Olive, the Other Reindeer

There are so many fun themes to do in December that it can be difficult to choose.  I want to make sure that I don't simply fill these days with "fluff" and nonacademic stuff because that can be very tempting with all of the cute ideas out there on Pinterest!

I decided to keep myself focused with our read alouds/shared reading, I would begin some Reciprocal Teaching lessons.  If you are not familiar with this book, it is wonderful!  The "Fab Four" reading strategies that are featured in this book are the anchor of reading comprehension each year in my class: making predictions, asking questions, summarizing, and clarifying.

I thought that Olive, the Other Reindeer would be a great book to use for the learning goals I had in mind.  I created a little resource to use with this book and it is available in my TPT store here.

The first reciprocal teaching strategy is to make predictions.  Yes, at this point most of my students can make predictions before reading a story. And up until now, I pretty much accept any reasonable prediction. However, I want them to be a bit more deliberate in what type of predictions they are making now and to make sure they are making predictions before, during, and even after reading.  So together on the smartboard we completed this graphic organizer with our predictions.

I forgot to take a picture after we completed this so I could show their ideas, but I remember a few.  Setting: in a town, in a city, in space, the North Pole, night, winter

Characters: reindeer, Rudolph, Santa, Olive

Problem: Olive can't fly.  Olive turns into a dog.  Olive doesn't fit in.  Reindeer make fun of Olive.

Resolution/Ending: Olive will learn to fly.  They will use magic and turn back into a reindeer.  He makes lot of friends.  Olive learns to do tricks.

Lesson: Be nice to others.  It doesn't matter what you look like.  It's okay to be different.

So we had a lot of great discussion and I was very happy with the predictions they came up with.  We  talked about what they saw on the cover that supported the predictions they made.  I felt like they got a lot out of the activity.

Then I broke students into cooperative learning groups.  For my small group reading instruction I do  each morning, I break students into group based on need and reading level.  In my cooperative reading groups, I put students into "mixed" ability groups, but it isn't random.  I make a list of my students sorted by lowest reading level to highest.  I place the highest reader, the lowest reader, and 2 middles in a group.  Then I take the 2nd highest reader, the 2nd lowest reader, and the next two in the middle.  This is a research based grouping strategy that I learned in a professional development course a few years back.  

I gave each group a paper to record their predictions.  As we read, we stopped about 4 times to record our predictions.  Each group member had a turn to be the recorder and write the group's prediction.  Then we came back together as a whole class and shared the predictions from each group.  

The next day we reread the story and we worked together to identify all of the story elements.  It was interesting for them to compare these to their predictions.

We also have been working on sequencing.  The students worked in their cooperative learning groups to sequence the events in the story.

We completed a graphic organizer to do a character analysis of Olive.

This activity led so well into our writing activity.  After discussing Olive and the traits that made her a good fit to lead Santa's sleigh, the students were ready to think of another animal that would be a good choice to lead his sleigh.  I wasn't sure if they would be able to come up with reasons, but they did so well.  I had them complete this graphic organizer (I differentiated the number of reasons students were required to give).

The students wrote an opinion paragraph describing the reasons they thought their animal would be the best choice to lead Santa's sleigh.  

Their reasons were adorable!  A cheetah is fast.  A dragon (I know not a real animal, but I had to allow it.  He was so proud!) can fly well.  A dragon can also breathe fire and help Santa if he needs to battle.  (I love their imaginations and what they think Santa endures to deliver all those gifts!) A bat can see at night when Santa is delivering presents.  They had fun and so did I as I listened to their creative ideas.

I also found a nonfiction leveled reader from the a to z site about reindeer.

 Next week, we will work on the comprehension strategy of asking questions.  Students will work in their cooperative learning groups to write questions they have before, during, and after reading Reindeer.  For the writing students will complete the graphic organizer shown below and write an informative (all about) piece about reindeer.

And just because I'm all about a theme, I added a little fun clipart to our math task cards that I did in rotations this week.  We worked on fact families.  You can read my blog post here about how I teach in small groups for math.

First graders are the best!  A little reindeer clipart and they are thrilled!  These task cards are in my TPT store here.  Next week, we are taking on Elf on the Shelf!