After successfully completing the hatching/cross-hatching spheres I mentioned in an earlier post, the 3rd graders used their drawing skills to draw fruit. I was very impressed by some of the students' ability to layer lines over lines to create progressively darker shades! One especially successful drawing was the pear below. I chose this student to be "Artist of the Week". I also created a bulletin board to show the whole school what the 3rd graders are learning. The other teachers have been very impressed with the skill exhibited by our talented students. I know I am impressed!
These charming 'portraits with shadows' were made by Gr.3 students. I found the idea at the elementary art blog: "An Art Room Filled with Fauves". The supplies you'll need are: white drawing paper strips (1-2") of colored paper black paper (for the shadow) colored paper (for the background) glue stick, scissors, pencils colored pencils or markers So start off with the kids drawing a full figure person- you could make it a self-portrait lesson, or kids might research a famous historical person (to link with Social Studies), whatever. I gave the kids free reign to choose whomever they liked. Draw this lightly in pencil, then colour with media of your choice; we used colored pencils. Carefully cut out the figure. Place upside-down onto black paper and slowly trace with a light colored pencil. This will be the shadow- cut out. Decide where is the best placement for the shadow- I found it works slightly above or below to either the left or the right hand side. For the border, I pre-cut a bunch of construction paper using a paper cutter- it went really fast. These were about 1 inch thick or so. Kids will cut these into squares and glue them around their background paper to create a simple border. Ta da!
I love this book! Very creative use of similes. I had the children pick someone and write descriptive phrases using similes. Click here for the form from Teacher's Cauldron.
One of my favorite language arts lesson to do in teaching students about synonyms. Using the idea of a "synonym roll," every year my students are extremely engaged by the lesson. Want a terrific synonym lesson complete with the outlines for the cinnamon rolls themselves? Here is my lesson plan typed up along with 36 words with synonym examples, 3 different sizes of rolls, and a synonym brainstorming page for students. Synonym Roll Lesson Plan You can also head over to my TPT store and download the outlines.
I don't know if you have noticed, but I LOVE ROOM TRANSFORMATIONS! I probably love them more than my students do....and my students want them all the time! This one was new for me this year! I've always wanted to do an operating room, but didn't know exactly what standard I wanted to cover! Well, I finally figured it out (obviously)! ---------------------------------------------------- SET-UP & MATERIALS COVERING WALLS: Whenever you want to cover up your walls to transform your space, I highly recommend using tablecloths from the Dollar Tree! They are super light-weight and easy to hang up. I always hang them up with tacks. I have ceilings where tacks push in very easily and it takes no time at all. Typically it takes me between 45 minutes to an hour to cover 80% of my room and my room is LARGE. OPERATING ROOMS: To create the rooms, I hung up one tablecloth on each side. This help create a small space where students could feel like they were in separate operating rooms, but I was still able to see all students. LIFE-SIZED OPERATION CHARACTER: These were made from butcher paper. I taped a piece that would fit nicely on each table onto my SmartBoard and traced over a picture I found Google. Once I was done, I traced around my pre-made operation "organs" so that I knew they would fit. I DID NOT trace around the ones from the Google image. OPERATION ORGANS: I free handed them! I looked at the images online and copied! Of course they are larger than normal. I wanted them large enough so that students could write character traits on each one. I only made 9 out of the 13 on the original board game. See the picture below to see what I mean. STUDENT COSTUMES: I purchased everything from amazon and created the badges which are linked below. Gloves where provided by my school. All items where waiting for the students are their assigned operating room. -Face masks -Caps -My doctor outfit DOCUMENTS: Thank You, Ma'am The Scholarship Jacket (Mature words and content) Possibility of Evil Badges, doctor files, & patient files I made one for each group. I paced all of the stories, doctor, and patient directions on one clipboard and provided enough clipboards for each student in the group. PowerPoint Presentation-surgical room sounds -The first slide lasts for 50 minutes -Second slide has the flat-line video (Lasts for 15 seconds) -Third slide shows what the students need to do to save their patient (Lasts for 2 minutes) -Fourth slide goes back to the original beep. (SLIDES SWITCH BY THEMSELVES! All you need to do is click the start button of each video.) ---------------------------------------------------- CONTENT RL 3 Describe how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution. Identifying character traits can be very tricky for students especially when they have to infer them and then tell me how a character's traits develops the plot. We practiced this skill for two weeks before I felt like they were