The Lorax Bulletin Board

Words cannot express how much I love walking out my classroom door and seeing all of the truffula trees hanging from the ceiling!  This is what I see when I walk out the door!

This is the view looking toward my classroom .

Looking at the board straight on...

 

Here's the sign that's on the top left of the board...

 

 

I had intended to make more of the big truffula trees with the grey/yellow stems, but...1-I didn't love the way they turned out, 2-I made them and not the kids, and 3-the kids' Loraxes took up more of the board than I had originally visualized.  All that said....I love it!  It just shouts spring, which I think most of us can agree we all need right about now!

 

So, my students made all of the truffula trees (flowers) themselves and they came out looking amazing!  Then we incorporated Read Across America with science with the tiny Loraxes.  Students wrote something they thought the Lorax would tell us about conserving our natural resources on the Lorax's belly and they wrote something THEY could do to help conserve our natural resources. 

 

Christmas Bulletin Boards

This first picture continues to amaze me!  I was going to be out for the afternoon so I decided to leave a little art project for the end of the day.  I left paper with ornaments drawn on them, yarn, fancy scissors, decorative paper, sequins, etc.  I had put up the black paper and red border, and told them they could hang their ornaments themselves.  When I came in the next day I was astonished how great the board looked!  They did such a nice job and were so creative with their designs!

Idea from: http://firstgradeblueskies.blogspot.com/2013/12/easy-ornament-bulletin-board-freebie.html

This is our bulletin board out in the hallway.

Craftivity found at: http://allisonspeechpeeps.blogspot.com/2012/12/christmas-speech-craftivity-freebie.html

It's a two part board.  The top part has Christmas trees that they wrote analogies on.  They came up with analogies and then write them on the ornaments.  For example read:words::count:numbers.

 

The bottom part of the board has Christmas presents.  Students cut out verbs and sorted them as past or present verbs.

 

 

Persuasive Writing

 

Let me first start out by saying (and I'm sure I've said it plenty of times before) I LOVE LOVE LOVE using pictures books and mini lessons to teach reading!  It never ceases to amaze me how many of my students enjoy reading picture books  (or having picture books read to them) , yet so few of them do it!  I guess that's lucky for me because they are so well behaved any time I read to them. I truly have no behavior issues whenever I read a picture book!  So there's bonus #1!! 

 

I love teaching persuasion!  I really do!  You should teach persuasion, too!  It's fun!  It's exciting!  Everyone is doing it....oh wait, I think I got a little off track there! 

Anyhow...to kick off the unit I usually start by reading of Hey, Little Ant.  After I read the book, and before we discuss it, we complete a little questionnaire about the book...then we discuss it as a whole group. 

 

 

FREEBIE ALERT: Click on the handout to download a copy of it!

 

I probably stole borrowed the questions from something I saw online, but darned if I can figure out from where (if they're your questions just let me know and I'll be happy to give you credit!).  I added the ant font and the little frame because hey, it's cute and who says fifth graders don't like cute?!  I also like to play a video on youtube of a couple performing the book for a bunch of kids.  You can watch the video by clicking HERE.

 

From there I go on to introduce some of the ways authors use persuasion (testimonial, bandwagon, emotional appeal, repetition, slogans, etc.). We create an anchor chart and then identify the different methods used in Hey, Little Ant. 

 

The next day we read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.  Before we read the story we review our anchor chart and I ask students to be considering the different types of persuasion used in the story.  I really enjoy reading this book to my students!  After we read the story, and again before we discuss it, I ask my students to decide...

 



 

 

They not only need to decide if they believe the wolf or pigs, but  they have to come up with a couple of reasons WHY!  Once they've done that they complete this cute adorable little house.  I don't have a close up (sorry!) but they cut out a picture of the wolf or the pigs and glue it on the left side of the paper.  Then they write up their reasons (in complete sentences of course!) on the right side.  After they get the writing part done they color the house to represent straw, sticks, or bricks....apparently in one version the wolf has a lot of money and is able to buy purple bricks (or pays someone to paint the purple - I'm undecided! - see top row, middle house!)  Then they cut the houses out and I hang them on the wall, those who believe the wolf's story on the left and those who believed the pigs' story on the right.  I'm thinking I might have been a little TOO convincing when I read the story because as you can see way more students picked the wolf over the pigs.  Funny enough, the three students who were absent that day all picked the pigs after they read the story themselves in a small group.  OOPS!  What can I say, I'm a sucker softie for wolves who treat their grannies so sweetly!  Once this is done, we again discuss the different ways the author used persuasion and the parts of the book (and background knowledge in some cases) that convinced us one way or the other.

