DEN STAR Report - Back from Spring Break!

Happy Wednesday everyone! After taking a two week break, I am finally back to blogging. Last week was our spring break (finally!) and I made myself promise not to do school work or blogging. I actually got to relax (what is that???)!

With only 22 school days left, I hope your kiddos are enjoying using board builder as much as mine are. I have even had kids that have gone home and created boards with their parents! That is one of those moments I teach for - when they internalize a lesson and then run with it. This week I would like to share with you more about Discovery Education Streaming Plus.

Discovery Education Streaming Plus is an invaluable multimedia resource.  Not only does it have engaging student resources but it also provides teachers with a ton of instructional support for implementing the new Common Core standards. From the Discovery Education Website:

"With hundreds of relevant model lessons and curriculum, instruction, and assessment all in one location, Discovery Education Streaming Plus is a leading source for practical Common Core instructional strategies."

This is my first year with experience with the Streaming Plus part of Discovery Education and I am officially addicted! Inside the Steaming Plus my favorite section is Common Core in the Classroom. Once you have clicked on this tab, you are able to search by specific grade level and specific standards to find resources within Discovery Education.

Directions for using Streaming Plus: Common Core in the Classroom -

 Log in to Discovery Education. Look in the center of the page and click on the Streaming Plus icon.

 Click on the tab near the top that says Common Core in the Classroom

 1. Choose your subject. Right now there is only ELA and Math. I have heard they will add Science and Social Studies as the new standards roll out.

2. Choose your grade level.

3. Select your strand.

 Next sleet a standard cluster.

 Then select a standard.

 Under the standards you will see different tabs. All standards have the explore tab and some have the model lesson and asses tabs.

 The model lessons are fabulous!!! They usually incorporate A LOT  of standards and are great for Project Based Learning lessons. I have used a few of the different model lessons and loved them. I have used model lessons from other grade levels and just adapted them to Kindergarten.

 Here is a look at the model lesson.

 This is the explore tab that shows different resources from DE that correlate with the standard you chose. This is a quick way to assign or show different resources with you class.

 A third tab that some standards have is the assess tab. This shows you resources you can use as an assessment for the standard you chose. 

I hope this had helped some of you understand how FABULOUS Streaming Plus from Discovery Education is for you and your kiddos! I would love to hear from you if you have used DE or if this ignites a spark to make you want to try. I love hearing about what you guys are doing in your classrooms!

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Wednesday Wild Things!

 HAPPY HUMP DAY!!! I LOVE that silly commercial!

It is Wednesday and I have been looking over my plans for next week. I am a little nervous because I am going to try to teach my kiddos about book reviews and how to write them. Luckily I have a lot of help from one of my favorite teacher tools, Discovery Education!



If you don't know about Discovery Education (DE), stop reading and go look at this site right now! Then come right back and continue reading :)! This is a subscription site paid for by our county school system and is an amazing resource. As part of my county's Digital Renaissance Leadership Team, I have been able to attend a lot of different workshops on how to use DE effectively in my classroom. At the last workshop I attended, we where shown different model lessons that have been created to align with common core and to integrate technology across the curriculum. You can find these lessons by looking under the Streaming Plus icon on your home screen and then search by grade level, subject, strand, cluster, standard. Not all standards have a model lesson. There are four model lessons in Kindergarten ELA though and they cover most of the ELA standards. 


Next week I am teaching Wild Things! During this week, we do a lot of work with the book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. After 10 years of teaching this unit, I was ready for a change. This summer I started by looking on my favorite idea spot, Pinterest! (My Kindergarten Creepy & Spooky board is here.) I found a cute directed art activity and then when I found the model lesson on DE to go with the book, my week was practically planned for me! Here are the things that I have planned for next week.

Idea from ElementaryArtist (picture links to their lesson)

Monday: Book Introduction, Using Details in Writing and Illustrations to tell a story
We will read the book Where the Wild Things Are. We will discuss the characters in the story and talk about how each wild thing is different. We will talk about how illustrators use details from the story to add details to their illustrations. We will take a look at all the details used to create the different wild things. We will create our own wild thing using directed art for the main body parts and then each student will be allowed to go back and add their own details. We will use crayons to draw and water colors to paint our wild things.

Tuesday:(DE Lesson) Finding Your Voice: Sharing Opinions about Books - Part 1
First we will vote on what is better: hot dogs or hamburgers. We will use this vote to discuss what an opinion is and how someone's opinion is not right or wrong. We will then vote on if we like fiction books or non fiction books best. This time I will get some of them to tell my why they chose to vote the way they did. Next we will review the book Where the Wild Things Are. We will make a graph of who likes/dislikes the book. I will ask them what they did and did not like about the book. We will then view a video of the story  Where the Wild Things Are from DE. I will tell them to think of the reasons they like or dislike the story. After summarizing the story again, we will watch the video once more as I stop and ask questions about what is going on in the story. This way the students can really focus on the different parts and details of the story so when they write their book review later in the week, they can give good reasons for liking/disliking the story. We will wrap up with some of the students giving me their opinions of the story - hopefully adding more details in their reasoning.

Wednesday: Writing to a Prompt & How to Write a Book Review (2 different lessons/meetings)
We will use our story telling pieces to retell Where the Wild Things Are. We will then write to finish the the sentence..."When I feel Wild, I..."
Later more students will share their opinions of the story. I will introduce them to a book review. We will read and discuss a book review for Where the Wild Things Are. Next we will watch and discuss book reviews (from Reading Rainbow) of Where the Wild Things Are and two other books.

Thursday: Writing a Book Review
First we will review what a book review is and what it contains. We will review some of the books we have read recently. Students will be able to choose which book they want to review. (Here is my book review form.) The student will copy the title of the book onto their paper. Then they will write if they like or dislike the book. ("I like this book." "I do not like this book.") Then they will draw an illustration showing why they like or dislike the book and write a sentence (as best they can) describing their picture. Students will then work in small groups to video each other giving their book reviews using IPads.

Friday: Speaking and Listening - Sharing Our Book Reviews
Students will either share their book review in person or use the videos they prepared the previous day.

So these are my PLANS for next week. However, as you all know, with Kindergarten (or any group of kids) things may or may not go as planned. Fingers crossed for success. I know they will love doing this all the time if we can get the procedure down!

Have any of you tried doing book reviews with your kids? Any tips????