Are your students disinterested and tired of the traditional ways of learning characterization? Have you been searching for a really fun, student-centered, interactive way to eliminate their boredom? Well, look no further! I present to you a wonderful student-collaboration activity that will get your students involved and excited for a character analysis for any novel, […]
Each week I read everyone's 10 Pin Reading Linky posts, but this week I am actually linking up with Ashley from Just Reed. Here are my top 10 social studies and science pins! 1. Water Cycle Simulation Game-I actually did this with my students last year and my students loved it! They also learned a lot from it! Source: www.sciencepenguin.com 2. 15 Science Experiments: This site is full of fun science experiments that could be used when teaching the scientific method! Source: www.momto2poshlildivas.com 3. Fake Lung Experiment: How cool would this be in a human body unit?! Source: www.science-sparks.com 4. Pool Noodle Race Track: Fun activity to use in a force and motion unit! Source: www.ramblingsfromutopia.com 5. Energy Coasters: Definitely want to do this activity in my energy unit next year! Source: www.mrslaffinslaughings.blogspot.com 6. State Project Brochures: I am definitely doing this next year with our states studies. Source: www.theinspiredclassroom.blogspot.com 7. State Cookie: This is also from The Inspired Classroom. This project would go great with the state brochures. Source: www.theinspiredclassroom.blogspot.com 8. Explorers Foldable: We learn about so many different explorers in 4th grade. This foldable would be great to add into my instruction! P.S. can you tell I LOVE The Inspired Classroom's blog?!?! Source: www.theinspiredclassroom.blogspot.com 9. Scientist Poster: I love this poster! Unfortunately the link to this poster is broken, so I'm not sure where this design came from. I think something like this would be great for starting out science at the beginning of the year! 10. Me on the Map: In social studies, I start the year out with a review of the continents and then discuss where we live. I love this project for the beginning of the year! Source: www.clutterfreeclassroom.blogspot.com What great ideas have you been pinning lately??
What can we make with 10 Black Dots? QUIZLET GRADE 1 QUIZLET BASIC ART VOCAB QUIZLET ELEMENTARY ART FLASHCARDS COLOR SONGS!!! We will be discovering the Art El…
Are your students disinterested and tired of the traditional ways of learning characterization? Have you been searching for a really fun, student-centered, interactive way to eliminate their boredom? Well, look no further! I present to you a wonderful student-collaboration activity that will get your students involved and excited for a character analysis for any novel, […]
I have been using the wonderful book Grammar-Land by M. L. Nesbitt. I bought the book, but it is available for free at Google books as well. It is a story set in the fairy land called ‘Gramma…
If you would've asked me my thoughts about using anchor charts in the classroom a few years ago, I would've said something along the lines of them being more appropriate in a primary room--not so much 4th or 5th grade. I've come to learn that anchor charts are just as necssary in intermediate classrooms--and may even be more beneficial--than in a primary room! Anchor charts are very big in my school and the students here have learned to look for them in their classrooms over the years. My students in the past couple years really rely on these charts and I am always pleased to see a student referring to one when they are working independently. As usual, Pinterest has an adbundance of anchor chart ideas and I have chosen some of those ideas to use in my classroom. Here are a few of our favorites for writing (along with a link to show you where the inspiration came from in the first place!): These are two of the first charts we do together during our Launching Writer's Workshop unit. Plus, they are just fun charts to have hanging up in a classroom. My students were impressed with my drawings. The inspiration for both charts can be found at Life is Better Messy Anyway. As we began the writing process for our first piece, we read the book, Little Monster Becomes an Author, and then created the following chart to help us through the process. I made color copies of the pages to add to the chart. It's quickly become my favorite writing chart and we will use it ALL the time! The original post about it can be found here. When I got to the revising and editing minilessons, we made the final chart below. The inspiration came from Confessions of a 4th Grade Teacher. I've been teaching for just about 10 years and NEVER heard of these acronyms--they are genius! I think it's safe to say that using anchor charts has changed my classroom!
