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!