DonorChoose

I submitted through the DonorChoose website a request for a whiteboard easel for the classroom. I was worried that it may not get funded. I was in for a shocker! It quickly was funded and has now become an important addition to our classroom:) The kids love it!

Teaching Reconstruction with Legos!!

Reconstruction is a very complex period in US history. Most Americans are clueless when it comes to this time period! How to relate this time to 5th graders is even more complicated! Introducing the concept of Reconstruction with Legos was a fun way to help them understand the concept of what it means to reconstruct. 


Students were asked to come up with a structure with their group using Legos. They loved it! They were so engaged with the activity!  The following lesson students will be asked to reconstruct their structure from memory! The purpose is to show them that when you try to reconstruct it is not likely that a structure will every be the same again. 

Teaching

Has the 3rd week of school already come to a close? I am amazed how quickly time fly when  you are doing something that brings you enjoyment. Yes, I get stressed. Yes, there are times I don't know what to do right. But in those moments I know that I am learning. I might be learning what not to do in a situation or how something doesn't work. As an educator I am learning to better myself. To become the best teacher I can be. I gave a quiz today on Parts of Speech and as I started to grade them I reflected and realized that the quiz was just way too complicated for the students. Therefore, I made the decision to revise the entire quiz and give the opportunity to try again. It wasn't their fault that I made a quiz that was above the level I presented to them in class. Never be afraid to admit that I should have done a lesson, quiz, or discussion differently. We are here to educate and nurture students. Admitting that you made a mistake and correcting yourself is the best model one can be. 

Summer Reading Camp

 

I learned that teaching summer school is a totally unique experience. I taught 3rd graders who needed a little extra help with reading and writing. Through the assistance of Read to Succeed students were provided with a great opportunity to get more individualized attention. 

The students really excelled with their attention to detail in reading and writing. They built their reading stamina daily. We used the "Read to Self" strategy of the Daily 5 series. I incorporated the new SC ELA standards.

There is emphasis on inquiry based learning throughout the standards. One part of the daily reading camp was devoted to inquiry based research. The students covered two 4th grade standards integrating Social Studies and Science with ELA. The first was the Civil War. The students spent the first half of Summer Reading Camp learning more information about the Civil War. Incorporating the inquiry based learning students were encouraged through modeling on how to research a topic in more depth. The students really enjoyed the R.A.N chart.

 

 

 

Upcountry History Museum Field Trip: The Ripple Effect

My 5th graders had the opportuntiy to visit the Upcountry History Museum for  a fun-filled educational experience today. In particular, the students were able to learn about the Reedy River. The Field Trip included hands on activities, Read Aloud, partner work, and  the opportunity to explore.The staff was amazing and very helpful with the students. I highly recommend taking students to the museum.http://www.upcountryhistory.org/education/
My students were very excited and really enjoyed the trip. 

Wax Museum

My school has a yearly wax museum in the Spring. This project is so much fun for students because they get to dress up as people from history that we studied about this year. 5th grade Social Studies in South Carolina covers Reconstruction to Present. I had a large variety of characters present that night! It was a good end of the year class activity that parents got to see.  

P

The Westing Game

The smell of Summer is in the air!

I can't believe my first year of teaching is almost over! My students and I have learned so much this year! Keeping focused until the last days of school is hard on any child. Therefore, I though a fun mystery would keep their attention and it has! We started the Westing Game last week and they are loving it. A few students already asked if they could check it out at the library and I said no. I love that they are interested in the read aloud. 

To help keep everyone accountable I assigned each child a character to follow. There are numerous main characters in the book. Their responsibility is to list physical characteristics along with character traits. Each group is given a stack of sticky notes and at the end of the read are able to add them to their person on the anchor charts. Along with character analysis the students are held accountable with central questions throughout each chapter. Once we complete a chapter we reflect on what we learned and answer a central question. 

Since we are already finishing up the 4th chapter I though they had learned enough to give a good description of some of the characters. As a quick response I requested the students to complete a character analysis on one of the characters they have read about so far. They needed enough information to be able to give a good "sketch" of the physical characteristics along with personality traits.  I was highly impressed with their abilities. 

Angela Wexler

Barney Northup

Student Treasures Children Books

My amazing Principal found this incredible website a few years ago. Student Treasure  allows students to create their own book that is published for them to keep. The great thing about the website is that it is FREE! I allowed my students to choose their type of writing for the book and they created so many amazing stories. It was a fun break from all the state testing preparation!

http://www.studentreasures.com/

Brain Breaks!!!

