I'm excited to link up with my sweet friend, Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper, for Tried It Tuesday. It's been awhile since I was able to join in, but I'm happy to be here this week.
I actually have two "Tried Its" for this week, one teaching related and one that isn't.
First, the "isn't"...
So my two kids left Sunday morning for the band trip to Florida. I was looking forward to spending the day relaxing and catching up on blogging.
Then I made the mistake of going into my daughter's room to find her fish food so I could feed her fish while she was gone. BIG mistake on my part. After I pushed my way through her door (she apparently told me she "cleaned" on Saturday before she left....), I was overcome by the need to do a little straightening. (Anyone with teenagers will recognize the irony in referring to any teenage mess as "little".) So....one day, six bags of garbage, two bags of clothes to donate, and 12 loads of laundry later, her room is "clean." Needless to say, my relaxing day turned out to be not-so-relaxing after all...but at least she will come home to a clean room.
I consider this experience a "tried it" because we are NOT going back to the theory that as long as the door is closed, you can choose to keep your room any way you want to. We tried it her way, but it didn't work. Sorry, honey (if you are reading)!
Now for the teaching "Tried It"...
You may remember that my students have been working hard on researching and writing their biography projects. I have received a few requests (thank you!) for more information about websites that I have used. The one website that my students enjoy using is www.factmonster.com.
There is TONS of information on this website, which makes it great for research. Here's the page we used for researching our famous American heroes. I love the search bar option too!
There is also a handy encyclopedia page.
Need help with homework? There's a page for that too.
I think it would be fun to let the kids look around the "Cool Stuff" page.
(Even the "Dating and Marriage" section has some interesting facts about dating/marriage customs around the world. Maybe a project for Valentine's Day???)
As with any website, you need to teach your students how to use it safely and responsibly. Most of the links stay on-site, but there are banner ads that may distract some kids.
What have you tried lately? Head on over to Fourth Grade Flipper to check out more ideas!
Just a quick link up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for her monthly Monday Made It linky party. This is where we all get to share our craftiness and creative sides, two areas of our psyche that are not nurtured enough during the school year.
Today, I am sharing a Win and a Fail.
First, the "win".
Last month, I finished up working on my new TpT product, Super Writer Research. I am addicted to all things writing and am obsessed with helping my 4th grade students write better. I currently teach two sections of writing and love it! I can definitely see growth in my writers since the beginning of the year. I can't wait to hear what the 5th grade teachers think when they get them next year. :)
We are working on research writing and I noticed that my students love to get on the internet and do research, but they really don't know the difference between a reliable source and an unreliable source, how to take notes, and how to prepare a bibliography. My new Super Writer Research unit teaches them all they need to know to prepare for research. You just add your own topic after going over the presentation.
Now for my "fail"...
I consider myself a pretty good cook. Yesterday for our family St. Patrick's Day dinner, I made an ice cream grasshopper pie. Well, let me tell ya, I don't know what I did, but it did not turn out.
How simple could it be?
Take a half gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream and soften it. I added in about 1/2 cup of mint syrup (the kind you could add to coffee, no alcohol), and poured it into a chocolate cookie crust. I let that freeze up for a bit. Then I smoothed on some hot fudge sauce and refroze for a few hours. Finally, I added some Cool Whip and mint chips to the top and froze it again. When it was time to eat dinner, we took it out of the freezer and let it sit on the counter for about 15 minute to soften a bit.
When my husband went to cut it to serve it, the pie was so soupy we could have eaten it through a STRAW! I would have taken a picture of it but I was too busy trying to help scoop what little remained frozen out of the pie plate to serve it. Uggghhhh....Any idea what happened?
I am looking forward to spring break in two weeks to nurture more of my crafty side. Can't wait! I'll probably leave the cooking alone for awhile...
Top of the week to ya! That's leprechaun speak for "Welcome to this week's edition of A Peek at My Week," the weekly linky party where you share what you've got going on this week.
Judging from the activity in blog land, many of you have been on Spring Break this past week. Not me....I still have two weeks of school. My kids, however, only have one more week and then they are off to Florida with the high school band to perform at Disney and Universal for the week. So at home this week, it will be utter craziness with packing, shuttling them back and forth for nightly band practice, and making sure that nothing is forgotten at home when we drop them off at 6:30 am next Sunday. My daughter is fully prepared though. She ordered every imaginable cable/plug/charger for her Kindle and iPod from Amazon -- just in case one should break on the trip. Heaven forbid!
