WEEK 2_Sideways Stories From Wayside School_February2015
Book: Sideways Stories from Wayside School By: Louis Sachar
Ages: Kindergarten – 3rd grade
Duration: 4-week program (1hr 15mn/meeting)
Theme: School/Short Stories
Synopsis: This program is designed to take children on a 4-week journey through a series of short stories and participate in related activities. This program encorporates both crafts and activities. Each meeting is divided into walk-in activity time, reading, crafts/games, and snacks.
Week 2:
At a Glance:
Color and decorate a story that will be added to our very own Sideways School
Read Joe and Sharie
Play vocab game during reading
Play a counting guessing game
Earn stickers for apple hats
Snack
Apple Jacks Cereal
Provided materials:
Walk-in Activity: Create a Sideways School
As participants arrive, let each child choose a blank story cut from construction paper. (See "Building Story Template" in the above list of provided materials.)
Cut out a selection of small items from magazines like toys, chairs, electronics (watch faces make nice clocks), and let participants choose 4 magazine cutouts to paste into their room. Anything else they would like to add to their room can be drawn.
I made the goal of this activity to encourage students to make up a story about what is happening in their picture. Each participant had to tell us about his/her picture before we could hang it up. Make sure their name is on the back of their story and choose a designated place on the wall to start stacking their stories.
Reading: Joe, and Sharie
Vocab List:
Lucky
Overcoat
Arithmetic
Snore
Exceptionally
Vocab Game:
Choose at least as many words from the above list as there are participants before reading. Display the words near the reading area.
One-by-one, explain the definitions of each word.
Instruct participants to raise their hand if they hear one of these words during the reading. When a child correctly identifies a word has been used, he/she earns a sticker for his/her apple hat! (These are to be made during the next activity.)
Then, pull the word off of the display and drop it into a bucket.
At the end of the reading, let each child take turns pulling a word from the bucket. If he/she can remember the definition of that word, he/she earns another sticker for the apple hat!
Occasionally there would be a word leftover in the bucket. In this case, I would read the word and the first person to raise a hand would be called on to give the definition and earn another sticker.
Activity I: Counting Guessing Game
Fill jars and vases of all sizes and shapes with various small objects
and display them somewhere.
Make sure to count EXACTLY how many items are in each container and record
that number so you will remember it later
Pass out a Guessing Notebook (see materials list above) and a pencil to each participant
Invite the students to walk around the area where the containers are displayed and study the containers.
Each student should write down the number of items he/she guesses is in each contanier on the respective page of his/her notebook.
(We went through each container, as a group, one at a time.)
Record each guess on a board so all can see.
When all guesses are in, reveal the answers.
The student that guesses the closest earns a sticker for his/her apple hat!
Activity II: Hi Ho Apple-O!
Preparation:
Print out copies of the "Hi Ho Apple-O Board Game Template" from the above "provided materials" list onto cardstock.
Print out and assemble the "Cube Template" with cardstock.
Print the "Dice Images" and glue them to random sides of the cube.
Game Play:
Give one board to each player seated in a circle.
Pour a pile of "apples" in the center of the group. (I used the buttons from the guessing game as apples)
Choose a participant to start. That participant rolls the dice and performs the following actions:
1 = place 1 apple from the pile on a circle on his/her apple tree board
2 = place 2 apples from the pile on circles on his/her apple tree board
3 = place 3 apples from the pile on circles on his/her apple tree board
bunny = lose an apple! Take an apple from his/her tree and put it back in the center pile.
horse = lose an apple! Take an apple from his/her tree and put it back in the center pile.
windy tree = lose ALL apples! Put ALL his/her apples from the tree back into the center pile.
The first participant to collect 10 apples, wins!
Snack: Apple Jacks and juice
A simple snack today staying true to the first story's theme - apples
**NOTE: Be sure to ask parents in advance about any special dietary needs their children might have.
