Continuing with the Global Read Aloud 2013

In Out of My Mind we've read about Melody, a young girl with cerebral palsy who is looking to find her voice.

In the first chapters we were first surprised by the many different words the author uses to explain how one expresses themselves. This led to a great conversation on synonyms and using colourful words in our writing.

 In chapter six, the author tells us about Mrs. V creating flash cards for Melody in different colours. Green for adjectives; blue for verbs; pink for nouns. 

We looked at words that described Meoldy's mother so far in the book: (notice the colour)

Starting the Global Read Aloud 2013

Today marks the start of the Global Read Aloud Project. My class has been taking place for the past 3 or 4 years.

This year's book is Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper.

Below are our predictions about what the book could be about, simply from judging a book by its cover.

Created with Padlet

Animal Protests

Here's the wallwisher we started in class!
Looking forward to your research!

Our first Skype meeting of 2012-2013

As part of the Global Read Aloud, our class was asked to link up with a 5th grade class in Portland, Maine. Mrs. Smith introduced their class which has students from all over the world!
We also shared our ideas about the book we're both reading, The One and Only Ivan.
We sang O Canada for them; they said the Pledge of Allegiance for us! It was pretty neat! Various students also shared greetings in many languages including Gaelic, Mi'kmaq, Arabic, Afrikaans, etc.
There were some really neat similarities in our schools: both our classrooms overlook water; their school is located on a peninsula like ours. But the similarities ended there as they were amazed that our whole school population is about 1/4 of their school's population, which only serves K-5!

Following our 1/2 hr chat, we decided we'd become "pen pals" through the safe online educational site, Edmodo. This fits in PERFECTLY with our upcoming exploration of cultural regions as part of social studies!

Here are some shots of the experience:

Skyping with Mrs. Smith's class in Portland, ME

Blog homework... this is a first!

Hey, grade 5/6!
Here's your surprise on the blog.

I would like each of you to post a sticky on the wallwisher board (link here) I've created about Ivan's project. Answer one of the following in your post:

• What do you think Ivan's plan is?
• Do you think he's really just painting pictures for Ruby?
• Who do you think will be involved in Ivan's plan?

Write your response (it doesn't have to be long) and sign it -- with your name.

If for some reason you can't post on the wallwisher site, leave a comment below.

Thanks, guys!

ENJOY!

Thoughts on Stella's death in The One and Only Ivan

What is a ______________?

*LD Funky Scribbles font from LetteringDelights.com

We used this quote from our Global Read Aloud book, The One and Only Ivan, to springboard a writing activity. How would you describe an everyday item to a baby elephant... or someone who didn't know what it was?

“What is a lawnmower?” Ruby asked. “It’s a dad thing. You push it.” “It runs by gas. It is really heavy.” “On the bottom there is a sharp blade that cuts grass!” By: Jessie Helen

“What is a headband? Ruby asks” It is a girl thing, it goes in your hair. It holds your hair out of your face. It is like an elastic with soft stuff  or hard stuff on the outside.                                     --Nora 

“What is an eraser?” Ruby asks. "An eraser is a thing that erases things that you wrote in pencil.” Some of the colors of an eraser are pink and white”. The way you work it is by rubbing it on paper.

                                 By: Sam

“What is a toaster?” Ruby asks. “It’s a human thing, a rectangular shaped box with 2-4 slots in the top.”“You can put bread in the top and turn the knob, then you turn the knob and it heats up and turns the bread in to toast.”
                              By: Emily 

  "What is a iPod?" Ruby asks.  A iPod is a thing that is electric machine that you can play games on. It is a human thing .You can listen to music and go online and learn stuff that’s a human thing to. Some of the iPods can take pictures to play with it, too. 
                                      By:Matthew 

“What is a bicycle?” Ruby asks “A bicycle is like a miniature car, you can go anywhere with it. But the difference between a car and a bicycle is that a car runs on gas and a bicycle runs on your energy. A different way to say bicycle is bike, The use for a bike is that you can go on a ride with your friends, go to your community market for a family member or you can just go to the store for a snack. And that’s what a bicycle is.”                 By: Erin J 

“What is a lamp?” Ruby asks. "It’s a human thing, it helps you when your in the dark and it helps you read, write and do homework.”  By: Taylor 

     “What is a Calendar” Ruby asked?
Well it tells you the month, year and date when you read it. You can write down when your busy and when your not. It helps you keep track of everything and it usually is a square that has numbers and at the top is says the month and year. It’s often made of paper. By: Gabby 

