Hey all! I'm back from an amazing vacation!! My wonderful parents treated us to Disney World for our Christmas gift, and it was awesome!! This was the first time my husband has ever done any "Disney" stuff, and he had so much fun!! I'll admit, I'm thoroughly exhausted...I just wanted to take a nap in my classroom today...but it was SO MUCH FUN!!
However, I just went over to Clutter Free Classroom, and it made me feel totally behind. I know I can "catch up" easily...I just have to put my mind to it and get some rest to feel better and give me the energy to catch up.
Well, I've gone through one week doing my "Daily 4," and I loved it! Granted, I obviously wasn't there the entire week, but it seemed to go so much smoother! I even had a coworker come in and do a peer observation, and she said it looked so much better than when she had come in earlier. She said the kids were all on task and doing pretty quality work. That makes me excited!! It also is helping me hold the kids accountable for the work they're doing while I'm doing guided reading because they staple it all together at the end of the week and turn it in. It's still going to take a little while to really get the kids to hold themselves accountable and hold themselves to high standards on the activities they complete while I'm teaching. However, I know they can do it! I've got a really good group of kids!
Well as that "program" gets under way and we work out the kinks, I'm trying to create a better and easier way for me to keep track of the kids' homework so parents can be more aware of their student's assignments. If anyone has any tips, let me know. I've tried a few different ways, but no matter what I do, it just seems like a lot of work sometimes. But, maybe that's just the way it is! I hope y'all are having a great week so far!! Tomorrow's Humpday!! Halfway through the week!!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Back from Winter Break
Well today was my first day back from 5 weeks of winter break. I had such a nice break, but I was super excited to get back to my kiddos today!! We had a great day today! We started our "Daily 4" rotation today...they did pretty well! I was excited! Tomorrow I have a friend coming in to do a peer observation and I asked her to watch for any suggestions she might have to make things smoother, etc.
For Clutter Free Classroom this week, we're supposed to work on our desk areas. Considering this is my main focus I want to put my energy towards, I want to make sure I can put a lot of attention to it. However, on Thursday, my husband and I are headed to Disneyworld (our amazing Christmas present from my parents), and I'm tutoring every day after school. So, I'm going to hang on to this task until next week and I'll plan on doing this week and next week's tasks then.
I hope y'all had a great Monday! Now I've got to go work on my Prezis for social studies!
For Clutter Free Classroom this week, we're supposed to work on our desk areas. Considering this is my main focus I want to put my energy towards, I want to make sure I can put a lot of attention to it. However, on Thursday, my husband and I are headed to Disneyworld (our amazing Christmas present from my parents), and I'm tutoring every day after school. So, I'm going to hang on to this task until next week and I'll plan on doing this week and next week's tasks then.
I hope y'all had a great Monday! Now I've got to go work on my Prezis for social studies!
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Quarter 3 Bulletin Board
So like I said earlier, my social studies content this quarter is focused around Civil War in North Carolina. Because of this, I created a "Civil War Battles in North Carolina" bulletin board, and I'm super proud of it!
The background is a combination of a United States flag circa 1861, and the Confederate "Stars and Bars" circa 1863. I thought about doing both flags about the same time, but I figured the "Stars and Bars" from 1861 wouldn't be as familiar to the kids as this one. I created this map of North Carolina for my quarter 1 bulletin board which focused on the regions and symbols. I put it back up onto this background to showcase the battles of North Carolina.
This is a close up of my bulletin board. I created miniature "Union" or "Confederate" flags to signify who won each battle. If it was an "inconclusive" result, the marker was a combination of the flags. I also put the name of the battle and the date under each flag.
One last picture of it. Honestly, my quarterly bulletin boards are one of my very favorite things to do on my workdays each quarter. I love trying to come up with a new theme each year and then create bulletin boards related to that theme!
