Two of Everything

Last week, some of the upper primary classes (divisions 7, 8 and 9) were read the first part of the story Two of Everything in the library. It is a traditional Chinese folktale about an elderly couple who find a special pot that doubles anything that is put in it, including gold coins! As we read, the students used mental math strategies to make predictions about what would  happen if five or ten or twenty coins fell in.

I then introduced my special pot and role played parts of the story. Then I changed the rule for my pot and instead of doubling pot, it was now a +3 pot. We had the students predict how many "coins" would come out if 2, 4, 5, etc were put in. The students were then asked to create their own "magic" pot and identify what the number pattern rule is. They were asked to represent what would happen with their pot using pictures, numbers and words.

              

           

       

     

The students came up with so many interesting magic pots and did an amazing job of demonstrating and communicating their understanding of the mathematics involved.

~Ms Novakowski

And Then It Happened Writing

Inspired by our author visit with Michael Wade, the intermediate classes have been writing their own "And Then It Happened" type stories. The stories begin as personal narratives, based on a typical everyday event in the students' lives such as walking to school, having breakfast, practicing the piano or  running at soccer practice. After the introductions, the stories soon take a Michael Wade twist and something "happens" to take the everyday to an adventure. The students are having fun embellishing the ideas in their stories and are working at writing with a humorous tone, not an easy thing to do!

This week, the students read one of their classmates' story drafts and gave two pieces of feedback based on the ideas in the stories. We're not so worried about punctation and spelling at this point - we're still trying to get the students to get their ideas flowing. The students gave a compliment or commented on something they liked about the story, Secondly, the students gave a suggestion for what might come next in the story. Providing an idea for someone else's story can be a hard thing to do but it helps writers things about what a reader might want or anticipate.

The students will be reading their classmates' feedback next week and then adding more to their stories. I will be taking writing submissions from all the intermediate classes for a Blair Library anthology of And Then It Happened stories.
~Ms Novakowski

early primary storytelling

The early primary classes (divisions 10, 11 and 12) have been doing some storytelling in the library. After reading the Curious George stories, we discussed the different elements of a story - characters, setting and plot. First, the students each created their own character puppets.

And then we discussed setting - where the story takes place. The students used their character puppets and various natural materials to develop story ideas based on the setting they created.

As a final step, we discussed what would happen in the story - the plot. Was there some sort of adventure or journey? Was there a problem that needed to be solved?

Here's a little video compilation of students in divisions 10, 11 and 12 doing some storytelling:

We will be using our puppets in some new settings...coming soon!
~Ms Novakowski

monster fun

The students in divisions 10, 11 and 12 have been having some monster fun in the library. We read the books Go Away Big Green Monster! and Glad Monster, Sad Monster, both by artist and author Ed Emberley.

We also read/viewed/listened to the story Go Away Big Green Monster! on the iPads and the students learned how to "swipe" to turn the pages and use the interactive features of the ebook.                                                

The students used the app Doodle Buddy to create their own monsters on the iPad. The students are becoming "experts" with Doodle Buddy and have learned how to changed colours, drawing tools, drawing mediums and the width of their lines.

Here is a collage of iPad monsters from some students from each class!

The students then each made their own monster character puppet. We talked about dialogue and the students practiced having their monsters talk to each other...all part of storytelling and developing an understanding of characters and story.

A little monster fun in the library!

~Ms Novakowski