Tried it Tuesday-Experiements in Reading

It's been a while, but I tried something new and thought it would be the perfect time to link up with Holly @ Fourth Grade Flipper!

We are working on procedural texts, so I decided to give the kids a little science experiment.  Does an orange float or sink?  I gave each table the materials and instructions.  They had to follow the steps in the experiment and write what they observed.  Here are a few pictures...

Afterwards, we had a brief discussion about density and how the peel contains air pockets which helps give the orange a lower density than water and the orange will float. When the peel is removed from the oranges its density is higher than water & it sinks to the bottom.

Next, I gave the students a group assignment.  They had to teach the class "how to" do something.  I explained that they couldn't go out and buy anything to complete their "How to".  It must be something they could do using the materials within the classroom.  I gave them a few ideas like...a dance move, paper airplane, origami star, throwing a football (thank goodness no one did that one!)

Here are a few of the "How to" posters they came up with...

The students quickly realized that they were missing a few key important details like materials they need and steps that were missing.  I explained to them that they had to think of their "audience".  It's easy for them to do these things because they know how to do them, but what about those people who didn't know how to do it?

Overall, they did a great job and had a good time doing it!  There was one group who created a "how to" do the hokey pokey.  It was so hilarious!  I even had a few kiddos who hadn't heard or done the hokey pokey, so of course we all had to get up and do the hokey pokey!

If you're interested in trying out the orange experiment, you can download a copy by clicking here!

Currently January!

Wow!  Where did December go?  I managed not to post anything the ENTIRE month of December!  I was super busy.  I need to get better!

So, it's the 1st and that means it's time to link up with Farley for Currently!

Listening: I'm not much of a football fan, it's just background noise.

Loving: My sweet husband bought me a new mini ipad for Christmas!  He even included the keyboard...I'm using it right now!

Thinking: I really need to blog more...especially since this is my first post in over a month!

Wanting: I really wish I had more time off.  It's been nice, but spent most of the break with Christmas set up and clean up.

Needing: Grades are due for report cards when I return on Monday at noon.  I still have one more assignment to grade and input before I'll be ready to submit.

Memory/Tradition: In years past, we've always spent Christmas Eve at my mother-in-law's house, but with people traveling we celebrated early. So, my husband and I decided to drive to College Station, Texas to Santa's Wonderland.  It was great and NOT crowded at all.  I'd heard the horror stories of waiting in 2 hr lines for the hayride through the lights, but Christmas Eve is the night to go!  I think we are going to make this our new tradition!

25 Days of Christmas

This has nothing to do with teaching, but I thought I'd share it with you.  Every now & then I try to find things I can do with my husband that we've never done before...something NEW!  You know, try to keep things "fresh".  Anyway, I came across with the website Dating Divas.  I hit the jackpot! 

I saw this idea that they called "Spouse Countdown".  For each day, starting on December 1st, your spouse will open one card until Christmas Day.  It could be just a small gesture of your appreciation, compliment or surprise dinner/movie/dessert.

Here's an example of what I did...

We love The Walking Dead!

What's the Purpose?

I'm soooo behind on my blog posts!  I feel like I can barely keep my head above water.  Anywho, several weeks ago we started our unit on expository texts and started off with Author's Purpose.

In order to set the stage for Author's Purpose, we talked about all the different purposes of texts and charted them. 

Next, I showed them several video clips and they had to guess the purpose.  Some of these videos are VERY long, so I used TubeChop to chop the video to the length I wanted.  Here are the videos I used...can you guess the purpose?

In case you were wondering,  I did chop the word "crap" out of the Duck Dynasty video.

Next, I split the kids into groups and gave them several texts.  They created a T-chart in their reader's notebook and decided the purpose of each text.  Afterwards, we reviewed each text and discussed how we knew the author's purpose.

 FYI-these are NOT the answers on this T-chart

Most of the texts I used came from student magazines like National Geographic, Time for Kids, Scholastic News and Storyworks.

Tried It Tuesday-Shopping Lists

It's Tuesday, so that means it's time to link up with Holly @ Fourth Grade Flipper

A few weeks ago, I blogged about how I level my classroom library.  If you missed it, click here to read about it. My goal is to get "Just Right" books in the hands of my students.  Some of them do a great job picking "Just Right" books, but others still need some guidance.

In order to help guide them to "Just Right" books, I give each student a shopping list.  Take a look...

