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.)

Week 3 Reflections

This week seemed to be slightly easier because we are now in a routine. 

Highlights!

1. We started our new novel - Indian in the Cupboard. I love how this ties into our SS unit, and gives them a taste to learn about different Native Tribes, and then how that information connects to nowadays. We start our research team projects next week... 

2. I read Totem Tales to them, and then they created their own totem poles and tales. I used the clipart from here to make a small sheet to give them as ideas. 

3. We had a moment and did I wish my teacher knew… it’s sweet and heart breaking all at the same time. Man, I love these kids. Have you ever done "I wish my teacher knew...?" Basically I give them an index card, and they finish the sentence, then turn in.  I told them that it can be anonymous or they can put their names on it if they want.  They tell me information that means something to them.

4. We also tackled our Context Clue Travel Adventure! The foam flyers worked wonderfully as a mini STEM project to build, then sort the kids to mix them up a bit from their normal team groups before they hit the stations to review context clues.  

5. The kids got to attend music class for the first time in years. It was amazing and they absolutely loved it. And I loved the extra prep. :) It's amazing how much one can get done in a short amount of time... It feels good to tackle the to do list and actually get something accomplished.  

6. I read Noteable Notebooks. It's a great story to show pictures of real scientist notebooks.  

7. We also worked on our science observation note booking skills- working on those A,B,C,D’s. 

*Accurate

*Big

*Colorful

*Detailed 

This week we closely observed shells.  Last week we observed classroom objects, and the first week we observed rocks.  Our drawings are getting more accurate, bigger, colorful, and definitely more detailed. 

8. I ordered a bulk pack of ear buds for our class set of laptops.  This is the link I used, so far they are working great. It's helping now that I'm letting them use the computers more for Code.org, Scratch, and for Prodigy as a May Do.

9. We tackled a Growth Mindset Escape Room on Friday afternoon. This is the product I used.

It kept them moving and they needed to use that growth mindset because it was tricky! I ended up taking the 4 included puzzles and putting all 4 on a single page before I made copies for my class, it saved on paper. Then each table group had a specific task and code, and the kids rotated around to complete it all.

10. I taught them the game "Hello Mr. President". 

Hello Mr. President is a listening game, and it's quiet. Key word - silence... A kid stands in the front, eyes closed.  Silently, pick a second student to stand in the back of the room and say "Hello, Mr. President" - in whatever voice they want to use... kids get into the disguise. The "President" with their eyes closed has to guess the owner of the voice. For some reason the kids LOVE this game. 

11. The kids are reading!!! Silent Reading seems to be our favorite time of the day.  Kids are stretching out all over the room, in chairs, under desks, on the rug... I'm over in my chair also reading (currently Poison in the Colony), and there's a groan when we get to the point we HAVE to move onto workshop.  They love to read, and I'm getting to hear all about their books during our Book Talks.  Book Talks, with the 40 Book Challenge, and Book Beads are filling my time during Workshop.  It makes my day!

And now I'm ready to go curl up with my own home book... Have a great weekend!

Disclaimer - These are not sponsored links, just things that I LOVE and that I'm currently using in my classroom. I love to share ideas.  :)  

Virtual Book Clubs

I guess weeks ago I mentioned that I would share how we tackled virtual Book Clubs this year, and I haven’t done that yet. Sorry about that. 

In a normal year the kids have a choice between certain books they want to read as part of a book club. It’s one of our units. Well, it’s not any book, but they have a choice between the options that I present. This usually takes place at the beginning of third trimester, when we are knee deep in the American Revolution.  Usually I give them the choice between Chains or Sophia's War. Different perspectives about the revolution. They usually sign up on an interest list, then I split the list into the specific groups with 4-5 kids per group.  I inherited a class set of both books when I moved to 5th, so I do have plenty for each kid to read their own book.

