Space Case by Edward Marshall
Every kid in the room loves reading anything illustrated by James
Marshall. His artwork is nothing short of hilarious. The plot in this story is great, too.
A "thing" from outer space decides to visit Earth on what turns out to be Halloween night. He (the thing) is not noticed as he clomps around with the other trick or treaters. The next day he goes to school with Buddy, the boy who somehow forgot to do his science project. Now the "thing" is mistaken for a robot. (There is more!)
Teachers, this is a Reading Rainbow Book, so you know it's good!
Time to address the Common Core:
Writing The story begins with the phrase
It came from outer space...
Write the phrase on the white board and have the students finish with an idea of their own. Then they should illustrate it.
Vocabulary
Words from the story to define together:
natives folks appeared noticed origin
atomized peculiar-looking specimens
primitive
Spelling
un means "not" What do these words from the story mean? uncooperative unquestionably
Math Problem
The thing from space lived 2 zyglotes away from Earth. A zyglote plus 2 zyglotes=6 How much is a zyglote? How did you figure it out?
Language Arts
Expressions are often not defined for children. Discuss these expressions that are used in the story. Have the children discuss it in groups of 2, then share what the expression means.
The thing from space was beginning to lose heart.
It must be that new kid from down the block.
The kids stopped at the schoolyard to stuff themselves silly.
"Good heavens!"beeped the thing.
Happy Reading!
Till next time,
Nancy
Do you know that there are children who have never touched the icky guts of a pumpkin before? Who do not know what that smells like? Who might think that there is one really great big seed in the whole thing?
It is heartbreaking to think that all of the simple pleasures and things that we did in school so many years ago are now exceptional opportunities to learn for our students! What that means is, if you do not provide these activities in school, they might miss it entirely because pumpkins are not inexpensive. Parents will buy a costume and a plastic pumpkin and send their child out there to collect their loot. Purchasing a real pumpkin, carving it as a family activity, actually roasting the pumpkin seeds to eat them? Often that only happens if teachers do it.
I recommend this book, How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin, by Margaret MacNamara to use as a basis for Pumpkin Day in your classroom. On Pumpkin Day (not to be confused with a Halloween Party) all reading, math, science, writing, science, and craft activities center around the mighty pumpkin! In this book, a teacher is helping the class to figure out some answers to questions that they have about pumpkins. You can figure them out right along with them in your real classroom!
My recommendations for you include: enlist help from parents ahead of time, and make sure you collect everything you will need: big scooping spoons, big bowls to put the pulp in, pumpkin cutting knives (for the adults). You need 2 big pumpkins (with 2 adults in charge) to handle a classroom of children. Give each adult a list of the children's names to call up one by one. That way, they don't keep asking, "when is it my turn?" Don't forget the plastic tablecloths for the pumpkin tables!
Have a great self-directed pumpkin art activity for them to do at their seats while they are waiting. In another corner you could have a parent reading a new Halloween story.A fun writing activity is to pretend that you are the last pumpkin left in the pumpkin patch, and it is getting late. What happens to you?
When the children are interacting with the pumpkin, they should have their math notebooks with them to write down how many creases are on the pumpkin, etc.
I take the seeds home to bake them in a little bit of oil with some
salt. It is worthwhile to get to taste something new. Then you can graph "Do you like roasted pumpkin seeds or not?" More math!
For tons of free printables plus further ideas to help round out your activities, check out my October Ideas board on Pinterest. The link is up there on the right!
Happy Reading! Till Next Time, Nancy
There are plenty of days ahead for writing about trick-or-treating fun, so let's take care of some science and writing while we have the chance to easily combine the two. Anything by Gail Gibbons is worth purchasing at your next yard sale or thrift store visit. She is a master at combining facts in a way that make the students want to hear more. They will be completely engaged while you are reading and discussing the book Owls. Owls are sort of Halloweeny, since they hang out in deep dark forests, call "Hooo! Hooo!", and their heads spin completely around. They are fantastic creatures to study as you connect them to your study of living things, habitats, and animals and their young.
I do not usually use this blog as a platform to sell another teacher's products, but since I purchased this one myself I felt I should point it out to you. I spent $8.00 on Deanna Jump's TPT unit "Owl Math and Literacy Centers". It's 97 pages long!!! Anyway, I used her student booklet about owls to have my students practice listening to and writing facts about owls.
I read them the entire Gail Gibbons book, then gave them the first mixed-up sentence page in Deanna's unit. They cut the words out and glued them in order to make a sentence about owls being nocturnal animals. Then (this is the beautiful part), they had to add their own sentences to fill out the rest of the page, as much as they could, from what they remembered from the story. After that, they got to color an owl illustration and paste it on the facing page. They were totally absorbed and wrote amazing things that they remembered!
Every day for a week I read them a different book about owls, and they completed a new page about what they had learned. When they were done, I had an awesome piece of work that I could use to grade: handwriting proficiency, spelling in a real-life situation, use of conventions in writing sentences, listening ability,and one science unit grade as well! That is what you call smart teaching, and creative use of your teaching time. Who doesn't love that!
Happy Nonfiction Reading!
Till next time,
Nancy
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