mapletree notes
mapletree notes
Playing with words
I love finding simple playground structures that allow for endless fun, adventure, and imagination. Unlike most of Canada’s sadly-safe, plastic structures, intuitively designed to thwart litigation and bore kids, these two lovely dragons of steel are indicative of what you can find all over Japan’s school yards. These reside in an elementary school in Wakasa near the Japan Sea (the starting point of the Wakasa half-marathon).
Just like old playground equipment, I enjoy studying poems with kids that use a full range of “tricky and hards” words that can lead to further word investigations. Jack Prelutsky’s poetry never disappoints. For example in the poem, ‘a Pizza the size of the Sun’, the word resplendent shares the same base as splendid and splendor.
“...a pizza too massive to pick up and toss,
a pizza resplendent with oceans of sauce.
In addition to really fun poetry, this month classes are reading really exciting books. You don’t need to be a child to enjoy these stories:
The Library Card, by Jerry Spinelli
Muggie Maggie, by Beverly Clearly
Among the Hidden (Shadow Children), by Margaret Haddix
Percy Jackson and the Olympians, by Rick Riordan
Fudge-a-Mania, by Judy Blume
Magic Tree House: Eve of the Emperor Penguin, By Mary Pope Osborne
Hatchet, by Gary Paulson
Matilda, by Roald Dahl
Dirt Bike Rider(Wolf Hill), by Roderick Hunt
spelling investigations
A fun list highlighting the role of the final silent <e> and the beginning of my favorite - the homophone list.
writing books
This month we have started to write books based on the original text. Each story comes with it’s own characters, end of book quiz, and back cover blurb. Mai, a beginning grade 4 student, writes about her sister who has just saved a horse from a burning barn.
silly poems
We also played around with some rhyming couplets. Kei and Sayaka, both grade 5 students, enjoyed the humour and the alliteration of some favorite food.
2010/06/19