“What is a Computer?” Ruby asks. A computer is a device that humans use to communicate with other humans.They also use a computer to look at information that they don’t know. “So is it big or small?” Ruby asks.You can get them in all different sizes! But its better if its bigger because it will be easier to see the screen. By: Emma 

What is a bed? “ Ruby asks “A bed is a piece of furniture that humans lay on. And it has a soft thing that they put on,And sometimes has four legs. By : Neve 

What is a broom? Ruby asks It is a human thing .It has a long stick it is  called . At the end of it , it can be a triangle or a rectangle .At the end of the triangle or rectangle there is little things called brushes. A broom will sweep up dirt. You hold the handle to sweep. By: Sarah

"What is a paint brush?" Ruby asks. A paint brush's a human thing that leaves atail behind itself and it is hairy they also dip it in liquid and slide it across a wall that is a paint brush.-- Max 

“What is a Globe?” Ruby asked.It is round. It is a map. You can use it to find places. It spins. It is many colors. There is little tiny words on it.
 By Cody & Karzen J

“What is a lightswitch?” A lightswitch is a switch that turns on and off  the lights. If it’s pointed up the lights are on and it’s bright if its pointed down its off and dark. It has stuff behind it that gives it power to turn the lights on and off. By Logan 

“What is a laptop? Ruby asked” “A laptop is a gamer thing. It’s a rectangleFlip able thing with a screen. It has keys with the alphabet and numbers on it and when you type letters pop up on the screen like magic”.                  By Innis 

“What is a desk?” Ruby asks. A desk is a thing you sit on , while doing work , It’s square , It’s s place holder. It has a chair/seat part to sit on with 4 legs.Also where you put your supplies in.                              By Shayde  J 

“What is a stove?” Ruby asks It is a human thing . It is really hot and it is square with a little door in the front of it . It has 4 little circle’s on the top, that get hot to cook stuff, It’s in a house. By:Drake

“What is a Bus?” Ruby asks. A bus is a yellow rectangle with lots of windows and seats. It also has 1,2,3,4 black wheels that go round and round. It has a door  and steps that people walk up. A bus will take you around anywhere you want.

 -- Kalen 

“What is a bookmark” Ruby asks. It’s this thing that helps you remember your page, you can bind it, its small but not to small, it can be any color By: Cheyenne 

 

The One and Only Ivan :: Global Read Aloud 2012

As in previous years, our class is taking part in the Global Read Aloud Project. This year's book is called The One and Only Ivan. From the trailer we watched on the book's site, to the cover, and first few pages of The One and Only Ivan we are all wondering and anticipating what may come next with each page turned.

To get in Ivan's mind, we listened to this music, while we coloured on a piece of paper with a crayon...



What did we create?

I wonder if any of these pictures resemble what Ivan would draw in his domain?!?!












Also, as part of our participation in the Global Read Aloud forum, we created this week 1 word cloud which describes Ivan, the main character in our book.

http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/5805585/IVAN_%3B%3B_The_One_and_Only_Ivan

Stay tuned to our blog and our twitter feed (@inmyclassroom or #Ivan5and6) as we explore this intriguing book!

Global Read Aloud :: Charlotte's Web :: Reading Buddies Grade 2/3 and Grade 5/6

This year we have paired up with Mr. MacKenzie's grade 2/3 class for Reading Buddies. As a kick-off to our year, we have signed up for the Global Read Aloud project reading Charlotte's Web. Here are some Vokis some of the buddies created about our thoughts on Charlotte's Web so far.

::::::::: Much thanks to Ms. Dugas for getting everyone used to using Voki! :::::::

Please use these links to get to each students' Voki:

Kaisa'n's Thoughts:

  Kaisa'n's Thoughts Click Here

Brenley's Thoughts

Celine's Thoughts

Chelsea's Thoughts

Joshua's Thoughts 

Robert's Thoughts

Chelsea's Thoughts on Charlotte's Web

Brenley's Thoughts on Charlotte's Web

Kaisa'n's Thoughts on Charlotte

We're baaaaaaaaccccccccccckkkkkkkkk!

As students entered the classroom last week, they were greeted with the traditional "Welcome Back" message.

Things have been going smoothly; the grade 5/6 class have been considered wonderful role models for many in the elementary wing on many occasions the past week. (YAY!)

