Vocabulary/Vocabulary Development – Page 23

The Boy Who Loved Math by Deborah Heiligman

September 18, 2013September 18, 2013 by Kellee

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and was started to help promote the reading of nonfiction texts. Most Wednesdays, we will be participating and will review a nonfiction text (though it may not always be a picture book).
Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what other nonfiction books are shared this week!

The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos
Author: Deborah Heiligman
Illustrator: LeUyen Pham
Published June 25th, 2013 by Roaring Brook Press

Goodreads Review: Most people think of mathematicians as solitary, working away in isolation. And, it’s true, many of them do. But Paul Erdos never followed the usual path. At the age of four, he could ask you when you were born and then calculate the number of seconds you had been alive in his head. But he didn’t learn to butter his own bread until he turned twenty. Instead, he traveled around the world, from one mathematician to the next, collaborating on an astonishing number of publications. With a simple, lyrical text and richly layered illustrations, this is a beautiful introduction to the world of math and a fascinating look at the unique character traits that made “Uncle Paul” a great man.

My Review: I have been on a great streak of picture book narrative biographies and this is another one. I love how the author so cleverly combined Erdos’s story and mathematics without ever overloading the story with numbers. This book is so much fun (and the colorful illustrations add even more playfulness to it) yet teaches so much within its story. What impresses me the most is just how much the book makes you think about math, want to learn more math, and want to play with numbers. Even in book form, Erdos is making math understandable.

Teacher’s Tools For Navigation: What a great book to use in a math classroom (or elementary classroom). This book makes math sound fun and would definitely be a jumping off point for many different mathematical ideas (such as prime numbers, harmonic primes, amicable numbers, odd/even numbers, Euclid’s Proof of the Infinity of Prime Numbers, Sieve of Eratosthenes, Euler’s map of Konigsburg, negative numbers, the Party Problem, Erdos distinct distances problem, Erdos number, epsilon). Many of the ideas are shared in a fun way and would help be a foundation for scaffolding.

Discussion Questions: What math idea/activity do you find to be the most fun?; Use math to complete Paul’s trick- how old are you in seconds? Minutes? Hours? Days?; What are the answers to Paul’s questions about prime numbers? Do they go on forever? Is there a pattern to them? Why is it that the higher you go up, the farther apart the prime numbers are?

We Flagged: “Paul played with numbers. He added them together and subtracted them. One day he subtracted a bigger number from a smaller number.
The answer was less than 0.
How could a nubmer be <0?
Mama told him numbers below zero are called NEGATIVE NUMBERS. Paul thought that was so cool.
Now he knew for sure he wanted to be a mathematician when he grew up. But first he had to tackle another big problem…” (p. 9)

Read This If You Loved: On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein by Jennifer Berne, Jim Henson: The Guy Who Played with Puppets by Kathleen Krull, Lost Boy: The Story of the Man who Created Peter Pan by Jane Yolen, Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein by Don Brown, A Wizard from the Start: The Incredible Boyhood and Amazing Inventions of Thomas Edison by Don Brown, Sandy’s Circus: A Story about Alexander Calder by Tanya Lee Stone, Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell

Recommended For:

This book just makes me want to learn more!

The Salem Witch Trials: An Unsolved Mystery from History by Jane Yolen & Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple

September 4, 2013September 4, 2013 by Kellee

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

The Salem Witch Trials: An Unsolved Mystery from History
Authors: Jane Yolen & Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple
Illustrated by: Roger Roth
Published September 7th, 2004 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Goodreads Summary: In 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, witnessed one of the saddest and most inexplicable chapters in American history. When a group of girls came down with a horrible, mysterious bout of illness, the town doctor looked in his medical books but failed to find a reasonable diagnosis. Pretty soon everyone in town was saying the same thing: The girls were ill because they were under a spell, the spell of witchcraft! And still, the question remains: Why did the hysteria occur? The townspeople had many things to worry about back then: smallpox, strife with the local Indians, a preacher demanding higher wages, and the division of land in the community. But did all of those problems justify a witch hunt?

Become a detective as you read this true story, study the clues, and try to understand the hysteria! The Unsolved Mystery from History series is written by acclaimed author Jane Yolen and former private investigator Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple. This is an innovative history lesson that’s sure to keep kids thinking throughout.

Review: The mystery of the Salem Witch Trials is one that has haunted the United States for over 3oo years now and is one that students love to read about (and I do, too!). Most of my thoughts about this book are about how awesome this book is for the classroom. The Yolens seemed to have written it specifically for teachers to use.

Teacher’s Tools For Navigation: This book promotes studying history, inquiry, and vocabulary. The book begins with an introduction to a young girl who enjoys unsolved mysteries from history and then the book is set up like her case notebook. Each page of the case notebook includes a narrative nonfiction section about what was going on in Salem, an informational nonfiction section where facts about the story are explained even more in detail, and then there are vocabulary words from the two sections defined for the reader. Finally, in the back of the book the different theories about what could be the answer to the unsolved mystery are shared and briefly discussed. The set up of this book leads to infinite possibilities of being used in the classroom. Students could debate, write research papers, could do their very own case notebook about a different mystery, etc. Another option is to get all of the Unsolved Mystery from History books and have students get into lit circle groups and have each group read a different mystery then research and share.

Discussion Questions: What do you think happened in Salem? [Could be a wonderful debate or cooperative research presentation/paper in class. Have each students, after reading the different theories, decide which they believe is true. Then within their groups come up with evidence that supports the theory that they believe in.]

We Flagged: “Narrative Nonfiction Section: One bitterly cold day in February, Betty and Abigail both fell ill, collapsing onto their small rope beds. They convulsed. They contorted. Their arms and legs jerked about. They shouted bizarre, unintelligible words. They crouched under chairs and cowered as if frightened. In other houses in Salem Village several of their friends began to act the same way.

