Poet-Tree: Pun Completely Intended

The holidays are fast approaching in our classroom! Since all of our fall activities have come and gone, it was time to bring in some fresh and new holiday spirit. I present you.....drumroll please...... our "Poet-Trees".

Our Poet-Trees just happen to be a few very-well priced 3 foot Christmas trees that were recently picked up from Target. The trees were quite barren and needed a bit of pizzaz. Some good ol' 5th and 6th grade educational pizzaz. Isn't that the best kind?

I gave each student a large ornament print-out. I asked the students to research and find a famous poet and a poem that he or she wrote. I specified a list of poets that I wanted my students to research only because I know my students know plenty about Dr. Seuss and other classroom favorites. I wanted them to step out of their comfort zone a bit and take a look at other classics.

After each student picked their poem, they signed up for a day to present their poem to the class. Before their presentation day they needed to type the poem, decorate their ornament, and get at least three signatures saying that they had recited their poem to an audience. This was wonderful because each listener had an opportunity to give comments and shape them into better public speakers.

Let my tell you I was quite impressed with my students! When it came time for them to present, they got up there with confidence and recited some classics. I love that this activity asked them to research poets and really take some time to understand the poem that they wrote. Many of my students came up with more than one favorite and had a hard time deciding. It has been great fun listening to them in class!

Thanksgiving Festivities

Ahh.... so I do realize that this post is a bit late on the arrival. However, better late than never, right? I have been so incredibly busy with student teaching winding down that I have not had a second to sit down and blog. I pinky promise that I will be more diligent now that I have more time. I will.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was a few weeks ago. In my class I made it a fun-filled educational day. I am a firm believer that education on the day before Thanksgiving break is vital. As educators in todays world, we don't have a day to spare on the curriculum calendar. I packed the day full with fun activities, math games, and even a Black-Friday debate. The topic was " How early is too early when opening stores on Black Friday?" My students were FILLED with all sorts of ideas about the topics. We had a rather heated debate and I think that they raised some wonderful points! They were begging me to stay inside for recess to continue the discussion. 

Who says learning on the day before break can't be fun?!

In the morning I had a treat waiting on the students desk when they came in. I created rice krispie treat turkeys' for the students and allowed them to munch on them while they were completing their bell work. They were impressed by my turkey creations! Thats exactly why I love my kiddos, they appreciate all of the hard work I put into it. Even if my turkeys do come out looking a little less-than-turkey-like. 

(Did I mention I made 60 of them?!)

In the sprit of Thanksgiving, we also created "The Diary of Plymouth Rock". I read the book, Who's That Stepping on Plymouth Rock to my class. The book tells about the very interesting life of plymouth Rock. We learned how many times the rock was moved, the many places it was moved, the various monuments that were built to enclose the rock, and even its current resting place. The students were truly enthralled with this book. I was also impressed to learn so much about the history of such a important artifact!

We then created our own diary of the rock. I asked the students to complete a diary entry for the rock. They were asked to fill in the dates (located in the book) for the 6 important events in the rocks life. We have really been focusing on the voice trait, so the students were asked to use strong voice since the diary entry was from the rocks point of view. They turned out wonderfully! I decided to create a class book out of all of the wonderful entries.

Those are some of our Thanksgiving festivities, what are yours?

Pet Rock Persuasive Writing

I believe that a huge part of a students learning in school is linked directly to the experiences that they have. Some of the best teachers that I had as a student still stick out in my memory today.

We recently ended a very memorable unit in our class. The students created their very own pet rock. They created a house, a name, a personality, and even a Halloween costume for their lovable friend. Let me tell you.... they had so much fun with it.

Here is a home that one of my students created... completely furnished!

Our pet rocks lived with us in our room for about two weeks. In this time, the students were working on a persuasive writing unit. I asked them to write an essay convincing their audience that a pet rock was the best pet to own. After all, they are quite easy to care for! It was easy of the students to convince others that a pet rock was the best pet because they had become quite connected to them.

We worked as a class to brainstorm ideas, learn the format, and then write our very own essay. At the end of the unit, the students were able to do a photo shoot with their pet rock to add to the published version of their final copy. 

Since the rocks lived in our rooms for so long, we were able to do a lot with them. We did journal prompts, and even wrote them letters explaining what was happening in our room. The students loved the experience of having a pet rock. I created a "pet rock daycare" so that our friends could be well cared for while we were busy learning. It was a great way to avoid distraction with the rocks. 

It was a wonderful unit and a wonderful experience. I have to admit, I was a bit sad to see them go home this week!

Hamburger Paragraphs

We have been hard at work in writing this week. We have been working on our pet rock persuasive essays. I can't wait to share more about this unit with you. My student's are LOVING it.

