Literature Journals

Aloha everyone it's Corinna from Surfin' Through Second!  Just a quick post today to share with you how I use literature journals to enhance reading skills in my classroom.

I stock up on composition books and use them quite a bit during our literacy time.

Essentially it's a place to keep everything together and students can go back and review lessons and skills learned. Here are a few examples of how we use them.

There are so many different ways you can use literature journals in your classroom.

-Recording Literature Circle Activities
-Recording Text Evidence
-Answering Text or Teacher Questions
-Enrichment Activities

I also have students cut and paste interactive activities from our reading series or items I have created or purchased.

Do you use literature or interactive journals in your classroom? Feel free to share how you use them!

Interactive Notebook Set-Up

I am writing this blog post to see the different ways that interactive notebooks are used in the classroom. I am currently in a new school that does their notebooks a little differently than the way I am used to. 

I am going to show you the way that I did interactive notebooks last year, followed up with the way that I do interactive notebooks this year. I would love to hear feedback on how you do them in your classroom!

Last year's set up-

Used: 

-1 inch binder 

-Filler paper

-Scissors and glue

-Started with spiral notebooks, but stopped (1 inch was great!)

 

We worked on our phonics notebooks.

(Yes, shame on me, I don't have kid pictures, so I included my own work. Haha!)

However, you get the idea. We worked on interactive notebooks that included flip flap pieces and the students worked on one on with their paper and work.  

These come from my Interactive Phonics Notebook.

 

Here, my students were working on their math flip flap pieces. 

They were writing about their math work.

I made these pieces to help break up their steps for writing about math. 

Above- They are writing the steps of how to add tens and ones. 

Below- They are lifting the flaps to show examples of HOW to add 2-digit, then writing about their steps. 

(These aren't in a product for sale YET. It's a project I've been slowly building!)

 

And lastly, we have our Reading Response pieces. I was blessed last year to have volunteer moms who would help with the cutting and gluing so that my 15 minute Daily 5 stations weren't taken over by students cutting and gluing. These pieces are all types of reading response pieces, asking characters, events, predictions, etc. 

These are part of my Reading Response Interactive Pieces.

This year's set up-

Used:

-Composition Notebook

-Pre-cut pieces (by teachers) and Tape

Our district uses a similar outline throughout all schools. 

Our school uses the same outline for grades 2 through 5. We are introducing these notebooks to the students this year and they will have the same setup through fifth grade. They are called Interactive Content Notebooks, but we have one for each subject, so it covers all areas! 

 

Sorry! I was trying to give your neck a workout! 

You see in the sideways picture an example of our input/output page. 

We started with a table of contents.

I do really like this! Every time we add an entry in our ICN, we label what we are working on and the page numbers. 

First, we start with our target. We write the target together. This isn't expected in second, but we tried it on our first experiment. I think we will wait til the end of the year to pick target writing back up again. It took lots of time to get it copied for some students! I want to spend more time on the work! 

Now comes the input, which is usually a guided piece that practices the skill or target we are working on that day. Here, we are recounting events and how a character responds to an event. 

Output comes next. This is our short answer/constructed response/extended response/etc. goes. This is where students work on their own. We have a school wide extended response expectation, which involves topic sentence, detail sentence, further support sentence 1, further support sentence 2, and conclusion. It's been an adventure with our seconds this last few weeks starting these, but we're getting them ready for third! 

So, I would love to know! 

How does your school use notebooking? 

Are you more free-flowing, cut and glue, flip-flap type of notebook teacher?

Or are you a structured input/output type of notebook teacher?  

Thanks for reading! 

~Jessica

   @   

Bringing the World to Your Students with Virtual Field Trips

Oh, I am SO excited to be writing my first ever Primary Chalkboard blog post! I have been looking forward to this day ever since I was fortunate enough to become a Chalkie :) I hope you enjoy it!

We all know how beneficial field trips are. Students are able to experience, first hand, what they have been learning about in the classroom. Students are able to touch, feel, and see things they might not have an opportunity to otherwise. Well-planned field trips with close curriculum tie-ins help students mesh together the concepts they have been learning about with how it relates to the real world. Field trips, though, do take a lot of planning. They can be expensive. And sometimes the perfect place to go just isn't realistic. This is where virtual field trips come into play!

A virtual field trip can take students to a far off place and can be planned just days in advance. Virtual field trips enable students to travel through space or go back in time. And they're perfect for those teachable moments that just happen to spring up. Just visiting a website, though, doesn't constitute a virtual field trip. The same care and planning that goes into planning a real field trip must be done for an authentic virtual field trip. With advancements in technology and technology becoming more mainstream, virtual field trips have really changed over the years. 

You can have students work through a virtual field trip whole group, small group, with a partner, or individually, depending on your purpose and the level of your students. I have also asked parent volunteers to be the "chaperone" so they are there to help students along the way. One of the first virtual field trips I ever used was The First Thanksgiving. I love how this particular virtual field trip has the option for the text to be read aloud to students. There is a teacher's guide to help you plan out the field trip. 

Students can track the path of the Mayflower from England to America. Students can click on the blue dots and read (or listen) to significant events that occurred along the Pilgrims' journey.

 

Students can also take a virtual tour of the ship and learn about the various parts of the ship.

Students can pretend to be detectives on this virtual field trip where they investigate what really happened in 1621. 

Students can drag and drop the descriptions of myths to the picture it describe.

 There are several interactive pages students can read or listen to to learn more about the Native Americans or Pilgrims.

Here are a few other virtual field trips you might be interested in taking your students on :)

Statue of Liberty

Mount Vernon

Lincoln Memorial

A virtual field trip can also be where your class connects with another class over Skype. Students can even work collaboratively with students in another part of the world on projects using Skype. It will take time and planning, but think of the rich experiences your students will have! I haven't done this yet, but can't wait to give it a try when I get back into the classroom!

Virtual field trips certainly can't replace the real thing, but when the destination isn't realistic, a virtual field trip can further enhance your unit of study and help your students make connections.

I am always looking for additional virtual field trips to add to my list. What is your favorite virtual field trip? Thanks for letting me share one of my favorite classroom activities!

Heather from 2 Brainy Apples