Read Aloud: Round 2

On Monday, I gave my crane lesson to a different third grade class. It went really well; they made some very interesting observations on culture my other class didn't catch. One student commented on how the clothes they wear reflect their culture. Another one commented on a huge example of culture the other class missed; when Sadako's friend dies, she comments on his journey to a star island. We talked about what that meant, and how it might be the equivalent of heaven in our culture. Another student commented the cranes were a Japanese good luck symbol, and they drew connections to the good luck symbols we have in our culture (horse shoes, four leaf clovers). The crane making activity went really well with them, too. Instead of the students going back to their desks to make them, I kept them in a circle around the carpet and we folded the crane on dry erase boards. This made it a lot easier to help them if they had questions! Overall, their cranes turned out much better than the first time around with the other class. I believe it was the culmination of their location on the carpet with me and the fact I had a better idea on how to instruct the lesson a second time around. I'm really glad I got to do the lesson again; it improved a lot just from the first to the second time.