Main Idea, Similes, and Bird Nests!

Similes!

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I’m a huge believer in inspiring students to write using authors’ samples. That’s why I LOVE this book from Scholastic, “Crazy Like a Fox”. What a great way to teach similes!

Before reading, we discussed a simile and worked brainstorm a few common ones that we could recall. Then we read through the story.

The kiddos loved explaining what was meant by each simile in the story with their shoulder partners on the carpet (everyone gets to talk!)

 After reading, we were ready to try our hand at writing our own.

Here’s a few of my faves…

 Not that I’m partial or anything… 😉

Sorry… the illustration on this one is just presh!

Moving on to main idea…

I feel this is one of those skills you just can’t give too much attention too… I thought it was hard to teach in second… It is WAY more intense in third!

I was in search of a good nonfiction text for my students to work with for this skill… but I also wanted to differentiate the text based on my student’s ability.

In steps my school’s reading series leveled readers. These small books are traditionally used in small group instruction, but I thought this bird builders book was a perfect tie in to our animal unit, so I snatched it up in 4 levels (High, Med, Low, and ESOL) Teacher score!

I filled up my back table with bird supplies. Brown paper for sticks, yellow paper for hay, green paper  for grass, cut out leaves for leaves, and blue for the bits of blue that one bird loves to decorate his little home with.

The kiddos grabbed their supplies and set to work.

Some even took to the I-Pads to research a little bit more!

  Love how this students is using the green yarn to sew her leaves together just like the bird in her paper.

Here’s her final product. Perfect if you ask me! Such a fun way and easy way to get kids engaged and learning!

Whew! That’s just a few things we’ve been up to. I’ve got plenty more to share with you so be sure to stay tuned! We may be on T-minus 6 days, but this teacher is TEACHING!