LA+Resources

2nd Grade LA

In December and January we read The Read of the Panda, learned how to summarize and find powerful words.

Pandas (Oracle Think Quest)

Giant Pandas (National Geographic)

World Wildlife Foundation on Pandas

Summer Reading Blue Stem Award Nominees Rebecca Caudill Award Nominees

First Grade Solar System www.windows2universe.org

What do you know about Peter Pan?

Ellis Island Project

Immigration: Stories of Today and Yesterday

Primary Sources

Passage to America

Knowledge of Ellis Island

Map of Ellis Island and surrounding area

Ellis Island Resources

Turn in book advertisement

Turn in work for Shakespeare Stealer

The Halifax Explosion

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Sally Walker Biography

Blizzard of Glass Families (form)

Shakespeare Stealer

Widge Online Graphic Organizer Projects and groups are listed in your Google Drive
 * //Final Discussion//**

Favorite Scene, Chapters 1-8

Challenging Aspects of Shakespeare Stealer

CryptoClub

Shakespeare Stealer Turn in LA assignments for Trimester 3.

Widge

Words & Phrases from Elizabethan Times

Sites to Use: Elizabethan Times

Learn more about Shakespeare and theater life in the 1500's

Folger Shakespeare Library

Globe Theater

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Blizzard of Glass

Preceden Timeline Maker

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Sally Walker Biography

Peter and the Starcatchers Glossary of Nautical Terms

Peter & the Starcatchers Characters

More Character Resources for Peter & the Starcatchers

The Adventures of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Short version of Peter Pan

Peter (Peter & the Starcatchers) Official Peter and the Starcatchers site What do you know about the story of Peter Pan. Post your ideas on Wallwisher.

Ideas for Continued Learning in the Summer: [] After winter break, we started reading the book __Blood on the River: Jamestown 1607__ by Elisa Carbone. The book is about a boy, Samuel Collier, who is an orphan in London and gets into some trouble and is sentenced by the court to accompany Captain John Smith to the New World. Elisa Carbone's web site describes the book by saying it is, One interesting aspect of this book is that each chapter starts out with a primary source, material that is closest to the person or event being studied. The first chapter starts out with a speech attributed to Chief Powhatan (Leader of the Powhatan Tribe and father of Pocahontas) and there are numerous journal entries from Captain Smith's diary. Since the language in a primary source is not always familiar we will discuss the meaning of these sources and share how these primary sources add to the story. After completing the story, students will select a related project to complete to further their understanding of the story and Jamestown.
 * Participate in the Oak Park Public Library's summer reading program
 * Keep a journal
 * Write a play and perform it for friends and family
 * Write or email a friend or family member
 * Write to a favorite author and include what you like about his or her books. Many well-known authors have web sites that include how to contact them
 * Start a family history by interviewing family members and searching on [|Ancestry.com]
 * Read, read, read! ([|Blue Stem]nominees for 2012 are a good resource, as well as Rebecca Caudill nominees. I would suggest previewing any of the[| Rebecca Caudill]books before your child read these since these books are targets for 4th through 8th grades and sometimes the subject matter may be too intense for younger children.)
 * [[image:http://www.elisacarbone.com/images/siteimgs/cover/cover_bloodontheriver.jpg width="92" height="149" caption="external image cover_bloodontheriver.jpg"]] || "thoroughly researched and historically accurate. //Blood on the River: James Town 1607// captures the time period and the landscape, along with a boy’s personal struggles. The book explores the day-to-day lives of the colonists at James Town, Virginia, as well as contemporary themes such as learning how to react to anger and conflict. Further, the descriptions of the Algonquian Indians allow for discussions on perspective and respect. Readers will find that they have experienced what it must have been like to live in James Town in 1607." [] ||

In December, we concentrated on preparing a writing piece for the district’s writing contest, Writing Celebration. To prepare for writing stories and poems, we spent several days analyzing good writing by reading and discussing picture books reccommended by the 6 + 1 Writing traits, the district's writing curriculum.

We spent a couple of classes discussing the elements that make a story good. We identified four main areas that make a story strong. They were interesting plot, well-developed characters, believable dialogue and feelings or emotions. When discussing strong plots, students said they thought plots were good when the events in the story surprised them or if a character was struggling with an unusual problem. Some students thought a plot could be good if the writing was so realistic and well described that they felt like they were the main character as they read the story. Students identified examples of these kinds of plots in books they had read or in Open Court stories. In our discussion of characters, students identified ways to make their characters more real. Some of their ideas were telling how they dressed and wore their hair, how they acted, what they were good at, what they were afraid of, and what their family was like. When students planned out their own stories, they developed their characters by listing basic information about their characters, like physical descriptions, likes and dislikes, and personality. Our discussions also focused on how to show something in our writing instead of telling it. We discussed ways to show someone was happy or angry without using those words.

We spent a couple of class periods, preparing for poetry writing. I read some poems aloud and we mapped them together. We read some of Jack Perlutsky's poems and more serious poems from __Out of the Dust__, a novel about the Dust Bowl written through poetry. We listed some of the imagery or the words that gave us some visual images. We listed sound devices like alliteration, rhyme, or onomatopoeia. We looked for examples of similes or metaphors. Then we mapped what was happening in the poem. As we discovered many poems tell a story, but in a different way than prose. Finally, we discussed what the author wanted the reader to think about when reading the poem. Students than mapped a poem on their own. All students identified similes and metaphors in poems and some students wrote their own. Students who had completed their fiction writing piece for Writing Celebration, wrote peotry to submit for the contest.

All 4th graders in the Language Arts group, submitted a writing piece for Writing Contest and we will know the building-winners the week of January 17th. [|Winning entries]from previous Writing Celebration contests can be read online.