GRA: Making Connections

One of the most exciting parts of the Global Read Aloud is the opportunity to make connections with students in other places. We've been fortunate to get to communicate with classes in different locations.  One of those is Ms. Pogue's class in Dunsford, Ontario, Canada.  We've had the chance to learn more about them (and about Canada).  Even though the Global Read Aloud is over, third graders are still writing to our new friends!

GRA: Yard Sale

This lovely Eve Bunting book inspired so many good conversations and so much empathy on the part of the first - third graders reading it.  The girl in the story is helping her family at a yard sale where they watch most of their things disappear in order to prepare for a move to a smaller place.

GRA: Twenty Yawns

Second and third graders found it impossible not to yawn themselves as we read Jane Smiley's Twenty Yawns for the Global Read Aloud!

We used Padlet to share ideas for what WE do when we're so tired at night and just can't sleep - just like the girl in the book.

Edwards's Class Twenty Yawns

Henry's Class Twenty YawnsKnerr's Class Twenty Yawns

GRA: The Reader

The third week of the Global Read Aloud found us reading Amy Hest's The Reader illustrated by Lauren Castillo.

Students decided what book they would have read if they were the reader in the book and shared their answers using the collaborative website Padlet.  Take a look at their answers through the links below.

Knerr's Class Padlet

Edwards and Harrison's Class Padlet

Patel's Class Padlet

Henry's Class Padlet

GRA: The Troublemaker

The second week of the Global Read Aloud focused on Lauren Castillo's book The Troublemaker which tells the story of a boy who gets in trouble for taking a toy that belongs to his sister.  Students who were really paying attention to what was going on in the background picked up on another troublemaker in the story!  We then discussed whether or not we would like to have a brother like the one in the book and why.

GRA: Nana in the City

During the first week of the Global Read Aloud, first-third graders read Lauren Castillo's Nana in the City.  The boy in this book is feeling nervous as he visits his Nana in the big scary city.  She makes him a red superhero cape to help him faces his fears.  Students came up with ideas of what their own superhero cape could help them do.

Global Read Aloud 2016

This year all of my 1st-5th grade classes are participating in the Global Read Aloud.  The idea of the Global Read Aloud is that kids all over the world are reading the same books during the same six week period.  Then their teachers and librarians are sharing what they are doing with the books using online connections.

This year's chosen picture book author/illustrator is Lauren Castillo.
Fourth and fifth graders are reading Roald Dahl's classic The BFG.  Great timing as in September we celebrated the 100th anniversary of Dahl's birth!


Follow the link to find out more:

The Global Read Aloud

Check back for more about what we've been learning and how we've been collaborating with other classes who are also participating in the Global Read Aloud.

GRA: Optical Illusions

One of the students' favorite things we did with the book Duck! Rabbit! was explore optical illusions including the duck rabbit illusion on which the book was based.

Take a look at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences optical illusion page.

GRA: It's Not Fair

The second graders read this fabulous selection during their "tables" week (we take turns in the computer lab) and created their own versions of what's not fair in little paper booklets.  They chose either "Fall" or "Halloween" as their theme and then picked nouns to use in their book.  They wrote "It's not fair that..." from the point of view of whatever nouns they picked.

GRA: Exclamation Mark continued...

Third graders made individual exclamation mark mini-posters.  They wrote exclamations of their own, exclaimed what they were good at, and shared how they would make their marks on the world.  Their posters did a great job of expressing who they are.

GRA: Exclamation Mark

Third and fourth graders had a great time reading and working with the Global Read Aloud selection Exclamation Mark.  After we read the book students talked in groups to decide what they thought the moral of the story was.  Though there were many answers, the most common was that it's important to be yourself.

Fourth graders created group posters by collaboratively answering four questions inspired by the book.  Take a look!

GRA: More Chopsticks

Second graders practiced their dictionary skills and looked up words Amy Krouse Rosenthal used in the book Chopsticks.  Then they made their own chopsticks dictionaries.  Their dictionaries included the words they looked up and the definitions.  Then they illustrated their definitions using the chopstick characters from the book.