Horses

Today we worked on my Horses Activity Packet for the Gail Gibbons' book Horses. My students really enjoyed it and they stayed engaged for 1 hour. I used this activity for the whole group. At times they worked with a partner and small group, too.

Students completed the KWL chart first. 

Then I introduced the words by having students volunteer to read them. If was exciting to see them recognize words they made have had already. We just finished reading a book about Harriet Tubman and the word steady was in there.  They loved the word awkward. It was a popular word this year.

After introducing the words, they predicted what the words might be related to in the story. (see photo #1, bottom picture) This really made them think. It was tough for some of the students. 

I paired students with a partner and gave them a card with either a True or False statement about horses. They had to read the card and decide whether it was true or false.  They placed the cards on the red chart.

While they listened to the story, I pulled the cards that were in the incorrect columns. Once they finished the story, I read the cards to them and they decided as a class which place it should go. 

Since I only had 3 books at school, I divided them into 3 groups and chose one person to be the helper and hold the book. They did a great job. If you have listened to a Gail Gibbons' book, they are rather long so that was a lot of holding!

Tomorrow we will finish our vocabulary chart and identify if they put the words into categories that made sense.  Does "majestic" describe a family or the body?