is a great and easy way to implement poetry into the classroom that will also be fun and amusing for the children.
The session on classroom management was extremely insightful to me. This is one are that I am particularly nervous about for my own future classroom. Dr. Stocks was very knowledgeable and offered many great ideas for effectively managing a classroom. I feel better about teaching in the future and will most definitely be referring back to her ideas.
I also attended “Oral Histories in the Classroom.” This session was okay. They had a couple of good ideas that I might use in my classroom such as, using aerial image. I agree that this is a great way to get children excited about using maps. I feel like I may have benefited more from a different session.
Overall, the Literature Festival was a beneficial experience. It is neat that we had such well known authors take time from their lives to come to our university and share their ideas, experiences, and insights with us. I feel more confident about my future as a teacher. I feel like I have taken with me many great ideas and wonderful advice from very knowledgeable people.
Craft Lesson 3
Craft Lesson 3
Introducing Maps
Resources
Wong, Janet. “Minn and Jake.” Frances Foster Books. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.
Discussion
Reading maps and learning directions is an important ability that is necessary to have in life. Introducing maps and teaching the basic concepts of directions can be beneficial at an early age.
How to Teach It
The teacher can begin by reading chapter 8, The Long Hike Home from Minn and Jake (pg 40-44) to students. The teacher can explain to students the directions (north, south, east, and west). The map on page 42 can be put onto a transparency or drawn on the chalkboard and also handed out to students (with a compass on it). The map will help students put the concept of direction into perspective. We can practice direction by asking questions such as, “If Minn and Jake are at the Water Tank, and they walk north, where will they end up?” Teachers can in time make question more complex such as, “If Minn and Jake walked north to arrive at The Screep, where did they come from?”
Introducing Maps
Resources
Wong, Janet. “Minn and Jake.” Frances Foster Books. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.
Discussion
Reading maps and learning directions is an important ability that is necessary to have in life. Introducing maps and teaching the basic concepts of directions can be beneficial at an early age.
How to Teach It
The teacher can begin by reading chapter 8, The Long Hike Home from Minn and Jake (pg 40-44) to students. The teacher can explain to students the directions (north, south, east, and west). The map on page 42 can be put onto a transparency or drawn on the chalkboard and also handed out to students (with a compass on it). The map will help students put the concept of direction into perspective. We can practice direction by asking questions such as, “If Minn and Jake are at the Water Tank, and they walk north, where will they end up?” Teachers can in time make question more complex such as, “If Minn and Jake walked north to arrive at The Screep, where did they come from?”
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