They received the shopping lists AFTER I've already assessed their reading level.  None of the kids know which "color" represents which reading level.  I did this on purpose because as I mentioned before, my students tend to be very competitive.  To prove my point, when I handed out their shopping lists, some of my students first question was "Which color is the HIGHEST level?"  I explained that it's not a competition and that they aren't all the same cookies.  These colors represent which type of books are just right for YOU!

The dots represent the students current "independent" reading level and their "instructional" reading level. 

So far, it seems to be working beautifully with the majority of the students.  However, there are a few that I have to go shopping with and we use their list as a guide when we choose books.

At the beginning of the next grading period, I'll give the students all new shopping lists with different colors.

If you are interested in trying this out, please click here. Even if you don't have your library organized like mine, I've included another shopping list you could use to give suggested books/series.

Until next time...

Spark Student Motivation-Stamp Card

I'm a little late, but I'm linking up with Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching for her weekly Spark Student Motivation.

This year, like many of you, we starting using Class Dojo at our school.  

In years past, our district used an "expectation card" for the teachers to note any off task behaviors and each week the parents were required to sign it. Now, there are pros and cons to Class Dojo.  Let's start with the pros. 1. You can download the app on your phone, which makes it super easy to gives those points.  2. It allows the teachers to give "positive" points, so parents will know that their little darling is doing well in class and not just off task. Now for the pros to Class Dojo.  It requires to parents to login to check their student's report.  Now, it should be fairly easy if they download the app, but not all parents have downloaded the app. Also, I know not all parents are checking it because I can see who's checked the report. This past week, I had 4 parents check their child's dojo report and some parents haven't checked it since September.  I'm going to be honest, I don't check my own child's report each week....oops!  Mom of the Year!

Here's the motivation for my students...a STAMP CARD!

 

I wish I could say this was my brilliant idea, but it wasn't.  When I joined the team, this type of reward system was already in place and I'm not sure which brilliant teammate came up with it.

Using the class dojo report, the students will receive a row for each "positive" dojo point for that week.  If the student happens to receive any "negative" dojo points, then we subtract the negative points from the positive points to determine how many "rows" they receive for the week.  I collect their stamp cards each Monday morning before I reset the bubbles and give them their points for the previous week.  We will also collect these cards any time we see a student going above and beyond. Some teachers use those cute little crayola stampers, but I don't want to bother with that.  I will usually just initial the row or box.

Students can turn in their "boxes" for rewards in the classroom.  At the beginning of the year, we brainstorm some "rewards" they'd like to receive.  My partners and I decided which "rewards" to include and the point value of each reward.  Here are a few of the rewards the students can receive...

If you're interested, click here for your own stamp card and here for the rewards.

My Daily Schedule

I saw this linky party and decided to join Susan @ Thank God It's First Grade!

It was so much fun to see everyone's schedules!  Here's my weekly schedule...

We are contracted to work from 7:55-3:55, but we all know that we work MUCH longer than that!  I usually arrive around 7:30 because I bring my own personal child to school with me (pros and cons to that!), so it's difficult to get out of the house any earlier.  It's rare that I'm out the door by 4pm, but lately I haven't had a choice. My son started playing select baseball and also plays for a local baseball league too.  We usually are at baseball practice or games 4 days during the week and sometimes as many as 5 games on the weekends. Yikes!!!!

I'm blocked, so I teach the same subjects 3 times a day.  We call it...Trios!  I think my last block are the fortunate souls because I figure out what didn't work with the first two blocks and I'm able to adjust my lesson by the time I see my last class.

Community Circle is a time for community building activities or quick Minute to Win It games.

Extended Learning Time is when the kiddos are pulled for Intervention, Speech or Social Groups.  Those who aren't being pulled are working on enrichment activities.  This is also my opportunity to pull kids from all 3 of my blocks to reteach any skills they haven't mastered.

The kids rotate daily for Specials and I'm going to admit that I'm a little jealous of those of you who have Technology on your specials rotation.  The district I use to work for had Technology on their specials rotation, but not my current district.  We still have Technology objectives, but those objectives are put back on the regular classroom teachers to teach.  You know, in our spare time!

Several times we have to make adjustments to our schedule for Library (Fridays), Professional Learning Communities (we call it PDR & we rotate every other week), Grade Level Musicals, School-Wide Programs, Author Visits, Field Trips, ect...  It seems like lately all we've done is adjust our schedule for this or that!

Duty...ha ha, you said DUTY!!!  My grade level rotates our duty weekly.  So, there are some weeks I'll have a morning duty & some weeks I'll have afternoon duty.  Once in a blue moon, we have a duty free week.

So, that's my weekly schedule in a nutshell!