Kevin Henkes

Kevin Henkes is one of my favourite authors of children’s books.  I have read his books to Jk classes and to grade 8’s.  There is a valuable message, not to mention stupendous vocabulary, in each and every one!  This year I purchased a fantastic resource, packed with curriculum based activities on TPT, by Hollie Griffith.  I wove these activities into my own and others I have picked up along the way.

I always start with ‘Old Bear’.  This is a short story that I use to discuss seasons. 

The next book I do is ‘Kitten’s First Full Moon’.  Very cute.   I use this book to introduce retell.  I do a craftivity with the children, using black construction paper, chalk, and a full moon.  Students get 4 ‘full moons’.  One for the title, and one each for the Beginning, Middle, and End.  This is a great diagnostic to see where your students are at for understanding and sentence structure.

                                               

Next up is ‘Chrysanthemum’ – an all age favourite!  From this story you can pull some ‘vivacious vocabulary’.  Even though the setting is kindergarten, the mean girls are the same at every age/grade.  Thank goodness for Mrs. Twinkle!  I start with a picture of chrysanthemum on chart paper and we discuss character traits.  The vocabulary in this story leads nicely into syllable lessons – lots of 4 syllable words!  We also discuss how many letters in our names, how many vowels & consonants.  From the number of letters in their names, students used that number and showed different ways to make that number.  The students go on google to find what their names mean.  Using Hollie’s packet, we did a comparison activity and a crafitivity of ‘I bloom when....’ and ‘I wilt when....’  We also made a chrysanthemum with petals of adjectives.  Attached to this were two sentences:  Chrysanthemum was ____________.  I know this because _____________.  This activity requires students to find evidence in the text.  I introduced the ‘Because Clapper’ from WBT.  The students caught on quickly and wanted to share their responses orally, using the gestures for capitals, because, and periods.  If I could only get them as eager to write it on paper... 

Here are some of the activities:

This is their first time learning the "Because Clapper':

Adjectives

We have been doing lots of activities with adjectives.  To introduce adjectives I used the Power Pix from Whole Brain Teaching.  Here is the mini-lesson from WBT Power Pix ebook:

adjective

Question: What is an adjective?

Answer: An adjective is a word that describes a noun.

Gesture: Pet an imaginary dog and say, “fluffy dog.” (Emphasize the adjective, “fluffy.”

California State First Grade Standard: Writing, 1.2: Use descriptive words when writing.

Teaching suggestion: While your class is involved in individual or group activities, write adjective/noun pairs on the board, pretty house, cold water, blue car, etc. Explain to your class the concept of adjectives.

Play Yes/No Way! with questions like the following: 1. Is this an adjective? (Point at various words on the board.)

2. Is horse an adjective? (Substitute words that are, and are not, adjectives.)

3. Is this the adjective gesture? (Make various gestures.)

Quick Test: Say, “Now we’re going to play Cutie. I’m going to say some sentences. When I say an adjective, please silently raise your hand.”

1. The big, hairy dog is good.

2. A little, smiling girl stood on the corner.

3. I went to the store.

4. I went to the bright, shiny, new store.

Critical Thinking: Play Compare/Contrast with adjectives and other Power Pix.

Review: Ask your students to review with each other the question, answer and gestures for adjective and other Power Pix.

We made a mini-flap book to describe apples, during our Apple Unit.  This was glued into the students' interactive language notebooks.  From Wild About Firsties I got a fun activity for creating Juicey Apple Adjectives.