Have each student Read Blueberries for Sal with a partner and complete a story map handout as described in Objective A.
Compile a list from the entire group, naming words with suffixes and categorizing them to be displayed in the classroom. Add to the list as you read other books and locate suffixes fitting the objectives. This could be done as an interactive whiteboard file (flipchart or SMART notebook) that is saved and reopened as needed.
Conduct a lesson on homophones. Make a list of the homophones and display it in the classroom naming words in Objective C and including other homophones. This could also be done on interactive whiteboard or in a word processing program.
Pour a can of blueberries into a jar. Ask students how many ways they can estimate the number of blueberries contained in the jar. Then let them count the berries in different ways. For example, A low ability math group may count them by grouping them in tens and recording the number. Another group of high ability math students may want to put them into groups of three and try counting them this way. This group could then produce a multiplication statement showing the total.
As a group, have the students compile lists of words with suffixes for posting and words which are homophones for posting. This could be done on interactive whiteboard and printed out. too.
Have the students create a bulletin board which is a guessing game. Have each student make an illustration which shows the nursery rhyme, poem, or song which includes the word blue and post the illustration on the board. Provide an answer list for those wishing to guess the title and check their guess.
Ask some parents to bake healthy blueberry muffins for the students (and teacher) to enjoy while listening to Blueberries for Sal.
Read several different books which incorporate the blue theme to the students. After each reading, discuss fiction and non-fiction genres, main ideas, facts learned, ideas, ideals or lessons taught, and an appreciation of literature developed.
Using a map of the US, have the students locate Maine, the setting of Blueberries for Sal. Explain the climate and why blueberries grow there. Identify this region as part of the northeastern region of the US. You may want to incorporate dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases and internet sites to illustrate these concepts. If you have it, use Google Earth software to visit Maine and see many photos via the Panoramio layer, as well as many landforms there.
After hearing and discussing concepts presented in Water's Way, have each student write and design a flip book illustrating the water cycle. Or design a class interactive book using an online tool such as Tikatok, reviewed here. Be sure to share the URL for the finished "book" with parents so students can read it to them online at home.
Have students select either a blue whale or a blue lobster and make a four-page (or more) illustrated book describing its characteristics, and habitat. Use PowerPoint slides as the book pages for an easy way to add photos, clip art, and more. Then print out the pages in landscape mode. Combine the entire class's pages in a bound, laminated book. Allow students to sign the book out to share with their parents overnight. Email the file to parents who have PowerPoint, as well.
Have students write a one to three paragraph retelling of Ol' Blue. |