How will we teachers celebrate at school? We are having a baked potato bar at school for lunch. Yum! Then later on in the week, we will welcome in the first day of spring with a Salad Luncheon. Lots of staff have signed up to bring a different kind of salad to share. (We LOVE to eat at my school! :) Here is the salad I plan on making -- Cashew Chicken Rotini Salad.
Two days of group lunches means two mornings I don't have to scrounge around the freezer to figure out what I'm bringing to eat.
In class this week, we are beginning our research for our Famous Heroes research project. Last week, students pulled names of famous people from a basket. In the past, I've let them choose their own person, but this year I wanted a little bit more control over the craziness. (And I'm sorry, but Justin Bieber has no business being considered a hero...But try to tell that to 9 year old girls.)
We have almost finished going through the research process using my new product, Super Writer Research. The kids have done a GREAT job with learning how to take notes from a source without plagiarizing (think I've scared them to death) and using short phrases instead of complete sentences in their note taking. Now they are ready to roll!
I was hoping to wrap up these research projects before Spring Break. That gives us 10 days...I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Welcome to another edition of A Peek at My Week, the weekly linky party where you can share your plans for the upcoming week. I just love checking out what everybody else has going on!
The sun rose an hour later here in Wisconsin....Daylight Savings Time. That means an hour of lost sleep -- but also an extra hour of sunlight tonight. Ahhh....I think spring is on its way!
I hope you have a great week planned for yourself. I know many of you have spring break this week. I'm so jealous. We don't have break until March 31st. Oh well...Here's what I've got going on this week:
This week, we are beginning to work on our biography research projects. While planning for this unit, I reflected back to how I've taught it in the past and decided it was time for a change.
As a lifelong learner myself, research is something that comes naturally to me. Anyone who knows me, knows how addicted I am to reading professional books that will help me learn new things. I am always on the prowl for ideas and best practices that can help improve my students' achievement. While this is good for me, it is something that I assume is everyone knows how to do. Even my students....But they don't.
When I've taught this research unit in the past, I have always assumed that my students knew HOW to research. But as I reflect back on this, I realize that their idea of research was copying information off of the internet and recycling it (sometimes word-for-word) in their own research project. Ughhh...
So this year we will begin our research project by learning HOW to research.
Hooray! It's officially March. Although you couldn't tell from the four inches of snow we got yesterday....But I don't care. I packed up some of my heavy (dark) sweaters and brought down some fresher colors from the closet upstairs. Sure, I'll probably freeze for a few weeks, but at least I won't look like the walking dead in all my dark clothes.
Listening: To nothing. Absolutely nothing. Love it!!
Loving: Yesterday I did some retail therapy to help get me out of the winter doldrums. I found this really cute green sweater and shirt at JCPenney....I think I look like spring, don't you??
Thinking: This is our last week of darkness by 5:30...Clocks change next Sunday!! Ahhh...sun, where have you been?
Wanting: I'm almost done with my Reading class. I'm working on getting my Reading Teacher license. I have learned A LOT in this class, but it pretty much takes up my whole weekend. I just have my final research paper to write and I hope to finish that today.
Needing: It's amazing how dust can collect in places when the windows aren't open to blow it around. I have a date with a dust rag this week.
???: My baby boy (OK, not a baby....he turned 16 in January) has made his appointment to get his driver's license -- May 8th. Pray for us! :)
Now on to A Peek at My Week......
We are celebrating Read Across America Week at school this week. We actually kicked things off last Friday with a Read the Most From Coast to Coast with Accelerated Reader. In case you missed my post on Friday, our school read 4.7 million words (we didn't meet our goal of 5 million, but it's still nothing to laugh at) and the 4th grade beat the 5th grade in most points earned. YAY!
Here's our schedule for this week's celebration:
Monday: Read All About It -- Wear a t-shirt with (school appropriate) words. (Yeah, we hated to have to add that part about school appropriate, but you KNOW what would happen if we didn't...)
Tuesday: Readers are Leaders -- Wear your best clothes -- dresses, nice pants, etc. are awesome!
Wednesday: Bad Case of the Stripes -- Stripes, stripes, stripes!
Thursday: Oh, The Places You'll Go -- What do you want to be when you grow up? Dress like it!
Friday: Road Trip for Reading -- Dress like a tourist as you take a trip to read with your buddy class.
In Writing this week, we will begin working on research projects -- specifically biographies. For this unit, I want the emphasis to be on developing good research skills and teaching note taking skills that don't involve copying directly from the source. Honestly, learning about their chosen person is going to be secondary in this unit. I have noticed my 4th graders really have trouble with locating reliable sources and then not copying their notes. We need to work on this so this is where we will begin.
