Author Study: Jan Brett

Before diving into updates on our classroom happenings in December, I would love to give a quick update on a personal life event! A group of friends along with my husband and I decided to make the trip to Indianapolis to cheer on our very own Hawkeyes in the Big 10 Championship Game verses Michigan State. While the outcome wasn't what us Iowa fans would have liked to have happen, it was an awesome experience and I have never been more proud to sport the black and gold! And in the end, a bid to the Rose Bowl wasn't too bad of a consolation prize either... :)

Isabelle says Go Hawks!

Game Day in Indianapolis!

Go Hawks!

Now.,..for our classroom happenings!

The past few weeks the first graders have been introduced to the wonderful author, Jan Brett! We have read several of her stories, including classics, The Mitten and The Hat. Students are working on the Common Core standard of comparing and contrasting the adventures and experiences of characters. Jan Brett does a wonderful job of making her characters come to life in addition to providing every story with wonderful illustrations that have hidden clues on each page. Students also helped create large anchor charts that showed story elements from each book. After reading The Mitten, students got the chance to retell the story to a friend by pulling the animals through their very own paper mittens!

We also compared the classic fairy tale, Golilocks and the Three Bears to Jan Brett's story, The Three Snow Bears. Students had a blast reading both of these tales and once again did a wonderful job comparing and contrasting them to one another!

This week we will continue to work on comparing and contrasting stories, but with a focus on gingerbread stories, including two of Jan Brett's originals, Gingerbread Baby and Gingerbread Friends. More on this later! :)

On a fun note, we often take brain breaks in our classroom and utilize the website: gonoodle.com. Students get to dance and exercise to fun songs! Below students are pictured rocking out to Jingle Bell Rock!