Week Four Reflections

20 days… I still can’t believe it’s already September. 

Highlights of this last week!

1. My students started a Silent Reading Book Club this week.  I learned last week that they hadn't read Island of the Blue Dolphins (regular 4th grade class novel) due to distance learning, so I highly encouraged them to check out a copy from our school library. They are SO excited to read it. The deal with the book club is that when they are done, we will watch the movie.  About half my class chose to check it out, and now I’m hearing (and seeing) them react to the big moments in those first chapters. 

2. Since it's been 3 weeks, we started our week having a class chat about what we've noticed that we are doing well as a class, and what goals we want to work on.  I wrote it on the board.  I used to do this weekly, and I guess it's another thing that I forgot over the last year of craziness.  

3.  We started researching our Native American Tribes.  Groups are learning about common consistencies between tribes in certain regions, so we are working on learning specifics about how the Native Americans before the European Settlers arrived lived - diet, location, shelter, tools, jobs, etc.  I like to use this project by Teaching in Room 6. 

As for tri-fold boards - every year we clean out the Dollar Tree.  It's a great price when you are buying 8 per class (32 total).

4.  We changed desks on Tuesday, the last day of the month.  It's a tradition in my classroom.  Every last day of the month we are switching seats, unless it's the weekend and then it's always the Friday before.  In the past the kids would just take out their items and move everything to the new seat, but this year with everything going on, they had to haul their entire desk across the room. It just took longer.  :)  To make it easy, I have a powerpoint template on my computer that I always print. This year it's 8 groups of 4... we are a little squishy, but we're making it work. I just make 1 table of 2x2, and then copy and paste it over and over.  Tables in a ppt. make it easy to type the names in.

5.  Speaking of the end of the month... I really LOVE my calendar this year.  Every Back to School I always buy one of these desk calendars for our information wall. So far this year, everyday I ask the kids for one highlight.  What is something they want to remember?  Then I write it on the calendar.  Usually it's a satisfying rip and toss at the end of the month, but this year I'm going to hold onto them for the end of the year so we can see all our memories. 

6. First day of the new month also meant that we were changing out our class jobs. I have my job chart on the side of my file cabinet. On the base of the laminated numbers I have velcro holding it on. It’s really easy to attach. I use this product.

*Paper Checkers - they are filling up our class mailboxes with practice papers. I personally take care of graded work.

*Teacher Assistants- they are helping me pass out papers and materials in class to get it to all the groups quickly.

*Book Helpers- they are keeping our classroom library organized.

*Lunch- they are in charge of bringing the basket in and out every day. 

*Future leaders- they are in charge of randomness- writing team points on the boards, choosing the class game, etc.

*Errand runners- they are my go to kids when something or someone needs to go some where.

*Kindness Club- they are the ones I’m sending to read kindness books to younger grades, and they are writing encouragement notes to the kids in class.

*Room Monitors- they are my extra set of hands and eyes, reminding kids about cleaning up their areas.

Everyone always has a job, because it’s our classroom and belongs to all of us.

7. We had a Math Fact Snowball Fight this week.  Yep, it's really easy, and the kids LOVE it.  One piece of copy paper each, then they write a math fact on the paper. They write their name, and on my "Toss!" they toss it into the air. The papers fall, and the kids grab one from the ground. They open it up, solve the math fact, write their initials, and then make a new math fact.  They don't toss until it's time.  It goes super fast. We continue on until the paper is full or falling apart.  I've learned we really need to practice our math facts. 

8. I had to print out sight word lists. Yep. 5th grade. Some kids are starting with the basics. I still use my sight word lists from when I taught 2nd grade, lists go to 5th grade as well... but it's mainly for my beginning readers. I’ve been doing book talks every day during independent workshop, so now I’m also pulling my special friends to do sight word practice at the same time. I can't wait to see growth.  :) 

9. We had our first taste of Rainbow Editing this week as well. I love Rainbow Editing.  I've been doing this for years, and it really works! 

Red - capitals

Orange - punctuation

Yellow - indents

Green - topic sentence and/or key words

Blue - details or reasons

Purple - spelling to check

Every paragraph should be a rainbow... and if it's not, then add to it!

10. We had Spirit Week this week! It was fun. :) PJ Day, Sports Day, Monochrome Day, Tourist Day, and Extreme School Spirit. Having a staff meeting in PJs is always welcome.  Ha!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! I'm so thankful for the extra day.  :) 

(Disclaimer - these are things that I have found that works for my classroom.  Not sponsored in any way, I just like to share.)

Morning Whiteboard Messages - Why I LOVE them! {Giveaway}

For years I've had my students respond to prompts to learn more about them and to build our classroom community.  This year I bumped those prompts to a transition piece (instead of just in our Whole Class Writing Journals or on Fridays for reflection), and it was absolutely wonderful.  The kids got an engaging little brain break that double dipped to build relationships.  