 

 

After we read this, I put out picture books for students to read in their free time if they so desired.  Here are just a few of versions of the Three Little Pigs that I put out for them.  I was simply amazed at how many versions there are! 

 

 

 

Throughout the unit we also read Can I Keep Him? by Steven Kellogg, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems, Dear Mrs. LaRue Letters from Obedience School by Mark Teague, and CLICK, CLACK, MOO Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin.



After each picture book (one per day) we discuss the types of persuasion used and then do some type of follow up activity.

After reading Can I Keep Him? students pick an animal (not one that's in the book) and come up with 5 reasons they should be able to keep the animal, 3 reasons a parent might say NO!, and then 1 response for each parent reason.  They then break into pairs and role play the reasons and responses.
 
After Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus students write a sequel to the original book.  This year we had Don't Let the Pigeon....Fly the Helicopter, Conduct the Train, Drive the Buggati (expensive sports car for those of you who have no idea like me!)  We then took the 10 sequels and made a class book with them.  They came out fabulously!  I mean best ever!  I provided them with a step-by-step direction (I found it HERE of how to draw the pigeon and off they went!
 
After Dear Mrs. LaRue students pick one specific letter written from Mrs. Larue to Ike (the dog) and responded (in proper friendly letter form of course!) to her letter as the character of Ike.

After Click, Clack, Moo we completed a cause and effect chart as a whole class.  Then students broke into small groups and selected another book written by Doreen Cronin.  They then compared and contrasted their books by completed a Venn diagram.  Finally each group shared out to the whole class.

From year to year I switch up which books I use, add some in, take some out, etc. but these are the ones we did this year.  As the unit progresses each day I also add new books to our classroom that we won't actually use in class.  I have a special area for books that relate to what we're doing in class at any given time and students know exactly where this area is.  Once in this area they'll find signs like the one below so they know which area of study each book goes with.

Photo-a-Day Challenge September 18th

Ok...Day 18 of the Photo-a-Day Challenge.  Today's phrase is Bulletin Board....

Here's the bulletin board that's out in the hallway.  On the first day of school it had soccer balls with all of our subjects and things we would be learning about in each subject.  It also had red letters above all the soccer balls that said, "FIFTH GRADE GOALS", but apparently I never took a picture of the board once I put the title up.  The soccer goal hanging from the ceiling is made out of PVC pipes and a black fishing net.  The soccer ball is an inflatable pool ball.  The kids love to "tap" the ball into the goal.  I really don't mind, but I know it drives some of the other teachers crazy!  I mean if I'm being honest, I hit that ball every time I walk by it and I have pretty good self-control!

 

During the first week of school students completed pennants about themselves.  I have no idea where these came from, so I can't credit the awesome creator - but they rock! The kids had a great time filling them out.  The one on the left has students drawing a self portrait, their favorite foods and colors, and their hobbies.  The one on the right has them writing about their favorite book over the summer.  

 

 

After a few weeks at school, I took down the soccer balls and we put up the pennants.  The first two rows are the "Getting to Know Your Classmates" pennants and the bottom two rows are the pennants with the favorite books.  The picture does not do this board justice!  The kids did a great job on their self portraits - well really the entire project!  I love them!  I always "catch" them out in the hallway reading the board when they are going to or coming back from the restroom/water fountain.



 

You can't see it in the picture above, but this poster hangs to the right of the bulletin board, matted on blue paper and acts as a key so you know what is being drawn in each shape.  The hexagon is for hobbies, the oval for a self portrait, the heart is for favorite color(s), and the parallelogram is for favorite food(s).

 

The other bulletin board in my classroom is our AR (Accelerated Reading) bulletin board.  This is always my favorite board to do each year!  Last year's is still my all-time favorite board with our ocean theme, but this one looks pretty darn great, too, if you ask me!  Which you didn't, but we'll just pretend that you did!

