Victims and Villians

I hope everyone is having a relaxing winter break! I know I am! We go with my in-laws to Hawaii every Christmas. It is WONDERFUL! My son may be relaxing a little too much!

When I get back from break we have to complete our winter testing. The curriculum we use is called, Mondo, and it has 3-4 tests per student that have to be completed in fall, winter and spring. The information is great, but it is quite time consuming to gather all of that data. I have been looking for activities that my students can work on somewhat independently while still doing something valuable. 

I came up with a deep look at the Big Bad Wolf. Students will explore two sides to the infamous character

with the traditional story and this one by John Scieszka.

Students will take a look at the wolf in its natural habitat and ponder why american culture tends to cast the wolf as the antagonist. They will compare the stories and decide which version of the wolf they believe with a persuasive writing "craftivity."  If this goes well I'd like to do a whole series of Villian or Victim featuring different characters.

It offers practice on:

Story Comparisons - CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.9 Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures.

Character Analysis - CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).

Persuasive Writing - CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information

Check it out in my TPT store. It would also be a great activity to leave for a sub! 

Now I am going to get back to vacation!

Great Book!

Well because of a 5.5 hour plane ride, I finished the book! It was a great, easy read and it had a lot of practical suggestions on how to nurture a strong willed child. This book is written by a christian author and has some biblical references, which is fine for me because as I said earlier I also read this book for my 3 year old son. If a christian  book is not for you, it still has some very practical and loving ways to bring out the best in your strong willed child, or student. I'd like to give you some highlights of the book:

The main idea:

A strong willed child is not against authority. They can however have an issue with how authority is communicated. If you tell a strong willed child, "Do it or else!" They will choose or else. Strong willed children want to maintain some sort of control over their lives and they will go to their figurative death to uphold that control. 

Through provoking quotes:

" I often remind parents of SWCs that their children may change the world-after all, it's not likely that the world is going to change them."  

Practical Advice:

1. Choose you battles. Don't make everything non-negotiable.

2. Lighten up-don't let up.

3. Ask more questions; issue fewer orders. 

4. Hand out more tickets; issue fewer warnings. (This may require reading the book to understand.)

5. Make sure your SWC knows your love is unconditional. 

It's a great quick read and I think it is very applicable to the classroom as well as your home if you have your own strong willed kiddo like I do. It gave me a fresh perspective on how their minds work and how I can help them realize their potential. 

I give it a thumbs up!

Now, I'm going to enjoy my view. 

Break Time!

I am so excited few to finally have some time to read a book I bought about a month ago. I am reading it because of the kiddos I have in my class this year and because of my 3 year old son. I can't wait to learn how to use this extreme determination they have as a asset instead a hindrance.

Christmas Fun!

This post was inspired by a colleague of mine. We do something called, Fun Friday. This is a chance to reward students for turning in their homework and displaying good behavior. Those who are having trouble with these things have time to practice in one of our rooms, and those who have done a great job go to Fun Friday. This week was her turn to have the "fun" room and she did some Christmas themed Minute to Win it games. How do I know the kids liked it even though I wasn't in there? I could hear them cheering from next door!

Our students have SO much energy this time of year. I think this meme describes it perfectly:

 This is a great way to harness that energy and have fun before that long awaited Christmas break!

I gathered some sites where you can find games that will work for your room! Get clicking!

Good luck this week, and have fun!

Persuasive Writing in Action

We are working on persuasive writing right now in class. Otherwise known as:

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.1a Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer’s purpose.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.1b Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.1c Link opinion and reasons using words and phrases (e.g., for instance, in order to, in addition).
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.1d Provide a concluding statement or section related to the opinion presented.

We have been reading persuasive texts, watching commercials and videos, writing as a class and practicing it on our own. They are getting great at identifying all of the parts we will need when move on to our own projects. 

Before we do that though, we wrote a persuasive essay as a class, kind of a shared writing. We did the outline, then wrote it. We decided to write about the fact that our classroom needs more computers, see why here. 

Here is the best part: Then we turned it into a Donors Choose project! My students are persuading REAL people to give them money! Talk about the power of persuasion and giving an assignment meaning! Not only are my students seeing an amazing application for their knowledge but we (fingers crossed) may be able to get two new computers out of it. 
They already love checking in to see if we have any new donors. I am working on a persuasive writing unit and you better believe this will be a component. 

Do you have any great ways to apply persuasive writing?

