The Crayon Box that Talked

"The Crayon Box that Talked" is a great book to read aloud at the end of Black History Month to celebrate the concept of diversity. 

In my classroom I have each student decorate a gift box where they list a character trait that is their unique gift to the class. You can find the full lesson plan from the Teaching Tolerance website listed below.

http://www.tolerance.org/exchange/what-can-we-learn-box-crayons

Lucy Calkins Writing Workshop - Realistic Fiction

Teaching students to write realistic fiction can be fun and so entertaining. To start the unit, I give each student a picture of a character to name. Then I have the students brainstorm the characters hobbies, likes, dislikes and even family life. Finally, we discuss how an interesting story always has the character face a problem. After a few days of writing, we discuss how we can make our stories more powerful with a strong solution. 

Each writing day starts with a mini-lesson from Lucy Calkin's Common Core and Writing Workshop Curriculum where I teach and model the expected learning outcome. 

Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.

There are so many wonderful ways to celebrate MLK in the classroom. First, I like to read aloud Martin's Big Words to my students so they can have an understanding of who MLK was. After the read aloud we discuss his dream for the world and how he achieved it. Then I read We Dream of A World to the students and we brainstorm as a class, our dreams for the world. This is a great activity for students of all ages, I've done it with students as young as first grade. The discussion and end project leave me in tears year after year. My first year teaching I created a podcast with the students work and shared it at the school's MLK assembly.

MLK Podcast-We Dream of a World

If you can't locate the book Martin's Big Words, you can click on the link below for the book on video.
TeacherTube

Celebrating Black History Month

Black History Month is right around the corner. This is an important time for teachers and parents to discuss the topic of race with their children. Children are never too young to hear about the African-American Civil Rights era, and the best way to do this is through picture books. Here are just a few of my favorites: