Our Biography Celebration

The students told me a biography is a true story about a person’s life written by another person. This person usually did something significant or important. Each student chose a famous person of interest to them. We started doing research on that special person and finding out facts about their early life, important dates and events in their life, contributions to our world and personal connections to that person. We wrote  and published a piece on this person.

 Much of our reading the past few weeks has focused on reading to gain information about our biography person. This type of non-fiction reading is very different because the students need to sift through information and decide which facts or important events are most significant and how to record these events in an organized manner on the research grid. I used Martin Luther King, Jr, as my biography person and modeled each step as we moved ahead. This has been helpful for the students to go through the process with me and then try it independently.

Each student created a time-line on the computer to represent important events in the life of their biography person.

 

 We also used our chrome books to create a Google Slides presentation about our biography person. They were especially thrilled by the i-movie in which we utilized the photospeak app and recorded a famous quote spoken by their person with the student's own voices. In their own words, it was a little "creepy"! Click on the link below to view.

https://youtu.be/jpKc4Jyl0sw

 Thank you so much for attending Our Biography Celebration. The students were so proud and enjoyed sharing all of their expert knowledge. 

Our Valentine's Celebration

We had a wonderful Valentine's Celebration on the Friday before February Break. Thank you so much for all of the ingredients for yummy ice cream sundaes. We loved adding the toppings to our cookie dough ice cream! The students enjoyed opening their valentine cards and thanking their classmates for the candy and nice notes. We played some active "minute to win it" games because it was too cold to go outside. Ask your child all about them. You can even give them a try at home with your family!

Non Fiction Mania

We recently studied the features of fiction and non fiction literature. A T-chart was made to compare them. We focused on non fiction features, such as headings, table of contents, photographs, captions, glossary, diagrams, etc. We discussed how these help us gain information from this type of text. Partners went on scavenger hunts to find them in our non fiction books and Scholastic News. 

Our class then went on to examine non fiction text structures. We looked at 5 different structures that authors use to assist readers in understanding what they read. They are: description, sequence, compare and contrast, cause and effect and problem and solution.As a class, we used the topic of "soccer" and read about it using all 5 text structures. Next, the students worked with a friend to read all about "bubble gum" and see if they could identify the text structure the author utilized. They did a great job! 

The students enjoyed exploring the series "Who Would Win?" which is a compare and contrast text structure. They worked in partners to create a Venn diagram with how the 2 animals were alike and different and then went on to write several comparative statements. 

When you are reading non fiction literature with your child, be sure to ask him/her about the text features and what text structures the author uses to organize the information. Here are some of the mini-lesson posters to help you.