ready for this transformation. The goal is that they demonstrate mastery of this standard. STEP ONE: Read the patient's file. This is a short story I provided each group. Now, I always teach to the top. I do not differentiate during transformations. I provide more assistance if need, which is rare. Kids can do amazing things when you give them the chance! Once the entire group finished reading (they read it together), they could move onto step two. STEP TWO: Identify the character's "symptoms" aka character traits. Student's analyzed the file for all the components to identify each trait (refer to the document linked at the bottom). I heard so many awesome conversations during this time. As student's diagnosed the patient, they would raise their hands and call Dr. Schrempp over (me). They would have to provide me the evidence from the file that support that diagnosis. If they were correct, they earned an organ! Then, the group would record the trait on the organ and translate it back into the patient's body. In the end, each operating room identified nine qualities. This part took about and hour and a half! BUT of course I had to add a little twist.... PATIENT FLAT-LINED: I made a timed PowerPoint that at about the hour mark the screen switched and all the sudden the flat-line sound went over our speakers. My student's FREAKED! Student's learned that their patients were dying and they only way they could save them was by solving the hard math problem that was on the board. They only had one minute to solve because the human brain only last about 3 minutes without oxygen. You can choose whatever problem you like! I'm all about rigor so my students had a nice long multi-operation expression. & I'm happy to say that all surgeons saved their patients. EARLY FINISHERS: I only had 2 out of the 4 groups finish about 20 minutes before the rest. You should always have a backup plan for when this happens. I used ReaditWriteitLearnit's character trait autopsy files from her TpT. I handed the task cards to each group and they worked on their already made person. Checkout the link for more details! I have provided all of my documents above. Please sure them as you please! I kept the parts for names editable so that you can add your own character names. Remember I have to rights to all of these documents. If you plan on using them, you must give me credit. Please tag me in your Instagram photos! I'd love to see this all in action!
Adventures from an organized Art Room
Beatboxing sentences**Free downloadable beatboxing sentences below** One day I was working on some iPad lesson ideas and one of the projects […]
One of my favorite language arts lesson to do in teaching students about synonyms. Using the idea of a "synonym roll," every year my students are extremely engaged by the lesson. Want a terrific synonym lesson complete with the outlines for the cinnamon rolls themselves? Here is my lesson plan typed up along with 36 words with synonym examples, 3 different sizes of rolls, and a synonym brainstorming page for students. Synonym Roll Lesson Plan You can also head over to my TPT store and download the outlines.
We are studying different "fantastical" genres in class (myths, legends, folktales, fairy tales, tall tales). All of these are along the same lines, but have some unique features that make them different. Explaining these subtleties to 11 year olds is rather....tricky. So, taking my cue from Mor over at A Teacher's Treasure, I had my students create these foldables. (she did hers on Mean, Median, Mode...so I changed it up, but still was inspired by her awesome foldables) To begin, we read an informational article about mythology and its various characteristics. After discussing them, the students then began to work on the foldable. There were four separate sections. 1. Myth -- this was for the definition of a myth 2. Symbolism -- students wrote why symbols might be included in a myth 3. Creation of myths -- why were myths created in the first place 4. Morals in myths -- why were lessons or morals a big part of myths The wrote the answers to these questions on the top flap of the foldable. Then, the students divided the inside of the foldable into 8 parts (2 for each of the four sections). We read a myth called First People, about how summer came into the world. The students then looked for the elements in this myth. They wrote them out in the sections as shown. Afterwards, we read The Flight of Icarus. The students then, in partners (using their partner pals), found the elements of a myth in that story. The entire project had them talking about myths, discovering what exactly made a myth a myth, and finding evidence in text. There was so much going on with this easy little foldable....I can hardly contain my excitement for it all! ;) Here is the final product. I created a template for you to use in your class. I would make copies for the kids to use as a guide OR just project the one copy up on the ELMO/overhead projector (to save paper....that one is for Lindsay ;) ) They can then create the actual foldable on blank SQUARE paper. One word of warning, when you print it out, the lines will not reach the edge (due to printing margins...darn!) but that is ok. The kids should still be able to follow it well enough. I am working on ones for legends, tall tales, fairy tales, and folktales as well. Once I get those completed, I will let you all know!
