Celebrate Wit and Wisdom: Module 1
Sunnyside School
Kindegarten: The Five Senses
Students enjoyed the story Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. They spelled out their name on the tree and counted how many letters were in their name.
Geodes are used to help reinforce the phonological awareness and phonics skills taught in Fundations. Throughout Module 1, the students were given the chance to look at a book and find pictures that began with specific letters. They loved going on an "I Spy" hunt.
The strategy of Notice and Wonder helps the students to look deeply at the pictures and words that the author wrote in each book. They begin to notice things they would not have normally seen and started to ask questions, wondering why things are happening.
The sense of taste is the best sense!! The students looked at various objects and taped their picture under yes if they can eat their object or no if they cannot eat it.
To help see if the students truly understood the concept of the five senses, the children talked with their partner, sharing ideas of what the boy in the story saw, heard, smelled, tasted and touched.
Providing evidence and details to support your answer is very important when answering questions. When asked what CJ, heard in the story, the children provided not only the specific object, but also details to support why they feel that object was something he used his sense of hearing with and not any of the other senses.
First Grade: A World Of Books
While reading stories and analyzing art pieces, our first graders used their notice and wonder sticks to share their ideas.
Our Focus Board displays the book being read, the art piece being analyzed and the various types of questions that the students answer throughout the lessons and module.
The first graders learned about the importance of books all around the world. They learned the different ways they are distributed to children and compared their experiences with characters within the stories they read.
Mrs. Smerekanicz's Class End of Module Task Video
The students wrote a narrative story for the End of Module 1 Task. The prompt was:
Write and draw to tell a narrative about a character whose life has changed because of books. Click the link below to see their wonderful stories.
Vocabulary is a very important component to Wit and Wisdom. Throughout this unit, the student's vocabulary has grown. They have seen these words within books, in activities they did and on the vocabulary wall for students to look at each day.
Within the lesson, children learned about parts of speech. They learned what an adjective is and had the chance to describe their lollipop, coming up with descriptive adjectives to describe what it looks like.
In the story Waiting for the Biblioburro, the students are reminded of the importance of books, as a librarian and two book burros bring books and joy to the children in a remote village in Colombia. They begin to make connections between how they get books and how the children in this story get books.
Second Grade: A Season of Change
There are so many things to do in the season of Fall. The students wrote about all the fun things they do like to do during Fall. They connected their thoughts to the books that they read and the information they learned about the season.
The wonder wheel is a visual to help all students remember the various question words when analyzing a story. This wheel can be used with both fictional and nonfiction text ask they are beginning to think of their wonderings.
The students are learning about topic sentences and supporting details. Before they write their own paragraph, they practice putting the sentences in order to answer the question- What do people do outside in the fall?
Our Focus Walls keep us updated on new vocabulary words and questions that we are thinking about throughout the lesson.
Wit and Wisdom is a program that allows students to talk with their peers and listen to other's opinions and thoughts. Expectations on how to speak with friends and what a good listener looks like is established from the beginning in order for activities to be successful.
Throughout the module, students are asked to use the information they have learned in the various stories read to compose an informational writing piece. Graphic organizers help students to organize their information so that the final writing piece is easy to put together.
Third Grade: The Sea
In order to see what the students learned about the ocean's layers, they were asked to draw and color a picture demonstrating their knowledge, basing their ideas on the text and illustrations in the book.
It was fun reading about the life of Jacques Cousteau. By analyzing the text and the illustrations, students were able to explain how Jacques explored the sea as a young man.
Our third grade students used their observations in order to infer what was happening in the story. They looked at what characters said, the pictures within the text and the events that were happening.
After learning many facts about sea life, the students were asked to write a summary about their ideas. Each summary included a topic statement, key details and a concluding statement.
Throughout the module, students are asked to participate in a Socratic Seminar. During a Socratic Seminar, students sit in a circle and talk to each other, focusing on a specific question. Before participating, the rules of respectful talk were discussed. They talked about how to agree and disagree respectfully and sentence starters were shared on how to tell someone they agree or disagree with their idea.
After learning about the equipment used to explore the sea, students wrote an informative writing piece on one piece of equipment that was used. They provided details from the text on how that object helped them to learn more about the sea.
Fourth Grade: A Great Heart
What does having a heart mean figuratively? The students brainstormed their ideas and worked collaboratively to answer this question.
The students analyzed specific pages in the book The Circulatory System and figured out how the author used figurative language to help the reader understand the scientific concepts within the book.
Figuring out the main idea helps students understand what the important idea is that the author was writing about. The supporting details provide additional information and helps the reader learn more about the main idea. The students came up with details to support the idea that three types of blood vessels carry blood to all parts of the body.
Focusing on what the author says helps students to make connections and begin to analyze what they are reading. It also helps them formulate questions that they might have answered later on in the book.
Throughout the module, the students used the strategy of Notice and Wonder in order to spark conversations on ideas they saw in the book and questions they still had. This gave them a springboard to begin investigating new ideas.
Students use response journals to write down their thoughts and wonderings. Theses journals hold all the information that is learned throughout the module and are used for their end of module task in which they have to write an informative writing piece.