Storytelling and Story Acting

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The creativity is alive and well in our classroom!  At the EL National Conference in San Diego, I learned how important it is for our young learners to be involved in story telling and story acting.  On Fridays, I have gently introduced storytelling by modeling stories and giving my crew time to explore the art of storytelling.

This month, students were given an hour of Learning Lab time each Friday, in which they collaborated together.

One week, I introduced Research Lab so students could build or improve their schema on a chosen topic.  Students used non-fiction resources to learn and then recorded their new learnings to share with the crew.

Another week, we did Create Lab in which students worked alone, in partners or in small groups to create a story.  This week, the stage was created in our classroom (blue taped lines) and students enjoyed presenting their stories.

This past week, we were introduced to Imagination Lab.  Students used props such as scarves and capes to help the reader imagine their story.  Wow did the creativity come out in our crew!






Although this all just sounds like fun (which we agree), it really helped me asses the students understanding of stories and story elements.  Through creativity, students showed me if they understood characters, setting, beginning, middle and end.  As a crew, we analyzed each performance looking and listening for high quality presentation skills.  In addition, we evaluated each performance to see if the performers used the story elements.  A large part of 1st grade standards is being able to clearly communicate and to listen to others and ask questions.

 How can you support this learning?
~we are in need of homemade capes and small scarves such as these
~tell stories at home (stories of your childhood, make believe stories) during meal time or bed time
~have elderly family members or friends tell stories of their childhood
***you do not need to be an expert, just give it a try***

4th Case Study - Telling Someone Else's Story

Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children. ~Alex Haley

We started our 4th case study, "Telling Someone Else's Story".  We visited Lincoln Meadows just down the road in Parker.  Students were patient, kind and respectful as they listened to their new "grand friend" tell a small story from their life. 

So much joy was brought to Lincoln Meadows because of the great first grade crew of FCE!  Back at school, we listened to the recorded story on the i-pads and started taking notes.   We wrote our first draft of our grand friend's story and collaborated with both Ms. Rivera's crew and Mrs. Lysinger's crew to ensure that we got all the details.






We have returned for our second visit to revise our grand friend's story.  Each first grader shared the written story and the grand friend gave any additional feedback or details to improve the story.  Based upon the time spent with the grand friend, we were able to each revise their story.

We are now working hard on a high quality portrait of our grand friend.  We are doing multiple drafts and spending time to make sure that it is our best work.  We look forward to returning to Lincoln Meadows to share our hard work and perform our special songs to them. 

Outdoor Classroom

We visited the outdoor classroom this week to explore, play and imagine.  The picnic tables are there for us to sit, read, write and talk about our thinking.  We were able to see that the garden beds are put to bed for the winter and the compost is filled with lots of brown leaves.  We found some mice and loved playing with the logs.

We brought our 4th Grade buddies out to help us reflect on:
I notice..... (things already present in the outdoor classroom)
I wonder..... (things we want for the outdoor classroom)

Many things the students want for the outdoor classroom are exactly what we will be doing in our 2nd Learning Expedition in the spring, The World is our Garden











 




What can you do as a family member to encourage your child's love of the outdoors and nature?
1.  Please send him/her with warm clothes every day!  You may choose to keep an extra hat, gloves and jacket in his/her backpack at all times.  We will be using the outdoor classroom as much as possible each week, cloudy or sunny!
2.  Go through your closets and clean out old clothes to donate to the little red house in our bus loop.  All that money goes directly to the outdoor classroom.
3.  Get outdoors!  Go for walks, bike rides and explore our local parks and river beds.  Colorado has great weather, so bundle up and take your family outdoors.

Halloween

What a fun Halloween morning!

A big thank you to all of you who made this day so special!  Mrs. Higashi took such good care of the Crew while I was away for the week at the EL National Conference.  

Dr. Seuss Characters - The First Grade Teachers - Mrs. Lysinger, Mrs. Higashi and Ms. Rivera

The students had so much fun wearing their costumes and participating in the all school parade.  A BIG thank you to Mrs. Jensen for planning such a great fall party!