One of the busiest months of the year for our family happens to be October. We stay super busy every weekend heading this way and that! One of the things I love about October is that it is full of fun days and holidays!
Not only does Halloween fall at the end of the month, but it is Popcorn Month! All things popcorn happen this month ~ Boy Scouts sell it, lots of people eat it, popcorn balls, and the list goes on and on! Each year during the month of October, I work with a group of students through many fun popcorn activities.
The other night my daughter wanted to read a different Halloween book, so I looked through the many books on her shelf and found one of my own favorites from childhood ~ Popcorn (A Frank Asch Bear Book)!
The book highlights the evening of a young bear whose parents go out to a Halloween party and leave him alone. He decides to have his own Halloween party, and his friends all come over with their own popcorn to pop. They all decide to pop the popcorn and make a HUGE mess all over the house. (Sound familiar? Of course we didn't use popcorn, right?!) Anyway, they work together to clean it up and leave without his parents ever knowing.
While reading it to my three year old, we spent some time predicting what Bear was going to do. She thought it was funny and didn't want to predict. She just wanted to find out what was going to happen next. What fun!
I have also read this to my students before starting our popcorn activities. I like to do some paired readings, and with second graders at the beginning of the year, I use this as our fiction. It gives them an idea of how popcorn used to always be popped ~ no microwave! Then we read this book from Scholastic that came in my leveled reader kit.
The kids are amazed at the facts they learn in the book. They love the pictures and how they actually tell how popcorn is popped. The book helps us look at facts and opinions, something all students in our school seem to struggle with. We talk about key words to help us know what makes a statement an opinion and not a fact.
At the end of the week, I bring in my air popper and make some popcorn. Many of the students have never seen popped in anything but a microwave.
Then we eat it while we play my Poppin' Fact and Opinion Game. They have a great time thinking about whether the sentences are facts or opinions. We discuss them as we go, making sure that the students understand why the sentences are facts or opinions.
Click {here} or on the picture below to head over and check it out!
Popcorn abounds in the Reading Center in October! What do you like to do during Popcorn Month?
While reading it to my three year old, we spent some time predicting what Bear was going to do. She thought it was funny and didn't want to predict. She just wanted to find out what was going to happen next. What fun!
I have also read this to my students before starting our popcorn activities. I like to do some paired readings, and with second graders at the beginning of the year, I use this as our fiction. It gives them an idea of how popcorn used to always be popped ~ no microwave! Then we read this book from Scholastic that came in my leveled reader kit.
The kids are amazed at the facts they learn in the book. They love the pictures and how they actually tell how popcorn is popped. The book helps us look at facts and opinions, something all students in our school seem to struggle with. We talk about key words to help us know what makes a statement an opinion and not a fact.
At the end of the week, I bring in my air popper and make some popcorn. Many of the students have never seen popped in anything but a microwave.
Then we eat it while we play my Poppin' Fact and Opinion Game. They have a great time thinking about whether the sentences are facts or opinions. We discuss them as we go, making sure that the students understand why the sentences are facts or opinions.
Click {here} or on the picture below to head over and check it out!
Popcorn abounds in the Reading Center in October! What do you like to do during Popcorn Month?
What a fun post and so full of great ideas! Have you read Mercy Watson, Something Wonky This Way Comes by Kate DiCamillo! She is a "porcine wonder" that loves anything with butter on it and this adventure takes her to a drive-in movie with buckets of popcorn! http://mercywatson.com/#books
ReplyDelete~Jennifer
Mmmm, I love popcorn. That Mercy Watson books sounds neat too!
ReplyDeleteLisa
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