We have specific purposes for each meeting. Starting with making norms, timeline to read the book, having specific tasks each time. They have to read the group assigned pages either at home, or during silent reading, they have to be ready to be part of the group discussions.  

This year with distance learning they didn’t have the novels at home, so we used our anthology. They only had one to two weeks to tackle the entire process. We went through the process a few different times during the unit.  Starting with shorter stories in the anthology and bumping to larger options.

I flipped it from a normal year and first randomly sorted the kids into groups.  Each group had their own channel, and I put the specific daily task into their channel that they had to respond to. I didn’t start meetings every single day, but they did have to respond each day. 

When I did start the meetings, it was just like a normal year. All the reading was done on their own time, they had to show teamwork. They had to complete the tasks.

The choice came in as they were able to choose which story from the anthology they wanted to read. I did give them 3 options each time.  The groups had to vote on the story they wanted to read for that week. The groups then came up with a reading plan. 

Each meeting had to include:

Character Traits and Growth

Setting description 

Action and Plot 

Theme 

Then they would have other discussions as well. Each kid has to say something.  Even if they don't want to.  There is accountability.  No one wants to let their group down.  The kids always love having Book Clubs, and it's a huge thing for me as it's finally time for me to hand off the reading process completely to them.  

Usually it goes:

1st trimester - novel studies mainly whole class

2nd trimester - we split it whole class and partner/groups

3rd trimester - book clubs, whole class, and partner projects

It's one of the things I love about these upper elementary kids - their growth as readers, their independence, and the discussions they are capable of having.  I love being able to sit on the sidelines and listen to their discussions.  My mom always said Readers are Leaders... and I love being a small part of their learning story.

Hope this helps!

I Love Novels!

What is your favorite subject to teach?  Mine would have to be reading... or maybe Social Studies. I love seeing the characters through my students' eyes.  I also love to have history come alive...  

Okay - Reading... 

Growing up I was always the kid with her nose in a book.  I wasn't outgoing, I was the kid whose report cards said needed to speak up.  I know, me.  :)  Making friends was hard when you were beyond shy, and when you lived next-door to the popular girl and just wanted to be accepted... yeah. :( Back then I easily made friends with the characters in my books though and didn't have to have awkward conversations with them.

There are so many good books out there, and mostly the kids don't know what they like to read when they get into my classroom.  Every year I try to introduce multiple genres to my students.  I do it as part of the 40 Book Challenge.  We start the year with a Book Tasting (courtesy of Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching).  Usually I decorate the classroom, this year it was a lot simpler.  I wore a chef hat on screen and used a wisk as a prop. I shared her slides and we used our anthology as the resource since most didn't have many chapter books at home with varying genres.  But it got them talking... and the conversation hasn't stopped all year.  

Books - I like to use novels to teach our reading strategies and standards.  There is something so satisfying to see that character development and the entire story unfold.  Like I said 3 paragraphs ago, I like to see the characters through my students' eyes.  They root for them, they care about them... and they grow as readers.  

Here's what we've read so far this year:

*Frindle - we focus on the meanings of words, multiple meaning words, context clues, roots, and suffixes.

*Wonder - focus on character development and empathy

*Blood on the River - focus on SS's explorer unit and beginnings of colonial times

*Long Walk to Water - focus on compare/contrast

*Hatchet - focus on character development

*Tuck Everlasting - focus on figurative language

*Woods Runner - focus on SS's American Revolution and compare/contrast author study with Hatchet

*Holes (current) - focus on comparing and character development

You can see my full list of 5th grade novels here.  There is no way that we can cover all of those this year, but we are trying. It's so hard to pick and choose between the books, they are like my babies...

Every novel we always start out making a SCAT chart.  I know, not the best Acronym, but they don't really care (and neither do I).  

Setting

Character

Action

Theme

Usually we read at least 1 or 2 chapters of the book per day, we discuss, and kids fill in their chart. We do an activity with it that is focusing on our weekly or unit skill, we work on vocabulary, and we do a comprehension check with it.  Here's how it goes in a normal year - when each kid has a book in the classroom... 

