Bringing the Fur Trade to Life with Book Bartering

This past week, we have been studying the Fur Trade in Wisconsin in our social studies class.  Our text is pretty dry and I felt like my kiddos weren't really catching on to how important the fur trade was in changing the lives of the Native Americans who lived here so long ago.

I wanted them to experience one of the premises of the fur trade -- bartering.  The act of trading items of value for something else.

We did this through a Book Barter.  Any of my students who wanted to participate brought in books from home that they had read and no longer wanted.  (I told them to get their parents' permission first.)

Before our bartering session, we talked about how much value certain books had to us. Sometimes, we had to give more to get less.

I had brought in a copy of Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself book to demonstrate.  When my students saw my book, almost everyone instantly wanted it.  Some students offered me five of their books in return for my one.  (I ended up making a one-to-one trade for a Titanic book that I really wanted.)

My students then went about their bartering and traded books.  As this was happening, I saw looks of contemplation as students considered trades and heard squeals of delight in getting a much wanted book.  When we were through, almost every student walked away with a new-to-them book to read.

 We then brought this back to our study of the fur trade.  How had the Native Americans and explorers given up the things they had for something that had more value for them?

 With the Book Barter, my students had a better grasp of the Fur Trade...and also got some fun new books out of the deal!

How do you bring learning to life in your classroom?

A Peek at My Week {5-25-14}

Happy Memorial Day weekend!  Memorial Day weekend seems to be the official kickoff to summer.  I can't wait!!  Let's take a peek at my upcoming week....

We still have three weeks of school left (but who's counting???)  The kids are pretty much "done" (if you know what I mean), so this is the time when I really have to pack the plans full of good stuff to keep 'em moving.

We are finishing up our novel study of Frindle, by Andrew Clements.  

I bought a class set of these books from Scholastic awhile back when they were $1 each.  (LOVE those deals!!)  This is a great end-of-the-year read because the characters in this book are in the 5th grade, which my students are getting ready for.  Nick is quite the character and my students can relate to him.  It's so funny to listen to their discussions about the choices he makes and some of the things he tries to pull on his teacher, Mrs. Granger.

In writing, we will be writing letters to next year's 4th graders.  We are working on opinion writing, so these letters will be my students' advice on how to prepare to be a 4th grader.  It's always so interesting to read what they think!

On Wednesday, we have our class list meeting.  This is where we sit with the teachers of our incoming students and tentatively choose a class.  The teachers talk about the strengths and areas of concern for each class, then we choose a class that we feel a connection with.  Honestly, there is so much growth and change that happens during the summer between 3rd and 4th grades that many of the concerns disappear and we start fresh in the fall.

On Thursday, we will be celebrating Wisconsin's birthday!  We have been working on a month-long research project called "Come Visit Wisconsin" and will finish up on Tuesday.  So on Thursday, we throw a birthday party of Wisconsin and sample all kinds of Wisconsin foods -- cheese curds, cranberries, Sprechter root beer, bratwurst.  The kids love it!!

That's it for this week!  I wish you a wonderful Memorial Day!  Please take a moment to remember those that gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect our wonderful country.

An InLinkz Link-up

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!