Our Movie Review Celebration

In writing, my students have been working on Movie Reviews. I posted a week ago about some good YouTube examples and a little bit of info about the Let's Go To The Movies unit I sell on TPT.

Today, we had a celebration! I meant for us to do this last week, but since everyone wanted to type their final drafts and we only have four computers, we had to postpone a bit.

It was a super simple celebration. Sometimes that's all it takes. Actually, I'd venture to say that MOST times, that's all it takes!

We did a "museum walk" to share. Then, students gave out a few "Movie Tickets" to compliment the writers. We had a little lesson before this to be sure that the compliment was related to the writer's craft, and not the reader's personal opinion of the movie.

So, for example:
I want to see your movie because you said it's full of action and I love action movies.
...is a way to give feedback to the reader, not:
I want to see this movie because I love this movie!

Finally, I passed out popcorn for students to enjoy as they read their compliments and pieces again (they love reading those beautifully typed-out pieces!).

It was so nice to begin our week with a little writing celebration!

Camp Read-A-Lot

This should maybe be titled:

Camp Read-A-Lot: Saving This Teacher's Sanity Since Thanksgiving 2014.

Let me tell you about a little "tradition" I've started in my classroom. As you all know, the days before any break can be harried, stressful, and crazy at best. Especially by the time Thanksgiving comes around, we may be looking forward to upcoming testing, going to battle daily with "that kid", trying to get some final writing samples published, and just overall trying to make it through to the holiday.

Last year, I took this opportunity to plan a special event on the last day before Thanksgiving break. My goal was for us to have fun, to do something "academic", stave off misbehavior from boredom, and have something to hold over their heads look forward to for the week. I also didn't want to create a lot of extra work for us-I wanted it to be low key.

As usual, I created an invitation to give to the kids as my way of announcing our special event. I invited them to bring their flashlights (or headlamps or even Camelbacks!) and wear plaid. Last year, I invited my kids to bring sleeping bags and their own tablets to read on.

The afternoon before the event, I prepped our room and set up a center rotation. I made some "tents" out of table cloth, made a "fire" out of a box and some tissue paper, rearranged some seating, and covered my tables with butcher paper for a fun sharing activity.

I set up a rotation to take us pretty much through the entire day and assigned students to groups of 5 or so. Oh, and of course, I turned the lights out and opened the windows for the whole day. Here were my low prep stations:

Fireside Stories-Students settled in around the fire or under a tent for some free reading.

Canoe the Accelerated River-Students read at their seats and then took an AR text. 

Hike the Technology Trail-Students did reading on the RazKids website, which they all have logins for.

Crafting Cottage-Students made a bookmark with a bunch of leftover stuff from my closet.

There were a few other activities that we did as a whole group:

Read Aloud-These were Thanksgiving themed for us!

Book Sharing-Students got to use markers to write the titles of some of their favorite books on the tables I had covered with butcher paper. 

AND OF COURSE

Eating S'Mores-We made s'mores in the microwave and took them outside to eat and have extra recess to celebrate our fun day together. 

At the end of the day, there were happy kids, happy parents, and a happy teacher. Oh, and lots of hugs to send me off to a wonderful Thanksgiving break!

Jan Brett

Once upon a time, a close knit team of 2nd grade teachers decided to ring in Winter with a Jan Brett author study. They read books, did activities, and even hosted a Rotation Day for related crafts and snacks. Changes have happened, all for the good, and these three teachers no longer teach at the same school together...

...But THIS teacher keeps ringing in the holiday break with a Jan Brett author study. Even when she doesn't really have time for it because she is supposed to be stressed out by her Expeditionary Learning "Showcase" scheduled for the three days before the holiday break (What?! How did that happen?!)

Anyways, I wanted to share a few ideas for using Jan Brett's books in a middle elementary classroom. I think that her most famous book, The Mitten, is one often shared with younger kids for a variety of reasons, but there is so much good stuff that older kids can learn from her books as well! You might be surprised by just how excited your “grown up” students will get about reading her stories.

You should know that while many of her stories have a holiday theme, many of them do not-they just happen to be set in snowy places! This may help you if you have students of different cultural or religious backgrounds in your classroom.

FIRST OF ALL...