Here are some of our goals so far:
Find appropriate sources on your topic
Take notes on your topic in a format different from the source
Locate interesting facts, not "All About ___"
Develop a bibliography of sources
Present learning both writing (report) and visually (speech)
Do you have any suggestions for how to teach research and note taking skills? I would love to hear them!
For those of you who have been looking for me to post this week's linky party, A Peek at My Week, I apologize that I am getting to this so late! I will try to be earlier in the weeks to come ;).
Whew....I am so glad ECSTATIC that last week is history!!! We had WKCE state testing all week -- an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon -- EVERY day. My poor kiddos were so tested out at the end of Friday that I felt so bad for them. I don't know about you, but I hate being out of my daily routine so I know what they must have felt like. I'm looking forward to a "normal" week this week....
So here's what I have planned...
Writing: We will be working on the local annual writing anthology contest. This year's theme is "Figure it Out." I really like this year's theme because I think the kids can do a lot with it -- the interpretation is up to them. We'll see how it goes!
Social Studies: Every day after we finished WKCE testing last week, we worked on our Native American Museum projects. Students worked in groups to research a Native American tribe that is important to Wisconsin's history and are putting together a museum "display" to teach others about their tribe. The kids were loving this activity and took their research very seriously.
Our Museum Walk will be on Thursday.
TpT: I'm excited to announce that I (think) I will be ready to post a big project to my TpT Store later this week. I have been working on it for awhile, and I don't want to say too much, but I can tell you it is something that will motivate your students to read A LOT! (Check back later! ;)
So now it's your turn! Link up below and share a Peek at Your Week.
Please indulge me for a moment while I say what a GLORIOUS weekend was! I am hoping that Mother Nature has finally figured it out and has sent that wicked winter packing! Rumor has it that it will get near 80 degrees on Tuesday. (I'm not going to dwell on the forecasted high temp for Thursday....(49)....and live in the moment.)
So...what is the first thing that I did with this beautiful weather? (Other than avoid being inside...) I went out and bought FLOWERS!!! As we walked around the garden center at Lowe's, my husband was trying to ignore the fact that I would be paying good money for something that may freeze later this week. But, like I said, I am living in the moment. I didn't buy too many, just enough to add some color to my patio. Aren't they pretty???
OK...back to reality.
I have been working hard to combine reading and writing experiences for my students this year. After finishing our study of the Titanic and writing ourTitanic newspapers, we are moving on to biographies.
First, I am having students research a famous person who is no longer alive. Why someone who is no longer alive? Because I don't think I can handle any more biography projects about Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, or one of the boys from One Direction. :)
I found this great Biography Project from Mrs. Renz that has absolutely everything my students need to complete this research project. After researching their person using three different sources, they will prepare an Important Poem and speech about their person. (The project from Mrs. Renz has a lot more that you can do with this unit, but I am pressed for time so I just pulled these two activities to use.) This project will also help us meet our Common Core requirements for Speaking and Listening, which is an added bonus!
To incorporate writing, I am having my students write their own autobiographies. I am calling this project "The Stories of My Life (so far...)".
We have been working very hard all year to practice "Show, Don't Tell" writing strategies. Some students are REALLY good at this! Others are struggling with what this means.
I found this great video by one of my writing idols, Barry Lane, that teaches about slowing down our writing and "Exploding a Moment." (Just saying that phrase out loud definitely gets my kids attention and makes writing seem more interesting for them!)
After watching this video in class, we did a shared writing together where we slowed down an incident that happened in the hallway right before writing class. Using our SMART board, we wrote about how one student was making a noise in line and I was trying to figure out who was doing it. The kids had a lot of fun writing together and it was great practice "exploding a moment."
So what do exploding moments have to do with writing our autobiographies???
Well, I have decided that I wanted to take autobiography writing to the next level. I don't want this project to be "The STORY of my life," I want it to be "The STORIES of my life." In other words, we are going to avoid the whole "I was born on ___ in ___. My mom is ___ and my dad is ___ . I like to ___. I don't like to ___. When I grow up, I want to be a ___. THE END."
I have given the kids four "chapters" they will write about:
The Early Years
Growing Up
My Interests
Looking Forward to My Future
Each of these chapters will contain at least one "story" in which they explode a moment. So far, we have been working on our drafts of each chapter. Some students are really having a GREAT time with this (see below), and others will need more coaching this week. :) I will keep you posted on how this goes.
If you would like a copy of my planning packet, you can click here. If you would like a copy of the final project that will be bound into a book, you can get it here. Please let me know how it goes or if you have any suggestions!
In the mean time, I hope you have a great week with many fun "stories." ;)
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