Tried it Tuesday: Showing Off My Folders

The other day I posted about my Social Studies and Science Interactive folders.  A nice person commented asking me to share what they look like - so here they are. These are my examples that I do with the students, so not all the information is filled in.  

We took the file folders, opened them up, and then folded them in to make bifold flaps.

Folder #1: Land of CA

Front: Definitions and pictures of Compass Rose, Latitude, Longitude, Prime Meridian, Equator

Inside flaps: Flip up region notes - top has land information, underneath has business information

Middle inside: Students colored/shaded the different regions.

Back: Paragraph of favorite region.

Folder #1 - Beginning of Ecosystems

(folded so we could have more flaps)

Front: Definitions

Inside Middle Flaps: Notes on the Land vs. Water Ecosystems

Inside Middle: Paragraph of favorite ecosystem (with facts)

Back: Research notes of ecosystem

Basically, you can see I tend to have them put more definitions/vocabulary on the front, then inside and back are notes with an informational paragraph or two thrown in.  

That's basically what we've finished so far...for some reason the computer isn't allowing me to upload pictures of my Native Californian folder...  This week we are working on the beginnings of Science Folder #2 for Ecosystems...  

Linking up with Holly and Tried it Tuesday.  

YIPPEE!!

I made it to the front of the TPT page today!!!  Happy Day!!  

A big shout out to Diane over at Fifth in the Middle for passing on the photo.  :)  It made my day!!

Speaking of Diane... I have her Mustache Reminders up in my classroom - on the wall right by the door.  The kids get a kick out of it!  

Do you do something similar in your classroom?  Some kind of reminder list that kids have to do before they get to go home?  

Hope you had a great day!

Peek at my Week

Ready for a peek at my upcoming week?

This week we are reading the story, "Two Tickets to Freedom" in OCR.  

It's the true story of William and Ellen Craft.  They were fugitive slaves that undertook a long journey on the underground railroad.    In addition to the normal vocabulary, reading/discussing, story map/sequence chart, partner reading/fluency building... we also coordinate a little map action and color in the characters' journey to freedom.

We will be starting Multiplication Properties, Order of Operations, and Expressions - all with Multiplication.  I actually love teaching these concepts this coming week - I love how it ties together and they see the connections between Addition and Multiplication.

We are finishing up Native Californians.  More weaving,  tribe presentations, and a video about daily life.  We will also finish up our Interactive File Folders using the top half of this sheet.  Last week the kids started to record facts they wanted to remember after they glued this onto their folder.  They will use these facts when they are sharing their tribes during the oral presentations.  
  

Side Note - I have LOVED (yes, all capitals) having my students use file folders this year in Science and Social Studies.  While I am using composition books for our Interactive Reading/Language and Math notes, for Science and Social Studies I am keeping each topic separate - basically by chapter.  When a chapter is done I am keeping the folders (stored in their own subject's crate) for the end of the year.  The kids are enjoying them too.  What I stick in the big areas are things from my packs, notes, paragraphs, etc... but above are the headings that the kids write notes under.  My goal right now is to get the headings onto a half a page (if possible) to save copies.  Before I handed it to the kids, I cut the Explorer part off to save for our next Social Studies focus.  

We are working on dependence in an ecosystem - interdependence between organisms, how animals have adapted to fit their environments, and how they will compete for resources.  This week after the lessons, I'm having my kiddos choose an animal and listing details about these 3 areas.  

We will also be working on our Science Interactive Folder and use the top part of this page, adding definitions and gluing in the above animal information.  

We have been working on adding details to our writing, so we will be continuing on with our Native American informational paragraphs (Social Studies).  Our other focus' will be writing strong conclusion sentences and identifying kinds of sentences (Declarative, Interrogative, and Exclamatory).

We finished up Beezus and Ramona last week, so this week we will be starting Charlotte's Web full class.  I had about 13 copies that I purchased last year, but am eagerly waiting for my Scholastic order to show up with the rest of the class books..

Our Mentor Sentence text is Come On, Rain.  I use Jivey's Mentor Sentence unit, as well as her new activity pack that ties into it.    

Linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings!

I hope you have a wonderful week!