Five For Friday January 30, 2015

Time for Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

This week started with a weekend birthday celebration for my youngest son, Luke.  He turned 9!!!  Where does the time go?  We started the celebration at school with a little cake.

The his friend spent the night and the next morning we hit the mall and his favorite restaurant, Dave & Busters.

One of the things he bought were these magnetic earrings (the only way mom would you allow him to have any earrings!).

He loves jumping at the mall on these trampoline harness things!  What a daredevil!

And in case you were wondering, those bottles are rootbeer!

We practiced some fractions during small groups.  We worked on the idea that when the numerator and denominator are the same or equal, the fraction is equal to 1 whole.

Because I taught 7th grade math before switching to Elementary, I know that students are often afraid of big numbers because they are big.  I don't want my students to be intimidated later on down the road, so we often use big numbers to show that the rule is still the same.

And while we are at it, why not throw in a few variables to make things interesting?

She was so proud to be doing algebra! No math anxieties here!

We started a new read aloud this week - The One and Only Ivan.  I absolutely LOVE this book and so do the students!

 

 

In science we modeled layers of earth caused by erosion by mixing different types of soil in water and letting them settle.

The most exciting part of our week was the fact that we were published!  I decided this year to try out Student Treasures for one of our writing units.  The students chose our Fairy Tales unit to publish as a class book.  The books arrived this week and I couldn't have been more pleased with them!  They were very high quality and the students are so proud!

How was your week?

Zaner Bloser I Read To Write Program - $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway!

I have been able to review the Zaner Bloser I Read To Write Program, and I love it!

I was sent a 3rd grade student edition and a teacher's edition to go with it to look over and try out with my students.

Each unit comes with passages that the student reads.  They then answer questions about the passage, and then finally write a piece about what they have read.

The articles tie in to other disciplines such as science, social studies, and math.  To the side of the articles are "sticky notes" designed to get students thinking about taking notes using the text to answer questions.

After each section there is a comprehension check piece with both multiple choice and written response, perfect for getting students ready for the next generation assessments.

Graphic organizers are provided in the writing instruction sections to help scaffold students as they prepare to write their pieces.

I worked with my students in small groups to do a close read of one of the pieces.  As you can see from the pictures, they were very engaged!

And samples of their work:

These are examples of a low, middle, and high from my class, and I was impressed with the high level of responses from ALL of my students!

The Teacher's Edition is also extremely helpful, offering not only answer keys, but also suggestions for teaching the material.  I loved the sections about teaching Close Reading and Vocabulary.

If you would like to use this program, you can order a sample of the program here to try with your students.  

 Now for the giveaway!  You can enter to win a $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card from me! That's two contests this month!  Just a special thank you for all of my followers!

 Enter below:

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Martin Luther King Jr. Lesson Plan Ideas and FREEBIES

Whether you have to work tomorrow or have the day off in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., chances are that you might want to teach your students a little more about the man and his accomplishments.  Here are a few resources and freebies to help you with your lesson planning this week:

Panicked Teacher has this poem and close reading activity all about Martin Luther King Jr.

 

 I had blogged about this mobile we made last week.  It is a freebie from Scholastic.

   

Laura Candler has this amazing packet full of activities to go along with the Martin Luther King Jr. Brain Pop video.

Here is a lesson plan to go along with the book Martin's Big Words.



Your students can create a Martin Luther King timeline of his important accomplishments with this idea from Crayola.

I also have a ton of other ideas pinned on my Pinterest board below.  If you like the ideas, please be sure to follow me on Pinterest for even more ideas and resources!


Follow Kelly's board Holidays in the Classroom - Martin Luther King on Pinterest.

Five For Friday January 16, 2015

Time for Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching! This has been a very long week for me, and I am happy to usher in the three day weekend!  Here are a few things I have been up to this week:

We started the week with a fossil hunt as part of a field trip for a STEM Earth Science class I am taking.  I was able to take two of my sons with me and they had a blast hunting for fossils of stickleback fish.

And keeping with that STEM focus, we also worked with our STEM roller coaster sets.

We had fun practicing our multiplication facts with these adorable penguin games.

 They are a freebie from Light bulbs and Laughter.

We also learned about text features using this amazing book.  Stay tuned for a giveaway soon!

It is a giant wipe-off book that is perfect for teaching non-fiction text features.

Last but not least, I am participating in an amazing giveaway with one of my blogging buddies, Celeste over at The Education Highway!  She is celebrating 300 followers.  Head on over to congratulate her!






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Good luck and enjoy your weekend!