WEST ORANGE, NJ — Fifth-grade students in Jennifer Paull’s English language arts classes had the opportunity to kick-off Read Across America at Redwood Elementary on March 1, and the unique opportunity was enjoyed by all.
Along with Paull, reading specialist Lesley Diglio worked with the fifth-grade students, who visited all kindergarten, first- and second-grade classrooms to read a Dr. Seuss book aloud, teach a mini-lesson related to the book, and complete a craft with the younger students.
Kindergarten students heard “The Foot Book” and completed a lesson about opposites, with fifth-graders presenting words on little paper feet and asking kindergartners to come up with the opposites.
First-grade students heard “Hop on Pop” and completed a lesson on rhyming words, with fifth-graders presenting word endings and asking first-graders to complete words that rhymed with those endings. The new words were charted.
Second-grade students heard “Mr. Brown Can Moo – Can You?” and completed a lesson on sound words with fifth-graders presenting various places one might hear sounds. Second-graders had to come up with sounds that could be heard in those locations and onomatopoeia words were charted.
All students made “Cat in the Hat Whiskers,” prepared ahead of time by the fifth-grade students. Each classroom visit lasted approximately 30 minutes.
Other activities at Redwood included a “Guess the Goldfish” activity, for which bowls of rainbow goldfish crackers could be found around the school for students to guess the number in each bowl, and winners received prizes. Also, a quote from a famous children’s book was read aloud during announcements. The students were asked to name the book from which the quote came; the title of the book was not revealed until the next day.
Photos Courtesy of WOSD
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