Win Win!  

I don't know about you though, but once the day gets going, I can't just erase everything on the board to write a prompt, or sometimes the whiteboard is filled with things we need to save... or there were those moments in the morning that I did have a clean whiteboard, but I couldn't think of what to write for a prompt...  

This summer I decided my big project will be to create a years worth of prompts for my students to use.  The same prompts that I've used over the years, but putting it into a format that allows me to either:

1.) Project it on my screen.

or

2.) Print & Stick it up on the board.

or 

3.) Put the printed prompt in a writing station.

I'm personally leaning toward having the files on my desktop and just clicking it on in the morning.  Students can respond somedays on their whiteboards, other days in their journals, and still others I can pass out the response sheets and we can add them to our exit slip pocket chart so everyone can see their responses.  Then my big whiteboard can stay all set for our math lesson.  

So far, I've made up 2 sets with 20 prompts each.

The first set is an "Anytime" set because it can be used anytime of the year.

   

The second set is geared toward Back to School and has specific questions that are perfect for the transition to a new grade level.

Check out the preview at TPT to see every single page.

Each prompt has it's own corresponding reflection sheet (quarter page size).  I wanted to get them ready now on the off chance that when I have a sub next year, it will be an easy print & go, then I can still see my students' responses, and our routine can stay the same on a sub day. 

Would you like one of the sets?  Just leave your email below, and I'll choose 2 winners on Saturday evening.  Both sets are presently 50% off too, only $1.50 each.

I hope you are having a fabulous day!  

A Great Gold Rush Book

Two Questions:

1) Do you teach about the Gold Rush?

2) Have you read this book?  

It's a nonfiction book that is full of interesting facts that keep the kids engaged while learning.  Last year was the first year that I brought it into my classroom, and this year I picked up a class set of the books from Scholastic.

My very smart teammate came up with this paper bag book activity for the kids, full of hidden compartments and secret flaps for kids to write on.  

It takes 4 white or brown lunch size paper bags - they are crisscrossed back and forth, always with the bottom of the bag facing up (plain front, flat side down).  Just layer them and then fold/staple to form a book.

First paper bag - bottom of bag on right side, facing up

Second bag - bottom of bag on left side, facing up

Third bag - bottom of bag on right side, facing up

Fourth bag - bottom of bag on left side, facing up

Then fold in half.  I stapled.  My friend hole punched and tied with yarn.

The pages go along with the pages in the book.  It's a lot of summarizing and adding different interesting facts to the pages.  My kids actually BEGGED to do this every day!   

Hope you had a great day!  Hopefully this helps someone.  :)

P.S. - Need some Gold Rush Resources?

Gold Rush Bundle: Famous Men of the Gold Rush Reading Passages and Mining Journal

Music for Close Reading? Yes, Please!

I picked up a very engaging pack the other day from my Blogging Bud Joanne Miller, (Head Over Heels for Teaching).

She has put together a playlist that the kids absolutely love.  The students can listen to the music through the safe share websites, read the lyrics, and answer the discussion questions.

I'm so excited about the rest of these songs!  The kids kept asking me if they could listen to it over and over.  Do you use music in your classroom?
 
 

Stone Fox Quotations

We have been working on dialogue a lot lately.  The district writing sample is quickly approaching and I KNOW these kids are going to need to write a narrative that includes dialogue... and right now they aren't all there yet.  We finished up Stone Fox last week, and their final writing activity included making up 7 interview questions that they would ask Little Willy after he won the race.  They weren't allowed to be "Yes/No" questions, there had to be some depth to the questions.  That alone was a big deal.

After they created 7 questions they got to have some fun.  They had to go and interview Little Willy.  All 32 of the kids in the class had to think like Little Willy and if they were asked a question they had to respond as him.  Each person had to ask 7 different people their questions, and had to record their responses directly onto their papers.  My little news reporters!

Then we had a little art project.  They had to transfer 3 questions with 3 responses onto a piece of construction paper into 3 dialogue bubbles.  They had to write their questions (remembering question marks), and the responses had to include quotation marks, the speaker, and proper punctuation.  Oh my goodness!  We still have so much to work on... but at least it was a fun activity and they were all motivated to do their best.

How do you practice dialogue?   

Charlotte's Web Writing Craft

I'm just going back in time, catching up on what's been new this year.  This is the first year I am incorporating writing into novel art projects.  When we finished Charlotte's Web, the students took a piece of red paper and folded it to make a barn, the outside edges have white crayon X's on the barn doors, with the brown piece of paper for the roof.  They then used pink and gray paper to create Wilbur and Templeton, with a black sharpie to create Charlotte's Web, and a plastic black spider glued onto the web.  Their writing was pretty simple, they wrote about their favorite part of the book. 

The One and Only Ivan

Oh Ivan... We finished the book the week before Thanksgiving, so for a culminating opinion writing activity my students created their own version of Ivan.

