Snippets and Snaps from the Year So Far

Hey all!

     I know it's been a while since I last posted, but it's been a very busy school year! I've been trying some new things in my classroom and feeling the pressure from the parish as far as testing goes. I won't get into any negative though. With my job, the positive far out ways the negative.

So, here are some things that have been going on in my classroom and at Steere:

Using puzzle cards to explain sequence. This is from Kagan. 

After reading a short story, students worked in teams to create a sequence graphic organizer.

Studying for our novel test using Fan-N-Pick.

Our pet rats got some new cage swag!

I dressed up as Albert Einstein the first day students presented their research projects.

After reading Who Was Albert Einstein?, the students completed a research project on an inventor. The kids had to write a persuasive essay, create an advertisement (either "billboard", brochure, or commercial), and present it to the class. For bonus, the students could dress up as the inventor. I wish I could share some of the commercial videos with you. They were awesome.

I had a great time volunteering at our school carnival!

I dressed up as Mrs. Frizzle for Halloween! 

I have been super busy with work and creating a new shop on Etsy for my artwork! I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Five For Friday... On Saturday 10/4

This weekend is going to be awesome! I am officiating a wedding for two of my awesome friends!!! :) 

I have the best students ever! They are so sweet!

My ver sweet mother-in-law made this frame for me! How adorable is this? I added the quote at the bottom. :)

This week we started on a narrative. Students were able to choose whatever they wanted to write about! We brainstormed using a word-web and played Fan-N-Pick with these Prewriting Story HOTS Kagan cards! The students have writing notebooks where they brainstorm, write their rough drafts, and revise & edit their writing. Most students are super excited about their stories! I will let them read them to the class when they're finished.

Next week is my observation lesson, and I'm super nervous... as usual. I will be teaching a lesson on Text-Evidence. In order to give choices to my students, I purchased this product from TPT! I will be using the October themed passages. I'm really happy with this purchase!

I attended the Project Read training this week. I learned a lot. I won't be able to apply all of what I learned to my 5th graders though. These are some sock puppets they gave me. lol I'll be donating these to our new 1st grade teacher. I think she can make better use of them! 

This week my students turned in a huge project from me. I forgot to snap some pictures of the project, so I'll take pictures next week to show you all!

Five for Friday... on Saturday

I requested that Nikki and Melonheadz make this awesome bundle! I'm so excited that she made it! I love it!

This week we've been doing a lot of Kagan strategies! We've been preparing for our Albert Einstien novel test. The first day, I had students play Fan-N-Pick using vocabulary cards that they created.

The next day we played Quiz-Quiz-Trade with question cards to prepare for our test. It took a few tries, and we still have a lot of work to do. Overall it went pretty well. We are working on social skills and voice-level! :)

Another review game we played was Numbered Heads Together! The kids really loved this one! First students answer a question independently on their white boards. Then they compare answers with their group and have to come to a consensus. Once they all agree they sit down. I then call on one number to give the final answer. I really enjoyed this game!

My first Scholastic order came in! I was so excited! I was able to add the Hunger Series, Percy Jackson Series, and the Haddix Series to my classroom library! I also added a bunch more! With my points, I ordered some other teacher tools! I now have an I Have, Who Has game for grammar, grammar question cards I can use with Kagan strategies, and Informative Text Cards with HOTS questions! So excited to use these throughout the year!