I did a lesson today that was inspired by a lesson Brooke Perry did last December. Here is a picture of what Brooke did last year with her first grade students. She read the book If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, they made a whole group flow map, then the kids did a literature response activity.
I needed to adapt the lesson so that I could use it with a kindergarten class and do it in a shorter amount of time, so this is what I did...
I focused on text to self connections for this lesson. I started by asking students to make predictions about why they thought I chose to read the book to them. (It is December. It is Christmas time and the book takes place at Christmas time.)
I stopped while reading when the mouse got popcorn at the movies, when the mouse built a snowman, and when he decorated the tree to have students partner talk about the connections they were making. First, I modeled thinking aloud and making my own connections. Then I had them partner talk. They talked about what they like to eat at the movies, what they like to do when it snows, and how they decorate their Christmas tree at home.
After reading the book, we retold the story by walking back through what the mouse asked for and the things that went together. I focused on things that go together and then we brainstormed other things that could go together like socks and shoes, pancakes and syrup, donuts and sprinkles, etc.
Then I did an interactive writing lesson with the students. Each child got a board, a dry erase marker, and an eraser. Students brainstormed ideas for things that went together. Different students took turns "sharing the pen" and writing with me on the chart paper while the rest of the group wrote the words on their boards.
If time had permitted, I would have had students make their own mice and glue them to the top of a black sheet of construction paper like Brooke did. Then I would have had them adhere their response sheet to the black sheet of paper. You will find the measurements and instructions for making the mouse at the end of this post.
Here is the recording sheet I used. It came from Kim Adsit's
Reading is Fun! Comprehension Strategies unit. Students made connections to things they wanted that were like what the mouse wanted and that went together. Depending on the level of your students, you could have them write labels to go with their pictures.
Waffles and Syrup
Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows
Hot Chocolate and Christmas Tree Cookies
Mouse Measurements and Instructions
the black background 9 X 12
the mouse head brown 6 X 6 (Clip the bottom 2 corners and round.)
the mouse paws (2) brown 3 1/2 X 2 1/2 (Clip the bottom 2 corners and round.)
the mouse ears (2) brown 3 X 2 (Clip the top 2 corners and round.)
the inside of the mouse ears (2) pink 2 1/2 X 1 1/2 (Clip the top 2 corners and round.)
eyes (2) white 1 X 1 (Clip all 4 corners and round.)
nose pink 1 X 1 (Clip all 4 corners and round.)
hat red (I made a pattern and pre-cut them.)
hat white 9 X 1 (Clip all 4 corners and round.)
**DRY ERASE BOARD TIP** You can purchase a large sheet of shower board from Home Depot for under $13. Home Depot will cut it for you for free. I have 12 X 12 boards and I was able to get 32 boards out of one sheet of shower board. The dry erase markers were a little more costly. I found a pack of 12 for just under $10 at Walmart. You can purchase cheap wash rags from the dollar store or Walmart to use as erasers.
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