I took 2 shades of gray construction paper and cut them into 3 different sizes.  

The dark gray was 9 x 12, the light gray were 9 x 6 and another 4.5 x 6.  

To create Ivan:

1.  The students took their fists and placed it on the top of the dark gray paper.  They drew a large half circle around their fist to create Ivan's head.  From there we drew diagonal lines from the base of his head to the outer edge of the paper for his shoulders.  We then cut out that portion of the paper.  We moved to his feet and made 2 cuts into the paper as far as their scissors would reach with one snip.  From there we cut a curved lines on each side from his shoulders to his feet.  

2.  The light gray paper was a different story.  The students took the larger of the 2 pieces, and turned it horizontal.  We drew a W on the top middle, then cut it out for Ivan's chest.  Then we drew a large U from the outer edges of the W.   You can see the shape in the pictures.  :)  This became Ivan's belly, where they had to write their opinion paragraph.

3.  For Ivan's head, we took the smallest of the papers and drew a large heart on it, then we drew an oval at the base for his mouth.  We cut out the outside lines of the heart and oval, then glued it down so we couldn't see any of the other lines. 

4.  They then had to write an opinion paragraph on where they felt that animals should live.   

Charlotte's Web Dialogue Practice

Remember that time I tore a book a part to use it in a lesson? Yeah, I did that last week.  

We have started really working on narratives, specifically we were looking closely at dialogue and the kids needed to see ALL the different parts - the quotation marks, the punctuation, the REST of the quote...  so I tore up a Charlotte's Web book (that was already ripped in half), and each student ended up with a different page.  

Charlotte's Web is the novel we have been reading for the past 3 weeks anyway, so they were familiar with the story and the different chapters. I had them glue the page to the middle of the colored copy paper, and they had to rewrite 4 different quotes - one had to be from the page that they were given, the others could be something that stuck out for them in the book.

 

The kids really GOT this activity.  As they turned them in, so many of them had to go back to look at it once again... to fix this or that.  Did you know that quotations marks need 2 sets?  That you can't forget the comma or the punctuation mark before the second set of quotation marks? That usually there is more to the quote, for instance how the character is saying it?  So many little things that the kids learned.  I counted this as really good practice that was relative. I've already seen improvements in their narratives.  Win win! 

Native Californian Study

Don't you love it when it all comes together? We just finished our Native Californian study.

We read Island of the Blue Dolphins and then wrapped the unit using the Island Quilt project by Fancy Free in 4th.

We also have been focusing on informational writing so far this year, so each student chose a tribe and had to research specific information.  They then wrote 5 paragraphs using the different categories in my Research and Writing Pack.    

Research... so much research... My students used these passages and comprehension questions and grids to learn more about Native Californian Tribes.  It was a way for us to compare and contrast the different tribes.   

We also used Native American symbols to write stories.  Never a dull moment in our classroom!  

Social Studies and Novel Projects

This blog has been silent lately... just the beginning of the year with too much to do and not enough hours in the day.  I'm uploading photos today to show you what projects we have been up to.  :) 

We finished Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, so our end project was to create character letters.  This year since we are focusing on novel studies, I am using these Book Reports from Rachel Lynette to make each novel shine.  These are in class projects and she has even included directions and rubrics that made it super easy to grade.  The students wrote letters to the main characters, and the main characters had to write back to them.  They thought this was hilarious!  I thought it was so creative how the students made their writing sound exactly like Peter, Fudge, Mom, and even Sheila!

We have also been researching our California Regions and creating Informational Booklets.  I chose sticks to separate out my 32 kids into regions groups - 8 per region.  We spent 2 weeks researching the different topics (Landforms, Wildlife, Vegetation, Industries, Major Cities, Climate, Natural Resources, and Interesting Facts).  The kids researched using the internet, their texts, my Regions Reading Passages, and a couple region DVD's in both small group, whole class, and individuals.  They took their information and had to write one paragraph on each area and draw a detailed picture per page.  These booklets have taken 2 weeks to complete.  :)  Labor of love...

We finished up our first chapter in Social Studies (which included map skills, directions, and regions).  On the back of these worlds the kids took part of their test.  Fun times!  They were given a circle and ruler, and had to draw examples of the Equator, Lines of Latitude and Longitude, Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, Prime Meridian, North and South Poles.  When completed, they cut out their worlds and could decorate the back of it.

Oh, and we accomplished Salt Dough Maps!  1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of salt, and 1/2 cup of water is the perfect amount of dough.  My grade level always completes these the Friday before Labor Day so we have all weekend to let them dry before painting on Tuesday.  The kids had to identify the different regions and landforms, show neighboring states, and include a map key.  We added a little glitter today to finish it up since we are the Golden State.  Happy Birthday California!  

Just in case you are interested.  Here's the link. :) 

Hope you had a great day!