Monday, January 20, 2014

rule breaker

I don't know about you but I have trouble following the reading series straight through. I mean sometimes there are stories in Journeys that I could use at different times because they go well with science and/or social studies. Of course I want to try and plan cross-curricularly as much as possible, so I am kind of skipping around in Journeys.

Not drastically... just skipping a story here or there. I can always go back to those stories, and we will for sure cover the skills, but we just swap the stories up. No harm done!

So, this week (after a little shifting) we are reading a realistic fiction and a biography. We started working on biographies the past week and a half with Helen Keller. It seems like perfect timing with MLK now, next we will jump right into Black History Month early.


The story we are reading this week is Luke Goes to Bat with a companion story about Jackie Robinson. I am trying include a close reading component at least once a week to practice finding information in the text. So, I used the companion story (Jackie Robinson) and made up a little directed close read for it. Copy it front and back and use it small group, whole group, or let students do it by themselves.


Click the picture above to download the freebie. 

We are learning about MLK this week, and we started our mini-unit with a little activity I like to call:

Drink and Draw


You may have been to something called Sips n' Strokes- which is basically like a painting class with wine (can't go wrong there!). Well, I changed the name and threw in a juice box and now we have Drink and Draw. We use a directed drawing (like this one) and have a good ol' time.



It is really fun!

Off to bed... ready for the 4 day week! :)

3 comments:

  1. Please check out LIFTPackages.blogspot.com. It is a teacher exchange program in which you meet teachers and send packages. Please feel free to sign up and pass our name along!

    Thanks
    -LIFTPackages

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  2. I'm student teaching in a class that also has Journeys reading program. How do you squeeze the whole week in?? The curriculum doesn't cover everything on the tests and we are always running out of time! (My cooperating teacher just wants to teach to the test and I fear the kids aren't learning what they need to.) Any tips or direction to a posting where you talk about this issue would be helpful!

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