Interesting CAFE Lessons

Well it finally feels like we are in the swing of things at school. CAFE is an excellent way to help your students become a better reader. Here are some of the lessons I do while we go through the CAFE strategies.

 

Tune in to Interesting Words with Dr. Seuss! Throughout the reading of Oh, The Places You'll Go! students put up their hands when they heard a word they found interesting. After each page we added the words to our anchor chart. This was a fabulous book for the lesson because in typical Dr. Seuss fashion there are a ton of "interesting" words.   

 

One of my favourite CAFE lessons is for Make a Picture With My Mind. I always use the fractured fairy tale Trust Me, Jack's Beanstalk Stinks! 

Students can relate to it because most of them have already heard about Jack and the Beanstalk. 

Before the lesson, I chose 6 spots in the story to stop and have students sketch what image is in their head. At the start of the lesson we talk about what a sketch looks like (no colors, quick drawing, very little details) and I demonstrate on the board for them. I hand out the papers for the activity (see below for a free copy) and tell students they will only have 1 minute to draw each sketch and then we will move on. This is key. Don't give them too much time or they will get hung up on the details and be upset when you have to move on. 
It always amazes me how silent the student are while I am reading. They don't get to see the pictures in the book so they have to listen closely. When I give them the signal to start sketching, EVERY student quickly goes to work. Yup, EVERY student. When I signal all pencils down, that happens too because they don't want to miss out on the next part of the story.
Here are  a few examples of what I got from my students last year :) 

Last year's class was pretty excited about the wedding at the end, hence the kissing pictures. Most years I have had pictures of the giant looking through the clouds at Jack and his mother.

Click on the image here to get your free copy of the graphic organizer. 

I hope your students enjoy this as much as mine did.

Cheers,