I think a tell tale sign of loving a certain concept is when you dedicate two blog posts to it. I'm here today to bring you another post on Author's Purpose. You can check out my first post here on using Scholastic flyers to teach it, which according to Pinterest, is in the popular crowd..ha! I can say that because it's one of the few pins I have that's in that crowd and I'm the proud mama bragging. I think Author's Purpose needs several strategies and activities to really drive the point home in younger kids. A while back, I wanted to think of another engaging way to try to get the kiddos to remember what the definitions were of Persuade, Inform, and Entertain. I'll get to the P.I.E. method soon, but I also came up with these posters. I introduced cute little characters to hook them in and help them remember what each word means. You can grab these posters for free below.
You can also show various videos from Youtube. Here is one that you can use to just brush up on how you can explain the concept to the kids, OR you can use this at some point before or during the lesson.
Now, let's get back to P.I.E. Once the kids remember what each letter stands for, we practice using this method. By now, they should be familiar with what each letter stands for and for a fun craft assessment, we create this PIE project. So far, we are scaffolding the learning because I'm not having then write out the definitions yet. I'm just having them glue the correct one for each word.
To apply their learning, we fill in this flip flap organizer. NOW, they have to write the word that each letter is associated with AND give the definition inside the flap.
As a final wrap up, I like to use a real book to enhance their learning. Here, you can either let them choose their own book to read, assign a group a book and have them work together, or just use a mentor text that you read out loud to the class. After reading the book, students have to write the title of the book on the pie slice. On the writing portion, they write the purpose. But then they also have to tell me why they think that and give at least one concrete example from the book that helped them make their decision.
These activities, coupled with the Scholastic activities, help kid reinforce a sometimes difficult concept. You can take a look at the rest of the activities mentioned below.
Teaching about the life cycle of living things can be super interesting for students. Especially now a days when we can pull up a video clip of just about anything, seeing real life examples of animals going through their life cycle make it that much more tangible for them.
Learning about the butterfly life cycle is no exception. With a quick search on Youtube, you can pull up dozens of videos which can be shown in the classroom. Also, the life cycle of the butterfly has four major steps, and they are so drastically different from one another, that actually seeing that metamorphosis happen is so intriguing.
When I start my butterfly life cycle lessons, I spread it out over 3-5 days, depending on the class, because it is that darn interesting! I mean, sure I can teach them them the four stages super fast and have them memorize it and spit it back out for me, but that's not the point.
I like to start off my lesson with some videos. Below are links to two videos I show in my class. The first one is a cartoon version that talks through the steps. But the second one is the best. It is a time lapse video of a real transformation happening, and it is mesmerizing for students.
Now, depending on the grade level of your students, you can teach them some different vocabulary. For young learners, saying the stages as egg, caterpillar, pupa, and butterfly could suffice. You could add in the stage names - egg, larvae, chrysalis, and adult butterfly.
I like to show real pictures of each stage and the posters hanging on the board or somewhere accessible. I pair them up and give them them pictures of the four stages to put into order. They have to talk to each other and say the name of each stage and what they remembering happening in each step. The first day's lesson ends with students completing a cut/paste activity sequencing the steps (which I'm giving as a freebie, just click on the worksheet picture).
click to download!
The next day, we do the butterfly flap craft. They write the stage name in order on the bottom of the flap. Combining an assessment with a project- can't get better than that. It's like hiding broccoli inside a cupcake..they'll never know!
On the following day, after reviewing, we start on our butterfly life cycle writing and project. This takes place over a couple of days but I like to integrate it into my ELA writing block as well. They use a graphic organizer to write down what happens in each step and draw a small picture. Then, they write their rough draft, edit it with peers and with me and start writing their final copy in paragraph form.
For the completion of this project, we take a paper plate and divide it into quarters. They write down the name of each stage in the sections of the paper plate and draw arrows going around to show the cycle steps. Then we use random items to create each part. For the egg, students cut out a leaf from construction paper. On top of it they glue something small to replicate the egg. In the past I've done a small pasta shell, a rice grain, and here you see a pompom. For the caterpillar, they've used a small piece of a pipe cleaner. For the pupa, we take a little piece of tissue paper and crumple it up and glue it from a construction paper branch. For the butterfly, either students draw their own butterfly and cut it out to glue or they use butterfly stickers. We attach the paper plate to the top of the writing and out comes a beautiful display.
If you are interested in any of the above templates and posters, I hope you check out my Butterfly Life Cycle mini unit!
Now make sure to check out the other great posts below!
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