We revisited character traits and combined it with a lesson on inferring this past week. Our class novel, Tuck Everlasting , is filled with vivid descriptions of the various characters that lend themselves to deep inferences. So I asked the students to think about a character that they connected with, and list 10 character traits that could be used to describe the character. (They used this chart that we had previously glued into our journals from Read, Write, Think) Once they had the list of character traits, the students had to list text evidence from the novel that supported their character trait inference, AND their own schema that led them to the inference. After the list was complete, the students did two things. First, they wrote a paragraph describing the character from the story using the character traits and the inferences. I had them use this form (which is from my Character Traits in 5 Days pack, but you can download for free here) to help them really keep organized. They also had to work to reference the text, direct quote, and list the schema to create a cohesive paragraph that adequately described the character. Then, each student was given a little man cut out. On it, they had to write the character trait in big letters. Under that, the direct quote and the background knowledge schema was written. This formed a visual representation of the paragraph.....that the kids really enjoyed making! The final product was pretty neat looking, and made a nice, standards-based bulletin board! How have you taught/reviewed character traits and inferring?
Are you required to leave emergency sub plans? If so, you may want to use a choice board! My art colleague Sharon had the idea to make a choice board that can be used multiple times if there is a s…
People always ask me how I decide/choose the right time to do a room transformation. The answer to that is pretty simple. I choose my most boring or most challenging content, and I spice that stuff right on up. Why? Because boring = bored and challenging = frustrated. So if I can get them working hard when they don't even realize it, the results of that instruction will be so much greater. Spicing things up can look different for everyone. Different strokes for different folks. It's just a matter of doing something. Something that will grasp your students' attention and maintain it through the journey of the new skill. Author's purpose is definitely not the most exciting thing that we study, and it can also pose challenges when working with complex texts in 5th grade. So I knew a little room transformation combined with a game would be the best way to teach this skill. And then some genius had to show out and invent the game Pie Face. I will forever be in debt to that individual! So how does it all go down? Check it out below.... ( I will also link all of my resources at the bottom of this post!) Welcome to the Get PIE'ED Bakery where author's purpose is our focus...and well, that may or may not come with a few pies in the face. I begin by teaching the patterns for each of the five different purposes that we learn. Teaching students to identify patterns allows them to better analyze a text to find the author's intention rather than just trying to pinpoint or use process of elimination to make a guess. Those two things will only make them appear that they understand the skill. However, if we really want for our students to use and apply the skill, helping them identify patterns during an analysis will give them more perspective when reading as they begin to see how the author views their subject. So how do I teach the pattens? P = Persuade (We look for opinions supported with facts. We analyze the two separately and then together to see how the author views the subject. Then we use the information provided as well as the credibility of the source to create our own opinions.) I = Inform (We look for facts organized by a text structure. We question first what is the author informing us about, and then how are they organizing their information? Are they informing us about problems and solutions, causes and effects, etc.?) E = Entertain (We don't just simply look for dialogue. Rather, we focus on the organization. Most pieces meant to entertain will be organized into a storyline. Therefore we find evidence of a plot.) E = Explain (Explain means to teach. Therefore we look for evidence of steps teaching how to do something or how something happens. This evidence may either be given implicitly or explicitly.) D = Describe (This one is tricky because this will be the students choice for most writing simply because they think that everything describes something. Their definition of description is simply facts. However, to identify something as a description, they should be looking for evidence of imagery and descriptive language.) Once the instruction is done, it's time for the application. I provide the students with 15 different passages.You can either write your own or simply look for passages online. The student begins with the first passage. They read and look for patterns and textual evidence to identify the purpose of the writing. Once they have identified the purpose, they consult with their group. I group the students up into 4-5 students. They must each state what they think the purpose of the passage is as well as textual evidence to support their conclusion. The group works through any misconceptions to give the passage its final purpose. Once