How to outline

Recycling

My how to will be presented in a Lift the Flap format.
There will be three flaps and under each one will be a how-to for that topic. My topics are reduce, reuse, and recycle. The first pages of each will be reasons to do those topics and under the corresponding flaps will be how-to do each task. At the end there is a conclusion of how recycling will benefit the reader.

Earth

A mother
Selfless and giving
Provide and produce
Momentarily
Earth

This poem could be used to introduce the topic of the environment. You can ask your students to write their own short poem about the earth.

Narrative piece: Why? Why? Why?

I will make this a children's book and add beautiful illustrations to it.

Why? Why? Why?

One day Tony and his mom were having a snack after school. Tony always enjoys his afternoon snacks because it is a special time for him and his mom to talk about his day. He was especially excited today, because it was Earth Day and he had a lot of questions he wanted to ask his mom.

Why don't we recycle mom? At school we have different bins for stuff. We put our old paper in a brown bin and any plastic stuff in a blue bin.

Why don't we have a compost bin? Did you know it is good for the garden. We can put stuff in it like banana peels, apple cores, coffee grounds, tea bags, yard clippings, old leaves and even paper. It will help keep our plants healthy and then we won't have so much trash.

And why don't we give my old clothes away? I'm sure there are a lot of people who could maybe use them.

Why don't we take our own bags to the store instead of using those plastic ones? Plastic bags are bad for the Earth because they stay around along time and they hurt animals.

Why don't we buy one big juice instead of a lot of little juices? If we want to take some with us we can always use a sippy cup.

Why don't we turn the water off when we brush our teeth? A lot of good water goes down the drain when you leave it running, you know.

As Tony was about to ask another question when his mom stopped him and said:

"You know what Tony, you're right. Why not?!"

Historical Fiction 3321

Historical Fiction is a story that is written in an accurate portrayal of the past which may include people of that time, but the story is fictional.

Historical Fiction can be used in the classroom in a number of ways. It is a great way to introduce social studies or history in a unique and exciting way. Even though the actual story may not be true it is a good way to learn about how people of the time coped with situations like, Columbus, World War II, and other major historical events. You could have your students learn about a certain time in history and write their own Historical Fiction story over that time period.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Contemporary Realistic Fiction implies that everything in a realistic story is consistent with the lives of real people in our contemporary world, the super natural does not exist and just because it is realistic it does not have to be a true story.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction can be used in the classroom in many ways, because of all the issues that are written about in this type of fiction. For example: family life, growing up, survival, and death. All of these issues will effect your students at one time or another and introducing a piece of realistic fiction that covers the issue at hand may help your students cope with their own situation. CRF can also be used to introduce a certain issue that you know ALL of your students will be experiencing while in your classroom such as growing up. CRF is also great for introducing different cultural situations to your classroom.

blog 7 3344 MGP Draft

Importance of Recycling

TEKS

Grade K-3

(b) Knowledge and skills.

(1) Scientific investigation and reasoning. The student for at least 80% of instructional time, conducts investigations in the classroom and outdoors following home and school safety procedures and uses environmentally appropriate and responsible practices. The student is expected to:

(A) identify and demonstrate safe practices as described in the Texas Safety Standards during classroom and outdoor investigations including wearing safety goggles, washing hands, and using materials appropriately;

(B) discuss the importance of safe practices to keep self and others safe and healthy; and

(C) demonstrate how to use, conserve, and dispose of natural resources and materials such as conserving water and reusing or recycling of paper, plastic, and metal.

My MGP

Narrative- Comic strip (how plastic bags never decompose)

Expository- brochure (how to sort recyclables, what can and can't be recycled)

Persuasive- Power Point (persuade the reader to recycle to lessen the dependency of landfills)

Descriptive- Poem (love the earth)

Blog 7 Modern Fantasy 3321

Modern Fantasy

Our group presented on Modern Fantasy this week and we defined it as, literature that is set in the real world but the author alters one or more characteristics of everyday reality. There are many different categories of Modern Fantasy and they are: Articulate Animals, Toys, Preposterous Characters and Situations, Strange and Curious Worlds, Little People, Spirits: Friendly and Frightening, Time Warps and Science Fiction. With all the different categories of Modern Fantasy you can only imagine the limitless possibilities of how to use it in your classroom. Below is my example.

Book: The Little Engine That Could

Directions for teacher: Before reading the story to your students create a (large) little blue train out of construction paper and have this displayed on a wall in your classroom. Introduce the book to the students and engage them in talk before you read the story to them. Ask them what they think the book will be about based on the cover and title page. Then read the story (make sure to point out how the clown and toys don't give up along the way).

Directions for students: After reading the story to the students (and pointing out the moral of the story, don't give up) have them think about a time in there life where they ran into many obstacles and kept going. Give them a personal experience of your own as an example, learning to ride your bike or tying your shoe. Then ask your students to draw a personal experience in there lives, when they could have given up but kept trying.

Directions for teacher: After the students finish their drawings ask them to share their experiences and artwork, then have them tape their pictures on the wall in the coach cars of the little blue train you displayed on the wall. You could even put a large tittle over the train saying "I think I can, I think I can..... " :)

blog 6 3344

Talk

The text book defines "talk" in two ways aesthetic talk and efferent talk. Aesthetic talk, like aesthetic listening, deals with the lived-through experience of literature. Students use aesthetic talk to respond to literature and to deepen their understanding of the books they are reading. Efferent talk is used by students to inform and persuade. They use efferent talk in conversations during an activity called theme cycles. There are four other types of efferent talk and they are: show-and-tell, oral reports, interviews, and debates. These activities require the children to prepare and rehearse before presenting in front of an audience.

The chatter of little voices is an everyday occurrence in elementary school classrooms. As they talk they are using their conversations for different purposes. They may be trying to control a classmates behavior, maintain social relationships (friendships), convey information, or to express their own personal experiences and opinions. Talk encourages children to voice their ideas and opinions and by doing so, create opportunities for listening as well. Which is why talk is so important in the classroom.

Talk appears in the classroom through many ways and activities. Aesthetic talk happens in small groups, grand conversations, by asking questions, through reading stories and through readers theater. Small groups is where students learn to be responsible group members and recognize that what they have to say is important in the classroom. Grand conversations help to dig deeper into stories and help students deepen their comprehension. Students talk about literature they are reading in literature focus units and literature circles. Both students and teachers ask questions in the classroom this helps stimulate conversation and deepen understanding. Remember the most useful questions cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. A good question requires students to analyze, interpret, evaluate and to offer their personal opinions. Reading stories creates multiple opportunities for talk in the classroom. The stories can be read by both the student and the teacher. Readers theater is a great way to involve your students in the stories you are presenting to the class, by involving them in acting out the stories. I'm sure there are many other ways that talk appears in the classroom so don't let these examples hinder you, they are ways to help and inspire you to inspire your students.