The WONDERFUL Inference of Oz

Ever since I was a little girl, I've loved "The Wizard of Oz" the movie...I mean, who doesn't, right? Well, if you don't, don't tell me. You need your hiney spanked.

Each year at Christmas, my Mimi and Papaw would get my sister and I a collectible Wizard of Oz memorabilia set. They would sit pretty, collect dust on our dressers and sometimes I'd secretly play with them even though I wasn't supposed to. Ooops.

One of my favorite pieces they gave us were the Wizard of Oz stuffed dolls. I actually took them to school, and displayed them during the unit, but forgot to get a picture of them to show you. I will have to do that soon, because I love them so much and they remind me of when I was just a tiny tot myself.

Ok...moving on...back to now when I have dust collecting on my shelves at home for no reason at all, other than I just hate dusting.

So, last week we dove right into this beloved story.

I must say, there were literally some days when the little muffins were so excited to read this story, they could barely contain themselves and they had a hard time planting their hineys on the carpet. Whew. Like. It was nuts. {Is it weird now that I'm *complaining* how they were too excited about a story?!? Women.}

Anyways, this is the abridged copy that I used...

This version was perfect for my 3rd graders. The pictures were beautifully engaging and whimsical. They aided in making inferences, as well as building the students' background knowledge because, let's face it, I had literally 4 days to to do this unit and there was no way I could read the entire book, even though I wanted to terribly.

My teacher partners did not have this version, so I had two other abridged chapter books (the Junior Classics that you find in the Target $1 bins from time and time again?? Yes...those). These chapter books worked fine, also. D and H would read excerpts (like I did) as we focused on each character daily.

Pretty much any abridged version will work just fine for this unit.


Anyways, here's kind of the breakdown of the lessons and sample activities we completed with this unit. I did not use all worksheets in this pack, but next year I've decided I'm making a two week unit out of this because it was so fun and the kids LOVED it!! (But, thanks to district assessments, we must move on. Boo, hiss district assessments!)

Also, these characters tied in great with our Writer's Workshop last week! We were focusing on (and still are) fictional narratives, and adding good descriptions. So, whatever character we focused on in Reading Mini Lesson, I would bring back up again for Writer's Workshop Mini Lesson (and by the way, I must pat myself on the back *ah-hum*...they were true mini-lessons of 10 minutes!!! GO LINDSAY! It's your birthday!), and we'd discuss physical traits, personality traits, and feelings. It was a great tie-in and the kid's transferred their learning from reading into writing which is always an exciting thing!!

So, I hoped you enjoyed this show and tell!

As always, the first person to comment and leave their email below, will receive this pack all for 'yo little self!

Have a wonderful week, and remember, there's No Place Like Home, unless of course you need a vacation and then that's an awesome place to be, too!

Until then,

Pockets? People? What?!

I am really excited to share this blog post with you! First of all, I've had Parent/Teacher Conferences - Round 1 until 6:30 tonight. *Sigh* I am P-O-O-P-E-D out. Round 2 is tomorrow (FRIDAY...boo! hiss!) until 4:30. Thankfully, we have super kids and great parents but the hours are draining, ya know what I mean jelly bean?!

So, what do I do to chill out and relax?

Yes. Blog. NERD ALERT! NERD ALERT!

Whatev. You're the one reading it, right?! LOVES!

Ok. wow. Shiny object. Back to the post.

So, I blogged the other day about how we have started our new inference unit. Monday-Wednesday of this week, we read an excerpt of Charlotte's Web from our textbook. Eww. Just saying that word makes my stomach hurt. I am not a textbook fan at all. This was literally the second time this year we have used it. However, this excerpt worked well with making inferences and the kids love the story so, eh, why not?!

Well, today and tomorrow because of PTC, we have half days. I only meet with each of my groups 50 minutes {we normally have 90 minutes for reading. I know...don't hate me...we are super lucky!}, and we know in teacher realm that basically is about 5 minutes (or so it feels). Even still, I wanted today's learning to be meaningful and most importantly, engaging. Therefore, I pulled out one of the inference activities I created before Christmas in anticipation of these few days when I knew we'd be focusing on making inferences. I must say, it was a {HUGE} success. The kids LOVED it! I mean...seriously...Loved. It. I had two parents tonight at conferences say that their kids had so much fun in reading today matching pockets with people.

Wait. WHAT?!

Yes. I did just say, "Matching pockets with people..."












:

Keep reading. It make sense.

This was my intro to today's lesson once the kids planted their hineys on the rug:

"So, this morning when I got to school, I had 8 people standing outside of my door. {The kids were so confused, but soaking in every word. LOVE when this happens.}  They said, 'Hey, Mrs. Flood, have you seen any pockets laying around lately?!' and I said, 'Yes, actually I have. I found 8 pockets in my library with things in them. Whose pocket is whose? Do they belong to ya'll?' and you know what they said to me?" {At this point, the kids eyes are as big as saucers by now...for real. Hysterical.} "They said, 'Mrs. Flood, you figure it out!' BOY! Was that going to be hard, BUT I realized all I had to do was use my schema, plus the clues in each pocket to match the pockets with the people so I figured you would like to do this too since I had so much fun doing it!"

With that, we jumped straight into matching pockets...using our schema...solving mysteries...charting our schema and text clues on graphic organizers...collaborating...questioning...answering....yada, yada, FUN, FUN! :)

Take a look at what they did today in our lesson! They are super cute and had lots of fun! :)

Tomorrow, after our mini inference quiz, we are going to make the inference pocket craftivity that comes in this pack called "Stitching Together the Clues"! It will be so cute and I know they will have a blast!