Reward Students with Technology

While I was at some training this week I learned about a site called, Voki (voki.com.) It allows you to create an avatar and record 60 seconds of audio to go with it. Don't have a microphone on your computer? No problem. You can also call a phone number and say your message into the phone.

I thought this sounded like a cool thing, but I wasn't sure how to use it in my classroom. Just to try it out I told the kids I would choose someone with excellent behavior to record our lunch choices for the next day as a real life cartoon. They of course, loved it! We get to watch the avatar tell us our lunch choices (we have 3 at our school) in the morning before we start our work. 

I like it because I am  exposing and training my kids on how use to technology as a presentation tool. I hope this will inspire them, and me, to use this in other ways. It is also a great motivator for good behavior. 

I also used an app on the Ipad called Tellagami that does something similar, although I think you can record for more than 60 seconds. 

I am so excited to find a manageable way to begin introducing my students to presentation methods using technology! I can't wait to begin to use this in other ways too. After all, it's part of the Common Core! Right now though, it's been a great new motivator just in time for Christmas craziness!  What do you use to motivate your students?

Freebie Alert!

Math Coach's Corner

If you stop by The Math Coach's Corner you will find a link to a ton of freebies. They are listed: PreK-K, 1-2, 3-6, and 7-12. Check them out and get your Christmas freebie on!

Need a clone?

Have you ever wished you could just clone your self in your classroom. I know that providing differentiation for 33 students sure would be a lot easier if I had one! I read an excellent article from Scholastic about using digital work stations in your room to essentially clone your self! The examples in the article are for lower grades but I'm brainstorming ways I could apply this to my room to.

Right now I only have 3 computers. I am picturing putting them in different areas of the room so that groups could work on them. I'll keep you posted.

Check out the article here:

Scholastic Technology Work Stations

Happy teaching! You know what tomorrow is don't you?

Big Sale!

Teachers Pay Teachers is have a huge sale Monday and Tuesday!

In addition to the savings that TPT is offering, many other stores including mine will be offering an additional discount. Scope out that wish list and get stocked up for the year!

Narratives, First Person, Social Studies and FUN!

This fall my forth graders were working on narrative writing. Our first attempt was horrible left lots of room for improvement. The mistake was mostly on my part. I made this huge assignment to grade without giving them sufficient practice first. Since then I have been looking for ways to give them more practice at writing a narrative in a variety of meaningful ways.

In fourth grade state history is the majority of our social studies time. We were covering the daily life of a typical Native American living in Idaho. I wanted to start talking about voice, first person, third person etc. I told them they would need to write a narrative with all of the common core components in first person teaching the reader about the daily life of a Native American. I wasn’t sure how the assignment would go and I expected some eye rolling when I explained it. To my surprise, they loved it! A teacher’s dream come true!

There are two reasons I think it went so well.

1. The boys began to write wonderfully imaginative stories about going on adventurous hunts with wild animals since that was how Native Americans obtained the majority of their food.

2. I promised a project for those that were done. They were to make an artifact from daily life. A tepee, long house, model of a village, hieroglyph, clothing, anything they could think of.

I did encounter one interesting dilemma with the girls. They too wrote amazing stories about an adventurous hunt. I had to remind them that girls did not hunt and tell them their options were to either be a boy in the story, (they did not like that)  or change their story (they didn’t like that either.) We ended up with a compromise where they had to add in that they were sneaking out to hunt and explain that normally girls did not do this.

Overall it was a great way to practice narrative writing and first person and I know the kids really enjoyed it!

Classroom Management

I’m sure you’ve heard of Class Dojo, if not, you need to check it out! It is an interactive way to award your students points for good behavior or take them away if needed. I never take their points away, when they earn them they've got them, but you have to do what works for you and your class.

In my room we use the points like currency that the kids can spend on Fridays. My class loves the “Dojo Store.” The only problem is that if the kids don’t spend all of their points it’s kind of a pain to subtract some not all of their points. Sometimes I just write their totals down and adjust them later.

Our biggest seller on Dojo Store day is a raffle ticket. The raffle ticket is for a big prize drawing that we do on the last school day of the month. I try to make them fairly big prize packages and I try to include a book. The Target dollar spot is a gold mine when I’m looking for my raffle prizes. Here is what I found this month

I don’t always separate the girl’s and boys prizes but I didn’t think my boys would appreciate One Direction as much as the girls would. When I get back to school I’ll add a book to each prize pack. When I do the drawing there are tickets left in the box, I leave them in for the next drawing, that way anyone that has purchased a raffle ticket still has a chance to win next month.

