We are in the middle of writing a persuasive writing piece right now.  Using an idea that I borrowed from my amazing teammate Kristi, the students are writing an essay to convince Grungy Grace (of Jack Prelutsky's poem by the same name) to wash up.  My students are really having a fun time with it! First, we created an anchor chart of the attributes of persuasive writing. (which I have no picture of because I forgot to take it before Spring Break...sorry!) Then, as a class, we read this funny poem by Jack Prelutsky.  It is really an engaging poem, that the kids glommed onto immediately.  They loved how the little girl was thinking of "clever" ways to keep from washing, but they all knew that in the end, it was just bad for everyone involved that she was so dirty. I am extremely devious, my name is Grungy Grace. I hardly ever brush my teeth or wash my hands and face. “It’s time to wash,” my father says, but since I’m not a dope, I simply turn the water on and ...
Over the years, managing my classroom library has been a struggle.  I want to be sure that the students are able to get to the books with ease, can check them out to read at home or in class, AND are held accountable for bringing them back (since we all know that each and every one of the books in the library were purchased with my own money!)  I really haven't found the perfect solution to this library dilemma.  So here is what I have settled on...for now. My students are free to browse my library during any free time they have (sometimes I even assign it during Independent Work Time as a May Do) and I encourage them to check books out of my library.  When they have chosen a book from my library, they then fill out a Check Out Slip. When they have filled out the slip, they simply place it in an index card filer (I know there is a better word for it, but I can't think of it now!) where it stays until they are done with the book.  When it is returned, the kids p...
Spring break is just around the corner for me....which signals crunch time for The TEST.  I have been trying to get the kids to engage in their learning, yet teach them the skills they will need to navigate their way through The TEST. One of the skills the kids need to know is how to discover the meaning of words based on their Greek or Latin roots.  For example, a question may ask them to give the meaning of "telephone".  Not one of the four choices will say, "far away sound", but that is the literal translation of the roots we have been studying.  I needed to find a way to bridge the literal translations and the actual meanings (which, using telephone, does have something to do with far away sounds, but not in that exact way).  It is so tricky, but my fellow bloggers have inspired me!  Laura Candler posted the other day about how she uses Easter eggs to have the students review skills.  ( check out her post here )  Well, my daughter needed eggs for her prescho...
For years, one of the highlights of my class was the Poem of the Week.  Working on fluency, as well as countless oral language standards, the students would memorize a poem each week.  Since most of my students each year are primarily English Language Learners, practicing their oral language skills was such an important thing for them. Each Monday, a new poem would be displayed on the pocket chart.  The poems were never more than 10 lines...simply because the pocket chart only had 10 slots.  ;)   The students would copy the poem into their Poetry Journals, and we would set about the task of beginning to memorize the poem.  The students would learn the meter of the poem, the rhythm, and the tone on this first day.  We would also discuss pronunciation/meanings of difficult words.  This would take all of 10 minutes to do. On Tuesday through Thursday, we would begin by determining the rhyme scheme, learning various poetry terms and traits that were evidenced in the poem, and discus...
Laura Candler at Corkboard Connections is having a Fantastic Link Up....a Fantastical Foldable Link Up ! Since I use foldables so much in my class, I thought I would create a post dedicated to some of them that I have used in the past. I LOVE foldables.  They are so useful and handy.  The kids love folding the paper, it keeps them engaged in the learning, and, best part of all, NO COPIES ARE NECESSARY!!  Paper and a pencil are the only requirements (though scissors and a stapler *do* come in handy sometimes).  They lend themselves well to any content area and the same fold can be used without the kids saying "We did this before".  What could be more fabulous than that? So here are a few foldables that I have used in my class with great success.   This is a simple one to create.  The students folded a piece of paper in half.  They then cut the TOP sheet into however many sections we needed.  You can see from the pictures below that one is cut into fifths and one into four...
One of the things we are required to do with all work that is placed on bulletin boards is post feedback to the students (well, I know we really should be doing this on all work we assign, but the bulletin board one is a mandate ;) )  Since every board has a rubric, a task, and the standards, it would be presumed that the students know what they did or didn't do to earn the score posted.  But, they really don't.  So giving feedback became another layer to all of our assignments. Now, I think that feedback is a WONDERFUL thing, just as much as the next guy, but actually providing written feedback on all papers that go on the board is quite time consuming.  If you know anything about me (and from this post you just might), you know that I practically wallpaper my room with student work.  So giving feedback on all of the papers would have me at school until the cows come home.  To avoid that, but still have some feedback on each paper I put up, I have created these little too...
The work we do in class each day doesn't stop because a student is absent.  Usually, as the day wears on, it piles up on their desk creating a mound of unfinished work that will need to be completed at some point.  In order to *hopefully* tame this mess, and have a chance at the work being completed, I have made some "While You Were Gone" folders. Over the summer, I ordered these awesome "While You Were Gone" notepads from...wait for it...wait for it... Vista Print .  (I know some of you were shocked and awed that I mentioned them again....not like I am obsessed or anything)  The pad comes with 50 sheets, which was perfect, since I only have 30 kids. I then took the sheets apart and glued them onto red folder and laminated.  When a student is absent, my Table Captain goes to get a red folder from the holder and places it on the absent student's desk.  As the day wears on, and papers get distributed, the Table Captain simply places any work that needs ...
We are beginning our study of life science this week.  Segueing from physical science, I introduced the concept of cells being the building blocks of life, similar to atoms being the basic chemical make up of everything.  We talked about how cells are basically little bodies in and of themselves and how they need the same 4 things that all multicellular organisms need:  food, water, gas exchange, and waste disposal. From there, things got *really* dry and boring....so I thought a little BrainPOP could remedy the situation.  We began with a movie on cells themselves.  This mentioned that there were two basic types of cells (animal and plant) and that they did some different, but basically the same, things.  The second video was on cell specialization.  That laid out the differences a bit more. I then gave the kids a piece of white paper, which we folded in half, cut a little space off the top, and slits in the open side to form 8 doors.  On each of the doors, the students drew one o...