Clutter Free Classroom: Week #3 Review
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| Clutter Free Classroom!! |
I know, I know...I've been out of it this week with my posting. I've just been busy busy and tired! But, I'm super excited to share what I've been up to this week!! So our task this week was to begin decluttering...and boy, did I have fun! Our prompt this week: How much were you able to escort out of the door this week? Tell us what you purged and how you felt doing so.
So I didn't get to escort as much as I wanted this week since I had 3 workdays and one of those got cut a little short...but...
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| Only one trash bag this week, but it was full!! |
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| My "give away" box was overflowing! I was surprised! |
I didn't take a picture of my recycling bin because I forgot...but there was certainly a lot in there!!
So, here are my little section's "after" pictures...
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| My track out cart! You can actually see the shelves!! |
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| My "Party Supplies" closet...cups, plates, etc. on the bottom shelf. Winter Experience and Pirate Day stuff on the middle shelf. Extra napkins and plastic bins on top. |
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| My "Teacher's Snacks" cabinet with paper scraps for art projects on the top shelf. |
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| Wow! Look at all that room I cleared out!! I have my coffee supplies (which are essential) on the bottom and extra party supplies on top...plenty of room for more organization! |
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| My track out cart again...I can see all of my supplies and stuff!! Woo hoo!! |
Monday, January 16, 2012
Beginning of Clutter Free Classroom Week 3
This week is about starting to purge in your classroom. I'm so excited!! I can't wait to jump in! However, she encourages you to take it section by section and not trying to tackle too much at once. She even made a cool checklist for us to separate out each little section to help keep things organized. Of course, this feeds into my love of checklists. I always feel so much better when I have a checklist. I feel like I accomplish so much more!
I'll need to remember to take pictures as I go this week and post them on Friday for the linky party!
I've been working really hard this track out on creating things to use during my literacy time this quarter. I've also been working on social studies. Our social studies curriculum is really vague, and social studies is one of my favorite things to teach, so I'm bummed it's so vague. However, I've worked throughout the years on creating curriculum for each quarter. This quarter, we're going to be learning about the role North Carolina played during the Civil War, along with Native Americans of North Carolina.
To teach my kids about the Native Americans, I broke the tribes up into the 6 main tribes of the state. I then made 3 basic PowerPoint presentations to give my kids for them to take basic notes. They get a blank map of North Carolina and fill it in with tribe information as we go along. I have the presentations, but am unable to attach PowerPoint presentations. If you'd like them, just let me know and I'll email them to you. The other thing I'm going to do for Native Americans today is a project I developed, entitled Native Americans of North Carolina. This could be adopted to your state's tribes if you like. I love having at least one take-home project per quarter, and this is the first time I'm going to try this one. One of my coworkers did this project last quarter, and the products I saw were great!
To teach my kids about North Carolina in the Civil War, I read a book called North Carolina as a Civil War Battleground. It was a little dry (it is a history book), but I love history books, so it wasn't bad for me. I've then taken all of the information from that book and am putting it into Prezis to use for my kids. If you're not familiar with Prezi, go ahead and try it...it's very easy to learn and fun to use. It's a more "exciting" presentation form than PowerPoint. I can't attach it here, but I believe you should be able to find it if you search for "Preparations for War" or "North Carolina Leaves the Union." I haven't finished the rest yet. I'll be sure to post the name of those presentations as I finish them.
I'll need to remember to take pictures as I go this week and post them on Friday for the linky party!
I've been working really hard this track out on creating things to use during my literacy time this quarter. I've also been working on social studies. Our social studies curriculum is really vague, and social studies is one of my favorite things to teach, so I'm bummed it's so vague. However, I've worked throughout the years on creating curriculum for each quarter. This quarter, we're going to be learning about the role North Carolina played during the Civil War, along with Native Americans of North Carolina.
