Read Across America 2012 - March 3 at the Warwick Mall

From the National Education Association RI web site:

"NEARI will celebrate Read Across America March 3, at Warwick Mall. The fun begins at 10:00 a.m. and continues until 4:00 p.m. Read Across America is free to the public and includes stickers for every child; a chance to register to win prizes donated by NEARI; puzzle and activity sheets, and reading advice for parents; a book give-away table, sponsored by NEARI education support professionals; and an opportunity to visit and pose with Cat in the Hat herself."

Learn more about Read Across America.

Rumpelstiltskin Summarized

In fourth grade this week, we practiced the Somebody / Wanted / But / So / Then method of summarizing a story. Here is what the students came up with for Rumplestiltskin:

• The miller's daughter wanted to make straw into gold, but she didn't know how. So the fat and chubby man came and did it for her. Then he wanted something in return.
  
  
• The king wanted the girl to spin gold, but she didn't know how. So Rumplestiltskin came and said he'd do it if she gave him her baby. Then she didn't want to.
  
  
• Rumplestiltskin wanted the baby. But his heart softens a bit. So he says that if the queen can guess his name, then he won't take the baby.
  
  
• Rumplestiltskin wanted the baby, but the girl cried. So he said she had three tries to guess his name. Then she sent her servant to find out.
  
  
• Rumplestiltskin wanted the miller's daughters baby. But the miller's daughter guessed his name, so he threw a fit and then rode away on a spoon.
  
  

Highlights from 3T

I have learned that third graders LOVE highlighters.

I haven't run a scientific test with a control group yet, but I believe that letting students use highlighters instead of pencils to find key words and concepts in a reading selection increases their concentration and accuracy by 500%!!

Rumpelstiltskin Retold

Source: http://www.penguin.com.au/

We have started a unit on summarizing with the fourth graders. To practice the difference between retelling and summarizing, I read Paul O. Zelinsky's Rumpelstiltskin to 4F, 4FR, and 4G. Then they retold it back to me.

Here is their version, made up of verbatim quotes from each class (Note: Some verbs have been updated after 4F declared that "'Said' is dead."). We were not yet successful in writing a three-sentence summary. If you want to try, leave your summary in the comments!

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The miller had a beautiful daughter. One day she ran into the king. She wanted to impress him, so she told him her daughter could spin straw into gold.

The king took her [daughter] into a room filled with straw and told her to turn the straw into gold.

A little man came in and said what would she give him if he spun the straw for her? So she said she would give him her necklace.

Then the next day the king told her to spin more, because he turned greedy. He told her to spin this much hay, and it was more. The little man came back and said what will you give me? And she said her ring. And gave it to him, and he spun the straw into gold.

Source: http://www.paulozelinsky.com

The next day, the king got more greedy and told her to spin more straw into gold. The straw almost filled the whole room!! The king declared, “If you finish turning all this straw into gold, then you will marry me.”

Rumpelstiltskin walked in and he asked, "What do you have for me?" And the girl cried, "Nothing." And he replied, “Very well, then you will give me your son when you get married to the king.” She thought that she might never have a baby, so she agreed that she would give it to him.

After the marriage, one year later, she had a baby, and then Rumpelstiltskin came into her room. He demanded, “Give me what you promised.” And then she pleaded for him to take anything else. Rumpelstiltskin said, “I’ll give you three days to find out my name, and if you do, then you can keep your baby.”

She kept on guessing names every day he came in. The first night, she tried to remember all the names she knows. But none of them were right. Then the second night, she went around town trying to find new names that she didn’t already know, but none of them were it either.

Then she sent one of her guards to go up all in the high mountains/forest. The servant found Rumpelstiltskin. And he was singing a song and it had his name in it, and the guard ran as fast as he could back to tell her the name.

The next day, she gave him two names that weren’t right, to get him thinking that she didn’t know it.When she said the name, he said “The devil told you that!” And then he got onto a spoon and flew away.

ALTERNATE ENDING: She tells him his name, and he stomps his right foot and it goes through the floor, and he stomps the other one and it falls off.

Source: http://www.paulozelinsky.com/rumpelstiltskin.html

Dewey Decimal number for fairy tales: 398.2

Put The Needle on the Record!

By popular demand from 3T, here is the video we danced to when learning about records and how they were replaced by CDs. Skip to 2:46 for the pivotal part. Wicky wicky! (Note: In a connection to the grade 4 maps unit, the cosmonauts have CCCP on their helmets ... there's no more CCCP!)

And here is Mixmaster Mike from the Beastie Boys, whose job is to put the needle on the record.

Comments welcome from my 3T students as to whether or not you danced with your families to these!