Textmapping was a pinterest find that has really helped my students interact with nonfiction in a way that takes away the dread. They now feel empowered to dissect and understand nonfiction reading selections. The idea of textmapping can be explored at the creators website The Textmapping Project. Students using their nonfiction text features cards to textmap an article on the Greek government. Creating a "map" key to aid in mapping this article. Using a teacher directed article to help textmap an article independently. Almost complete! Just getting started with the textmapping process.

One thing that has happened over the last few years is an increased focus on reading a balance of informational and fictional texts. We try to work in informational reading as often as possible–both with specific units and by weaving instruction and experiences into content whenever possible. As we dig into our mapping unit, I […]

As we all know, STAAR 2.0 is upon us, and students will be assessed differently than in the past. Our Boom Cards will prepare your students for success. Do you… feel overwhelmed finding resources that align with STAAR 2.0? have good ideas but no time to create? need help with engagement for practicing new question ... Read more

If you've never tried sun prints before then maybe now is the time! Check out some process photos at Paint Cut Paste.

The above pieces were created by pre-K thru 2nd graders (same background with a side view elephant ) Sharpie on paper bag I've been working on an elephant art project that might suit my younger children more than the smaller format ink elephants. These are created using a paper grocery bag. I have used brown bags to create walruses in the past. I thought the wrinkly texture would work well with elephants as well. After drawing their animal and outlining in Sharpie, paint over with watered down gray. This step could be omitted as African elephants take on the reddish brown color of the soil that they wallow in. Lines can be darkened again with Sharpie before the elephant is cut out. The paper is gently crumpled and flattened out several times to mimic the wonderful wrinkly texture of the animal. A colorful savanna landscape is painted with acrylics or tempera and finally some oil pastel Acacia or "umbrella" trees are drawn in oil pastel. Below are a from modified lesson from my 4th-6th graders I think these elephants came out amazingly well considering we had just 40 minutes to complete the whole project at the end of our art camp. Half the class was finishing up other work, while the other half was ready to keep creating. (40 minutes is a bit too long for "free draw"). I had originally intended these elephants to be drawn in washable maker and gone over in water to create an ink effect. (As seen in my Indian Elephant post). But since we were crushed for time, the children shaded their elephants in charcoal or colored pencil instead. The African landscapes were done in chalk pastel.

I have been working on some new ideas for my students to do during their Daily Five “Word Work” rotation. A couple days ago I posted about my Word of the Week Graphic Organizer. Another idea I had was inspired by a couple different sources. I first saw the idea for a Boggle bulletin board…

If you’re looking for a surefire way to grab your high schoolers’ attention this fall, look no further than painting with fire. Although it might take some hard work to convince your administrator you’ve got things under control, the look on your students’ faces will be worth it. This is a perfect lesson to do […]

A blog full of tips, lessons, and ideas to use in the upper elementary classroom.

AOE LIVE: Episode 12: "Art Teachers and the Creative Revolution” with Cindy Foley % %

Teaching cause and effect using informational text in the upper grade classroom can be tough. It takes a bit of logical thinking, a touch of common sense, and a whole lot of inferencing...which can be a tall order for kids this age. We can make it easier though, by giving the kids lots of opportunities to practice in a variety of ways. In this post by The Teacher Next Door, you'll learn lots of tips for teaching cause and effect in the classroom.

Famous Inventors Kids: Looking for famous inventors kids will love discovering, too? These picture book biographies will get them thinking!

A worksheet, questions, or quiz always adds more rigor than nothing, but if you want more, here are some strategies for teaching with movies.

CER stands for claim, evidence, and reasoning. It is a scaffolded way for students to prove their understanding of scientific concepts in a written format. It helps to develop critical thinking and writing skills concurrently, which are both important in the classroom and the real world. You can think of it as a framework in ... Read more

Can you believe that it is almost Wednesday? This week has moved so quickly. I am back with a free resource. The self-monitoring form can be given to each student so that he or she can reflect on the skills that have been learned in a subject. Students can also use this form to identify areas where they need continued practice. This is a useful tool for parent communication. Click Here To Access This Freebie

