I am posting this in response to several PMs that I have received. I am honored by those requests and know that many others have ideas to share, so let's keep this thread going. I don't have handouts to attach because most of these are on my school computer. (I really do need to synchronzie my files!)
Reading/Writing Projects:
I am doing Genre Bingo this year as the basis for my Reader's Workshop because my students have been reading fantasy books forever! At first I had planned to do this as part of my home reading program, but since this is my first year doing the project I decided to do it as an in class activity in order to monitor it and work out kinks as we go along. Several colleagues and parents have requested modified versions. One parent even says she is going to use it for her neighborhood book club!
Last year we did accordion books as Penny Biographies. They had to find a penny for each year of their life, attach it to the page (heavy cardstock), write one memory for each year, and attach or draw pics or clip art to go with the event.
Forever Books-an idea stolen directly from PT! I was going to use the project as a kickoff for my Genre Bingo, but time got away from me so now I am planning on doing it with my friend who teaches 2nd grade. Kids bring in a book that they treasure for whatever reason: it was read to them as a small child, received as a special gift, first book read on their own, fell in love with storyline/character/author, etc. They write an article about the book and bring in the book to share. My students' parents really love the idea of making it parent participation project where the parents send in their forever book (or find a picture of the cover) and write a letter to their child about the book. I am torn about which way to go with this project. I think the kids would love to have a letter from their parents and that it would become a treasured keepsake. It would also be great for the kids to see their parents as lifelong readers!
Dodecahedron Book Report: This can be used with either fiction or nonfiction. The kids write/draw something different on each of the panels and assemble it into a "blooming ball" that can either be stacked into a pyramid or hung from the ceiling.
Wikipedia Article: After reading a nonfiction book about Ancient Rome, they wrote a 1-2 page encyclopedia style article and posted it to our class webpage. I'd like to pick up on this idea and incorporate it into a webquest.
Blogs: Last year we did the 12 Blogs of Christmas. I listed 12 things about winter holidays and activities for them to write short blogs about. We have Gaggle accounts and this year they do a blog a week based on an assigned topic.
Boy Soup Recipe: I read them Boy Soup and had them work with a partner to write a new recipe for the giant that did not include eating a boy (the story really isn't graphic or violent.) They had to use fractions with unlike denominators and mixed numbers. The recipe had to total ten cups of soup--enough for a giant bowl of soup! We were doing tall tales, fables, and myths so the ingredients could be imaginary items. (**Can also be done with the book, Enemy Pie.)
ABC book - during January we made an ABC's of Barack Obama picture book. Each child drew a letter from a cup and wrote a one-two paragraph info page about elements of Obama's life. They had to include clip art. Our RAFT target audience was 3rd graders. I was teaching a 5/6 combo class and this was a way to work in Social Studies requirements for my 5th graders.
Fractured Fairy Tales: After reading and researching the history of fairy tales they combined characters and events from two different stories to create a new fairy tale. They had to include clip art and include the 7 elements of a fairy tale.
Student Written Tests: To demystify test taking I taught them how to write multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, true/false, and short essay questions. They read a nonfiction book about Ancient Egypt and wrote a test that included at least 3 question types. The books and tests were placed in student created centers with other items/artifacts they had created. The kids led the centers by doing brief presentations on their topics/books and then they adminstered the tests.
Amazon Book Review: Last year when we read Homecoming, by Cynthia Voight, the kids did book reviews based on criteria for content that we brainstormed after viewing actual posts from the Amazon site. (**Caution, copy and paste the comments into a word doc for your lesson as just scrolling through the site can be dicey, people use inappropriate language in some of these.)
Happenings at the Henge: We read a book called Boy of the Painted Cave. Students were grouped into family clans for one month and had to keep a daily journal of their life. Each person had a different role, ie. chief, teenage boy, young mother, etc. and they wrote from that perspective. Tribes had male and female chieftains. Each day they received a note from me with clues about where they could hunt/find food. If they followed the clues they found goldfish, candy corn, raisins, animal crackers, etc. If not they went "hungry' that day. They had to hunt in their loin cloths and stay in characer, so that meant old people and young children did not get to hunt.
