Many Marvelous Millionaires

The Millionaires!

In the self-contained gifted program, we do not focus much on Accelerated Reader (AR) as it is lower level thinking according to Bloom's Taxonomy. However,  I have found there are some very positive benefits to AR in 1st and 2nd grade, including good test taking practice and checking for understanding and reading comprehension, versus just fluency. 

Triple Millionaires!

The school promotes a school-wide "Millionaire Contest" which challenges students to read a million words (or more) over the course of the school year. As AR is not a requirement in my class, this is an accomplishment that is almost entirely student-motivated. 

Benefits that come with reaching the coveted millionaire status include being allowed to check out extra books from the school library (an extra book a week per million), a certificate for a free meal, being honored by the principal at one of the quarterly award ceremonies, a cool "million-dollar-bill" bookmark and of course bragging rights. But probably the most sought after prize is the exclusive ice-cream party!

The Class Read Nearly 21 Million Words This Year

A student in my class this year was the first millionaire in the entire school, reaching a million words within just a couple days of school starting. This set the pace for the rest of the year and the class very competitively devoured books with a goal on the horizon. I've never had so many "millionaires" in one class and it is very rare for a 1st or 2nd grader to read a million words. Congratulations Radical Readers! Keep up the voracious reading this summer! 

Mystery Book Club via Skype

We have participated in quite a few Mystery Skypes this year and my class loves them! Almost all of our Mystery Skypes have been geography based, guessing the location of the other class by asking them yes or no questions. However, last week we branched out and did a Mystery Book Club via Skype.

It was very challenging! While there are only 50 possible states to choose from, there are literally millions of books! Although my class consists of voracious readers, we have not read every single book ever published, so we had to use our research, problem solving and deductive reasoning skills to solve the mystery.

Clues that helped us guess the books the other class presented us included author information, award information, publication date and genre. When students realized they were not going to be able to effortlessly figure out the book title, they quickly took to the Internet and started researching. Students also formed great follow up questions to help them figure out the book title.

My students really enjoyed this new challenge and I was impressed by their research and presentation skills.

Biography Book Report

Can You Spot Helen Keller, Ronald Reagan and Abigail Adams?

We had a lot of fun presenting our biography book reports and most of the students got really into his or her character!

Can You Spot Thomas Edison, Jackie Robinson and Christopher Columbus?

Watch the video clip below to see exactly who we had in our classroom!

Using Augmented Reality With Book Reports

Earlier this year students created book jackets for a book report assignment. Then we took this activity a step further! Students recorded their book jacket presentation using an iPad. Then, we took a photo of the actual book cover, not the one they created. We uploaded the photo and the video into the Aurasma App. Now, when we use that app and scan the book, the video of the student presenting their book report pops up. 

Screenshot From the Aurasma App
 
This is a type of technology called Augmented Reality and it has been a lot of fun to integrate into the classroom this year! At home if you download the Aurasma App (it's free) you can search for my channel. If you scan the book your child read, you may be in for a treat! We created a brief video on this project. Click below to view. 

Reading Across America (Literally!)

In honor of "Read Across America" week and Dr. Seuss' birthday, my class read across America, doing a reader's theater with our pen-pal class in Massachusetts. We performed Green Eggs and Ham through a video-conference. My class had the role of "Friend" while our pen-pal class portrayed "Sam-I-Am."

This was a very unique 21st century learning experience and the students enjoyed seeing and chatting with their pen-pals for a few minutes after the reader's theater. A brief clip can be viewed here.  We really enjoyed reading across America!

Celebrating the Birthday of Dr. Seuss

Today we celebrated what would have been the 110th birthday of Dr. Seuss!

We welcomed celebrity reader Robin Nash from trending radio hot 97.5 and 103.9 to read aloud to us. 

After the book, she took some time to do some Q&A with us answering questions ranging from how to become a radio deejay to what her favorite Dr. Seuss books are. This celebrity reader was a fun way to kick-off a week long of Seussical activities to celebrate reading!

Millionaires!

Congratulations to our first two members of Fireside Elementary School's "Millionaire's Club!" These students have read (more than) a million words this school year. They will be honored at a school assembly, invited to a special ice-cream social and will each receive a one-million-dollar-bill. Wow! All students are welcome to participate in this school wide challenge. Keep up the great reading! 

Puppet Book Report

For our very first book report this year each student read a book by Beverly Cleary. Then, students chose a character from the book and created a puppet of that character.

Students presented a summary of the book through their puppet, as that character. I really enjoyed seeing the unique and creative puppets and hearing stories from the point of view of the character.