Here in
second grade we were so excited to find out that Miss Donley had
signed us up for yet another fun internet project of Mrs.
Silverman's. The first thing that Miss Donley did was go to our
library and she brought some mice books back to our classroom so
we could decide which books we would want to focus on for our
Mouse Tales project. She also talked to our school librarian and
we then had even more books checked out for us choose from!
Earlier we had gone to the computer lab with our teacher and our
school librarian and we learned how to use Athena, our school
library search engine, to find books on our own in the library.
The search term that we used was mouse and mice. This allowed us
to also find the mice books in the library and several of us
decided after starting this project that we wanted to read even
more mouse tales than what Miss Donley had checked out. At any
rate, after some discussion and many good books read to us and
by us, we decided to focus our Mouse Tales project in on two
books. These books were The Tale of Despereaux by Kate
DiCamillo and House Mouse, Senate Mouse written and
illustrated by Peter and Cheryl Barnes.
For The
Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo, Miss Donley checked
out the book and the book on tape. Miss Donley had us listen to
the book on tape and we stopped at various points throughout the
book and discussed the book and the various components of this
story. We also used this book to talk at length about active
listening and mental images. Miss Donley is a big fan of the
book Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller and took some
of the mental image ideas she found in this book to make the
forms that we used for this project. We used these forms to draw
out and write about our mental images at various points
throughout the story as determined by Miss Donley.
Feel Free to Download (PDF
File)
We weren't
quite finished with the book by the deadline of this project but
Miss Donley also plans on having us use Kidspiration to express
our final thoughts on this book and do our final mental image.
We also spent
time with the book House Mouse, Senate Mouse written and
illustrated by Peter and Cheryl Barnes. This book was first read
to us in library class and then reread to us and discussed in
class by Miss Donley. This book gave us a great opportunity to
talk about rhyming and to learn more about our government on the
national, state, and local levels. In fact, we thought that the
second grade class in the story had such a great idea of writing
to their lawmakers that we decided to write to one of ours as
well! One of our current Kansas House of Representatives is a
former student of our school and we decided to practice our
letter writing skills to write to him and to share with him what
we had learned about government and also to suggest ideas for
some new laws. We also learned that after his session is over in
April he is going to come visit our classroom and tell us about
his job and what it is like to be our representative helping to
make laws for us. We loved writing these letters and are eagerly
anticipating his visit in the spring!
Overall, we
loved this Mouse Tales project and are sad to see it end! It was
simply mousenificent! Thanks Mrs. Silverman for providing
another fun and exciting internet project for us in second
grade!
Kansas Curricular Second
Grade Standards, Benchmarks, and Indicators addressed through
Mouse Tales project Reading
1.1.3. The student categorizes onsets and rimes in spoken
syllables.
1.4.3. The student uses pictures, content, and prior knowledge
to make predictions.
1.4.7. The student sequences events according to basic story
structure of beginning, middle, and end.
1.4.8. The student compares and contrasts information (e.g.,
topics, characters) between texts and within a single text.
1.4.9. The student identifies cause-effect relationships in
narrative and expository texts.
1.4. 10. The student retells or determines important events and
main ideas from narrative and expository texts.
2.1.1. The student identifies and describes character(s) in
literature.
2.1.2. The student identifies and describes setting.
2.1.3. The student retells the plot of a story.
Writing
1.3.1. The student chooses and writes several sentences or
phrases about one clear idea.
1.3.6. The student begins to use a variety of prewriting
strategies.
1.3.8. The students writes a piece in sequential order.
1.3.9. The student begins to use simple transitions.
1.3.10. The student begins to write with an awareness of purpose
and audience.
1.3.12. The student chooses words that are reasonably accurate
and makes the message clear.
1.3.15. The student capitalizes the beginning of a sentence and
uses correct punctuation.
1.3.16. The student uses correct grammar when writing sentences
or phrases.
Social Studies - Civics-Government
1.1. The student recognizes that rules provide order and safety and
benefit all school and community members.
3.1. The student recognizes that the United States Constitution is a
written plan for the rules of government 4.1. The student
discusses how rights and privileges change over time and in
different situations.
National Educational Technology Standards
for Students (NETS) addressed through Mouse Tales project
*Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing
technology-enhanced models, preparing publications, and
producing other creative works.
* Students develop positive attitudes toward technology uses that support
lifelong learning, collaboration, personal pursuits, and
productivity.
* Students use telecommunications to collaborate, publish,
interact with peers, experts, and other audiences. |