Fall Blog Hop - Firefly Wondering Project

Happy Sunday and Second Day of Fall,

TeachingMy3 is hosting a seasonal blog hop, and I'm wondering if my firefly project is appropriate?  Hope so!  I'll be back later in the week with some other Autumn related activities going on in my classroom. 



I had a week filled with meetings (like you, I'm sure) and spent some after-hours doing planning but it seemed to be worth it. 

We are just about finished with our launch lessons for Readers Workshop, and one of the last lessons in this module was to set expectations for book discussions.  I had made speech bubbles to go with my Packer player heads.  These are posted so students can refer to them as they develop book discussions.  Someone at my school commented that these are especially great for autistic students to refer to.

 

Here is a close up of the poster I made with a blank Vista Print board I had.  I guess we're not supposed to call them Literature Circles any more - too old school or something. 



 We also discussed questioning and wondering while reading, and I read this book about Fireflies as a mentor text.

Then, as one of their small group stations during our RTI time. which we call WIN (what I need), the third graders did this firefly project.

This project was adapted from one I saw in a Mailbox craft book.

I supplied a 2 X 7 inch piece of green for the body, 2 1/2 X 3 1/2 inch pieces of yellow for the wings, and the same size of wax paper for the top layer of wings.  The students rounded the corners, and used a marker to separate the head, thorax, and abdomen.  I supplied sequins (from JoAnn Fabrics for 99 cents a bag) for the "lights" on the abddomen.  Then the students had to write wondering questions about fireflies.  Non-fiction firefly books were also placed at the station.
 

These students had studied insects in second grade so the body parts would not have been new to them.

I have a fun insect unit on sale at my TPT store here.