It was a knock-down, drag-out fight, and it lasted for months. We wrestled. We argued. The issue? To Kill a Mockingbird. Teachers--one from each middle and high school in our large district--gathered for The Great Debate over who got to teach what pieces of literature. Does eighth grade or ninth grade get Mockingbird? Will Lord of the Flies be at ninth or twelfth? I was criticized for teaching Faulkner. Another teacher was slammed for Shakespeare overkill. Why do we get so emotionally attached to the novels and plays we teach? Why, when I was a curriculum specialist, did teachers regularly call me because someone at a feeder middle school was teaching--you guessed it--To Kill a Mockingbird? (We had one diehard who refused to play nicely.) I have my favorites: Things Fall Apart, Great Expectations, The Bluest Eye, Catcher in the Rye. Plays? I could teach Medea, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Julius Caesar all. day. long. Ask me to recite Marc Antony's funeral oration. Just ask. My favorite literature lesson to teach is the background for Oedipus. Their faces! As this hemisphere gets back to school, my blog will be dedicated (for a week or two) to the teaching of the novel. What does that even mean? What should it look like? What should a novel study (or novel unit) include? Do we focus on skills or content? Reading or writing? What should assessment look like? Follow along and join the debate.

Today we will show you how to make a toy parachute for your toy soldiers. If you don't want to hook this to a toy soldier, you can use a cork instead. It's fun to make a parachute and more fun to see it float downward as a real parachute does. It's easy to make, too.

So.... it's been a while!! For most of December and the first two weeks of January, our house was riddled with germs!! And in a house with four small kiddos, this meant lots of children's Motrin, fever checks, tissues, sleepless nights, and filling humidifiers! It's been exhausting, but I am hoping healthier days are ahead!! * * * * * * * * * * Lots going on in my classroom! My students have been working away on our argument unit, and I have to say, they LOVE it! Like, love it so much they want to talk about it the entire walk to specials! It KILLS me to have to "shh" them (I'm a stickler for quietly walking in the halls!) because they are just so spirited about this unit! The kicker are these debate cards that I'm using. I spent the summer Googling like crazy trying to find some refreshing hot topics for the kids to argue over (I was just so over the school uniform and longer school day debate!!). I came up with a GREAT list and created a set of task cards. Here's a sneak peak at a few (the full set of task cards are available in my complete argument writer's workshop available here): Each day, I randomly distribute a few of the topics and give the students five minutes to jot down their gut reactions to the card. I also ask them to brainstorm some potential opposing arguments. Then, I have them find everyone else in the room with the same card and together they discuss/debate. I do have them use a "talking stick" (we use the super-fancy highlighter :) to keep the overly-enthusiastic voices from drowning out the students who are on the quieter side. Basically, I give one person in each group the highlighter and they "begin" the discussion (usually they will start by reading the gut reaction they had when they first saw their topic). If someone wants to respond, they can raise their hand for the stick. Otherwise, it just gets passed around the circle so each kid gets a chance to speak. If a group is struggling, I will go over and raise my hand for the talking stick. Typically, when I throw my two-cents into the mix, it will get them going for at least another few minutes! After 15-20 minutes of talking, students go back to their desks and draft their argument. Typically, I give them 25 minutes (there is absolutely NO TALKING during this time!), and believe me, their hands are FLYING across their notebook page!! Almost always, every single student finishes their essay in that time! It is absolutely amazing how the "talk time" prior to writing gives even the most reluctant writers plenty to say. So far, we've completed this activity three times (students get a different prompt each time), therefore, every kid has three great first drafts in their notebook. And we will probably do this activity two or three more times over the next week. Then, students will be able to take the draft they are most excited about, do a little research on the topic, and turn their draft into a full essay. These debates have just been so much fun. I am eager to see how the final drafts of their essays turn out! Any tips and tricks for teaching argument writing? I'd love to hear about them! Happy Teaching!!

This download includes 7 different games to help build student's vocabulary and help improve reading comprehension. All games are common core aligned and are great practice to help with state testing! Each game includes student response sheets to assess student understanding along with all game pieces needed for each game. Also included are two bonus worksheets (Dictionary Hunt and Prefix Review). Included: - Dictionary Scoot (A game to practice using a dictionary to determine the meaning of multiple meaning words) -Context Clue Scavenger Hunt (A detective game to practice using context clues to determine the meaning of an unknown word) -Prefix and Suffix Board Game (Two versions - 1 prefix and 1 suffix students build new words by adding a prefix or suffix and determine the meaning of the new word) -Peanut Butter and Jelly Idiom Memory (A matching game to practice matching non-literal - figurative - language with the real meaning) -Contraction Puzzles (Build contractions and connect to the words used to create each contraction) -Synonym and Antonym Match (Hand students a word card and call out for them to find a synonym or antonym) *Bonus Worksheets

