Oh Snap! It's Almost September

Back to school is almost here, and it's a goal this year to get prepped and planned out better so I can spend as much time with my baby girl as possible. I'm pretty excited to have stumbled upon this linky this morning, if for nothing else than to keep myself looking ahead to the coming month and all that I need to do!

One of the classes I teach is writing {I'm departmentalized}, and the end of August/Beginning of September is reviewing and laying ground work for the rest of the year. Somehow, summer brain seems to take hold and the vast majority of my students seem to think words like "verbs, subjects, adjectives" etc. are foreign concepts. {I know both their former 3rd grade teachers and myself pull a little hair at the blank stares as I know these concepts have been taught before... thus the review!}

I read a book by Jeff Anderson a few years ago about mentor sentences and the writing process and he had several great ideas. One tricky concept, is remember subjects and predicates. Just having the long word predicate is tricky enough on it's own for many of my students to remember. Jeff had a great activity, "sentence slap" where students create the smallest sentences ever. We build from the simple subject and simple predicate to other parts of speech as we review simple sentences and go on to compound and complex sentences.

Students enjoyed being able to "slap" their sentences down on the black board.

We move on, talking about what makes up a simple sentence, what is a fragment, and the various types of sentences. I made up a review pack and recently updated it with a sentence spin game as well. Click here or the picture below to see more about this product.

From simple sentences we move on to the wonderful world compound and complex sentences; covering clauses and conjunctions along the way too. Each year I tweak things, prepping a little more, trying to make or find more resources that help with tricky concepts, and hopefully nip some problems in the bud before they truly blossom the following year. I've added more and tweaked to my simple,  compound, complex pack. You can check it out here or by clicking the picture below. There is also a set of posters only too if you'd rather.

One of my favorite resources, that combines my love of children's literature as well as spiraling back and reviewing parts of speech and sentences all year long, are mentor sentences from my good friend Jivey. To read more all about these and how to implement them, check out the post here.

What do you do to review/teach various types of sentences?

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Classroom "App"lications Technical Writing & Winner

As I've downloaded all of my pictures from the school year, I realized, that I didn't blog about one of my student's favorite writing pieces which also happened to involve one of their favorite apps "PG Viewer." The app lets students mix around different elements, compounds to make different creations, there are little people in the app too, so my rule is that the little people cannot be harmed during their creations.

Any way, the kids don't get to be on the app a whole lot. Usually their days are full, and free time if given a choice for an app it's a specific educational app. When my students found out that they could use this app with a writing piece, they were all on board.

The challenge was for students to create something (anything school appropriate) on the app, and give step by step instructions, so that anyone could follow them... hello technical writing! Students had a day to brainstorm, and from there wrote their rough drafts, worked with a partner to see how clear their writing was (the partner followed the steps that the other read aloud from their paper, if their end picture didn't match what the original creator made, then adjustments had to be made to the paper), color editing, and then the final write ups.  The projects took several days, but they turned out great, and I feel that the engagement factor really helped my students get into their technical writing pieces.

Final drafts were typed. I should have taken pictures of their onscreen creations, but neglected to, I was out sick often during this project. It was nice to know that the students took ownership enough to do a nice job for the substitute on the days I could not be there.

How do you use apps in the classroom? I'd love to know! Be sure to link up your blog posts below!

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Also, the winner for my Math & ELA Ice Cream centers is Eilid, sorry for the delay! The centers will be on sale for the next couple of days if you were wanting them and didn't win! 

Hope you have a great week!
 

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Workshop Wednesday: DoGo News

Quick post tonight to link up with one of my best blogging buddies, Jivey, for her Workshop Wednesday. This week it's all about sharing websites for reading!

 

The website I am sharing was shared with me by one of the fifth grade staff members: DOGO News! 

DOGO News is updated frequently with news stories that are kid friendly. The site is set up so that students can also comment and interact with articles if you so choose. If an account is created {FREE!}, as a teacher you can create lesson plans using articles, create reading lists, and invite your students. 

I like to pull in articles from this website to pair with other texts we are using in the classroom. The students enjoy the format and I like the wide variety of informational texts that can be utilized. Articles have also been used to spark conversations and debates. This website {all free!} is truly worth a look!

What websites are you using for reading? Be sure to check out all of the wonderful links, and link up your favorite websites too!

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Classroom Applications: Creating Comics

March is here and I'm hoping that spring follows shortly. Later this evening we're suppose to get a nice layer of ice under 6-8" of snow. So over winter!

February was a busy month in my classroom. We used the iPad for several different projects and I thought I'd share about one we're in the midst of this morning. This break from our current writing project had many students engaged and pencils going, so I am linking this up to my friend Joanne's Student Motivation Saturdays as well!

We started our mini-biographies, part of Loving Lit's Interactive Research Pack. So far this week we've walked through the beginning parts of research together as a full class. Erin's lessons are laid out with extreme detailing that is super easy to follow; I can't wait to see what the students come up with when they begin their own projects in the following week.  I'll be posting more {hopefully} on our progress; I keep forgetting to take pictures along the way.

After we finished up the guided, note-taking process it was finally Friday (this week has felt as if a couple of extra days were thrown in). The students were really engaged by the research materials that Erin had shared on Dav Pilkey. With it being such a long week, I wanted to switch up from our research project for something a little more fun.

