CORN, CORN, and more CORN

Well, I did it!  I taught my first unit!!  I am so glad that is behind me!!!  I had heard through the grapevine that the University Supervisor that was observing my lesson was pretty tough.  It's very nerve-wracking to be teaching your first lesson and being critiqued the very first time you teach.  I think I spent 10 hours prepping for that 60 minute lesson.  I had to pick an interdisciplinary topic .  I started with the students' reading story and went from there so my topic ended up being on Corn and Harvest.  It was perfect for the fall!

The first day we focused on Inference.  I made my first anchor chart with the students.  For those of you that don't know me I am very crafty....with a computer!  I am not crafty with anything I have to free hand!!  So, let's just say I need a little practice on making anchor charts quickly and making them look nice.  Please don't judge me on my not-so-teacherish handwriting! I'm working on it!  I could have made it look much nicer if I had done it in advance, but I love making an anchor chart WITH THE STUDENTS so they can contribute!

The second day I did a close read on a passage that I found on Teachers Pay Teachers on Corn.  I found this bundle of Close Reading Passages that were on sale so I got all 20 of these passages for half price.  Go check it out here!  During my lesson the students read the same passage four times.  They did awesome at annotating the text and using the text as evidence for their answers!

The third day I did a read-aloud lesson on the book Corn by Gail Gibbons.  This lesson was also my science lesson.  Gail Gibbons is a wonderful author and illustrator. Her books are very informative and appealing.  Anyone that wants to buy me any of her books for my classroom, feel free!

After we did the read-aloud I had an ear of corn for each group of students to examine.  They looked at the corn and created their own word bank about the ear of corn and then wrote a descriptive paragraph about that ear of corn.  I wanted to do an experiment with popping corn on the cob in the microwave but I could not find popcorn on the cob anywhere!!  I bought this Corn by Gail Gibbons Unit on Teachers pay Teachers to use as my reference for this lesson.

I found it challenging to pick a topic and teach the topic.  I wish I could have picked a skill and taught the same skill all week, like Inference.  It was a challenge to have my lessons build off of each other based on a topic and not a skill.  The students were not learning about corn in science so it was just a random lesson for them.  But, they loved it and did well!  I wish I could post some pics of the students during these lessons...oh well.  Just picture a bunch of super cute third graders.  I'm loving these kids!