To teach my kids about the Native Americans, I broke the tribes up into the 6 main tribes of the state. I then made 3 basic PowerPoint presentations to give my kids for them to take basic notes. They get a blank map of North Carolina and fill it in with tribe information as we go along. I have the presentations, but am unable to attach PowerPoint presentations. If you'd like them, just let me know and I'll email them to you. The other thing I'm going to do for Native Americans today is a project I developed, entitled Native Americans of North Carolina. This could be adopted to your state's tribes if you like. I love having at least one take-home project per quarter, and this is the first time I'm going to try this one. One of my coworkers did this project last quarter, and the products I saw were great!
To teach my kids about North Carolina in the Civil War, I read a book called North Carolina as a Civil War Battleground. It was a little dry (it is a history book), but I love history books, so it wasn't bad for me. I've then taken all of the information from that book and am putting it into Prezis to use for my kids. If you're not familiar with Prezi, go ahead and try it...it's very easy to learn and fun to use. It's a more "exciting" presentation form than PowerPoint. I can't attach it here, but I believe you should be able to find it if you search for "Preparations for War" or "North Carolina Leaves the Union." I haven't finished the rest yet. I'll be sure to post the name of those presentations as I finish them.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Linky Party 2
The linky party this week is a reflection on all of the things she's been asking us to do this week.
Q: What do you plan to do with your "stuff" that you no longer want?
A: Most of it I'm expecting it to throw away. Not having taught for too long, I'm really not thinking that I have many things (if any) that any other teacher wants. However, anything that I think MIGHT be of use to someone, I will definitely put in our teacher's lounge to share with others.
Q: What are your rules for purging?
A: 1. If it's broken, toss it. As much as I tell myself I'll fix it, I never do.
2. If I haven't used it in over a year, toss it.
3. If I have it saved on my computer or if it's available online, toss it.
4. If it's not for 4th grade, donate it!
Q: What have you gathered to make your decluttering task easier?
A: I haven't gathered much as of yet. I have my four big clear bins with the labels clipped to them, and four small clear bins. I plan on getting some of the other things suggested this week since I have workdays this week and that's when I'll be really beginning my decluttering.
I haven't even done any official "decluttering" and I'm so psyched!! I have a few other teacher friends who are encouraging me and waiting to see how this all turns out for me before possibly jumping in. My awesome sister is (as always) looking for amazing resources to be helpful to me. (She's really an amazing sister!)
On a topic other than the linky party, I haven't really posted much else right now because I'm working on typing up writing prompts for my writing station during literacy, and it's taking quite a while. I'm planning on doing a modified "Daily 5" for my classroom to see if that'll help during literacy to hold the kids accountable and make it easier for me to observe them doing the objectives. I'll post some more of that when I get a little further!
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Week 2: Tip #2
I didn't get to post yesterday because I was out all day. I subbed for 8th grade math at a middle school, then tutored, then helped the story do inventory. I left the house yesterday about 7am, and got back this morning about 1:30am...long day! But it was fun! I really enjoyed being in that 8th grade math class!
I told my dad how I wish college wasn't so expensive because there are so many things I'd love to study! If there was a profession of "Professional Student," that would definitely be for me!! I LOVE learning!
So anyway...on to the week 2 tip #2...
This week is about making a plan of how to declutter and develop your non-negotiable and rules. She made a great little printable of questions to ask yourself as you're decluttering. Our task to prepare for the linky party on Friday is to come up with our rules...
1. If it's broken, toss it. As much as I tell myself I'll fix it, I never do!
2. If I haven't used it in over a year, toss it.
3. If I have it saved on my computer or it's available online, recycle it.
4. If it's not for 4th grade, donate it!
I can't think of any more right now, but I'm going to keep thinking.
Although I'm getting excited to track back in next week, I'm not sure how I'm going to leave my darling Ricky Bobby. He's gotten so used to me staying with him and cuddling with him all day and I've gotten so used to his company. Seriously...who could resist this puppy?!
Alright, time to head off and cuddle with my puppy and work on some things for the classroom!
