Readers' Theater in the Classroom:) 

Practicing our parts

Students were motivated to get their parts right when they received the script: "There Was An Old Lady That Wasn't Afraid of Anything!" They prepped by creating their visual signs, then they practiced and practiced. Both groups decided to place themselves in rows, with the narrators acting as the end-caps. The "little old lady" was positioned in the middle. 

The final performance for our classmates

As the characters read their parts, they stood and performed with dynamic reading in mind. This focus proved to work with all readers because they could make the sound effect for their part, project their voice, and challenge the little old lady with their body language.

Melissa videotaped all three classrooms to record each group's progress during Lesson #6. We are all hoping that she was impressed with our short turn around from rehearsal to final performance. Now, on with the historical show!

The Red Fedora Strut...

The prop walk in practice.

A prop surprise!

Lesson # 5 started with the Big 6 question review. Melissa brought in a suitcase filled with surprises - a red Fedora hat, a Viking cape, a jeweled mask, a motorcycle jacket, elbow-length white gloves, a military helmet and a wool cap. Students took turns answering the Big 6 questions and then they had the opportunity to walk in the prop's "shoes!" The transformation was immediate. It took only seconds for each student to change their body language, facial expression and emotion. Answering the questions really brought out the dramatic side of each student and also revealed the power of using a prop!

We continued as students warmed up their faces with the tongue talking exercise. Students repeated a phrase while keeping their tongues extended. This activity was a playful way to warm-up our jaws.

Cat-cow stretch

Tongue exercise

Students also warmed up their spines with the classical cat-cow stretch. We used our classroom floor to release any tension in our faces and spines.

Creating character signs

We viewed  the story "There Was an Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything" on the Smartboard. As the read aloud continued, students began to act out the movements to each character's part (shoes clomped-clomped, shirt shaked-shaked, pants wiggled-wiggled, gloves clapped-clapped and pumpkin head Boo!-Boo!). Melissa then introduced the readers theater script for the book. We divided the class in half and assigned roles for each student. Students then met in their groups and practiced their parts.  The lesson ended with students creating a visual sign to hang around their necks during the final performance.

Lesson #6 will be the big reveal - students will perform their scripts for each other. We are scaffolding the transition from a reader's theater script to a historical dramatization of American history. Only half way through our AIM's unit and first semester, can't wait to see how students make sense of our country's early history.

Six Props, Six Big Questions and A Lot of Energy:)

The 3rd grade students proved that they were up to the challenge during Lesson #4. Melissa assured us that by providing six hats that our "characters" would come to life. Well, the afternoon played out exactly as planned. Students were grouped mainly in threes and provided a hat, chart paper with the big 6 questions and time. Before the students set off to their work space, we provided a model of a princess hat. We prompted students to begin answering the who, what, when, where, why and how about the princess. Before long, the students began to recognize that their creative thinking brought a hat magically to life. One student even commented that we could write a story about her when we finished.

Students then set off to their six character building spaces (cowboy, knight, pirate, witch, baseball player, and chef). They were to write answers to all the questions on the chart paper, including lots of details. We reminded the class that they would be presenting their character to the class. This gentle reminder seemed to spark some extra creativity in a few of the groups.

Groups practiced for a short period and performed for their audience. We could tell that students were engaged in the process because audience members were giving plenty of compliments and asking clarifying questions!

The knight group begins its journey.

The "hot sauce" chefs in action.

The chef's group planning sheet.

Creating a Character

Body warm ups are always exciting with Mrs. Kneeland!  

We were expressing our lion and mouse interpretations.  

The students were put in groups of three at six different stations around the room.  At each station, there was one of the following hats: pirate, cowboy, knight, witch, baseball cap, chef.   
The students worked together to "tell a story" about who might be wearing the hat.  They collaborated and created sentences answering the six big questions: who, what, where, why, when, and how.  Then they read the sentences to our class working on projection, emotion and fluency.  As always, the students gave such positive feedback to their friends after their mini "performances".  An extension of this lesson is to have each group use the sentences they wrote creating the character they would imagine and write a story about that character.  We're all looking forward to next week when we get to try out reader's theater.

