Heidi's BLOG

     In this week’s lesson, Ms. Sandoval and I helped our third graders build their vocabulary and make cultural connections through the bilingual text  ¡Vamos! Let’s Go Eat!  by Raúl the Third. Our goal was for students to learn and use ten new words, like  vendor, delivery, parade, lobo,  and  machete  — through reading, writing, drawing, and speaking. We kicked things off with a fun Play-Doh activity where students created their favorite meals, which helped them activate background knowledge and get excited about the story. Then, we introduced the vocabulary words using visuals, gestures, and bilingual word cards. During the read-aloud, students followed along with their “Taco Trackers,” coloring in a taco each time they heard one of the target words. After reading, they completed Frayer Models, designed creative food trucks, and wrote sentences using their new vocabulary. By the end, they showed great understanding through their writing, ...

 In this lesson, my partner and I created activities that connected reading, writing, vocabulary, and social studies through informational texts. Our main goal was to help students understand and use the QAR strategy (Question-Answer Relationship) while reading  The Statue of Liberty  by Dana Meachen Rau and  Rhode Island  by Carol Severin. We focused on the four types of questions— Right There, Think & Search, Author & You,  and  On My Own.  As students practiced identifying where answers come from, they also worked on backing up their ideas with text evidence and making connections to their own experiences. Throughout the lesson, they shared ideas through discussion, partner work, and short written responses that showed their understanding of QAR. What I loved about this lesson was how it tied different subjects together. It supported social studies as students explored American symbols and geography, language arts through reading and vo...