I told my dad how I wish college wasn't so expensive because there are so many things I'd love to study! If there was a profession of "Professional Student," that would definitely be for me!! I LOVE learning!
So anyway...on to the week 2 tip #2...
This week is about making a plan of how to declutter and develop your non-negotiable and rules. She made a great little printable of questions to ask yourself as you're decluttering. Our task to prepare for the linky party on Friday is to come up with our rules...
1. If it's broken, toss it. As much as I tell myself I'll fix it, I never do!
2. If I haven't used it in over a year, toss it.
3. If I have it saved on my computer or it's available online, recycle it.
4. If it's not for 4th grade, donate it!
I can't think of any more right now, but I'm going to keep thinking.
Although I'm getting excited to track back in next week, I'm not sure how I'm going to leave my darling Ricky Bobby. He's gotten so used to me staying with him and cuddling with him all day and I've gotten so used to his company. Seriously...who could resist this puppy?!
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Kick off for Week 2 Clutter-Free Classroom
This week is all about planning.
Our task: "Develop a plan for decluttering your space and compose a list of "non-negotiable must purge" rules."
She suggests getting a 3-ring binder to help organize. Luckily, my love for 3-ring binders has led me to already have a few extras lying around.
Our blog prompt for the week: "What is your plan for decluttering your classroom?"
Ugh...where to start?
She stresses the following 4 things:
You can't organize clutter.
The less you have, the less you need to manage.
Your trash is (quite possibly) another person's treasure.
There is no value in an object that isn't being used.
I cannot agree more with these statements! Being a teacher, I think it's naturally pretty easy to keep things "just in case." You "never know" when you might teach another grade where that file might be useful, or you "might" have a student who might find that sheet or lesson helpful...and on, and on.
My husband gets frustrated from time to time because I keep things (even at home) because you "just never know when we might need them!" So, starting with decluttering my classroom is a good start that will *hopefully* carry over into my home and help me get rid of useless stuff.
So my plan of attack...
1. Get rid of anything that I haven't used in the past 1-2 years. This means trash, donate, etc. Just get it out of my room. Don't "file it away for later." Just get rid of it.
2. Anything that I have used and might still use, get rid of extra copies...I really only need masters and can make copies and such when I need them.
3. Get rid of anything that really needs to be "replaced."
Her post yesterday was discussing ways to get rid of things in your classroom. Instead of putting things to the side and saying you'll get rid of them, but picking them back out again, get them physically out of your classroom. Her question for the day was: "What do you think you'll do with the stuff you no longer need, use, or want?"
Well, I followed her earlier instructions and got some bins with a gift card I got from one of my kids for Christmas. When I went in today, I put the clothespins with the "Keep," "Trash," "Recycle," and "Give Away" on the bins. I think most of the stuff I don't want/need will go in the garbage. Since I haven't been teaching that long, I really don't know if I have anything of much value to other teachers.
As a side note, I worked on my new bulletin board for this quarter today...here's a little preview. We're going to be discussing North Carolina's role in the Civil War.
Our task: "Develop a plan for decluttering your space and compose a list of "non-negotiable must purge" rules."
She suggests getting a 3-ring binder to help organize. Luckily, my love for 3-ring binders has led me to already have a few extras lying around.
Our blog prompt for the week: "What is your plan for decluttering your classroom?"
Ugh...where to start?
She stresses the following 4 things:
You can't organize clutter.
The less you have, the less you need to manage.
Your trash is (quite possibly) another person's treasure.
There is no value in an object that isn't being used.
I cannot agree more with these statements! Being a teacher, I think it's naturally pretty easy to keep things "just in case." You "never know" when you might teach another grade where that file might be useful, or you "might" have a student who might find that sheet or lesson helpful...and on, and on.
My husband gets frustrated from time to time because I keep things (even at home) because you "just never know when we might need them!" So, starting with decluttering my classroom is a good start that will *hopefully* carry over into my home and help me get rid of useless stuff.