 

 

Again, pictures just don't do the board justice, but it's a fun board!  The background is boring green paper.  The border is green ribbed - which is special because my late mother passed it down from her classroom when she retired from teaching.  The white lines are actually satin ribbon, which add a little texture to the board.  The "TIME TO A GOOD BOOK" letters are 4" black letters.  The TACKLE letters are 4" white letters glued on footballs.  Those are attached to a clothesline with clothespins for a 3D effect.  I did have some cool sports clothespins that I was going to use, but it was too busy and didn't look great.  The end zones have the school name in 4" blue letters (one of the school's colors) and the school's mascot cut out of black.  I didn't show those here for my students' safety.  Then you have all of my precious students' footballs.  These were given to them at Meet the Teacher night and they brought them back the first day of school.  We laminated them and I move them when students increase their AR points.  Each line is worth 10 points and when they get to the other end zone (100 points), they get a bigger football and their original football stays in the end zone.  Here's a funny story - I had intended to put numbers on the lines, but didn't realize I'd never done that until I was writing this blog post!  Guess what I'll be doing soon?!  The kids' footballs are already zooming across the field...I've even got one on the 80 yard line just a month into school!  Now that's impressive!  To the right of the board are genre posters.  Above the board are adjectives that describe books.  Below the board you can see about half of my picture books.  The shelf goes all the way down the wall.  There are also two shelves of chapter books below that.  All my books are labeled, as are the bins...but that's a post for a whole new day!  Right now we are working on finishing up our football buddies who will be holding a sign that says, "My Reading Goals" instead of "Who Will Win?". 

 

 

I got the Football Buddy Craftivity from A Cupcake for the Teacher.  You can check it out at their TeachersPayTeachers store.  It was designed to be used during the Super Bowl, but with just a itsy bitsy tweaking of the form, I made it totally work for me!! 

 

Thanks for looking/reading!  Have a happy day!

Nightly Reading Requirements

Today Jeanie posed a question on the Organized Classroom’s Facebook page.  It’s something I feel passionate about and have a system which I love, so I thought I’d answer her question here...

Jeanie wrote, "I teach 5th grade, and I am looking for a new easy reading log that I can check quickly without hassle. In the past I have assigned the students to read 20 minutes each night and have their parents sign the agenda...they tried to outsmart me and sign themselves. I have used "ThinkBooks" where they write two entries a week about what they read however it can take time on Fridays to read 2 entries per child when you have 25 children...plus I tried to comment on each entry. I was curious what others are doing. It’s important to read and be held accountable...I welcome any and all suggestions!"

I teach fifth grade in a self-contained classroom and am also a certified reading specialist.  I require students to read a certain number of pages instead of reading for a length of time.  Although I'd rather have it be for a certain amount of time, it's too hard to track (and verify) so I’ve found page numbers just work better for me.  This also enables me to easily differentiate when needed (so not all students necessarily read the same number of pages) and students also know they can come to me if they are reading something above their grade level that may make it more challenging to get their pages done each night (ie: Harry Potter is one that comes to mind).  I also tell students I may increase the number of pages per night when appropriate.  For example, sometimes I have fifth graders who want to read Junie B. Jones, Horrible Harry, Magic Tree House, etc.  These are typically below my students’ grade level, so I might require them to read more pages.   I don't always change the requirements, but take it on a case by case basis.   I know some teachers cringe when I tell them I allow my students to read books that are so obviously below their grade level, but I look at it this way – I’m trying to help students become life-long readers.  I want them to read for enjoyment.  When I read for enjoyment I don’t read challenging, technical, or hard to follow books that I’m not interested in.  I read mysteries or historical romance, or whatever else I’m in the mood to read.  When I’m told to read something specific (maybe something for professional development), I do it, but with a different purpose.  I make sure we’re reading what I consider quality literature in the classroom.  I make sure they are exposed to a variety of genres in class.  I make sure they are reading books at their grade level (in class) on a regular basis….so when I’m asking them to read at home, for THEIR enjoyment, I think they should be able to read what they are interested in. 

