This post is part of this year’s Walk This Way series, designed to share The Walking Classroom experiences of teachers and students across the United States. It provides a glimpse into Dawn Rensel’s class.
Happy Fall from Ohio! What a great time of year to take a walk outside, oxygenate our brains and listen to the sounds of fall settling in!
Fall Fun with Figurative Language
In the classroom, we have been learning how to integrate figurative language into our descriptive “Spooky Stories”. On our beautiful walk today, I chose to have my students listen to Simile and Metaphor (4-#11, 5-#72, Complete-#4). I knew this would fit in perfectly with our spooky stories and equally well within our fourth-grade curriculum!
Needless to say, this time of year is perfect for walks as the neighborhood was festively decorated. And, after we listened to the podcast, while finishing up our walk, my students were in awe of all the festive decorations they saw outside of the houses in the neighborhood. They were all conversing about these.
Sharing Spooky Similes and Metaphors
As I was also taking in the gorgeous fall day and listening to my students discuss the podcast, I got one of those ear-to-ear grins. I heard my students describing the decorations using similes and metaphors. Students were pointing to decorations and helping out their ESL, non-English speaking classmates repeat their similes! Talk about a bunch of kind, responsible kids making sure all of their peers were learning too!
This teachable moment prompted me to take pictures of some of the decorations we saw while on our walk. As we returned to the classroom, I was able to print the photos. Then, the students eagerly began verbalizing and writing their similes and metaphors about the photos from our walk.
TWC Just Keeps Getting Better!
I commit to the Walking Classroom 100% and have seen firsthand, the positive results of each walk! The Walking Classroom just keeps getting better with every walk. Upon returning from any of our walks, the students’ smiles are always wider, their creativity is evident, the learning engagement has always increased, the ESL students feel successful, and my wiggly students are more focused!
Happy Trails!
Dawn Rensel
Fourth Grade Teacher
Gables Elementary
This is great! I often wonder what podcast your class is listening when I see you guys heading out for a walk. Love the picture and examples of what your students wrote. Every year my third-graders are intrigued by your walks.