Throughout this year I have used different brain breaks in class each week. I didn't realize how much 5th graders would love them! During this preparation time for standardized testing my students have definitely needed the break. I found them very important in helping them focus. Tomorrow is the start of our testing and I am so proud of all their hard work in getting ready.



http://teachtrainlove.com/20-brain-break-clips-fight-the-fidgeting/

At this age I let them decide if they want to get up and dance or sit in their desk and watch. Normally, after about a minute they start moving to the beat and  jump in once they realize how much fun everyone else is having!

World War II biographies Activity

My love for history hopefully is causing my students to find it more and more enjoyable. The kids need hands on learning as much as possible when it comes to history... otherwise they forget it! 

World War II is a unique time period in United States' history. Knowledge of this time period is essential for understanding the complexity of the Cold War. My class was able to examine artifacts from this era courtesy of  the Upcountry Museum. In addition, Students were able to learn more about WWII key figures by completing a biography research foldable. The class had guided questions to use on their foldables. I was very proud of the hard work that went into researching and analyzing information to present on their foldables. 

My favorite quote came from one student who was not happy with me that he was given "some guy" named Benito Mussolini to research. By the end of  the class the student said, " I really found out a lot about Mussolini today and he was crazy!" (with a smile)

World War II

My undergraduate degree is in History and my favorite subject to study has always been WWII. I have looked forward to this unit all year and have so many different activities planned integrating all three subject areas (Writing, Reading, and Social Studies). We started the unit with a KWL and I was surprised (happily) that my students knew a few things about WWII:) However, there is so much more for them to learn! We are daily watching History Channel videos(2-4 minutes) geared towards that day's objective. They absolutely love these attention grabbers! Today we learned about different major battles. As a group activity I divided the students into groups (based on their learning ability and behavior) and had them to research specific questions with articles I provided them. They absolutely loved it! After they completed the group activity it was presentation time and they did a very good job.  As an individual assessment the students had to reflect about which battle was most interesting to them and why in 5-6 sentences. I look forward to tomorrow when they are doing individual research on different leaders. 

Getting ready for end of year state testing!!!!

This year the students will have 30 minutes to respond to a persuasive prompt for the ACT Aspire test. My students were so worried when I broke the news that the test would be time and they would need to produce a well written persuasive writing response within 30 minutes. Something I have learned is that it is essential to model and practice DAILY. At this point of the year every morning during their morning work time the students write a 5 paragraph response to a given topic (normally persuasive) and they do it well within their 30 minute time period. In additional, we have a weekly formal writing due on Fridays. I normally model on model and then allow students to brainstorm their ideas on Monday, Tuesdays are rough draft day, Wednesdays are revision/editing days, Thursdays are final draft days, and Fridays are normally illustration/presentation day. 

Recently the students finished class election speeches. All students were required to write a 5 paragraph essay (introduction, body, conclusion) with transition words. Along with their required writing students were required to create a campaign poster with a slogan. I had many creative students! 

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Teaching World War I

The students are learning so much about World War I. We had the opportunity to borrow one of the traveling trunks through the Upcountry History Museum and the kids loved it! They were able to handle actual artifacts from the War and some great lesson plan ideas. I highly recommend using the trunks in the classroom. It gives students first hand experience and they will love it!! I already have arranged for the World War II trunk. 


 http://www.upcountryhistory.org/education/traveling-trunks/

Point of View

Teaching point of view was so much fun! There were so many different activities that I was able to incorporate into our lessons to really cement their understanding of POV. Flocabulary has amazing videos and the kids loved the Point of View video, they would request all the time. 

 https://www.flocabulary.com/point-of-view/

One activity that helped the kids was a group activity that I found online. The teacher puts a picture in the middle of  an anchor chart and labels around the pictures all three different types of POV, along with the 3 types of 3rd person. The students work together (After the teachers models one) to formulate sentences to fit the picture in each person. 

The students also created a foldable that they used throughout the entire unit. I got the template for free on TpT. 

I used Point of View worksheets  from http://www.ereadingworksheets.com/point-of-view/point-of-view-worksheets/  to model and have students practice figuring out the POV. This is an amazing website that I use regularly.