and the winner is.....

after starting Maniac Magee at the start of school (our days just fly and usually I do not have time for read aloud unfortunately) I finally finished this week and one of the teachers had a quiz show game to go along with it, purchased from Lakeshore.  So we had a little competition this week with the boys vs. girls vs. me.... and I won!! Unfair you say, not so :) I actually missed a 750 pt. question, but still came out on top.  It helped that the last boy pick a 'name you amount card', bet all the boys points, and didn't know the answer.  The prize for the winning student team was that they got to choose any type of cupcake they want for me to make.  They'll get a double cupcake while the boys will get a normal sized one.  The girls choose a chocolate cupcake with oreo frosting.  Tuesday will be yummy!!

flip book, flip book......

I think I'm getting a little obsessed with flip books! It all began when a teacher in the school did a flip book activity with her kids for New Years, where the number of the year (2013) flip up for different resolutions for the year.  Along with the pinterest searches which show flip books for a variety of topic in different subjects, and so when we came to our unit of Motion and Design in science and the students need to know the Three Law of Motion...I thought "Flip Chart" and then my student are having trouble remembering Mean, Median, Mode, and Range I thought "Flip Chart." And now I am just thinking of all the other things for which we can make a flip chart :)

non fiction responses.....

here's another assignment we completed for our non fiction unit, the written response, donn donn duunnn :) writing is absolutely getting better, but it is still a struggle/under developed part for most of my students.  Some just don't like to write and it feels like pulling teeth to get a five sentence, three paragraph piece from them.  So now I'm in the non fiction unit, and it felt like a double wammy...typically boring reading with boring writing, so what is one to do???

a few years ago I had found had a Scholastic News magazine which was about the Freedom Riders, and since this unit usually takes place during January(MLK jr. day) and February(black history month) I thought it would be an interesting view of the Civil Right movement.  It is a great article and leads to thoughtful discussions.  How I accomplish writing for a unit is: I model the writing style and have the kids usually write a paragraph or two piece to try out the writing style, in which I hold conferences and the students preform a 'glow and grow' assessment with a partner. (Glow and Grow I found on pinterest and is an AWESOME way for peers to assess each others written work, check it out!)  Then the assessed piece for their writing portfolio I usually require a three paragraph essay based on the same writing style, but different writing prompt, no help from anyone.  My struggle was how do I model a non fiction response and have student input, along with all students participating not just the few that usually do?  And an idea was born, new to me but I'm sure others have done before, have each student responsible for a sentence in the piece!  

First I had students go over what a non fiction written response requirements are and what one looks like from our writing resource, "WriteSource." Then I read the article to them while it projected on my classroom screen.  Once done I handed students a random number, which was the order in which they would write the piece.  Finally, we went to work.  I felt the student who had the number 1 card had it hardest since they had to set the tone for the whole piece.  When they were done I asked number 2 would there be any revisions you would like to make to the sentence created before you?  If they said no then I'd ask for the next sentence.  If they said yes and did a reasonable amount of revision I'd let that be their turn and ask the next person in order to create the next sentence. Those who are my "do as little as possible" and told me to change only one word in a sentence, thinking that I'd go on to the next person, I'd make create the next sentence (can't get one by me :) and my L.S/Title students I'd help out if they needed.  Through it I'd have some students say, "can I go back to the first/second paragraph and add something?"  OF COURSE!!  Once we were all done I printed out a copy and had the students get in groups of three to do a final edit before our final draft.  This process took about three days, but it turned out great!! All students were involved, had a part, and kept (for the most part) engaged in the process.

when it came to the assessed piece I had students select from a variety of Scholastic New magazines that I had left over or had not gotten to use yet.  Asked them to highlight facts during their reading, and then follow our model to complete their piece.  I have since hung the finished ones in the hall with the cover of their chosen magazine.  Interestingly, many picked the about the Titanic, they are fascinated with this story.

facts=non fiction.....

well first off how did we get to February already??? Last time I checked I was getting ready for the holidays and now we are into third quarter, which always seems to sadden me because I know my days are now rapidly decreasing with the amount of time I have with my students.  And with a class like I have this year, I don't want to let them go :(  however, that part of being a fifth grade teacher, in our district at least.  

so what have we been filling our time with at school...non fiction.  for some reason our non fiction comprehension scores tend to be lower on state tests, so this is something we hit on all year, but we also have a unit in Language Arts devoted to it.  Of course we READ non fiction text in everything during this unit: modeled reading, guided reading, center work...you name it's there.  A story that we have from the Scholastic series (but is also a book) is The Secrets of Vesuvius and from year to year the kids just love this text.  During the reading I have big spaces on my white board that are labeled "EWWW", "NO WAY", and AWESOME".  I give students 3 sticky notes a day (usually takes 3 days to read) and they have to write down a fact from the text that would fit into those categories, and yes I of course have those students who say, "nothing in here is gross to me, I watch ......(fill in the blank with any number of gross movies/t.v. shows" to which I always say too bad, you still have to find one:) And believe me there are some 'eww' parts in the text.  Last year I created a simple template for summary that I label: I Think You Should Know and they choose three facts that they would think someone should know about what happened at  Mt. Vesuvius.  I added this year another box at the bottom that was labeled: My Own View in which I asked them to give their overall view of what they learned from the text.

