Friday, January 29, 2016

First and Fourth Grade Buddies-Out of This World!

This afternoon in Mrs. Harlow's ELA class we journeyed down to First Grade for a meeting with our Reading Buddies! First Grade is learning about the solar system, and we were happy to help.  Each pair of buddies created a model of the Earth, Moon, and Sun as well as a labeled diagram of the planets.

    Brendon and Juliana pose with their model of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.  Nice teamwork!

    Jennifer and Asya used a book to ensure that their planet labels were accurate. Very resourceful!


Friday, January 8, 2016

Having Fun with Organizing to Improve Comprehension

With the start of a new year, I always feel the urge to organize the clutter around my house.  If you are looking for another reason to get organized, chew on this: categorizing everyday objects is a great way to improve your child's comprehension.  In fact, before teaching kids to determine the main idea and details of text, teachers often start with categorizing words and objects.  

Try This at Home!
Does your child have a huge mess of Legos?  Try categorizing the Legos in more than one way: by color, shape, size, use etc. How about doll clothes?  These could be organized by color, season, skirts, pants, etc. The kitchen is also full of items that can be categorized from types of food, to utensils, and beyond!  

Below I have featured a few photographs from a website created by Austin Radcliffe titled, Things Organized Neatly.  The photographs featured on this website feature aesthetically pleasing arrangements of everyday objects.  In some of the photos, everyday objects are categorized in unique ways.  I hope that enjoy browsing these images with your family- they may even inspire you to organize your clutter in a new, beautiful way!