Spiders…EEEK! Guided Reading with a Purpose Week 9

On week 9 of Guided Reading with a Purpose we are ready to dig a bit deeper into our literature. Above you can see the 5 anchor stories I chose for the week. All about Spiders is a digital (and paper) book that I wrote.  

The focus for this week is fact and details. This is similar to main idea and details only it is used for non-fiction text.  We began this year by using a KWL chart. I’m really trying to get my students to become active participants in their learning and work on asking questions. Here is a peek at what my chart looks like on day 1 and then day 5. 

On Monday we begin by gathering our shema or what we know. (the orange sticky notes)  We also begin the process of asking questions. (the pink sticky notes). As we read books each day, we revisit this chart and add new learning (green sticky notes) and also answer our questions we had (blue sticky notes) The more we do these, the better they become at asking and answering questions. 

From year to year I vary what chart I use so I’m sharing what I did the year prior. I used a schema, new learning, and misconception chart. 

Either way, the charts get the students involved in their learning! 

I usually begin with my mini reader. I pass out the paper pencil version for the students be we also read my digital version. I added real pictures so they like to see the real photos, especially on the SMART board. We do a little non-fiction text feature hunt to get them familiar with the parts of the book. 

Here is an example of a fact and detail worksheet.  The student wrote, “Spiders spin different kinds of webs”. The three details were funnel, orb, and sheet web. 

We also use my sorts for review of the concepts learned in class. On the right is a fact and detail sort. We did this on our last day. On the left we sorted insects and spiders. This activity goes well with Diary of a Spider.  We also reviewed our text connections on this day. 

There is also a paper pencil sort for the students to do. They love to work in groups to sort the cards. On the back of this paper is where they list Both.

We learn how to create our own orb webs. This is super fun for them and it is awesome to see how different each one looks. I just cut 12 by 18 paper into a 12 by12 square. We draw a straight line down the middle. Then we draw two diagonal lines from corner to corner. Finally we connect the lines by drawing segments around and around.

Another craft we like to make is labeling the parts of a spider. 

If we don’t make the spider labeling craft, we label our spider on the worksheet. Another fun idea we use all week is making mini spiders for our periods. At this point in the year, students have difficulty remembering their punctuation. If you tell them they can make a spider, they won’t forget their period.