Here's to another Sunday spent planning. The goal for next week is to get a few things planned before the weekend comes! To make this post a little shorter, I am breaking it into two parts. Tomorrow, I will share my reading and writing plans for some Minilesson Magic :) Science: This week, we have our mini-unit on genetics scheduled. Our students need to learn the following objectives: * Explain why organisms differ from or are similar to their parents based on the characterisitcs of the organism. * Give examples of likenesses that are inherited and some that are not. For my student journal pgs, click here (free and in a pdf). Monday: Set up science journals. The label shown above will be pasted into their notebook as a divider for our first unit of study. Complete the "Mice" assessment probe to see what students already think about how traits show up in organisms. After students think about their own explanations, we will use the explanations above to make a bar graph for how they think offspring's fur color is decided. (This assessment probe comes from Page Keeley, Uncovering Student Ideas in Science). Use 1st page of heredity video to explain heredity. Tuesday: Fingerprints Lab (found this gem linked for free online) Wednesday: Observing Human Traits Lab (free from Tamra Young on TPT); explain dominant and recessive traits and draw conclusions about what traits are dominant/recessive for humans based on classroom data) Thursday: Complete active sort around the room for Inherited vs Acquired traits and make flipbook (free materials from Jennifer Findley) Friday: Learn about Punnett Squares with Leprechaun Genetics (free from Making it Teacher on TPT) Other Resources that might be thrown in w/ extra time: Unit Outline from Moore County (includes a smartboard file to guide the mini-unit) Peas in a Pod (Mendelian Genetics) online freebie; Questions to go along with the reading selection included (I made these last year) Heredity (from Brainpop) DNA (from Brainpop) Animated Videos that explain DNA, genes, chromosomes, protein, heredity, and traits Math: This week in math, I will be getting to know my students better as mathematicians. I'm using some of the journal prompts/explorations from my Math Explorations that focuses on factors. (Not only will we learn about decomposing numbers, but students will be forced to use their multiplication facts). Since my Math Explorations are aligned with the mathematical practices, I thought it would be a good way to introduce concepts like communicating in math, perseverance, using multiple methods for showing work, using different strategies, etc. We are also going to continue working on our Summer Slide questions, which we started on Friday. Given time, I will also begin to introduce some of our math stations. For math stations, my team decided that we would have 4 stations this year, MATH SUPERSTARS, CONCEPT FOCUS, ALGEBRAIC, and something computer-based like Moby Max. Morning Meeting: We are going to focus on perseverance all week. We have a county-wide assessment that is designed with all tasks focusing on perseverance, so this fits in nicely with morning meeting. The kiddos may not even realize they are being assessed. Finish Strong Erik Weihenmayer on Oprah (start at 1:21) Hope you enjoyed peeking at my week! Tune in tomorrow for my reading/writing minilesson ideas for the week.
Here is a worksheet on taxes. We live in California so I used the taxes that apply to us. I also used a minimum amount of income tax. The majority of my students will never work. The couple that will, will most likely work part time. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Paying-Taxes
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IT'S ONLY MONEY offers books, lesson plans and online tools to make kids more financially savvy.
Critical thinking is an essential cognitive skill that entails the ability to reason, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information. It goes beyond mere acquisition of knowledge. Instead, it involves deep, reflective thought, demanding us to question our assumptions, weigh evidence, and consider consequences. It's about making clear, reasoned judgments. In essence, critical thinking is thinking about thinking, in a manner that allows us to improve the quality of our thinking.
Guest blogger Lori Desautels translates Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs into a blueprint for classroom practice that can set the stage with comfort, care, and self-reflection to optimize brain-compatible learning.
A Taxonomy Tree: A Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Graphic
This 2018 post demonstrates how to teach students how to evaluate websites during the research process. It's suitable for kids in primary school right up to high school students. Includes a free printable flowchart for your classroom.
