Too Much Turkey!

Well the week off flew by, of course! I spent the beginning of the week with my family, we took a trip to Tennessee for a few days. We had a ton of fun, then went right into the Thanksgiving Day festivities.  I swear I gained 5lbs on that day alone. I then spent the next two days purging the house of all the Fall decor and old Halloween candy (when my daughter wasn't watching, because that too was not helping my waistline), putting up the Christmas decor (because if I don't do it on this break, it won't happen until the next break...which is Christmas break), and finally getting to go through my daughter's toys (again when she wasn't watching) and clothes. Whew, no wonder this week flew by!

Now on to school stuff....so the Turkey Survival Kit was a HUGE hit! It was probably the best persuasive writing my kids have done EVER! No joke, they loved it so much...along with the Cornucopia of Thanks, I was really impressed. I think my students do a little better with more structure and a little more prompting when it comes to writing. Well that and making it fun, I do have to jump through hoops and put on a show when it comes to writing...the groans that happen when I tell them to get out their writing journals are unreal!

This is my first year in fifth so I am nervous about the writing test. We start a little sample of writing bootcamp here in the next week or so, after wrapping up our informational writing (the state packet, which again is very structured and therefore they are LOVING it). I have also started making my kiddos write a page a day response to a prompt given to them every morning.

With all of that said I am thinking of two things...doing something similar to the Turkey Survival Kit, maybe a Gingerbread Man something (I will share it all with you once I wrap my head around it). Also I will keep you all informed of this fun writing bootcamp we have coming up...what do you all do to gear up for the writing test (if you have to give one!)?

Finally on a personal note... I am starting my New Year's resolution early, (because I don't make New Year's resolutions) I am totally starting to work out more and eat a little healthier. I have to slim down and my first goal is going to be Dec. 28th, why this date?, well because I have booked our family picture session with this AWESOME photographer on this date, and while it will be cold and I will have to bundle up....I still want to look a little better :) Okay so now that I have written it, and put it out there in blog world I must do it!

So I will leave you with a pic or two of our fun trip, since I have no freebies to share or pics of the classroom :(  Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Break! Now to get through the next holiday rush....first being the retake of the state test for my 10 (yes 10) transition students happening this coming week, so keep them in your thoughts!

Okay sorry no pictures....having some problems downloading :(  I'll post some soon, sorry to tease!

Last Minute Thanksgiving Plans

Seeing that I am sitting here writing my plans for next week and trying to incorporate some fun Thanksgiving stuff and favorite read alouds...I thought I would share with you!

This is what I came up with...I made some things (which I will try to share) and I took or bought some other things of which I got more ideas from (which I will try and share the links).

First of all is this great Cornucopia of Thanks. I have used this for a few years. Not only do they make the cornucopia using the glyph/legend but I have my students write a paragraph describing their choices, and as to why they choose them. I have them put everything on a long sheet of construction paper and laminate them, they look so pretty. This one I did buy a year or two ago, but as I said well worth it and being able to use it over and over every year.

http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/subject/math/early-math/cornucopia-of-thanks-fall-glyph-activity

One of my favorite Thanksgiving books is: One is a Feast for Mouse

There are a couple of activities I am going to do with this one. I found a great package of Language Arts WS to use with this: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Thanksgiving-Literacy-Unit-One-is-a-Feast-for-Mouse

But I also added a few more fun activities: vocabulary booklet, stack your own mouse with a Thanksgiving feast, and a summarizing activity.

Finally there is a cute You Tube video for a trailer for this book...very cute:

Okay moving on to the next book: A Turkey for Thanksgiving

Again Cutsey Clickables has a great little packet to use (I didn't buy this one, just saw it actually):

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Turkey-for-Thanksgiving-Mini-Literacy-Unit-Common-Core-Aligned

However I did get some great ideas from this packet (to make a turkey survival kit, such a cute idea):

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Thanksgiving-Turkey-Survival-Kit

And you can always discuss point of view with this story!

The final book I am going to use is: 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving

We will discuss the parody. I will also have them write down the ways they are similar. Lastly they will make a turkey with a thought bubble and have the turkey trying to persuade kids to take him as a pet, or something with Save a Turkey, Eat More...!

Well those are few of my ideas for this last week before Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy and make it through!