Now, I do offer incentives – last year when my theme was oceans they each had a treasure chest that they put jewels on.  The first picture shows their treasure chests at the very beginning of the year with no jewels on them, the second picture shows them at the end of the year.  I gave them their chests at Meet the Teacher Night and they brought them back, decorated, the first day of school.

 

 

For every five AR points they earned a jewel (there were different colors for each month and each color had 10 different styles for them to choose from).  They got silver gems (diamonds) when they reached 25 points, gold at 50, and at 100 points they got a bigger treasure chest to decorate and put on the board. If they recommended a book they had read to another student and that student read and took a quiz, then they got a string of pearls to glue on their treasure chest.  I have even had several occasions where a student has recommended a book to me!  I love that and of course I read the book!  I love having them ask me what part I'm on and then having little informal chats about the book!  I also did other challenges that they could earn different "pirate treasures" (coins, cups, etc.) – if we read a book in class by a certain author and they read another book by that author the could earn something to glue onto their treasure chest.  Every month there was a special challenge that related to that month.  For example, in January I put out a number of books about MLK, Jr.  When we were studying something like the American Revolution I offered treasures for books relating to those concepts, too. Over long breaks I would assign a certain number of pages, anyone who read double that number got a special treasure.  They loved having colorful treasure chests and liked getting the next size chest!  Since they are still 10 and 11 year olds, these incentives worked for my students.  However, don’t get me wrong, I know it wouldn’t work for everyone – I just take it year by year! 

 

These are just a few of some of the jewels they could earn.  The green was March, blue was January, silver was 25 points, gold was 50 points, pearls for book recommendations, coin and cup for special challenges.

 

 

In terms of accountability, they have to take an AR test when they finish a book.  If they don’t pass the test, then I conference with them about their thoughts on why they think they didn’t pass and we decide jointly what the next step should be.  That said, last year my 13 students (it was a very small class!) took 629 quizzes and passed 619 of them.  That’s a 98% rate of success.  In addition, the average quiz score was a 93%, so I feel confident that for the most part they are reading and understanding their books.   Keep in mind my goal for this is to just get students reading on a regular basis.  I do not use my nightly reading requirement for any type of assessment purposes. 

I have a form I use to record page numbers daily.  At the beginning this takes a little while to do, but after a couple of weeks I can get 20 students done in under 2 minutes.  The first day this of course takes forever.  First, I get the title of the book everyone is reading and then they tell me what page their book begins on (many books do not begin on page 1!).  Then each day they simply tell me a page number unless they have finished their book.  On the day they finish their book they would say something like, “Island of the Blue Dolphins ended on page 218.  My new book is Number the Stars.  It starts on page 3.”  Then I call the next student’s name.  It really goes very smoothly once they get the hang of it!  You can click on the image to download an editable version of this chart. 

 

Here is an example of what a completed form would look like.  I write the page number they were on the previous Friday under page number and then document page numbers each day.  Once in a while we'll get busy and not take page numbers, but I typically take them at least 4 days per week and always on Mondays and Fridays.  A few other things I do…when they finish a book I put a star at the end of the page number the book ended on so I know the book is finished and I should expect to see a quiz taken. I usually check at the end of each week to make sure they’ve taken the quizzes they were supposed to. Once I’ve verified that they’ve taken (and passed) the quiz, I check it off in my grade book. Although it’s their responsibility to remember to take a quiz, when they tell me they’ve finished the book, I do remind them to take the quiz before the end of the day.

 

Just to make this sound a little more confusing...here's another twist...although students are required to read a certain number of pages each evening....let's say 10 per night for easy math...they can (and are encouraged to) read ahead.  Once I take page numbers on Friday, all page numbers start over.  They are then required to read 10 pages per school night (so 5 nights per week) for a total of 50 pages a week.  If they know they have something to do on Wednesday night, I encourage them to read their pages ahead of time.  Theoretically they could read all 50 pages over the weekend and then be done for the entire week.  I feel by allowing them to do this, they are able to start working on their time management skills, which as we all know is very important in life.  I still continue to take their page numbers and give them accolades when they are reading more than they are required.  When they are doing some great reading at home (above and beyond my expectations) I let them add their name to our class BINGO chart that students really like getting their name on.  I will say that I have NEVER had students who have read all their pages over the weekend and then don't read again for the rest of the week.  For whatever reason, my kids just read every night.  I have to emphasize, I'm really positive about students reading and praise, praise, praise them!  There are consequences when they don't read, primarily they don't get to go to recess until they are caught up on their pages (which rarely happens), but I really try to focus on how great it is they are reading and liking it!