With my small group pull-out sessions limited to half-hour increments, I'm always looking for quick, engaging reading and writing activities to reinforce literacy skills. I used to think dice games were only for teaching math and probability, but I'm starting to discover that there are ENDLESS possibilities for using dice with literacy. Are you looking for a few ideas? Well... let's shake and roll! 3 Roll-a-Dice Activities for Reading & Writing My roll-a-dice resource collection continues to grow, but here are a few resources that I've added to my literacy toolbox that may be perfect for your students. 1. Roll-a-Story
When some students are asked to explain whether or not an author has fully defended the ideas written in text, some students do not know what to say. This chart will help. It lists and describes the different types of fallacies that writers and speakers make.Click Here To Access This Freebie
Emma, Tom and their twins want to rent an apartment to spend their holidays in Spain. Emma sends her mum an e-mail with the description of the apartment they are going to hire and she attaches a photo. Students complete the e-mail with the words in the box. Then students write a reply letter from Emma’s mum accepting the invitation. Key provided. - ESL worksheets
Hello Everyone! I know! It has been a long time since my last post. I have had so much family stuff going on that I have been absolutely c...
This is a great freebie: 7 free study guides, about 40 pages each, on the Shakespeare plays of MacBeth, Romeo & Juliet, The Tempest, MidSummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Othello,&…
Sentence Starters! Here you will find a useful list of common sentence starters that you can use in a discussion as well as in essay writing. Learn these
Anchor Charts are a quick and easy way to get the point across to actors and directors. This fun chart from Alycia Zimmerman gives great suggestions to teachers and students. For Some great prop …
Originally posted on Weebly 12/28/2012 When I had finally finished my Constitutional Convention unit I wanted a really great culminating a...
The FLOSS rule is a spelling generalization used to teach students when the final consonant is doubled. Check out tips for teaching it!
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Whilst working on some other projects at school, I wanted to finally post this to a searchable resource that instructors and other educators can use. This is a combination of my most two recent pos…
I Teach. What’s Your Superpower? Teach • Design • Grow
I LOVE saving figurative language until June - it's such a fun language unit ... and perfect for our "dreaming of summer brains". We finished up our EQAO testing mid week, and this onomatopoeia activity was the perfect break from testing. How fun is that??? Students chose two contrasting colours - one for the background and one for the word and border "bursting out of the page". They also needed newspaper (cut just a fraction smaller that the "bursting out of the page border" and glued the newspaper on top. They glued their word on top of that (we had brainstormed a lot of onomatopoeia words, but for some reason most of them chose SPLAT for their word). I also had them do a little shading under their letters for that little extra POP (see, I know some onomatopoeia words, too). ;) I had seen this awesome idea on Pinterest and followed it back to Artisan des Arts. Her examples are FANTASTIC!! We also wrote simile poems this week. I found a little template HERE for the students to use for their rough copies. When students were finished their templates, I had them write out their good copies, and illustrate a few lines with a small image. I hung these up, too ... LOVING our bulletin board switch up ... even this late in the school year!!! (I have two of these "smART class" bulletin boards side by side in the classroom. 15 more school days left ... I think I can ... I think I can ... Happy Friday!!!
I've written about Teaching Channel before, and I'll be writing from time to time about a particular great idea I've found there. If you haven't already joined, remember that it's FREE, and signing up takes less than a minute! One of the many great Tch video clips shows middle school teacher Meagan Berkowitz teaching a poetry lesson using the SIFT Method - Symbol, Imagery, Figurative Language, and Tone or Theme. It's less than 5 minutes long, and well worth watching to see her interaction with her students, and the focus they have on the poems they are reading while using bookmark cue cards. Close analytic reading is an important feature of the Common Core; here's a tool for you to try out to see if it fits your needs! Besides the bookmark, you are given the lesson plan, a copy of the two poems used, and a transcript of the lesson. If you're a language arts teacher, you're all set to try this lesson yourself, or to adapt it to your grade level! And don't forget to "pin" the lesson by clicking "Save this in my Lesson Planner." (A note: there is a typo on the SIFT bookmark that you'll want to change before printing - "attitude and author" should be "attitude an author." I changed it in the image above. Since it's an open Word document, it's no problem!)
What would you say if you heard every story was the same? You may reject the idea outright: “how can every story be the same? there are so many differences among characters and settings.R…
As part of my summer reading this year I read the recently published book, “The Art of Coaching: Effective Strategies for School Transformation” by Elena Aguilar. Elena writes a great blog over at edweek that I enjoy reading so I knew her book would be a good one to spend some time with. She offers […]
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The state writing predictor test is almost upon us. With that in mind, I happened upon this post at Two Writing Teachers blog. They do what is called "Slice of Life" posts. If you are a writing teacher or you just need some kind words of encouragement, you need to stop by this blog. You can pick up a FREE copy of my PowerPoint on my TpT store that was inspired by that post. Do you have any activities or tools to teach bold beginnings?