now this year for some reason, as I'm sure happens to everyone, we were reading A LOT of passages about ocean life.  Our resource of Literacy By Design has a whole unit about Ocean Life and students were selecting guided reading books about ocean life.  I found center activities that went with our unit comprehension strategy which had passages that dealt with Oceans Life, so I had the student complete another slip on Ocean Life.  And of course as always happens I have those student who finish their task earlier than others, so I thought well why not have them create a display to hang outside our room.  I split those who had finished into groups to work on one of the two displays, had them choose creative directors who would design the poster, researchers who would look up real pictures to add to the poster, and decorators who would follow the directors' vision to color, glue, and complete the final project.  And amazingly those "slow workers" quickened their pace to be able to work on a poster.  Here are the finished pieces, I had no role in the creation (except the half sheet of paper to write their responses on, I even had students die cut the letters to make the banner!) 

I would highly suggest that if you are like me before (a control freak, who has to do everything herself) let your students create whole class visuals. These turned out AWESOME, better then what I could/would have done. And the pride that the students have of having a part in the display that others ooohhh and aaahhhh at is priceless.

moment of tears and affirmation....

Today was our first day back after Thanksgiving break (up here hunting starts on Monday, yep it's that important we get a day off...but who's complaining:) Returning from a relaxing break is always a hard thing for me to get back up to speed, especially morning routines! It always seems like I need just 10 more minutes..so as I am gathering my attendance cards and finding the lunch count menu a student comes up to me and hands me something, saying "I made this for you."  I quickly glance down at what's in my hand and see that it is a handmade card, taking a double look at the detail that this girl has put into this card ( I mean Hallmark worthy) On the front it said "Remember in grade school when you found out it was pizza day and you got all excited"....(inside) "well that's what it's like having a teacher like you everyday."  BLEW...ME...AWAY! I had to stop to gain my composure as tears came to my eyes.

To say that I have not had my doubts about my profession is an understatement, there's no rule book to teaching, no constant as to what will work and what won't from year to year, even day to day...I have often thoughts about am I even making a difference or am I totally wasting a whole year of these students lives.  Not to mention the less then favorable point of view most society members have of our profession, along with the ridiculous expectations of the state tests.

But one, just one simple act like this brings me back to why I do what I do and that what I do is good enough...I'm not sure if this girl knows how much that card truly means or how often I will view it for affirmation, but she made not only may day today, but many more to come.  These are the momenti di's I look for.

hero's journey..

During our third unit in Language Arts we work with the concept of "Hero's Now and Then" our writing is about fictional hero's and hero's in our life, and we read about real life hero's.  A new concept that is introduced in fifth grade is that of the hero's journey.  Where the main character goes out into the world, faces a challenge, resolves the challenge, and returns home changed.  Because it is new I start with a project using a picture book to detail a hero's journey.  To model I use the book "Where the Wild Things Are" this idea was given to me by our curriculum department, but do not know the resource they used.  I read the book to the students and then describe the five parts we will be working with, giving examples from the book.  Here is how I complete the Hero's Journey:

Main Character: Max

Goes Out Into the World: Max sails to the place where the wild things are

Faces Challenges:  1. The wild things roar their terrible roars, gnash their terrible teeth

                                       2.  Max starts missing home

Resolves Challenges: 1.  Max tells the wild things to "BE STILL" and becomes kings of all wild things

       2. Max sail back home

Returns Home Changed: Max realize that no matter how mad, angry, or upset he may get home is love and he is loved.

Students this year have done an amazing job with this project! A few examples below.

my day in history...

This is a social studies project that I created last year.  As with many concepts/ideas in content areas, curriculums seem to overlap from grade to grade...causing students to do many of the same projects throughout grade school.  Prime example the timeline.  My first two years teaching social studies I had students create a personal timeline of events that happened in their life, using pictures and graphics to display their events.  I thought they turned out great..so fun to see pictures of the students in events that impacted their life, until year 2 when I walked down the hallway and saw the same project next to the third grade doors.  Because timelines were in their curriculum as well and personal timelines seemed like a great project for them.  Knowing that I would be getting those students in two years I decided I needed to change up the project.  Timelines and chronology are a big part of the first unit in social studies so I didn't want to give up a project to extend the learning....and then this idea hit me. I had be in charge of producing the students news while I was the gifted support teacher and would give a day in history fact for each newscast, so I took this idea and correlated it to the chronological order study.  

Students research their birthday on the sites history.com and on-this-day.com.  I have them select four events which happened on their birthday that interest them to further research (to provide a detailed description of the event) and find a picture for that event.  As a model I created one myself and found it so interesting.  Students have to put the events in chronological order and they add their birthday as the fifth event, with a picture of them as a baby.  Still get the personal connection, still working with chronology, and now includes research skills and summarization skills.  Although, I do not always get the quality I expect, it lets me know that I need to do a little more on my part with a new rubric and some kind of graphic organizer to ensure my expectations are achieved.  This year I put their "Day's in History" in chronological order, which was neat to see who was the oldest to youngest in the class. (also helped with remembering birthdays!) 

                   

(A few examples of the more creative projects)