So my plan of attack...
1. Get rid of anything that I haven't used in the past 1-2 years. This means trash, donate, etc. Just get it out of my room. Don't "file it away for later." Just get rid of it.
2. Anything that I have used and might still use, get rid of extra copies...I really only need masters and can make copies and such when I need them.
3. Get rid of anything that really needs to be "replaced."
Her post yesterday was discussing ways to get rid of things in your classroom. Instead of putting things to the side and saying you'll get rid of them, but picking them back out again, get them physically out of your classroom. Her question for the day was: "What do you think you'll do with the stuff you no longer need, use, or want?"
Well, I followed her earlier instructions and got some bins with a gift card I got from one of my kids for Christmas. When I went in today, I put the clothespins with the "Keep," "Trash," "Recycle," and "Give Away" on the bins. I think most of the stuff I don't want/need will go in the garbage. Since I haven't been teaching that long, I really don't know if I have anything of much value to other teachers.
As a side note, I worked on my new bulletin board for this quarter today...here's a little preview. We're going to be discussing North Carolina's role in the Civil War.
Clutter Free Classroom Week 1 Review
So I'm a little behind, but these are my pictures for the first "Linky Party" for Clutter-Free Classroom. I'm still new to blogging, so I'm hoping I link all of my stuff correctly to and from the Clutter-Free Classroom blog!
Clutter-Free Classroom Linky Party Week 1I was finally able to get into my classroom today, and so I took pictures. I'm a little embarrassed to post these, but I'm excited to compare them to my "after" pictures eventually.
This is the front of the room...job board, etc. That's the pile of our read aloud pillows.
Ugh...this is one of the areas I want to work on most. My desk area gets very crowded.
All the books and binders, and then excess papers shoved in. *sigh*
My library area looks pretty darn good, thanks to my students before we tracked out!
Middle of the room. Once I have my official work days next week, I'll rearrange the desks back into groups.
Back of the room.
Cubby area. Those upper shelves need some help.
The shelves on the top left aren't that bad because they're organized...
...but these drive me crazy!
Oh goodness...
I don't know...
What to say...
About these...
And the worst of all my storage. Gives me an anxiety attack just looking at it.
I have quite a lot of work to do! But, I'm excited to get started!!
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Quarter 3 Word Work Activities
I've really gotten addicted to checking other teacher blogs for ideas and creating things over this break. While I'm sure some of my coworkers would tell me I need to just relax and not work on school stuff, I'm not the type of person who can just relax...I wish I were at times. However, my "relaxation" is sitting in front of the TV watching movies and such with my husband. But, I am not able to just sit and enjoy the movies...I HAVE to be doing something else, so creating school stuff is my "something else."
I was talking to one of my new coworkers the other day about how to get the kids to do word work this quarter. She had started this past week to try a foldable with the kids. I thought it was a fantastic idea and that we could get our prefix and suffix word work done easily with the kids! So, I created foldables for each of the prefixes and suffixes for this quarter (click each prefix or suffix if you'd like them) com-, con-, ex-, mis-, pre-, re-, -ible.
Also as I've been blog-hopping, I came across Plug-n-Plan. She created "Synonym Toast Crunch," and I loved the idea...it's kind of like war with synonyms. However, they were geared more towards kindergarten or first grade, so I revised it for my fourth graders, and used the words for our prefix and suffix games. If you'd like to download it, click here.
I also took an idea from Cranium and created "Context Cloodle."
I was talking to one of my new coworkers the other day about how to get the kids to do word work this quarter. She had started this past week to try a foldable with the kids. I thought it was a fantastic idea and that we could get our prefix and suffix word work done easily with the kids! So, I created foldables for each of the prefixes and suffixes for this quarter (click each prefix or suffix if you'd like them) com-, con-, ex-, mis-, pre-, re-, -ible.