they have done that, they bake their first passage pie by placing their passage into the correct pie tin. I have them labeled the five different purposes they working with. After they place their passage into the correct tin (AKA their purpose pie has been baked), they get to follow the traditions of the bakery and play a round of Pie Face. Prior to this, I give very specific rules. Here are some that make this work like a charm: 1) Only place a small amount of whipped cream onto the game. I even model this for the students. I also make them take off their hats prior to playing because the whipped cream does tend to fly. 2) As soon as a student has been pied, that student immediately cleans up with the wet wipes. The others, wipe the game down and clean up any whipped cream on the table cloth. (The students know that they will lose points on the activity if I see evidence of whipped cream anywhere unless they are in the middle of the game). 3) To keep them from running to the trashcan every two seconds, I place a bin in the middle of their table. They dispose all of the dirty cloths into that bin. Then...I just let go and let God! Lol! This is my letting go face! Seriously though, I have never had one issue with this lesson or game. Once the expectations are set, I am very consistent. The students know exactly what I expect which is key to making something like this successful. Here are some of my favorite action shots from the lesson. Once they complete their round, they begin the next passage. The same procedures continue for all passages. Another option is to have the students identify the purpose of each passage first. Then the group confirms, bakes, and plays the game. This helps the instructional/working time to remain nice and quiet. The look on their faces says it all. That right there is something that a worksheet will never provide. ....oh and the anticipation that this game brings... That's all folks. That's all there is to it! This will definitely go down as one of your students all time favorite memories. Here are some of the resources that you may choose to purchase for this lesson. However, the game is the only thing that you truly need! You can click on any of the pictures to find the resource online.
Find fantastic resources for teaching inferences (with free mini lesson). The resources are ideal for 4th graders but also features ideas for grades 1-3.
As the year winds down, I want my students to remain engaged, yet give them a chance to have a little fun while they spend their last few weeks with me in elementary school. Now, I use the term "fun" loosely here. ;) It isn't like we are going to be hooting and hollering. I just want them to relax and enjoy themselves, while still keeping things standards based. One thing I did this year with my students is have them respond to the Read Alouds we have been doing using a Story Wheel. This wheel is something I got from the book entitled 35 Ready-To-Go Ways to Publish Students' Research and Writing (Grades 4-8) It is an awesome book! I have been using it for YEARS (literally) as there are just so many different simple templates in it to get your kids writing without thinking they are. Anyway, back to the Story Wheel. Basically, there are 6 sections on the wheel that asks the students to respond to the reading they did. They must talk about the main character and list character traits, draw and describe the setting, discuss the character traits of the antagonist, write about both the problem and solution, as well as discuss the author's motivation and purpose for writing the story. (which actually also lends itself well to the theme of the piece.) For each section, I upped the rigor just a bit by having the students provide text evidence from the read alouds to accompany what they put on the wheel. Then, I stapled 3 or 4 of them together to hang from the ceiling as a mobile. Done and done. Seriously, this was such a simple way to keep them engaged and make them feel like they were having a little fun (since they did get to draw after all ;) ) What is some way you have had the kids respond to literature in these last few weeks?
This set of DIGITAL Suffixes tion, sion, and cian for use in Google Classroom™️ is an awesome tool for distance learning. This set of activities provide a variety of ways for students to practice working with words containing the suffixes tion, sion and cian. Includes a full printable set of activities as well. Digital Version Includes: Full set of suffix cian activities Full set of suffix tion activities Full set of suffix sion activities Each Set include: Rainbow Type the Room Activities Word Search Picture word match Match the definition and word Highlight the Words 10 sentence practice slides. MIXED REVIEW SET INCLUDES: tion, sion, cian word sorting Slides tion, sion, cian word typing practice tion, sion, cian picture sort 30 total mixed review practice slides
October 12, 2013 In second grade classes we have started a Native American Indian music and dance unit. This week, students had the opp...
5 Activities to Teach Angles
Every Day is a new day. Important things to note January Jan. 9 - 31 F& P Benchmarking Jan. 16 No School - MLK, Jr. Holiday Jan. 17 2nd...
Upper elementary blog with practical, rigorous, classroom tested ideas to implement with your students.
A blog with classroom tips and ideas, teacher mentoring, educational resources, and classroom practices for elementary and middle grades.