I wanted to focus in on the creation of a "perfect paragraph"; a topic sentence, 3 details, and a clincher sentence. I really wanted them to take the time to understand how to construct this paragraph. I decided to turn it into a mini project.

We created hamburger paragraphs. What good is a hamburger without all the goodies inside of it? If you stopped by your favorite burger restaurant and they plopped down nothing but a bun on your plate, you would be pretty disappointed wouldn't you? I know I would and my students agreed. In the same respect, A burger without a bun is nearly impossible to hold together and get a good taste of. This very same idea is true in writing. I love that my smarties could relate so well to this concept. 

I had them write a sentence of their paragraph on each part of the burger. The topic sentence on the top bun, the details in the middles, and the closing sentence on the bottom bun. The results were wonderful (and adorable)!

Veterans Day

It is so important that students learn to reflect on the things that people have done to make their life what it is today. Veterans day is the perfect day to do that. 

I run Community Service Club at our school. We have students from 1st grade all the way up to 6th grade in the club. We took the day and gave back to the people who worked so hard to protect us. We read an article, wrote letters to give to a local veterans home, and then created this masterpiece!

My students were so excited to create this! My older members worked hard at cutting out everyones hands, while my littlest raced their hands and glued them on to the flag. 

I am thrilled with how this turned out and I plan to donate it to a local veterans home after it has visited our hallway wall for a bit. They are so proud of their work and so proud of the veterans' that worked so hard for our safety. 

Math Games/Centers- Jenga, Guess Who, and Ker-Plunk!

Mathematics is one of my absolute favorite subjects to teach. I love seeing my students enjoying math and saying things like, "this is so much fun! Who knew math could be fun?" It makes me smile to see them enjoying their learning. It is one of the many rewards of this wonderful job.

I like to spend some time reviewing concepts after we have completed a unit. I find that a worksheet style review is effective in many ways, however I believe that every student learns differently and many of my kiddos are kinesthetic learners, they gotta' touch, feel, and experience it to understand it. I love this.

Many times, we play review games in a "center" style rotation. This week we spent some time reflecting on percents, fractions, and decimals. I created a few games by putting a spin on some old favorites that live in my game closet. My students LOVED every second of the review. Some even stayed in for recess to "study" for their upcoming math test. 

Math Ker-plunk

I put sticky labels on the ends of Kerplunk sticks and folded them in half. The way this game works is you pull out the sticks one by one hoping that you DON'T make the marbles fall out by pulling your stick out. I had one student call out a fraction, percent, or decimal. The other student needed to find that particular stick equivalent version of what his partner called out. For example, if I called out 99%, my partner would need to find 99/100 or .99 on the sticks. (this could also work with cards that the students would flip over if you wanted this to be a bit more independent)

Math Guess Who

Who doesn't love a good ol' game of Guess Who. This game works very similarly to the original version. Students choose a card from the deck and need to give the other student clues of "what it is not" by answering questions and narrowing it down until ONLY one card remains flipped up on their board. For example, if my card was 8/10, and my partner asked "Is is a fraction?" I would reply "yes" and she would flip down everything on her board that was not a fraction. If she asked, "Is it in simplest form?" I would say, "no" and she would flip down everything that was in simplest form. In the end, my partner would only have 8/10 standing up on their board and they would win. 

 Math Jenga

Students give each other clues to direct them to which peg they need to push out of the tipping tower. They (of course) try to make it challenging by having their peers push out CHALLENGING pegs! If I saw that 9/10 was a tricky peg, I would say something like, "Push out the peg that is equivalent to 90%" (In the game I created, there was more than one!) It was so fun and stressful to watch!

Class Totem Pole

In social studies we have been learning about Native American traditions! 

One of the traditions we have spent a lot of time with is the totem pole. We talked about how each piece of a totem pole is meant to symbolize a particular person. Usually, they were place in front of a home to represent that particular family. We had a discussion about what each symbol means, and how the colors that are used also represent something about the person it is symbolic of. 

My students were so interested! This got me thinking. I wanted to know how they would represent themselves. How do they view themselves? What colors describe them and how? What are they proud of?

I decided to make a class totem pole. I took off the Michigan projects from my park sign kiosk project and I suddenly had a blank slate! 

I asked the students to represent themselves by choosing an animal. On the back of the paper I supplied, they would need to write a paragraph describing why they chose that animal and why it represented them.

They also needed to choose unique colors! In the same respect, they were asked to describe, in detail, why those colors were used on their section of the totem pole. They needed to write a paragraph explaining that as well. 

When their creations were complete, I taped them on to the totem pole! I taped them as flaps so when our kindergarden friends come by, (they are our biggest fans!) they have a chance to read about our symbols. My students LOVE to watch as the little admire their creations. It warms my heart to see them learning and my students teaching.