Informational Nonfiction Section: The other sick girls in Salem village included Ann Punam Jr. (age 12), Mercy Lewis (age 19), Mary Walcott (age 16), Elizabeth Hubbard (age 17), and Mary Warren (age 20). Like Abigail, Elizabeth and Mercy were orphans; Mercy may have witnessed her parents being killed in an Indian attack three years earlier in Main. Mary Walcott had lost her mother when she was eight. Ann and Betty were daughters of landowners, but Marry Warren, Elizabeth, and Mercy were maidservants.

Vocabulary: Convulsed: shook violently, Contorted: Twisted into unusual shapes, Unintelligible: Impossible to understand” (p. 12-13)

Read This If You Loved: I Walk in Dread by Lisa Rowe Fraustino, The Sacrifice by Kathleen Benner Duble, Witch Child by Celia Rees, The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare, Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer and other nonfiction books about Salem

Recommended For:

Academic Games

April 22, 2023August 18, 2013 by Kellee

Last week, I shared my Genre/Format Introduction Lesson, where I stated that I play a pyramid review game with my students before the assessment. After saying this, I had a couple of people, including Julee M., ask me to share more about the pyramid game, so I decided to share my post about academic games.

I will say, none of these games were originally mine. As a teacher, though, we all borrow and share – so I am happy to share them with you.

Vocabulary Pyramid

Set up like the $25,000 Pyramid, students are given topics and they must have their partner guess each topic using the vocabulary and knowledge from the unit/lesson.

Talk a Mile a Minute

VERY similar to the pyramid game: Students get into pairs (A & B) and one faces away from the board/projector while the other faces it. A student gets a list of terms based on a topic that is being taught. They then go word to word giving clues and trying to get through all of the words. The fastest wins!

After the game, students should record the clues, illustrations, examples that helped them guess each vocabulary word.

4 Corners

4 corners is like an interactive multiple choice assessment/activity. This game begins with all of the students in the middle of the room. The teacher asks a question and each corner (or side) is an option. Students then go to what they choose or think is correct.

Swat It

For Swat It you will need 2 fly swatters. The teacher posts vocabulary words on a wall (a word wall would work) or makes a PowerPoint/Word document with the vocabulary words. Then 2 students go head to head. The teacher gives clues or definition and students have to swat the word. I have heard that using a fly swatter is the best way because it is obvious who is first; rulers make it much harder to see who was first if it was close.

Post-It Password

Students put a post it on their foreheads with a vocabulary word on them and then walk around the room having conversations with other students to figure out what their words are.

Draw a Conclusion

This is one of my favorites. It is a backwards circle map. Instead of starting with a topic in the middle and defining it in the circle, with Draw a Conclusion the teacher puts the clues in the circle and the clues have to be used to guess the topic.

Can you guess the answer?

That’s right—Jiminy Cricket!

Jeopardy

Self explanatory.

Word-O

Vocabulary bingo

Hint: Use Smarties and kids can eat them when the game is over.

Vocabulary Squares

Like Hollywood Squares. One team is X, one is O, and the team is trying to get tic-tac-toe by answering vocabulary questions.

Draw Me

Pictionary.

Vocabulary Charades

Memory

Cards with vocabulary words and then the definitions are flipped over on a table and students have to flip them over trying to find their match.

Find your Pair

Type up all of the vocabulary words and then sentences or definitions that go with the words. It is then the students’ job to find their pair.

I hope you have fun playing these in your classroom!!

Brave Girl by Michelle Markel

August 7, 2013 by Kellee

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909
Author: Michelle Markel
Illustrator: Melissa Sweet
Published January 22nd, 2013 by Balzer + Bray

Summary: Clara and her family immigrated to New York. They were searching for the American dream. When her father could not find a job, Clara quit school and became a garment worker to support her family. The conditions at her factory were appalling: low wages, unfair rules, and locks on the door. After discussions between the workers, Clara helps urge the girls to fight for their rights.

Review: I am sucker for this biographical picture book for two reasons: 1) I had not known about the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909 before and I love learning about new historical moments. I know that it interested me (as I know it would for kids), because after I read the additional information about the garment industry I was on the internet searching for more information. 2) Clara is such a great example of girl power! AND she is a historical figure that shows girls (and boys) that girls can stand up for themselves when they are not being treated well (in real life). I love that she overcame so much to not only stand up for her rights, but also to get an education and take care of her family. What an amazing person to learn about.

Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: The main way that I would use this book is as a read aloud. It will definitely cause a great discussion and may push students to do further research. It would also be a perfect read aloud for a unit on women’s rights, immigration, overcoming obstacles, girl power, labor laws, or the early 1900s to help make connections to history.

Discussion Questions: Do you think that Clara continuing her education helped her in being able to fight for her labor rights?; Clara made a tough decision between continuing school during the day or working. Do you agree or disagree with her decision? Why or why not? How did her decision affect her life?; What caused the garment workers to strike?

We Flagged: “But Clara is uncrushable. She wants to read, she wants to learn! At the end of her shift, though her eyes hurt from straining in the gaslight and her back hurts from hunching over the sewing machine, she walks to the library. She fills her empty stomach with a single glass of milk and goes to school at night. When she gets home in the late evening, she sleeps only a few hours before rising again.” (p. 12-13)

To see a preview of the illustrations, visit Amazon’s “Look Inside” for Brave Girl.

Read This If You Loved: Here Comes the Girl Scouts! by Shana Corey, The Price of Freedom by Dennis Brindell Fradin, Boycott Blues by Andrea Davis Pinkney, Annie and Helen by Deborah Hopkinson

Recommended for:

Who is a female historical figure who shows as much girl power as Clara that you believe should be talked about more?