The culminating activity was a group presentation on a hunt and each person told about their role in hunting, preparing food, making weapons, etc. They were dressed in Flintstone style loin cloths and spears they had made. I created Stonehenge out of cardboard boxes covered with crumpled grocery sacks and stacked/hot glued into henges. They stood under these while they delivered their reports. Parents donated foods/snacks that were set up on a table with gourds, leaves, etc. We had gummy bugs and worms in dirt (oreos and pudding), veggie trays, ants on a log, etc. We invited other classes to our presentation and if they did a writing assignment/evaluation of us they received gummy bugs/worms or animal crackers as an offering of thanks.
Halloween Town Stories: Using actual names of towns in the U.S., the kids wrote a myth about how the town got its name. I just googled the topic and found lists of towns with names like Pumpkin Hook, Devil's Corner, etc. They did a fantastic job with these. Again clip art or hand drawn illustrations were required. (**I have also done this project around Valentine's Day (i.e. Loveland, Sweetheart) and as part of a solar system unit with place names such as Saturn, Jupiter (real towns!)
Thanksgiving Guest: This idea comes from the Paragraph-a-Day program. I just extended it to make it an essay and increased the required content to cover the 5Ws+H of writing. We focused on RAFT this time and kids drew a target audience out of a cup and wrote from that perspective about "If you could have Thanksgiving dinner with any person, living or dead, who would you invite and why? They had to include a menu and make an itinerary of where they'd take the person in our city as part of their visit. Since I looped with my kids I have changed the project this year to the activity below.
Restaurant Grand Opening: After completing their Design a Restaurant project (ideas generously shared by two PTers, sbslab and Room205) students will invite a guest to their restaurant's grand opening. Since we are doing a social studies research project using Google Earth to make a slide presentation "Around the World in a Day', students will choose one city from their research from which to invite a fictional person to their event. They will write a letter inviting the person and "sell' our city to them using an itinerary of famous tourist spots in our region. I have included a math tie-in requiring them to compute air-fare and use discount coupons for local restaurants for a "night on the town.'
Now it's your turn to post your great ideas!
Last edited by NeeCee; 11-07-2009 at 11:35 AM..
Reason: Obsessive Correction Disorder!
NeeCee - I'm always amazed at the sharing that PTers do - this is above & beyond! It makes me wish I taught lit. & writing. Thanks for sharing all of these great ideas - I'm going to pass them along at school.
NeeCee,
Just in case you haven't figured it out by now, I absolutely love your posts! Thanks for being such a rich resource of quality information! I just love 'gobbling up' your posts!
I don't have any reading/writing projects on this computer, but I'll see what I have on my computer at work.
(Thanks to everyone who shared their ideas to make this a great collection!)
After I read different selections in my classroom, I like to do some type of product.
One of the products that I like for my students to do after they read a short story is a comic strip. They turn the short story that we have been reading in class into a comic strip. I usually give the following guidelines. I tell them how many boxes they must have in the comic strip. I also tell them their comic strip must have the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. I have had some students that have done a great job at that assignment.
My Best Friend We are going to start these stories next week. Each student selects another student (in the school) as his/her best friend. We write compare/contrast essays based on the student and these best friends. The students really enjoy this project.
We teachers like it, too, because it makes a great bulletin board. The student use a sheet of construction paper as a cover for the story. We decorate these as gifts and smack a bow right in the middle. Last year I found markers that used special paper and created a really nice effect. We take pictures of each child with the best friend and create gift tags from these. Then we title the board something like "The Best Gift Is a Good Friend."
Yes, we start with a graphic organizer, a Venn diagram. This is a four-paragraph essay: introduction, how you and your friend are alike, how you and your friend are different, conclusion.
We ask the students to select a best friend from the school so we can take a picture of them together for the finished project. This has never been a problem, except when I had an autistic student. He ended up comparing himself to his little brother.
The gift idea is just for a December bulletin board.
I guess my main point is that the kids really like working on this project. We have an author of the month, and this is the favorite writing piece to take to read there.
11-07-2009, 07:48 AM
)
Simple View