Summertime for teachers is sacred!! It can be very frustrating when someone who is not a teacher, gives me a hard time about having the summer off!!! After all, teachers have an extremely tough job, that while VERY rewarding, can also be physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting. Besides, don’t most of us actually work during…
Try DOODLING!!!!! Get inspiration from Mr. Doodle; Sometimes, the solution to your problem just won’t come into your head, yet your thoughts are spinning at a 100 kilometres an …
To learn about muscles, look no further than this Inside-Out Anatomy page.
Free, no-prep, editable spelling activities perfect for any word work center! #wordwork #sightwordactivities #daily5 #teachingreading #mrswintersbliss
Looking for some lesson plans ideas for dialogue, imagery or point of view? Then this post is for you!
We know how important it is to teach our students to make inferences when they read. It's a tricky concept, and one that needs to be taught again and again. Students often confusing inferring with making predictions and observations, and some are just confused all together! Som
I love to have my students write about their work. Even the littlest people can have a lot to say about their creations! Also, having the students self-assess their work is part of the National Core Art Standards... When I was at Amherst Middle School, 7th and 8th grade students needed to write artist statements for their final projects, but I also dabbled with having the 5th and 6th grade students create them as well. I found that quality artist statements took a bit of prompting, so I created this Artist Statement Worksheet to get them started. Once the students had this form in front of them, the quality of the artist statements increased dramatically. Sometimes filling out the form was enough, but with the older students, I had them use this as a "rough draft" and students needed to type their final artist statements in Word and print them out to be displayed alongside their final projects. Do you have students write artist statements? What do you ask them to include? Let me know in the comments below!
We've done a lot in the past three days. I'll do my best to keep you all caught up! I've been having some issues with my computer so it was a little bit of a struggle to blog this week. We created a publishing anchor chart to add to our Writer's Workshop wall. We discussed that a published piece of writing is a cleaned-up version of our revised and edited version. When a student is publishing, we should see their sloppy copy, their Quick Word book, and their clean looseleaf paper on their desk. Their paper should be slanted to enable the best handwriting. We also talked about how to make a cover for a published piece of writing. Our publishing wall has pockets for each student to store his or her writing, so I explained that when you make a cover, you will first want to trace a thin line to indicate the part of the cover that will stick out of the pocket. In this top 2 inches is where the title, author's name, and date need to appear. This allows a reader to easily identify the title of the piece of writing and the writer. The picture for the cover can go on the area below the line. Below you will see Teagan tracing a line to figure out where she needs to put her information for her cover. We've also been practicing summary writing. I modeled again how to use a vocabulary organizer to write my summary. Finally, this morning we read Tulip Sees America as a mentor text for word choice. We took a closer look at the language of some of the states visited in the book. We pulled out the words that were powerful and painted a picture of Iowa and categorized some of the author's language. We decided that good authors use colors and similes to help paint a picture of what they are writing about! To store this learning, students recorded the powerful phrases from the three states we looked at in the Powerful Words and Phrases section of their Thoughtful Logs. Homework: 1. Reading - 15 mins., Pizza Log 2. Math - 10 mins. facts 3. Spelling - Sentences, Test Fri. 4. Social Studies - Poster due Wed. 5. Thursday envelope
This post will give you more than 360 pages of 1st grade common core language arts worksheets with answer keys and posters to help your students learn!
Objective: Students will be able to create alliterations based on the poem “Bleezer’s Ice Cream” By Jack Prelutsky. Vocabulary: Alliteration Time: Approximately 1 hour and 30 minu…
Here's a worksheet on how Poe's uses structure to create tension in "The Pit and the Pendulum."
Reconciliation, ©2006, 22″ x 23″, SOLD Nothing beats the relief of forgiveness and reconciliation. Cotton and silk fabrics, permanent marker. Raw edge collage, machine quilting. Under a licensing agreement, this quilt was used as the logo for The Centre for Reconciliation at Friedrich-Schiller University, in Jena, Germany. It has also been included in a wide variety […]
The first day of school is full of so many things: anticipation, wide-eyes, school supplies, new faces, maybe a few butterflies. And I...