Also as I've been blog-hopping, I came across Plug-n-Plan. She created "Synonym Toast Crunch," and I loved the idea...it's kind of like war with synonyms. However, they were geared more towards kindergarten or first grade, so I revised it for my fourth graders, and used the words for our prefix and suffix games. If you'd like to download it, click here.
I also took an idea from Cranium and created "Context Cloodle."
Friday, January 6, 2012
Clutter Free Classroom
Since this track out is extra long for me (5 weeks), I've gotten a little addicted to trying to develop things for the classroom, work on school stuff, etc. I've stumbled across the Clutter Free Classroom blog. If you don't follow it, you should! She is challenging herself (and others) to participate in creating a clutter-free classroom. Each Sunday, she will post about the challenge for that week and include freebies. Every Monday-Thursday, she will be posting tips and photos related to that weekly topic. Every Friday, she will have a check-in where everyone can discuss how things went that week related to the challenge. I have already been trying very hard to be more organized in my classroom this year, but I think this could be a great way to try and keep myself held accountable.
The first challenge this week was to take pictures of the areas we want to improve on. Since a) I didn't find this until today and b) I'm tracked out, I'm going to try to begin this next week. I'm going to make it a mission to go in next week and start by taking pictures in my classroom on Monday and kind of tying weeks one and two of the challenge together.
So besides the pictures, her Monday post was to list our top three reasons we would like to be organized. It really didn't take much time to come up with my 3:
1. To set a better example for my students (How can I expect them to keep their belongings organized if I can't?!).
2. To help relieve my little "anxiety attacks" whenever I look at disorganized areas of my room.
3. To try to be an example to others in my school and create a good impression when parents come in for tours and walk around to the classrooms.
Her tip for Tuesday was to get some bins to help separate as I organize (things to donate, keep, give away). Being that it's January (the WORST month money-wise), I really don't have the money to go buy some nice clear plastic bins as she suggests. However, she does make a suggestion of using copy paper boxes if you can't buy bins. I'm definitely going to use that idea...once I get paid at the end of January and have a little extra money from the subbing I'm doing over track out, maybe I'll be able to go buy some clear plastic bins. I'm kind of thinking I'll need 4: "Keep," "Give Away (to friend/colleague)," "Trash," and "Recycle."
On Wednesday, she posted these super cute freebies...some labels she created to pin to your bins as you organize. They're super cute and if I put them on clothespins, as she suggests, I can attach them to various bins and detach them as needed.
Her Thursday post suggests getting smaller bins as well in order to make organizing smaller areas (like the desk) more manageable. I think I'll look at the Dollar Store and see if I can find any cheap small bins there. If not, there's always Target and Walmart.
I can't participate in the Linky Party yet because I don't have my "before" pictures, but once I do, I'll post them!
Thanks for listening to my looonnnggg post about this, but I'm super excited. Again, if you haven't been to her blog, GO!!
The first challenge this week was to take pictures of the areas we want to improve on. Since a) I didn't find this until today and b) I'm tracked out, I'm going to try to begin this next week. I'm going to make it a mission to go in next week and start by taking pictures in my classroom on Monday and kind of tying weeks one and two of the challenge together.
So besides the pictures, her Monday post was to list our top three reasons we would like to be organized. It really didn't take much time to come up with my 3:
1. To set a better example for my students (How can I expect them to keep their belongings organized if I can't?!).
2. To help relieve my little "anxiety attacks" whenever I look at disorganized areas of my room.
3. To try to be an example to others in my school and create a good impression when parents come in for tours and walk around to the classrooms.
Her tip for Tuesday was to get some bins to help separate as I organize (things to donate, keep, give away). Being that it's January (the WORST month money-wise), I really don't have the money to go buy some nice clear plastic bins as she suggests. However, she does make a suggestion of using copy paper boxes if you can't buy bins. I'm definitely going to use that idea...once I get paid at the end of January and have a little extra money from the subbing I'm doing over track out, maybe I'll be able to go buy some clear plastic bins. I'm kind of thinking I'll need 4: "Keep," "Give Away (to friend/colleague)," "Trash," and "Recycle."