Let's get to the learning point. Jan Brett's books can be used to teach many of the Literature common core standards. Here are a few of my favorites:

Teach or review traditional literature by sharing The Mitten, Gingerbread Baby, and Goldilocks to name a few. Some of her pieces, like The Umbrella, or The Three Snow Bears, are traditional stories re-imagined in a new setting. 

Compare and contrast Jan Brett's traditional literature with more familiar versions. Compare and contrast The Mitten and The Umbrella or The Three Snow Bears with Goldilocks. Students could draw and build their own Venn diagrams to compare and contrast two of her books. 

Study the ways characters change and what they learn through their experiences. In The Wild Christmas Reindeer, Teeka learns to use love and patience to train Santa’s reindeer. In Home For Christmas, Rollo the troll loses his tail when he learns a lesson about being part of a family.

SECOND….

You absolutely must watch some of Jan Brett’s videos where she gives lessons on how to draw some of her characters. Not only can students follow along, learning to draw in Brett’s style, but they learn about her process, inspiration, and craft as she describes her work. My favorites are How to Draw a Hedgie, Gingerbread Baby, and A Baby Polar Bear. You can access her videos by clicking here.

I suggest that you stay close to the computer to pause the video as students are following along. Jan can move rather fast. I also suggest letting students use dry erase boards for their first go round. If you have time, they can transfer their work on paper after that. If you have a lot of time, they can also use watercolor and sharpies to make their picture look great! In How To Draw a Gingerbread Baby, Jan gives instruction on watercolor which may give new ideas for students to try.

FINALLY…

Throw a Jan Brett winter party! Many school districts are moving away from the traditional Christmas party, and I promise you that if you throw a Jan Brett party, your kids will not miss the Christmas theme!

 

Serve mitten cookies, make a Swedish heart ornament, do a Hedgie craft, eat Gingerbread, and more! The possibilities are really endless and so much fun.

I hope you enjoyed my ideas. I tried to keep things simple this year because we were preparing for a showcase. My main goal is to enjoy the books, learn from the author/illustrator, and keep those kiddos excited to be at school with me!

Monday Made It for June 22

I love to let the creative juices flow in the summer time. So, this week, I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics to show some of the projects I've been working on!

There is so much going on for me this summer to inspire me to be creative! A new school, new apartment, a niece on the way, a wedding in the distance...so having the summer to work on projects has been a nice way for me to unwind and enjoy all of these things! Today, I'm sharing a few highlights from all of the projects I've been working on!

HOME MADE IT

When my nephew was born, I made a star mobile for his nursery. I am a little obsessed with cool geometry and had learned to make great stellated dodecahedrons out of card stock. With a niece on the way, I knew I wanted to make a mobile again. This time, it would have a softer feel to it to match her more feminine room! Ribbons, felt, and embroidery thread was all that was needed for this project! I'm happy with the way it turned out and can't wait to welcome Miss. Cora to the family in a few weeks!

FOOD MADE IT

I made this great dish when I visited my sister last week. They are Chicken Casesar Sliders. They were delicious and would be great party food! I love having simple and light meals during the summer. We paired this dish with some fresh squash from friends. Click here for the sandwich recipe. 

CLASSROOM MADE IT

I have been rocking a Team + Black and White Polka Dot + Aqua + Lime Green theme in my classroom for probably four years now. While I still love it, I am feeling ready to make a change. I'm going to move more into the direction of a chalkboard feel, so I tweaked some letters for bulletin boards and labels for book boxes. I also created a custom name plate to match my team theme! 

That's it for Made It Monday! Have a wonderful week!

Product Spotlight: Luau to Learn

Hawaii is one of those dream destination places. If you have ever been, I am extremely jealous of you and I will just have to keep dreaming of a future time when I can visit there!

I wanted to share some of the great things we are doing in my classroom leading up to our Last Day Luau! At this time of year, now that assessments, samples, and report cards are all done, it is important to keep students engaged in a fun way. We are having so much fun this week: students are still learning, smiling, and (perhaps most importantly) behaving brilliantly! 

