reading – travelteachlove

Read Around the World

March 24, 2018 No Comments

A few weeks ago to cap off our reading week celebrating Dr. Suess’ birthday, our school had a reading marathon. It was an entire day dedicated to reading and doing reading activities. Honestly, it was my favorite day of the school year so far. I mean come on, reading, ALL DAY! How does it get any better than that?! I knew that reading all day, even with breaks in between for activities, might be a bit of a stretch for some of my second graders who don’t have enough stamina built up yet to do that. So I brainstormed some […]

Classroom Connection, Reading, Social Studies

Think Global! Retelling Stories and Folktales From Around the World

March 12, 2018 No Comments

There are so many simple ways to get students to think globally. Last week I had my students practice retelling a folktale when it came to me. Duh, if I am going to have students practice sequencing a folktale through retelling, why not add a simple question asking students to tell me where in the world the folktale originated? It was a simple one question addition to a graphic organizer that I could easily make myself. That thought was all I needed, I was off and running with more ideas. Instead of just including the question of where the folktale […]

Classroom Connection, Travel

Animals of the Galapagos Islands

February 23, 2018 No Comments

Bright blue feet perched on top of jagged black rocks. Hundreds of little faces turned toward the sun soaking up rays with eyes closed. Lounging sea lions barely opening an eye as you walk by them on a lounge chair on the beach. It feels like it was yesterday, instead of four years ago, that I traveled to the Galapagos Islands. Teaming with unique and endangered wildlife the islands were unlike any place I have ever been. It was truly a trip of a lifetime and I have loved sharing what I learned there with students over the last few […]

Classroom Connection

The Power of Reading

January 20, 2017 No Comments

This year a big initiative in our school is to promote more free reading time in school. The studies show that the more students read the better readers they will become. This seems like common sense but so many times as a teacher, I feel like instructional time during the day should be spent providing instruction or students practicing skills taught. If an administrator walked through my room and saw students just sitting and reading would they think I wasn’t doing me job? Well after reading The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, with a group of teachers at school the power […]

Classroom Connection, Food

Ugly Vegetables and Fruits

November 1, 2016 No Comments

Our story for the week is called The Ugly Vegetable by Grace Lin. It focuses on a family that grows Chinese vegetables in their garden rather than flowers like the rest of their neighbors. The little girl in the story wonders why her families garden is so different from everyone else’s and calls the vegetables they grow ugly. This story prompted great discussion on diversity and how just because something is looks different doesn’t make it ugly or bad. There was a great lesson at the end when all the neighbors come to the house where the vegetables are cooked into […]

Classroom Connection

Global Read Aloud

October 9, 2016 1 Comment

Our school is participating in the global read aloud this year and I couldn’t be more excited. The book for 2nd and 3rd graders is The BFG by Roald Dahl. With fun made up words and fantastical elements, I can’t think of a better book than The BFG. During a portion of our reading block some students from all three second grade classes come to my room for a reading small group. Over the next few weeks I will read aloud The BFG and we will discuss it. While that is something we could do with any book, what makes this book […]

Classroom Connection, Travel

Family Connections

September 23, 2016 1 Comment

This week in school my students read a informational text about family. During our readings of the selection we took a close look at the family to better understand and learn more about them. We asked questions like, what kinds of things do they like to do? How many people are in their family? What hobbies do the people in the family have? There was so many great points to look at and compare to students’ own families. This story was also a perfect opportunity for me to make a connection to global learning. How could I do this? Well, I […]

Travel

Guide Book Love

May 16, 2016 3 Comments

I have always believed that planning for a trip is half the fun. Besides scouring blogs, Pinterest, and countless websites to find tips and things to do, I love a good guide book to help me plan my trips. There is just something refreshing about a book in hand with maps, pictures, and lists of the best of everything waiting to be marked up with notes. Needing a guide book also means a trip to my favorite store, Barnes and Noble. So I was more than happy to check out their guide book selection the other day after school as I prepare […]