Speaking of role models, tomorrow we have our first Reading Buddies session with Mr. MacKenzie's grade 2/3 class. We're starting reading buddies this week as a way to gear up for the Global Read Aloud Project coming up in October. As part of reading buddies, our classes will be reading Charlotte's Web, while in our own language arts time, we'll be reading The One and Only Ivan.  (Watch the video... it has us "sad, but excitedly curious"!)

And finally, we held our student council representative election in our class where 6 brave grade sixes accepted the nominations and challenge to prepare a speech outlining their reasons for wanting to be class rep. The speeches were definitely some of the most inspiring, heartfelt and humorous speeches I've ever heard! Congrats on jobs well done, guys! Once the votes were tallied, the elected class rep was...

Emily!

 Congratulations, Emily! We hope you work to keep us informed!

Our Skype Call with Students from Saskatchewan!

This morning we Skyped with a Book Club at a school in Regina, Saskatchewan. The students were grade 4,5 & 6 students. Shayde thought is was "interesting." Lainee thought it was "cool, fun and cool hearing everybody's thoughts." Sidney thought it was "awesome!"

Thank you, Mrs. McMurtry for setting up the Skype 'date' with us! We hope we can do it again sometime!

The Baobabs :: Chapters 4 through 6

• Learning about the planet -- Asteroid B612
• How does the plane land on the planet if it's so small
• BAOBABS!!!!!!!!
• tiny, little planet
• a tree could barely live on it
• about the size of our classroom
• can fit 4 elephants on it... maybe 7
• Little Prince likes sheep
• Thinks smartly; has big words in his vocabulary; but he thinks 'small', thinks 'smaller' in terms of space and room available
•  He has words like an adult but he thinks like a child
• Baobabs are REALLY hard to get rid of if they grow too big; as soon as you find a bad seed you have to take them out!

  

Predictions:

Nathan: The Little Prince is going to get a real sheep. The narrator and the Litte Prince are also ging to move to the narrators planet. (But Ailig thinks the fact that the narrator said, "It's been six years since the Little Prince left me..." refutes this.)

Andy: I think the Little Prince is going to leave the planet a long, long time after the crash and he's going to go back and tell the kids on his planet about it.

Logan (the birthday girl today): I think they're going to find out where the Little Prince's homeland is, and they're going to find out that the Little Prince has magical powers

Ailig: I think the Little Prince is going to get an actual sheep and go back to his planet to kill the Baobab trees

Jon: I think they (the narrator and the Prince) are going to stay and find out what the planet is like.

Mikayla: I think he's going to get a real sheep.

Breagha: I think the Little Prince is going to get a real sheep and the narrator is going to find someone who likes his boa constrictor drawings.
 
Generally, we all think that the ending is going to be sad. The story just has that kind of feeling to it.

We created a wordle graphic about our thoughts thus far; about our predictions, our thoughts, our ideas about the book.

You Can't Judge a Book by its Cover!

We are taking part in a Global Read Aloud. We are reading the book "The Little Prince" with students from all over the world. Our teacher, Dawn, found out about the project on twitter.

A little bit about us:
We are from Iona, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. We are from Rankin School of the Narrows/Sgoil MhicFhraing a'Chaolais, where we learn all kinds of things, including the French and Gaelic languages. (The "sgoil" part of our school name is in Gaelic.) We are the 7 girls and 11 boys, aged 10-12, who make up the grade 5/6 class at this school.

Our First Thoughts on "The Little Prince"

• Ailig says, "Most of the class thought that, by the cover of the book, that the book would be really bad. After 2 chapters, we're hooked!"
• Zach M., "The little dude likes sheep?!?!"
• Jon says, "So far we find the book is really good... really awesome... and we're gonna keep reading."
• Zach C., "Can't wait to read more!!!!!!!!!!!!"
• Shazia: "The book is really awesome!"
• Logan (a girl): "I like the way the main character (the dude telling the story)... [the narrator] chooses his words!"
• Breagha: "I like the way the narrator is 'high class', using big words and stuff."
• Nathan: "The little dude is really picky about the sheep... and pictures!"
• Emerson: "The book is interesting!"
• Mikayla: "I thought the book was really interesting; I didn't think I was going to like it from the start! Now I want to go home and read, read, read!"
• Dawn (Our Teacher) says, "I"m totally pumped that my class is sooooo excited about this project!"