Since the conclusion of the ag unit, I have noticed that my students relate agriculture to their lives inside and outside the classroom on a daily basis (mission accomplished - YEAH!!). They talk about agriculture like it is their BFF ... and I love every minute of it!
The other day (ok, it was like a month ago) we were reviewing short a words. They told me words ad I wrote them on our chart. They told me basic words like bat and apple but totally shocked me when they came up with agriculture. One of my students said agriculture and I said WHAT? and she said agriculture starts with the a sound. I said you are right it does ... they were all excited while I was writing it (they even helped me spell it).
Then I turned to them and asked them why they are not in 6th grade where these big words (did you notice asthma?) belong!
We write every day ... my stduents LOVE to write. In writer's workshop they sometimes write about cotton or rice but during small group time we have a writing center and every single day I get something like this:
Let's not focus on the secnd sentence - but the first sentence "I like cotton." is pure gold!
Our school has a character trait of the month and each month we learn (or are supposed to learn because I am so bad at referring back to the trait) about a different trait. Since my kids have established a connection with agriculture I decided to write a book about that trait in ag.
So, last month our trait was loyality - I wrote a short book (only 4 pages) about loyaly in agriculuture. I made a large version for the class library (for me to read aloud at least once a week and for them to read during small group time) and I made 3 smaller versions to put in their book buckets on each table. It is so adorable when they are reading the books - I had to remind them that we don't fight over books because they all want to read it. I will try to write a book for each character trait throught the year.
I am so happy that even though our ag unit is over - they still talk and write about it. It is clear that they have made a connection with agriculture that will last.
1 comment:
Nice to see that connections are being made! Often times that can be hard to do!
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