Not the color of our skin... and Inferencing

Hello Everyone,
Thanks for taking a peek into the wonder-filled  world of first grade!  After a three day weekend, it was time to get back to learning together. A couple of my favorite things from today? Using apples to help kids understand diversity and equality!  We continued a discussion we started last week about how we are all unique and special, and that we are alike in that we have loving hearts and curious minds.  Today I decided to extend that idea by showing the kids different kinds of apples.  We compared the shapes, colors, and sizes, and decided that people are a little like apples.  All the apples looked different!  I then proceded to cut the apples in half cross-ways to show the kids that each apple, no matter the shape, size or color, has a star on the inside!  They were cheering as I made my way through each apple!  We then cheered that each of us is a star!!  Valuable lesson for all!!

You are a star!


Another of my favorite things from today was our lesson on Inferencing.  Good readers use inferencing while reading to gain comprehension.  We use clues from the text (pictures and words) along with our schema to make inferences.  It is a little like reading between the lines.  Today we read the story "No, David!" by David Shannon, always a favorite of first graders.  We made our way through the book stopping to get the clues to make our inferences.  The kids took notes on what inferences they made (because sometimes our inferences are different from our neighbors') and they stuck them to our poster.  We discussed all the different ideas and then the kids had to pick out the ones they wanted to record for their Reader's Response Journal.  We are great Reading Detectives!!

For a free copy of our No David inferencing recording sheet, click here!

Stop by again soon as we continue on our first grade journey!

Have a wonder-filled tomorrow!

Joyfully,

Nancy