I realize this really sounds complicated.  I promise you, it’s not.  If you want more information or clarification, feel free to email me and we can chat back and forth or even arrange a time to chat on the phone.

PreK-K Emerging Readers/Writers Workshop

Ok…so I promised to blog about my PreK-K reading and writing conferences. Admittedly, since I teach fifth grade some of the things I blog about may be no brainers for those of you who teach these grades! However, as I listened to the conversations taking place around me I realized that I was hearing a lot of “That’s so easy; why didn’t I think of that?!” So I’m going to take my chances and hope not to bore any of you!

The reading workshop was up first. Since I also serve as the school's reading specialist, this was a great reminder for me of what I can expect from our newest little readers, as well as some ideas to recommend that teachers try for some of their struggling cherubs!

ABC Linking Charts! We’ve all seen these…

…and they’re great! The presenter stressed that we have a tendency to move from the unknown to the known, when we should really be doing the reverse. By using environmental print and pictures of students, we can make charts that students will relate to even more! There may be some squares we have to fill in with other pictures, but the more we can relate, the better! Here's a quick little example I put together in no time at all!

Ok, here’s another easy thing to do – that I bet many of you do already on your Word Wall, but maybe not with your alphabet line! Above your alphabet line put pictures of the children whose names begin with that letter.

Another idea the presenter stressed was using names of students to talk about sounds. For example, at our table we had a Lindy, Ginny, Christy, Cheryl, and Kristine. Here are just a couple of things that we came up with:
Y at the end of the end of words can say /ē/: Ginny, Christy, and Lindy
Ch can make different sounds: Cheryl /ch/, Christy /k/
There are different ways to say /k/: Christy (CH), Kristine (K)

She also gave us some ideas for how to use an alphabet linking chart, good books for retelling, and an early learning environment checklist. If you are interested in any of these things, let me know and I’ll add them!

Moving on to writing...

The most important thing I took away from this workshop was from the book Already Ready by Katie Wood Ray. On page 10 the author writes, “…if Sean sees an adult’s writing as part of his process, then the transcript has a message attached to it, whether it’s intended or not . The unspoken message is that Sean can try to write on his own, but adults are really the ones who know how to write. This message is reinforced by the fact that adults don’t usually redo children’s illustrations, only their writing. When one kind of approximation is accepted and not another, the message is clear.” I walked away thinking how important it was to understand there is a time and a place to scribe for children and I’d better not mess it up!! No pressure though!

Another idea the presenter gave us was an easy way to help keep track of students’ mastery of objectives. She suggested that we simply write/type the objective at the top of the page, have a page of address labels with students’ names printed on them (I use Microsoft Word and Avery labels-30 per page), and while walking around the room observing, just pull the label off the sheet for any student who you observe mastering this skill. I do something like this, but my way is definitely more complicated. The nice thing about this is that you know that any students whose names remain on the original label sheet haven’t been observed as mastering this skill (this could be because you didn’t have a chance to observe, they were absent, or you observed and they need more help!) She didn’t suggest this, but I would have a binder with a section for each content area. Then I would punch holes in the SWBAT sheet with labels and put them in the binder (in order of course!) behind the correct content area. You could even clip the unused labels to the sheet for later use if you so desired! This way you would know exactly who you needed to check in on!

Another quick and easy idea the presenter had was to use Wikki sticks to mark charts. For example, say you have a nursery rhyme on your chart stand and you are having children identify a specific letter, sound, etc. They can take the Wikki stick, form it into a specific shape (that’s my input!), and then put it on the chart! This allows you to reuse the chart and doesn’t require you to write everything on sentence strips (which is what I tend to do and then I use colored transparency squares to highlight the feature).

I hope this all makes sense, I know it does in my head, but that doesn’t mean I have been clear enough for you! If you have any questions at all, please let me know and I’ll do my best to clarify!

Happy teaching!