Would you like to decorate your classroom with fun, hand-drawn anchor charts/posters? Do you simply not have the time to get them done? Well, you have come to the perfect place! I love making these engaging and appealing anchor charts. I also can draw/create any other topic you would like, just contact me directly and ask! My students absolutely love these posters and references them every day. Many of them are visual learners, so the colorful images really help them connect and remember what they have learned. This particular anchor chart is for readers/writers practicing prefixes and suffixes. It helps students see base words and adding prefixes/suffixes to them. The pug puppy helps my students see the separation of the base words with their prefix/suffix and they have so much fun with it! It will be approximately 32 x 24 inches, and will be a copy of my original. **These will be copies unless asked otherwise for a custom poster. They are not laminated, and are printed on normal, anchor chart paper. I ship these out ASAP after being ordered, but please keep in mind once shipped, it is outside of my control. Therefore, if shipping does not meet your expectations, I highly encourage you to please reach out to me first, and we have always been able to work something out to make up for anything that may have occurred after I have sent your package, thanks so much!! Hope you love it :)
I LOVE saving figurative language until June - it's such a fun language unit ... and perfect for our "dreaming of summer brains". We finished up our EQAO testing mid week, and this onomatopoeia activity was the perfect break from testing. How fun is that??? Students chose two contrasting colours - one for the background and one for the word and border "bursting out of the page". They also needed newspaper (cut just a fraction smaller that the "bursting out of the page border" and glued the newspaper on top. They glued their word on top of that (we had brainstormed a lot of onomatopoeia words, but for some reason most of them chose SPLAT for their word). I also had them do a little shading under their letters for that little extra POP (see, I know some onomatopoeia words, too). ;) I had seen this awesome idea on Pinterest and followed it back to Artisan des Arts. Her examples are FANTASTIC!! We also wrote simile poems this week. I found a little template HERE for the students to use for their rough copies. When students were finished their templates, I had them write out their good copies, and illustrate a few lines with a small image. I hung these up, too ... LOVING our bulletin board switch up ... even this late in the school year!!! (I have two of these "smART class" bulletin boards side by side in the classroom. 15 more school days left ... I think I can ... I think I can ... Happy Friday!!!
An educational blog
This week we began our new class novel, Gregor The Overlander (Underland Chronicles, Book 1) by Suzanne Collins (the fact that this is the same person who wrote The Hunger Games is a HUGE plus for the kids...they were so excited!) This is a fantasy novel and, so far, fairly easy of a read for the kids. It gets right into the action, and has hooked the kids from the beginning. So far, so good! (and a big thank you Jen for recommending it!) I wanted to share with you a few of the response activities that we have done so far. While they are specific to Gregor the Overlander, they could definitely be adapted to fit any novel that you are reading in your class. Novel Folder This is SUCH an easy thing to do, but the kids loved it. We just created a folder (using a 24" by 18" piece of construction paper folded up) and the kids decorated the cover. They had to include details that came from the first five chapters (that we had already read.) You would think the kids would be bored by this, as they were simply coloring, but they got so into it! Coloring the cover as really relaxing for them...and gosh knows we don't always take time to relax nowadays! Growing Character Sketch This is a piece of paper folded in half. In the first chapter of the story, the main character is described in fairly good detail, so I asked the kids to draw a picture of him based on the description. (I also used my lessons from my Character in 5 Days pack to continue the character analysis) They then had to use 5 adjectives to describe him, supporting those adjectives with evidence from the text. As the novel goes on, I am planning on having the students draw three more character sketches of the main character showing how he is changing and growing over the course of the novel. Map of Regalia There is a great description of the city in which the Underlanders live at the beginning of chapter 5. So I asked the kids to draw the city and then quote or paraphrase the text in the border around the picture. (I used my Setting in 5 Days pack too) I love how this came out! The kids were digging into the text and really trying to find evidence of everything they drew on the paper. Foldable To get the kids thinking about the first four chapters we read, I asked them to make a shutterfold foldable, with four sections (one for each chapter.) Inside, they wrote a summary of each chapter and then asked two or three unanswered questions they had about the chapter. So there you have it. A few ideas to respond to literature. While these are specifically what we did with Gregor, you could definitely adapt them to use with novels you are reading. What are somethings you have found successful while responding to literature?
