Author Study: Doreen Cronin

 

This afternoon we finished up our Author Study on Doreen Cronin.  I really enjoy her books and they are fun to read with the kids. We recently read Diary of a Worm and then Diary of a Spider for our classroom read aloud.  They were the perfect books to tie in some science concepts.  We worked on living/non-living, and insects vs. spiders.  The younger kids labeled parts of an insect and spider and learned a lot of new insect vocabulary. Since the books were written in a diary format, we also focused on sequencing the months of the year.

I found this cute paper plate Venn Diagram on Pinterest so we made our own. We compared our two stories that we read. The older kids are getting really good at understanding where to place concepts that are the same and different and how to use the Venn Diagram.

A few days before we had compared insects vs. spiders using post-it notes and hula hoops. They really enjoyed this activity.

I am loving Teachers Pay Teachers. I found great resources there to help with our literature and science. I am especially loving the premade Power Points that people are willing to share. I might just have to open up a TpT seller account so I can share my vocabulary Power Points that go with our read alouds. For free. =)

Here are some of the resources I used:
Diary of a Worm Sequencing/Timeline Activity- Freebie
Worm Farm Video on PBS
Diary of a Worm Literacy Mini Unit
Incredible Insect Literacy Centers- Freebie
Label an Insect- Freebie
Insect Invasion Listening Worksheet- Freebie
Insect Invasion! Vocabulary Word Wall Cards- Freebie
Insect or Not?- Freebie
Insects PowerPoint- Freebie
Insects Write the Room- Freebie (Write the Room is seriously one of my younger student's new favorite activities!)