If you don't know, Dav Pilkey is the author and illustrator for the Captain Underwear series. Much of what he writes about today, was inspired by comics he made as a child. As we watched the videos and read the comics that Erin included in her pack on Mr. Pilkey, my students were so engaged! For a change up, I wanted to see what the students could create with only the parameters of creating a comic that was school appropriate.

Our iPads are loaded with StripDesign. I love the versatility in this app and I've blogged about how I've used it for vocabulary and figurative language here. The application is easy to manipulate; you can draw, add pictures from camera roll, stickers, and text. 

I'm not sure my room has ever been as quiet as it was while they were creating. Their creativity abounded. It was such a fun release and I love to see their ideas when the parameters aren't so strict. Some students opted to have paper instead of the iPad, but either way they turned out great.

This comic was probably my favorite. This little gal created a whole world revolving around donuts {I love the sun!} A bad guy tried to take over the world, but his plan was crumpled, or was it? (She left her comic end in a cliff hanger.) Her table mate continued on with the them in breakfast world, where the same villain emerged to try and take over once again. I loved their creativity and collaboration!

Getting ready to use StripDesign

This student ended up with several FULL pages by the end of the day. He was so excited to show me!

The beginning of another comic.

Comics can be a pretty creative writing format. I gave students the option to be as creative as they'd like with this little creative break from our report writing. However, students could be asked to tell about different climate regions, vocabulary, or historic events in a comic book format. The possibilities are endless!

How are you using the iPad or Chromebook in your classroom? What apps are you loving and applying to your lessons? Be sure to link up all month long! Also, be sure to check out many other ideas that motivate student at Joanne's blog too!

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Hands-On Learning: Skills Work

In my building, the current structure of our reading block is novel studies. In my small class, the students rotate between reading the novel and daily phonics/skill work. In my large reading class we utilize literature circles (focusing on skills that coincide with the book) and it's in between books that we really dig into skills.

This week has been a skills week.  It's been a blast thanks to my friend Catherine!


The first skill we worked on was inferencing. Not that the kiddos haven't had to infer throughout the year, but we were in need of a booster shot!

During the last sale, I picked up Catherine's inference activity.

Lots of anchor charts and notes to refresh students and review, which was terrific. The best part was the hands-on activity that had my students up and moving. {This week with our wacko weather had us full of wiggles that needed let out and about!}

Students were given one of the cards from the pack and three note cards to jot down their situations. I should have taken a close up of some of the cards, they did such a great job--creative and funny in many cases.

Once students had wrote their situation for the given topic, they were to raise their hand and look for another student with a hand raised to partner up with.

Students then read their note cards and their partners tried to guess the topic. After both partners had shared, students swapped topics and started again until they had traded three times.

For all of the movement, my room was so quiet! The students were sad when exit slip time came. The marks of a great lesson/activity.

The second activity I started today. It was on my plans all week, but who doesn't love a sale? Worth the early start to my morning to make copies. Although, my sleepy eyes didn't read all of the instructions, so my students dealt with an extra challenge---all of the cards were the same color. Scandalious, made the kiddos sweat, but they were able to do it!

Students had to work with a partner and figure out how to set up their main idea houses based on the cards that were drawn. Determining the difference between the topic and main idea was a bit challenging, but by the end of the hour, students had it down. 

Again, engaging day. Students learned more about some historical events that they didn't know too much about. Looking forward to our practice with science topics tomorrow!

Don't forget... TPT's BIG sale started today and ends tomorrow. Get some great resources at a great price while you can!

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Back to School...Eventually & New App!

While I did finish up my grading before break, I procrastinated a bit in forming actual plans for this coming week. I had a rough idea of things we would do, however, writing down these ideas, just seemed to signal the end of break way too soon.

Then the call. Due to -25* and below windchill temperatures, no school tomorrow!

I'm hoping with my new found no-school energy I can crank out plans for the next couple of weeks. Just to start the year off on a well prepared foot. We shall see.

It's been a long time since I've joined in with Jeniffer's linky. Way too long, but I thought I would share an idea or two for the coming week.

In one of my reading classes we will be starting Chocolate Covered Ants by Steven Manes. This will be paired with a nonfiction book Chocolate Wasn't Always Sweet: A History by Marilee Robin Burton. In my second reading class, we will start with the nonfiction book and move to Ronald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The unit plans come from one of the teachers on the 4th grade team. Complete with how to taste test chocolate (an activity I know my kiddos will love, and a perk to working through the nonfiction text).  The icing on the cake... or maybe the chocolate on the ant (?) is a field trip to the local Russel Stover candy factory on the outskirts of town. A couple of the other reading classes have made the trip, and I know there will be mutiny if my classes don't make the trip too. I'm pretty excited to start this unit, and thankful for the collaborative team I work with.

On Thursday, I will be heading for additional LETRs training. A Rocky Top Teacher, recently posted about a new-to-me app called ThingLink. I've created one for my students to look at edible bugs across the globe and journal about if they would try an insect delicacy. If you'd like to take a look at the articles and video the kiddos will be looking at just take a look below.




Speaking of a new app... how are you using iPads and iPods in your classroom? I'd love you to link up your ideas below all month long!

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