All About Asia

This week we were learning about Asia. This is a new Common Core standard, and we were afraid that this would be way over their heads. We took a lot of time looking at maps so they could see the "big picture", and I am pleased with how well they understood the concept. We started the week by learning basic facts about Asia, and we read books that took place there. We started by reading Lon Po Po. This is a Little Red Riding Hood story that takes place in Asia. Most of the students said they like this version more than the original! We had great conversation about the two books.

                                         

We also read the story The Paper Crane. This story was about a stranger who gave a struggling restaurant owner a magic paper crane that came to life and brought hundreds of customers to his restaurant. I asked the students to write a creative story about what THEY would do if they were given a magic paper crane. We created a story as a class first so they could see how a story should have a beginning, middle, and ending. Doing this really pushed some of my students that day. This is the story we came up with!

                                            

Each day we discussed what we've learned about Asia and how we can use this knowledge to better our writing. I gave them some freedom today and allowed them to free write, BUT their story had to take place in Asia. I knew they would love this because they could write about mountains, deserts, cobras, pandas, etc! Here are some examples of today's writing!

This student said he was fighting cobras!

This student went to the desert and saw poisonous snakes!