I feel better now that I have shared our super fun day of learning. Check this pack out! Your kids are sure to love it! :)

AND...if you're still reading and you're the first person to:
1) have survived made it through another day of school
2) follow my TpT store
3) Comment below... and you, my dear, will be receiving an e-mail that has an attachment to it that is much like the activity described in this post. {Did you infer I'd be sending this pack to you?! Did you!?! Or is it too late, and you're like, "Shut up, Lindsay. Send me the pack!?" haha}

Have a happy Friday, friends! I'm stopping by Mickey D's and picking up a Mocha in HONOR of Friday on the way to school tomorrow. It's a special Friday treat. You gotta have those every Friday like I do sometimes.

Until then,

Trade Book Tuesday...x's 2, plus 2 FREEBIES!

So, I originally started this feature because...
(a) I LOVE finding awesome trade books to use in mini-lessons and thought it would be fun to share about on my blog
(b) I thought it would keep me accountable to my bloggy buddies! Well, you can see how long that lasted! haha I haven't had a "Trade Book Tuesday" since August, and in case you've seen a calendar lately, there's been lots of Tuesday's since August. We won't talk about it.

 Moving on to it, sistah (or any brotha out there)!

So if you follow my TpT store, you might have noticed an influx in inference activities. Well, guess what we be doin' in our learnin'?! If you guessed making inferences...*DING! DING! DING!* Of course, making inferences has always been one of my most favorite skills to teach in reading. So, having only 3 weeks to focus on this abstract yet exciting skill before our next district test, I figured we'd jump right into it the first two days back from Christmas break, last Thursday and Friday.

This is what we did:

THURSDAY:

1) I introduced what an inference is by stomping into the room, crossing my arms, pouting, shuffling papers loudly on my desk, and finally plopping down harshly in my chair {You should have seen their faces! haha PRICELESS. Try and you'll see.}
2) I had the students recount what they'd just seen, and of course they described what I had done, and inevitably one little muffin said, "Mrs. Flood! You were MAD!"
3) I asked the students how they knew I was mad, and of course they explained all the actions and then I told them that they just made an INFERENCE.
4) I talked up the skill BIG time...like, if they made an inference, they would probably grow up to be the greatest detective ever to live because they would be using clues. They loved it!
4) We watched "BrainPop, Jr.'s" inference video {except I couldn't get my sound to work so I narrated Moby the robot and Annie the 5 year old child which they thought was hys-TERICAL}
5) Then, I showed the kids my inference poster and talked about the two things they'd need to make an inference:

Background Knowledge {Schema - Their "file folders" of information} + Text Clues {words and pictures in the book} 

= An Inference

{You can snag this poster I used, plus a free graphic organizer, here at my TpT store!}

Then, I created this anchor chart with my kids {I had the face and book drawn before class, but then added the other elements during my mini-lesson...or supposed-to-be-a-mini-lesson-that-was-really-about-35-minutes...ooops....so it would make sense to them as we went}. I have the mini poster, plus this poster, hanging in visible spots for my kiddos to reference!

The definition got cut off in the pic...sowwy. It says, "To figure out what the author is
trying to tell me, but doesn't."

Then, we read this super fun trade book, Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie de Paolo. It's a wordless book, so it's perfect for making inferences. 

The kids did AWESOME while we filled out our anchor chart. I led the first inference, and they listened, except for giving me their background knowledge. The second & third inference, we made together, but I guided the process and prompted their thinking often since this is the first time this year we've talked about making inferences.

 I loved their schema. They were also so cute when they "pulled out" their "file folders" {I told them to "open their brains" and pull out the folder...and by George, they did! CAH-yute!}These are the results of their thinking. I have two classes, and these are both of the charts. I love  how their thinking is so different, but on target both times! 

I add the students' initials after they give their schema. They love seeing their initials! It makes the proud, and want to be more involved in the lesson! 

FRIDAY:

It was a weird day. We had a "Peaceful School Bus" meeting so that ran into our morning session, we only had a 30 minute planning {Yippie!...said no teacher ever...}, then I had a four hour meeting in the afternoon. It is what it is. So, I was only there for my morning ELA rotation and we had a blast-a-roni reading this little muffin of a book!

My kids L-O-V-E Kevin Henkes. I read his books all the time. Chrysanthemum is one of those books that grabs every child's attention, because it's so relate-able {is that a word? I don't know... it has a red squiggle under it...oh well! It is NOW!}.

1) We started by reviewing our posters, and turning and talking and teaching our partners about what we learned on Thursday.

2) Then, I read to them Chrysanthemum {that's just so fun to say} and during a guided mini-lesson, we completed this chart:

We have a super dooper poster maker machine at school that allowed me to blow up this anchor chart so I wouldn't have to write it twice, plus I had a sub, so I wanted to make sure everything was perfect! {Not that I'm a control freak or anything. umm...yeah...}

Normally, we would move into my version of the Daily 5 rotations, but since I wasn't there and the first two days back were nutso-Mc-nutso, we will get back to the regularly scheduled reader's workshop this week. Woohoo!!! 

I'll post more about my inference literacy centers and activities that my muffins will be using during small group rotations soon. 

Have a wonderful week! :)

Until then,