I was driving my 2 boys home yesterday and we started talking about parachutes, both literal and metaphorical. - asking ourselves what kind of parachute would a tortoise (uugh!....no spellcheck in sketchbooks) have and why?.....an octopus...a dinosaur...you get the idea.! The kids we coming up with such great ideas we had to try some of them out. Of course we had to make it into an art project! MATERIALS REQUIRED: - a "jumper", who is going to use this parachute? We went through our collection of little plastic animals but really your "jumper" could be almost anything with some weight to it, you could also get really creative and make one - some light weight fabric, tissue paper,used dryer sheet, plastic bag or in our case Tyvek to make your parachute - paint, markers, fabric scraps for gluing on - string - hole punch - something round to trace around - scissors When you find your parachute material trace out a big circle and cut it out. I folded the circle to find the middle and then cut out a wedge. This is to make it more "cone" shaped. When it comes time to string I'll overlap these edges to get my cone shape. You can experiment will all types of parachute shapes. Draw out your design. Jeff is making a parachute for a lost penguin so his design includes everything a homesick penguin might be thinking about. Because we used Tyvek we are painting our parachutes. We added some details with sharpies. I then punched holes for the strings. I overlapped the two edges where I cut out the wedge so when I tied it they were together. I planned on only tying 4 strings...as far as I'm concerned the fewer strings the fewer tangles. Try to get all your strings even by letting the parachute hang and then tie them into a knot together. Take these strings and tie onto your parachute jumper. Now the fun part.......the boys sent them flying off from upstairs. The dinosaur is trying to save himself from extinction ("when in danger of asteroid strike please pull cord"). Like I said the boys got pretty creative devising their chutes! They were especially fun outside where they could catch the wind and the boys could come up with all kinds of scenarios....much more interesting than just the classic toy "parachute". So if your kids are bored this weekend why not try creating your own parachutes...lots of possibilities..... - space alien landing - elephant escaping the circus (now that's a big parachute!) Two housekeeping items: If you haven't noticed I have a custom domain now, unfortunately when I made the switch I lost my blog roll, I'm trying to re add all my links but if I forgot you and you were on my list let me know. - I signed up for the 2012 Sketchbook project and if you are interested you should too and become part of a co-operative art project that is touring all over the world. $25 to sign up so a little pricey if you are thinking of a school project but there are 36 pages so I could see it as joint classroom project...think about it. see you soon.

I developed this packet to address comprehension and transition goals for my middle school speech therapy students. This helps me gather transition information for my IEPs. It could also be used in the classroom setting. I hope you find it an engaging and functional lesson as well! This set targets occupations generated from my some of my current students' interest inventories. These students are in a rural setting and many will not attend a 4-year college. If you like this product, please leave additional occupations of interest in your comments. Occupations included in this set include: game warden, construction laborer, construction manager, chef, firefighter, military, retail sales, graphic design, professional athlete, and PE teacher. This packet includes: *10 pages of informational paragraphs describing various careers -Have each student select the job they find most interesting. -Each page has space with lines at the bottom of the page. I use this in 2 ways with my students; you may think of more! 1) Have students list unfamiliar vocabulary terms and define using a dictionary. 2) Have students write an additional fact they know about the job to share. *Student response worksheet -This can be used to check for comprehension. -You can make several blank copies for each student and have students keep a file of job information throughout the year. *’Pro and Con’ worksheet to analyze each job *12 question cards -I use these in place of the worksheet if I am presenting multiple jobs in one session in a group format. -These are also useful for students who have low reading and writing skills. I have found this to be one of the most functional lessons of the year! Thank you for looking! Maggie Lewis

Word problems are huge in Common Core and students need to be prepared to not only solve them, but to show and prove their thinking. I created this resource to help my students meet this requirement. Have the student cut and glue the word problem paper (2 to a page) to their notebook. Depending on the size of the notebook, you may have to print the pages at 80% to have them fit on the page. They write the answer or solution on the word problem paper and then show their work, explain their thinking or prove their answer underneath the word problem on their notebook paper For more Interactive Math Notebook Resources, click on the links below: HUGE Bundle of 5th Grade Word Problems for Interactive Notebooks Interactive Math Notebook: Word Problems {5th Grade: Common Core Aligned}Interactive Math Notebook: Word Problems {4th Grade: Common Core Aligned} For affordable, no-fuss flippables (perfect for beginning interactive notebook users) click on the links below. Math Interactive Student Notebook: Flippables {5th Grade: Common Core Aligned}Math Interactive Student Notebook: Flippables {4th Grade: Common Core Aligned}