First trimester - We do everything together

Second trimester - I read one chapter, we discuss, they read one chapter, and discuss with small groups.

Third trimester - Book Clubs

Gradual release...  

This year  since they don't have copies of the novel at home I am reading everything to them.  It's all been virtual, so I haven't had to read everything from behind a mask... but that will be starting soon.  Any tips to share? I'm going back and forth with prerecording myself without a mask and just sharing the video... not sure.

I'm still using these Novel Notes, they are free in my TPT store.  Hope they can help you too!  

A Big List of ALL the Novels I Read

Switching grades is hard.  I mean, there are some perks to it when you already know some of the same kids going into the next year, but switching classrooms, standards, materials, activities, and all the novels - well, that was the tricky part.  

I had gotten attached to the novels that I would always read with my fourth graders.  Books have always been special to me and saying goodbye to some of them was really really hard.  But since we read so many of them as a grade level, it's not like I could just take them with me to do the next year...  

That just wouldn't work.  

So before I dive into my new fifth grade novels, let's take a moment of silence for the memory of my fourth grade favorites:

*Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

*The One and Only Ivan

*Charlotte's Web (this has since moved to 3rd grade)

*Island of the Blue Dolphins (tied into our CA Native American unit)

*By the Great Horn Spoon (tied into our Gold rush unit)

*What Was the Gold Rush

*Percy Jackson (tied into out Mythology unit)

*Stone Fox 

*Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

*Who Was Milton Hershey

*Chocolate Touch

*Chocolate Fever

*Lemonade War (tied into our Business/Money unit)

Now, onto some NEW favorites in fifth grade.  I really really LOVE reading novels with my students.  We can have some great conversations about them, and they are (in my opinion) so much more engaged in them than using basals.  It's also a way to teach our history through novels, so that's what we do.  When I switched grades, I bugged my new teammates about the class sets they already read, and then tried to get another set for myself.  Thank you Scholastic books, Donors Choose, my colleagues for sharing, our school library, and definitely Mrs. H. for the stacks of books you left behind.  It has really helped.  

Here is what's in my cabinet:

*Frindle - great novel to start the year.  Our focus is on learning the meanings of unknown words

*Wonder - we read this just as a read aloud and to have class discussions - this is our beginning of the year, right after lunch book

*Indian in the Cupboard - ties into our Native American study

*Tuck Everlasting - all about that fantasy (after so much Realistic Fiction it's good to switch it up)

*BFG - great for figurative language

*Long Walk to Water - read aloud - great to compare characters

*Blood on the River - I start it as we are finishing up Explorers and heading into Colonial times

*Hatchet - all about survival, great for character development and growth

*Rules - great reminder about empathy - my January, right after break book

*Woods Runner - our start to the American Revolution, same author as Hatchet, we do an author study for comparison of the books.  We have two SS units that deal with the Revolution - the causes and the actual war itself, so lots of books during that time of the year that helps give students more context

*Holes - I read this during the American Revolution to compare the freedom America was fighting for with the characters in the story and their lack of freedom.  It has led to some big class discussions.  

*I Survived the American Revolution - they LOVE I Survived Books, they are so engaging and they can make connections PLUS there is a great Scholastic webcast. 

*George Washington Spy - short read aloud, gives insight to the spies of the Revolution

*What was the Boston Tea Party - we focus on non-fiction text features

*What was the Declaration of Independence - focus is on those non-fiction strategies - the beginnings of unity and government

*Chains - Book Club project - kid choice - great book to talk about slavery during that time period

*Sophia's War - Book Club project - kids choose this or above, they work together in groups to spiral review all the comprehension strategies and skills over 6 weeks - this book is great to talk more about women's roles as spies during the Revolution

*Ben and Me - short read aloud about inventions of Ben Franklin

*Electric Ben - kids work in partners to create newspapers based on the information they learn from this nonfiction 

