Note!
Cindy has volunteered to go into
school libraries at request to help librarians, students and their teachers with
ideas for writing and illustrating poetry!
Also, check out some of the
new Math in Picture Book
selections in the ARTS Center
With the strong trend toward integrated curricula, presenting
literature and math in an interrelated unit is one of several ways to place math
education into a realistic setting.
Abstract by nature, math can be understood by children when a
difficult concept is attached to a story that is meaningful to the child.
The story If You Made a Million, by David M. Schwartz,
with illustrations by Steven Kellogg, begins with the familiar theme of earning
money for completed chores. The literary character, Mathematical Magician, is
the adult who discusses chore choices and monitory reward. Payment for chores
involves many possibilities, with stacks of coins or bills. Other economic
concepts on this magical tour are banking, interest rates, checking accounts,
income tax, and at the end, it asks the question, “Will a million dollars in
pennies really stack up to 95 miles high?” (urban legend)
SMART
My dad gave me one dollar bill
‘Cause I’m his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
‘Cause two is more than one!
And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes—I guess he don’t know
That three is more than two!
Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just ‘cause he can’t see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!
And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
And the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!
And then I went and showed my dad,
And he got red in the cheeks
and closed his eyes and shook his head—
Too proud of me to speak!
from Shel
Silverstein - A Light in the Attic
Book Reports
These are beyond your dreams great…
Beyond the expectations of your class…
They are
Super Duper Ideas!!!
Time Line: Students write and
illustrate a time line with the events from their story. If the book is set
in an actual period of time, student can include these historical events in the
time line.
Use samples from books,
posters from our Arts Library or one you make. After students see the samples,
they can be put away so that creativity comes into play as the children make
their own. Who knows, someone might create a time circle.
Advertise It: If a student reads a book that they
especially like, they can create a poster or pamphlet that would encourage
others to read it.
This is a good time to talk about truth in advertising. Go to your local
college library and get a copy of Advertising Age . Your students may
find it interesting to see a whole magazine about ads .
Classroom Critiques: Students can write a brief
discussion of the book including the best parts and a criticism of the book.
Keep these in a three ring binder for other students to consult.
Put the critiques in plastic
sleeves so that they last through many readings. The greatest thing is to have
two or more write about one title so that others get several points of view.
Chart or Graph It:
After your class has studied
charts and graphs in math students can make their own charts or graphs from data
gathered from a book they have read. Anything that can be counted and put in
groups can be recorded in this way. Some possibilities are numbers of
characters by age group or gender, or animals by type.
Anything you can count, you
can chart.
News Paper Article:
Children can record their book
report Using the inverted triangle method of writing a piece of news, has
students write an news item from their book. The articles from several students
can be put together to make a newspaper.
Try to get a news reporter to
come to your class to talk about writing articles.
In Your Own Words:
In a quiet area of the classroom
have a tape recorder available for students to record their book report. A
laminated guide located near the tape recorder can cue the student about what to
say while they are recording. The cue card headings could be
Title—Author—Main Characters—Plot—Good part—Bad part etc. Since the cue
card is laminated, the student can write his information down with a dry erase
pen and erase it when finished. When the recording is done, make a label for
the case and have all the recordings available at a listening center for others
to use.
It is a good
idea to have each person bring in their own ear phones.
The Letter Connection: Students write a letter to a
character about good parts of the story or ask why different choices weren’t
made or… use your imagination.
How would the student address
the envelope????
Portrait: Use crayons, colored pencils or chalk to
make a likeness of a character in the story.
This
is a good time to talk about presentation using mats and frames.
Next Chapter: Students can write what they think
would happen if the story went on one more chapter.
New Ending: Students can rewrite the last chapter of
the book using their own ideas about how issues are resolved.
Collage:
Always save old magazines because they can
be the source of wonderful visuals for a past of the book a student has
just finished.
Taco: Young children love to create sandwich book
reports…for New Mexico students, the taco book report is a hit. In a work area,
have a box of colored paper available for the students to cut out a round shell
and the rest of the ingredients. Write the title and author on the shell,
beans can be a summary, lettuce tells the characters and cheese can be the
plot. On the side of the taco shell that doesn’t have writing, the student can
draw their favorite scene. A brad can hold this taco together
Comic Strip: Generate a comic character for the main
character in the story then simplify the story so that it can be told in 4-6
frames.
Come into our Art Center
Library and Lab; we have technique charts and books on methods of drawing
cartoon characters.
Now for lots of additional
ideas go to this web site:
http://www.teachnet.com/lesson/langarts/reading/bookrepts1.html
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New Words and Images coming!
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