Figuratively Speaking

My class just finished a reading unit on figurative language. It was so much fun to teach/review this with fifth graders! I loved being able to build on what they already knew, and go a little deeper. This year I taught it with Reading (well I always have taught it through reading, but mostly had a grammar/language arts view in my lessons).

Once again Pinterest ideas struck my lessons. My co-teacher found a link on Pinterest to a figurative language booklet idea. After looking at that and a few other ideas we came up with our own "version" of this booklet. The kids did GREAT! I also made a mimio to go along with the unit and used picture books each day (with each type of figurative language) as an "attention getter" or opener.

I LOVE how the booklets came out, so here are a few pictures. Also CLICK HERE to get the figurative language packet which also includes a rubric I made in order to grade them!

The covers:

A few pages:



We Need Our Monsters!

This week during ITBS testing I wanted to give the students a little something fun to do, as a break. So I made this fun activity to go along with the book I Need My Monster. As I have mentioned before I LOVE THIS BOOK! It is so cute! And this lesson just proved that even big, bad 5th graders love this book. It also was a great book to use with Halloween just around the corner.

After reading the book we discussed all the different text elements we heard/saw in the book. I mentioned that I had used this book with opinion/persuasive writing before (because the monsters are trying to persuade the little boy to allow them to be their monster).

After discussing I gave each student a copy of the glyph WS, where they had to answer questions as to what they would want their own monster to look like. The next day we began assemblying our glyph monsters...they came out SO cute!!!!!

The final step was that they had to write a descriptive paragraph as to what they would want their monster to look like (not what the glyph looks like, but based on their choices from the WS). I haven't gotten their paragraphs on the wall yet, but again they LOVED doing this little project/activity and everything turned out ADORABLE!

So here is the first of my TWO things I am giving you all...mostly for putting up with my sparatic posting and less than thrilling posts. I hope you enjoy! CLICK HERE TO RETRIEVE THE PACKET (which includes wall display items, glyph WS, and monster pieces) Have fun! 

My New Obsession

Okay to I have to admit I have a problem...well, maybe an obsession. I am completely obsessed with different markers/pens to use with my interactive notebooks!

Seriously I find myself staring at the different Sharpies (fine point), Felt Pens (love them, but not how quickly they dry out), and any other type of "fancy" marker/pen I can use for my notebooks.

As you can see in previous posts I love to make my notebooks eye catching, exciting, and colorful! Warning, if you are going to use these markers/pens you must have a buffer page in your notebook at all times, and of course you can't use the back of the pages. With this said, I have almost filled an entire spiral notebook for math already!

The current problem that I have is my daughter found my stash in my bookbag! I really didn't want to share AT ALL!!!! Because no on touches my pens, NO ONE! Okay so she does, but I must say she has been really good with them, and basically uses them to play school...setting different ones out for different students. But I am thinking when I have a little extra cash I am going to invest in a second set that will be mine ONLY, and keep the others in my bag for when she wants to play school!

I also wanted to let you know that I have seen a little break in the clouds of testing, teaching, lesson planning, data collecting, meeting, conferencing, and so on...therefore I have put together TWO, yep TWO great things to give you all! I know, it's long overdue! I was all ready to post one tonight, wrote the post and everything! Then realized I had everything I needed, minus the pictures that explain the "how to"! UGH! So stay tuned!

Simply Science Interactives

We have just wrapped up a great Figurative Language unit for reading, and I hope I can share it with you all sooner than later (not that I am trying to tease you or anything).

To answer a few questions about my interactive notes...

Common Core: yes we are following common core, still learning it though. Not only am I new to a grade level, but the change up of content is throwing me for a little bit of a loop. Therefore it is not the most "fluent" order, but again I am working on it :)

Where do I get the notes: ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE! I do type them up myself, usually I am sitting at the table/desk/couch with my textbooks open, testing questions/books, internet pages up and as I toggle back and forth I type them up. They also vary based on content, some content naturally lends itself to interactive notes, sometimes I really have to stretch.

With that said, again I hope to maybe compile a few packets of notes, but for now...enjoy some Science notes.

Interactively Math!

Well a MUCH better week this week and a long weekend! Whoohoooo!

Here are some of my math interactive notes, I love how math is coming together this year. I never would have thought it, but I think it is becoming my strength!

Keep an eye out for a few interactive notes bundles (hopefully will get to them this weekend, but my TO DO list is always more than I CAN DO)

ENJOY!