Scranimals

Domain 3 C. Engaging Students in Learning - Activities, Graphic Organizers This poetry unit was done in April which is National Poetry Month. This was a third grade lesson that was completed over a four week time period. The lesson content over the four weeks was as follows:
 * Scranimals **

Week 1 - The book //Scranimals// by Jack Prelutsky was read to the third grace classes followed by a scranimal class discussion.

Week 2 - Students choose two index cards. One card had a picture of an animal and the other had a picture of an object i.e. peach, avocado. Using the Smartboard the Diamond poem graphic organizer was explained, modeled and given to students. Library periods were spent working on this.

Week 3 - Students worked on the second graphic organizer, putting their poems into the diamond shape along with naming and drawing their Scranimals.

Week 4 - We had our very own Scranimal Cafe. Children were served lemonade and listened as their classmates read their poems and viewed showed their Scranimal on the Elmo.


 * Reflection ** -For some reason that I haven't quite identified teaching poetry has always seemed somewhat daunting to me. I wasn't quite sure how to go about it but knew I wanted to open the doors to poetry for my students. The Scranimals poetry unit was fantastic! Right from the beginning the children were excited about the lessons. They really enjoyed reading the Scranimal book and seemed very excited at the prospect of making their own Scranimal. So much so that some children came to the library the following week already having thought up their very own Scranimal. Each week went smoothly and everyone had a great time at The Scranimal Poetry Cafe. I plan on doing this lesson again next year but would make one change. The 'object' card that the children picked from was somewhat limited. It only contained pictures of fruits and vegetables.There is not much to say about broccoli and some children did not know what an avocado was. Other than that minor change I would keep the lesson just as it was. Below are examples of one child's work.