A Peek at My Week {3-23-14}

Welcome to another edition of A Peek at My Week, my weekly linky party where you can share what you've got going on this week!

This is our last week before Spring Break and also the last week of the quarter.  That means that it is MAJOR catch up/finish up time.  I will be working on report cards this week so I don't have to do them over break.

For our read aloud in class, we have been reading The Lemonade Wars by Jacqueline Davies.  I managed to pick up 25 copies of this book from Scholastic Book Clubs earlier this year when they were $1 each so each student has one to hold in their hand and follow along during read aloud time.

If you haven't read this book, I would highly recommend it.  The students are loving it!  It shows how math is used in the real world (the students love trying to figure out the math before the author reveals the answer in the book), is great for teaching point of view and has some amazing "golden lines" that can be lifted for writing.  We will be finishing up this week.  

I'm trying to figure out what we should read next, after we return from break.  I'm thinking about The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley.  I read this to my class last year in 4th quarter while we were learning about tall tales, fractured fairy tales, and mythology.  It was a great read aloud!

Also this week, students will begin drafting their biography research projects.  I was going to try to have those all finished up before break, but I don't want to rush the important drafting and revising stages.  My goal is to have all drafting done this week.  I will collect the drafts for break (so they don't get lost or tossed).  Then we will revise and publish the week we come back.

Finally on Friday, we will be having a Pancake Snack to as we look at some old slides (yes, slides!!) of lumber jacking in Wisconsin history.  We have parents coming in to make pancakes with lots of fun toppings to enjoy while we look at the slides.  We are starting to get into the more modern history of our state (if you call the 1800s modern) and the kids are learning some pretty cool things.  Did you know that Wisconsin is called the Badger State because the lead miners that came to Wisconsin in the 1800s with the lead rush were too busy to build houses so they dug holes in the sides of hills and just lived there (sometimes with their families -- not my idea of comfort!) when they weren't at mining lead?  The kids thought this was pretty fascinating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Wishing you a great week!

Monday Made It -- A Win & a Fail

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...

I'm looking forward to seeing more Monday Made It's at 4th Grade Frolics.  See you there!

A Peek at My Week {3-16-14}

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!

As you know, Monday is St. Patrick's Day.

(Love this super cute clip art by Melonheadz!)

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.

An InLinkz Link-up

Wishing you a wonderful week!

Blessing or Burden?

On Monday, I was in a bad mood.  Not just any bad mood -- I was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.  It was like everything bothered me and nothing seemed right.

I asked my principal to send me home with a bad attitude.  She said "no."

I made it through the day -- and so did everyone else around me -- but I'm sure it wasn't pleasant.  I tried to keep my bad mood to myself, but you know how it is....I just wasn't on my game.

Until I thought of one of my students....

This student has been working really hard to improve at reading.   I mean, working-her-butt-off hard. When school began, she was reading at the second grade level and is now reading practically on grade level (4th grade, 7th month).  She reads everything she can and is always pushing herself to read something more challenging. She asks me if she can take the STAR Reader test almost on a weekly basis to see if her reading level has gone up. Every time she gets a 100% on an AR quiz (which is VERY often), she is practically beaming.  If she doesn't score well, she still picks up another book and gets reading.  Reading has always been difficult for her, but with hard work and a positive attitude, her efforts are paying off.

Sure, it would be easy for this student to get weighed down by the "burden" she faces on a daily basis as she has worked through her reading struggles but she doesn't.  She keeps going.

I asked her what has made the biggest difference in her turning around her reading ability.  She told me that although reading is very difficult for her, she doesn't see it that way.  She sees reading as a gift.  One that not everyone in her family has been given.  She said she just wants to be the best reader she can be!

Talk about a positive attitude!

So this made me think...

When we are faced with adversity (or a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day), do we focus on everything that goes wrong at the sake of looking at what is going right?  Do we dwell on the coffee that dripped on our sweater, the kids who "forgot" to do their homework, the data meetings we have to sit through (again) or the parent who feels that we don't understand their child?

Or do we focus on what is going right?  What our blessings are every day?  How lucky we really are?  How, thanks to those data meetings, we now know how to target our instruction to help our students achieve?

The great Dr. Wayne Dyer said that when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.  Everything happens for a reason, I believe.  So what is there for me to learn in every situation, even the bad ones?

Source:  http://www.masterschannel.com/quotes

I know that sometimes this will take some time and distance to realize, but I'm going to try really hard to see more blessings than burdens in my life.

This, I believe, will be the key to happiness and will help me have more terrific, awesome, totally unbelievable, make-me-smile days.

How about you?


Here's wishing you more blessings and less burdens in your life--

A Peek at My Week {3-09-14}

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.

I am excited to share my newest product in my TPT Store -- Getting Ready to Research!

In this unit, students will learn 

     * The difference between informational and research writing

     * The pros and cons of using books, encyclopedias & the internet to research

     * Evaluating website reliability

     * How to avoid plagiarism

     * How to take notes & paraphrase

     * Citing sources

     * Creating a bibliography

I just know this unit will help set my students up for success in researching!  I'll let you know how it goes.

An InLinkz Link-up

I wish you a great week!  Thanks for stopping by and for linking up!!

Currently March & A Peek at My Week

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.

Today, I'm starting off with Farley's Currently.

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:

1. Find appropriate sources on your topic
2. Take notes on your topic in a format different from the source
3. Locate interesting facts, not "All About ___"
4. Develop a bibliography of sources
5. 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!

An InLinkz Link-up

I wish you a great week!  

All We Did Was Read

Friday was our school's kick off to Read Across America Week and the Read the Most from Coast to Coast Reading Challenge through Accelerated Reader.  So you know what we did ALL day?  READ! Yep, no math, no writing, no science. (We did have specials...the kids needed to run around and refresh themselves.)

How did it go?

Wonderfully!

Our 4th grade started out the day with a special breakfast.  The teachers brought in scrambled eggs, sausage, and fruit.  The kids loved it!

Then, after our morning specials, we got busy reading.  The kids could wear PJ's and bring a blanket for "Blanket and Books Day."  (Didn't have to tell them twice!)

We also took lots of AR quizzes...

When a student took an AR quiz and passed with a score of 85% or higher, they got to sign our whiteboard.

                        

Look at all those names!

Our school had a goal of reading 5 million words on Friday.  At 9:30, we were off and running.

Did we meet our goal?  Unfortunately, we did not.  However, we came pretty close...

One of my students was pretty upset because she was reading one of the Lightening Thief books (a really thick one).  She read and read...but at 3:00 when the contest ended, she still had 40 pages so she didn't get to quiz.  She felt that if she had finished and quizzed on the book, our school would have met our goal.  I told her that I admired her spirit at reading a really long book and that 4.7 million words was amazing in and of itself.

The other part of our day of reading was the challenge between 4th and 5th grades to see who could earn the most points.  The winner.....4th grade!  YAY!!

Our day of reading was so much fun and the kids were so pumped!  When 3:00 came around, they were upset that the day was over.  Talk about motivated readers!  So with that, I am linking up with my buddy Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching for Spark Student Motivation Saturday.  I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone else motivated their kiddos this week.

I hope you will join me on Sundays for my weekly linky, A Peek at My Week to give us a look at your upcoming week.  See you tomorrow!