On Wednesday, she posted these super cute freebies...some labels she created to pin to your bins as you organize. They're super cute and if I put them on clothespins, as she suggests, I can attach them to various bins and detach them as needed.
Her Thursday post suggests getting smaller bins as well in order to make organizing smaller areas (like the desk) more manageable. I think I'll look at the Dollar Store and see if I can find any cheap small bins there. If not, there's always Target and Walmart.
I can't participate in the Linky Party yet because I don't have my "before" pictures, but once I do, I'll post them!
Thanks for listening to my looonnnggg post about this, but I'm super excited. Again, if you haven't been to her blog, GO!!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Fractions
I know when I was in 4th grade, I HATED fractions. Every time I saw them, I would tense up and try to stall so I wouldn't have to solve it. Now, I LOVE fractions. They're one of my favorite things to do in math, and I LOVE teaching them because I really want to convince my students they're not as scary as they look. Third quarter, we talk about adding and subtracting fractions, and changing improper fractions to proper fractions. I've seen many examples of the "I Have, Who Has?" games, and I LOVE playing that with my kids. I've made an "I Have, Who Has?" game for adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators. The little sun symbol designates the first card. The last card connects back to the first card.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Reading
During my track outs, I really enjoy subbing around the county. Not only do I get to make a little extra money, but it gives me a chance to see other schools, see what other teachers are teaching, etc.
Today, I subbed in a high school special education class. It was so much fun! I really enjoyed my time there! However, it really made me realize (not that I needed reminding, of course) how important reading is - especially in elementary school. I love reading myself, and particularly aloud; read aloud is my favorite time during the day. Kids really need to hear a fluent reader to help them become better readers. By 4th grade, many parents feel that reading to their child might not be age-appropriate anymore. However, they need to hear that fluency that comes from an experienced reader; not only reading sentences smoothly, but with expression and proper stops at punctuation.
They also need to think deeply about what they read. I use a combination of Marzano's questions and Bloom's Taxonomy to help ask deeper-thinking questions. I recently finished a "book club" packet for one of my favorite books, Le Petit Prince. I'm planning on using it with my high-level reading group to help them practice asking higher level questions of each other. Feel free to use it if you like!
Today, I subbed in a high school special education class. It was so much fun! I really enjoyed my time there! However, it really made me realize (not that I needed reminding, of course) how important reading is - especially in elementary school. I love reading myself, and particularly aloud; read aloud is my favorite time during the day. Kids really need to hear a fluent reader to help them become better readers. By 4th grade, many parents feel that reading to their child might not be age-appropriate anymore. However, they need to hear that fluency that comes from an experienced reader; not only reading sentences smoothly, but with expression and proper stops at punctuation.
They also need to think deeply about what they read. I use a combination of Marzano's questions and Bloom's Taxonomy to help ask deeper-thinking questions. I recently finished a "book club" packet for one of my favorite books, Le Petit Prince. I'm planning on using it with my high-level reading group to help them practice asking higher level questions of each other. Feel free to use it if you like!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Animal Studies
We teach four science "kits" during the year: Electricity and Magnetism, Rocks and Minerals, Animal Studies, and Food Chemistry (to be replaced with 5th grade's "Landforms" kit next year). In order to make things easier for myself, I've gone through the kit and have written day-by-day lessons for each kit that I can print out and copy onto an overhead. By putting up these overheads, it enables me to be able to circulate through the students more. They have their instructions of how to lead themselves through the experiments and I am able to stop them when I need to to have class discussions, etc. We are doing the animal studies kit in quarter 3, so I've been working on improving my day-by-day lessons. I have created an "Animal Studies Scoot" after reading about the idea on Pinterest of other people creating this game. If you'd like a copy of they day-by-day lessons, let me know, and I'll send them to you!
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