[ma-bethany]

i was wondering if anyone did any readings and activities with kevin henkes or patricia polacco during the first few days/weeks of school? would you be willing to share some ideas with me? i'm looking for some ideas to build a community in my classroom.

[BookMuncher]

I use kevin henkes at the beginning of the year... I do the Chrysanthemum read aloud and the kids make their names, count the letters, share about their names, and then we put their names in a pocket chart and use them for phonics stuff for about the first 2-3 weeks. I also read Wemberly worried-- I always do something different with it- sometimes we discuss a time we were worried, sometimes I use this to into. journaling, sometimes they draw a picture. Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse is one of the books I use for teaching the 6 pillars of character-- it's my respect book. We use it to talk about respecting others and taking turns. The rest of the books I save for later in the year when we do a kevin henkes author study-- first graders can't read his books at the beginning of the year, so it works for me to save him till later.

[Strawberry_K5]

if not, Patricia Polacco has a WONDERFUL website! Under the topic, For Teachers, you can find great ideas for extensions to use in the classroom. Hope this helps. http://www.patriciapolacco.com/

[ma-bethany]

thank you for the ideas! my co-teacher used those books last year, but i can't remember the activities she did with the books and now she's gone from our school, so i can't ask her.....thank you!

[iluv2nd]

for Chrysanthemum. I don't take any credit for these... I "borrowed" them from other teachers posting their wonderful ideas on the web!

[Sasha B]

I read Chrysanthemum and do all the name activities.

The next day I read Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and we make a Venn diagram to compare the two books. I write the statements ahead of time. I use things like: written by Kevin Henkes, character has a very long name, character got in trouble at school, character plays games with her parents, etc. use my Venn diagram pocket chart and I read each statement. The kids tell me where to put it. It's a quick intro to using a Venn.

Then later in the week I partner the students up and they make a Venn about themselves. We make a list of things to ask each other (likes, dislikes, siblings, etc) and they write it down on a paper copy. Then they can share with the class one thing they have in common and one thing that was different about them.

[ma-bethany]

I love the venn diagram activity!!!! my brain is definitely not in school thinking mode, or else i might have come up with that activitiy myself! tomorrow will be my first day back in the classroom and i'll have 2 weeks to prepare before my students come back. i'll need to be thinking by then

[loo]

Thank you so much for sharing the Chrysanthemum projects. They are wonderful. I can't wait to use them when school starts. Besides graphing the letters in our names, I didn't really have any cute activities to go with this book. Now I do. Thanks.