Hey Everyone! Getting back into the swing of things after a nice long week off has been tough. My class is definitely showing signs of - I've been home too long running the show and not listening to authority- syndrome. We are working on that. I am trying to locate my GIANT 600 follower giveaway winner!! If you are, or know Jillian Ramoly, Please tell her to check her email!! :) I just LOVE LOVE LOVE this time of year! The kids are really reading... I mean REALLY READING! Ok, I know, I teach second grade and I know they come to me reading. But in the spring... something just clicks for some of them. They enjoy books more, they light up with new vocabulary, they get the author's message, they actually want. to. read. It's AMAZING!! :) {big smile} So that is why I love this time of year, the time when fluency comes together for them! I start by reminding the kids of a poster I actually show at the beginning of the year when I introduce our "fluency phones" Click to get... leave some feedback if you like it! I love the visual of this poster. It helps them realize that they should sound like they are talking to a friend not like a robot (#1). It is a lot of fun to model this poster for the kids! :) We've been using these all year to work on fluency: These beauties were given to me by a retired teacher... PVC pipes put together. I hear they were easy and inexpensive to make! Then I read this book in 2 ways. I first read about half of it with no expression, reading quickly, and not watching the punctuation. (do you know how hard it is to read it that way??!!) If you've ever read this book you know there is some MAJOR opportunities to show expression! :) After I finish reading, we talk about the things I could have done to improve my fluency. We discuss things like: ~notice the punctuation (it tells us to do something) ~slow down when reading ~think about character's emotions ~read smoothly (not like a robot) So on my second read I HAM IT UP and read it with all of the above and more. (yeah, that's better!) We compare the two reads and of course there is a unanimous love for the second read. All of the above is on day 1. On day 2, I start by reviewing what the kids learned about fluency (the list above). Then I share one of my all time favorite poetry books: There are so many poems in this book with great opportunities to show expression, however, my absolute favorite is... SICK. I actually have the book with the CD of Shel Silverstein himself reading a few of his poems... he does a GREAT job adding expression! After listening to a few poems, we talk about punctuation. hehe... I LOVE this poster! What does the period tell me to do when I'm reading? And we think about the question mark, exclamation point, the comma, quotation marks, and even what it means to have a ----> . . . (I always say, more . to . come .) That finishes day 2. On day 3, we review punctuation and what it all means to the reader. Then I pass out strips to the kids. The look on their faces is classic. click above to get a copy This is the BEST way to teach punctuation! I love that it removes the "reading" and it focuses on the punctuation!! We have some good laughs reading these!! Each child gets one and then reads it to the class as we follow along. We did this today and the kids really got the idea that their voice should change depending on the punctuation. It's a beautiful thing! Oh, and super hilarious!! ;) On day 4 and 5 I partner the kids up and give them a poem. They get to decide on how they are going to read it together as a team. I usually partner the kids so they can learn from one another (i.e. the one with good fluency understanding who can help the other one). They practice the first day and they present their poem the second day. Here are some of the poems I use (click pick to grab these) All of that is just our first week! In the next post I will share what I do the next 2-3 weeks! Plus more goodies! I'd love to hear what you do for fluency! Please share in the comments below!
Learn Creative ESL Teaching Notes and Ideas.
Learn more about basic capitalization rules in the English language.
As a reader, I have used most, if not all of the reading comprehension strategies I'm about to discuss throughout my years as a student, as I'm sure all of you have. As a teacher, I have guided students through using these strategies during whole-class reading units. Until last week…
Effortlessly Communicate Your K–8 Curriculum With These Student Handouts Curriculum % %
Capitalize the proper nouns from the story.
Hi everyone! It's Sarah from Sarah's First Grade Snippets. Today I wanted to share a (not so little) snippet about teaching character analysis. For our younger kids, I focus on describing a character and then finding evidence to support our reasoning. I also talk about the character's feelings, how a character's feelings or traits affect the events in the book, and character changes. I put together a list of some books I've been reading lately that lend themselves to a character analysis lesson. The first set is fall-themed and the second set are for any ol' time. Thank you Susanna for the cute clip art! For each book, I showed an example of an anchor chart that you could make on chart paper to support student learning. You can use these task cards with these books (or any other books) when you are teaching character analysis. These are just a few questions I find myself asking my students to get them thinking about characters. Click here to get these FREE task cards. Since fall doesn't last forever, I made a short list of books that would work at any point in the school year. Head on over to my blog to read MORE... AND to snag these freebies:
Add an interrogative pronoun to complete each question sentence.