Using all of our spaces for Lesson #3!

In our desks: First, we start with our Big 6 Question Review.

Around the classroom: Then, we practice our volume and intonation. Mrs. Kneeland is looking a little "green."

Utilizing the gym space: Finally, we punctuate with purpose and movement -stomp (.), skip (,), shoulder shrug/hands raised (?), and jump pointing index finger in the air (!). Reading passages really gets the 3rd graders' circulation going.

Read Like a Story Teller

A little acting fun for our school wide fundraiser

Today Melissa and I focused on how to use volume, pace, emotion and punctuation to make stories come to life.  We started with teaching about volume.  We used a witch as a prop (audience) for having students practice using different volumes for different situations while reading a Halloween sentence.  We talked about a "bed time story" voice versus a voice you might use if you were on stage or speaking in front of your class. We moved the witch to different distances in the classroom and spoke to her in different volumes depending on where she was in the classroom.  We also focused our time on paying attention to punctuation.  We took the students to the gym and gave them actions to use for each of the following punctuation marks: period (stomp), comma (skip), exclamation (jump), question mark(shoulder shrug).  We practiced using these actions with a variety of sentences.  Then the students were given Halloween paragraphs that we read and used the punctuation actions as we walked around the gym.

Exclamation Mark!!

  

Ten minutes a day keeps the calluses built up each day!

Attended my first guitar lesson with Yata on Monday night and joined other budding guitaristas in a classroom at UWStout. I had brought my own guitar to train on, but all the other students were using the Yamaha GL1 for their lessons. Yata convinced me to use the smaller guitar as it was a tenor guitalele tune to an E. So I was sent home with my smallest version of my six string family to practice won. Kind of looks like the Mama bear, Papa bear and Baby bear trio. The lesson was very helpful in understanding the basics of the instrument, how to tune and a few chords to practice for the week. I couldn't resist trying what I had just learned on all three versions. Mama bear actually fits the best, but I'll continue learning on Baby bear.

I look forward to learning alongside a seasoned guitarist and gaining additional skills from my classmates. Who knows, maybe the group can play a few holiday tunes when this is all over. Not so sure on the singing part yet?!

Sometimes co-teaching is being near the students that need you the most, while allowing the other teacher to lead the class...

Melissa arrived for our lesson #2 knowing that we would need to adjust our activities and exercises for Oaklawn's end-of-the-day all school meeting and ROARRS recess. The lesson was basically in three parts (picture writing, warmups, and excerpt reading). To fit the entire lesson in I had the students complete the picture writing and review of the 6 big questions before lunch. Students prepped their writer's notebooks to answer the 5Ws + H?s. They also glued their pictures right on their page in the notebook. Many questions came up about the two photos: "Is this Mrs. Kneeland when she was a baby?" and "Why is Mrs. Kneeland chewing on a cat's tail?"

When the students returned from lunch, we reviewed their journal questions and Melissa started right away with the body movements, facial movements and tongue twister warm ups. It was during the stack the bead back exercise that I began to notice the need to be near. Mrs. K. modeled how to stand and bend forward pretending to move or roll down, vertebra by vertebra or bead by bead, using the abs for control and lengthening the spine. She encouraged the class to move slowly until they could stretch or reach their hands to their toes or the floor. Mrs. K. then reminded students to move slowly bead by bead, focusing on each bead. Once the students reached the floor, they stayed in that position momentarily before rolling back up to a standing position. This exercise helped students focus on their body and breath. 

One of my students that receives adaptive PE lessons was struggling to perform the spinal roll and was getting frustrated. He kept trying until I encouraged him to move on to the next warm-up. I realized then that I would need to stay nearby to monitor his participation and frustration level during the active warm-up.  I watched the rest of the class as they maintained their focus and participation. After the warm-up, he seemed to settle in to the rest of the lesson. Sometimes being present is a gift for everyone to give.