*I am Malala - great to use with our government unit

*Westing Game - it's a murder mystery, fun way to end the year

Yep, lots of books.  Most novels we read 1-2 chapters a day and finish within 3 weeks.  That's with having a daily focus and doing different activities with the books.  Sometimes we have a second book going as a read aloud right after lunch (like Wonder, Long Walk to Water, Rules...)  If a book is really heavy, then I portion what we read, and balance it with a lighter book later on in the day.  Sometimes we have 3 books going at a time - like if we have a read aloud, novel study, and a non-fiction project happening during SS time.  The kids can handle it.  It's a wonderful way to tie the books together, to learn more about different characters, different character traits, different plot lines, etc...  

Hope this helps someone!

Meatballs, Author's PIE, and Ivan

The week before any holiday is always extra busy... and this year wasn't any different.  Wrapping up a novel, adding in a little PIE, and celebrating with my school buddies for a Friends-giving made this week a success.  

I love this simple recipe for crockpot meatballs.  It's super easy - literally just throw the ingredients into a crockpot, and let it cook on low for 4 hours.  The students didn't even realize they were cooking over in the corner of the room.  It was my addition to our Friends-giving lunch potluck.  A bag of original meatballs, and equal parts of chili sauce and grape jelly.  That's it.  

I also love to do this PIE activity with my kids right before Thanksgiving.  In past years I used 2 paper plates - which meant cutting it and then stapling.  This year I simplified it and just used one plate - the top was turned into a pie (their choice of filling and coloring in a crust), then the kids used sharpie to divide it into 4 pieces and writing Authors, P, I, E.  Behind each piece the kids had to write a definition and an example of each type.  Super easy, but it was a great assessment tool.  

As for real pie, we had that too - the kids brought in donations of pumpkin pie for our Thanksgiving feast.  I split it up and served it with whipped cream as we watched a short Thanksgiving movie.  I LOVE Thanksgiving in the classroom!

We also finished up reading Ivan before break, so we created Ivan using 2 shades of gray paper, and then wrote opinion paragraphs on his belly.  An art project always seems to make finishing a beloved novel a little easier.  Directions for this craft are over on one of my old posts.  :)  

Hope you had a great day!

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. 

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! 

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!

The Idea Behind the Comprehension Notebook (Work in Progress)

I know I've been sharing a lot of behind the scenes lately.  It helps me when I write down my thoughts and to bounce ideas around.  It also helps when others give me feedback... especially if they know it's NOT going to work!! :)

For years I've used a composition book to record vocabulary and reading strategies inside.  Last year I added a section for themes (one theme per page).  We recorded the titles of our stories on the different pages, and our reasoning why we stuck it there.  This year we are switching to using novels to teach the strategies... something that I started doing this past year as well with our Read Aloud Wall.

Right now I have a bunch of post it notes stuck inside the book.  The first section will have genres, one per page.  I picked up Blair Turner's Genre Add On Cards and printed them off tiny like to add to the corner of the pages.  We will do the same thing like themes last year and add titles and reasoning.

With the strategy section I have my own graphic organizers (again printed multi pages per sheet) to add to the description pages.  These worked great last year as a ready reference when kids were tasked to write their own examples.

Behind these 3 sections (Themes, Genres, and Strategies), I have spaced out post it notes every 5 pages for each novel that we tackle throughout the year.  5 pages, 10 sides... plenty of room to have a single strategy per side, to which we can add examples as we go through the books.  Last year I had the strategy posters on the Read Aloud wall that my class added to, this time they will also be in their notebooks.  We will be able to tie up the strategy practice using those Reading Exit Slips to show comprehension with a quick assessment. 

 

Like I mentioned yesterday, the vocabulary and comparing chapters have been taken out of the notebook and will be kept in file folders for each specific novel. 

It feels really good to have a plan going into summer.  

Anything else you can think of that I need to remember?  Thanks!