What kind of rewards do you offer your class for good behavior?

Holes!

When we return from Thanksgiving break I plan on reading The
Best Worst Christmas Pageant Ever. I hear everyone talk about it, but I’ve never read it myself and it seems like the perfect time for it!

When we get back from Christmas break we are going to begin Holes, by Louis Sachar! I love this book and I know the kids will too! I am so excited to use my new packet: 

It is a complete study guide and assignment uses a variety of questioning strategies such as: non-linguistic representation, fill in the blank, multiple choice, inferring, short answer, vocabulary, multiple choice, and others. These assignments can also be used as group work to facilitate discussion about the story, homework, quizzes, whatever you need them for!
The packet includes an assignment for:
Chapters 1-5
Chapters 6-10
Chapters 11-15
Chapters 16-20
Chapters 21-25
Chapters 26-28
Chapters 29-35
Chapters 36-40
Chapters 41-45
Chapters 46-50
It also has a wrap up sheet, plot, setting, character comparison, character studies and much more!
After our book study I will let students choose a wrap up project from the list of  ideas, and finally we will do a  book vs. movie comparison.

We used some of these activities when we finished up Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and they worked really well!

Scoot! for 4.NBT.1

I don’t know about you but my math block is after lunch and for some reason after lunch most of my energy is spent trying to gain my student’s attention. One day I even resorted to doing a ridiculous walk around the room as I was talking. When one student said, “Mrs. Miller, why are you walking like that?”, I replied “Because it’s working, you’re all looking at me!”

I love the idea of scoot because it allows students to get up, move, and talk collaborate. (This is the game where there are different task cards at each student’s seat. Students are given an allotted amount of time to complete a task card at their seat until a signal is given when they “scoot” to the next person’s seat. I don’t know about your class, but mine is enormous. I find having that many fourth graders trying to move at once to be a little too chaotic in my small room. Mini Scoot is the same principle, but it allows the scooting to happen at a table or row instead of the whole room. In my mind it is more manageable.

I made my own version to go along with standard 4.NBT.1 from the Common Core. The thing I like about this version is the built in collaboration and group discussion piece.It  gives students a ready-made group where they can discuss their findings and make corrections to mistakes.  After the students complete all of the rotations they meet as a group to go over their answers. There is a box at the bottom of the task to say if your group agreed with your answer or did not. If they did not agree students are instructed to discuss how they got their answer and vote on the most likely answer.This step offers students immediate feedback on their mathematical thinking and a chance to collaborate, which is a common core standard!  After this step we come back together as a whole class and review our answers to make sure everyone arrived at the correct answer and address any misconceptions.

I also included a practice page so students can get used to the problem format before playing scoot. I did this one as a whole class so we could talk about strategies together. It worked so well as an engaging way to practice that I’m going to create more packets for the other standards!

Do you have a good way to keep students engaged and having fun during math? I’d love to hear about it!

Check it out on TPT!

Christmas Writing Fun

Christmas? I know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but teachers are always thinking a few weeks ahead and that means Christmas activities! I wanted to share something I used with my second graders last year. I love to use all of that holiday energy, craziness, whatever you want to call it, to get some great work out of my students. They are focused on the holiday anyway so we might as well use it to our advantage!
I
always usually promise my students some sort of creative activity to go along with their writing projects. This gives them extra motivation to get moving and get it done.

Last year I had my student imagine a scenario where they were contacted by one of Santa’s elves with an urgent message, Santa is stuck in a chimney! They need your help to save Christmas! The kids had so much fun explaining how he got in there and how they were going to get him out. They took their outline and turned it into a narrative story. The great thing about this project is that it is in line with the common core for second grade (2.W.2.) Engagement and productivity in one! It also ends with a fun project where they mount their writing on their very own Santa stuck in a chimney.

Here We Go!

Welcome to Learning and Laughs!

If you’d like to know more about my mission please read the “about me” section. I am here with a personal mission to make sure my students have fun while they’re learning. Besides feeling a personal connection with this goal, student engagement directly affects achievement!

I will be sharing some things I've tried with my class, and I’d love anything you've found that your students really had a blast doing.

Hopefully we can help student learn and laugh!