Monday: Luka's Quilt

We read half of the story Luka's Quilt before students wrote an advice letter to one of the characters. They did a really nice job of helping them solve their problem! Once the letter writing was finished, we completed the rest of the story. As I read aloud, I used my read aloud guide from the unit to help with my plans for discussion questions. In Math, we learned about symmetry. First, we defined the word and watched a Brainpop video. Then, we found examples of symmetry around us. Following that, I guided students through folding paper in half, cutting shapes, and seeing reflections. After this, students created Tutu's quilt by making cuts on a white piece of paper, and then pasting it on a colored paper. Then, of course, for Luka, they added tissue paper flowers to add color to their quilts. They really enjoyed it and did a fabulous job!

Tuesday: Volcano Information

Tuesday began with students beginning a KWL chart on Volcanoes. Then, they did a close reading and writing response from this TPT unit.  Yes, it is a first grade resource, but we have only just experimented with some close reading now at the end of the year. In Math, students did this fun coloring page to practice their basic facts fluency. And, at the end of the day, we watched The Magic School Bus Blows Its Top!

Wednesday: Too Many Mangos

This is a really sweet book about sharing. I read it aloud to the students, and asked them to think about what they could share with others. In my unit, you will also find instructions for a craft to go along with the writing. For Math, students tried mangos and a few other tropical fruits. We then created bar graphs to show our class' preferences! They really enjoyed trying the yummy fruit! (Sorry no pictures! I forgot!)

Other Stuff:

Centers! The Following Directions Craft and Dictionary Scavenger Hunt are in my unit. Along with an Internet Scavenger Hunt which we completed during our visit to the Computer Lab. It would normally be in our rotation, but the computers all got collected already! 

A Photo Booth for the kiddos! 

Link to my products by clicking on these pictures:

       

These pictures provide you with a further preview. Notice that there are game explanations, task cards, and a student comprehension book for the Magic Treehouse High Tide In Hawaii:

Math Madness

As a Georgia Bulldog fan, basketball season has never  been front and center on my radar. But now, that I'm about to become a Tar Heel fan by marriage, it's a different story. This year, I decided to harness my new found appreciation for basketball into planning a fun event for my kiddos.

Enter Math Madness. I had originally thought I would plan just one special "Day of Math" where we would have lots of different types of Math activities and ONLY Math activities going on. I did this back in the Fall with reading (I called it "Camp Read A Lot". Maybe I'll blog about it at another time!). However, I decided to incorporate it into the entire week of school. I mostly decided to do this because we had three half days this week for Parent Teacher conferences and I thought  knew this would get us excited and motivated to make it through the strange week.

And it worked! We had so much fun, and I think some of my boys especially appreciated the thought and care that went into bringing basketball into the classroom. I do not have a nicely designed unit or any groundbreaking ideas. The big idea of the whole week was to challenge ourselves to solve as many Math problems as possible! With that said, here are some things we did this week:

1. Students wrote an Opinion piece and completed a craftivity from this TpT unit. The topic was: Do you learn more when you win or when you lose? They absolutely loved it!

2. We set a goal to solve 6,300 Math problems (that would be 300 per student). Our final tally was over 8,000! 

3. Students kept basketballs with hundreds charts that I made on their desks to record their Math problems solved. They counted any and all Math they did during our day and they even used their free time to solve problems, draw shapes, make patterns, etc. on their dry erase boards! For each 100s basketball they turned in, they got to place it on the door, take three shots at the basketball goal, and get a small treat. I asked parents help me with treat donations and I spent a little money of my own, but they got to earn things like: a small chocolate basketball, a sticker, a bottle of water, high fives from the whole class, and a snack bag of orange cheese ball puffs. Once we ran out of prizes, I told them that they got "Pride In Your Heart", and they were totally o.k. with that! Also, I worked this all on the honor/responsibility system-the kids had to take care of these rewards themselves so that I didn't have to spend all day worrying over the kids finishing up their challenges at different times.     

4. Students took on a special collaborative Math challenge involving the perimeter and area of a basketball court. 

5. At the end of the week, students set their final goals for the year with a Quick Write activity. It was perfect timing since we had been talking about goals and teamwork all week because of Math Madness AND I had been talking to all of their parents this week because of Conferences. I posted these in the room where they will remain for the rest of the year.

6. Finally, since we met our class goal, we all went outside for an extra recess and some Gatorade. I let them all bring in their basketballs and wear jerseys if they chose to!

Well, that's it. Happy March Madness!