Celebrating Columbus Day!

Columbus Day is a week away – Monday, Oct. 13^th. I find my students enjoy doing different activities around the holiday. I have created a Columbus Day Activities – Across the Curriculum which covers all the subject areas: reading, writing, math, social studies, science, art, and fun activities.

The reading piece is three pages with a vocabulary activity, a list of reading books on Columbus, and questions about the text that are common core.

There is also a writing activity in which students write about what they want to be remember for. The math activities are comparing numbers using decimals and place value.

The social studies is a group activity of reading paragraphs that are facts about Columbus and identifying the main idea. The science activity is creating a homemade compass.

One of my favorite is the directed drawing of a ship in Columbus’ fleet. Students draw with sharpies with your direction and then color them in. They turn out really well – even for those students who can’t draw well.

Finally, there are fun activities such as playing a game – Nine Man Morris. I give the history of the game, directions, and a game board. There is also a word scrabble and mapping Columbus’ sailing routes.

If you are interested in this Columbus Day Activity pack, you can find it at my TpT store. Have a Happy Columbus Day!

Teacher Tip for Writing Time!

My first writing piece this year is a Response to Literature. My students and I read “The Bamba” from Gary Soto’s book Baseball in April. After reading and discussing the piece, we focused on the theme of the story. We have been covering theme in several pieces during reading this month.

My teaching tip is for writing time. I know you all have experienced the long line that begins to exist in your room when editing writing. Students in elementary (and middle school) struggle with seeing their own errors. So, early on in my teaching career I created the Five Error Rule. I will proof a student’s paper until I hit the fifth error. Then I send them to their seat to recopy what we corrected. When they have copied that portion, they can bring the paper up to me again to correct more until I find a fifth error. We repeat this process until their papers are written.

I have found this priceless! The students’ papers that have few errors are read quickly. But those students who have a lot errors are what take time. So by proofing only five errors at a time, keeps the line moving. I find I meet with a lot more students when I do the Five Error Rule. Finally, it teaches students, writing can take more than one draft. It is funny how kids think we all write everything perfect the first time. 

Celebrating Birthday's in the Classroom!

I love to recognize my students’ birthdays during the year and I finally found a simple to do that! I made a bouquet of silly straws with flowers that say “Happy Birthday”. I put them in a cute tin pail and set them on my desk. I also wrote out certificates, bookmarks, and “no homework” coupons for all the students. So now when I have a birthday in class, all I have to do is grab the certificates and stuff and let the student choose his/her silly straw flower.

I saw this idea on Pinterest a while ago and I finally tried it this year. I looked for the original one that I saw a few years ago, but had little success, so I created my own. If you are interested, I have it as a Birthday Bundle on TpT.

Constitution Day is Coming!

This week, Constitution Day is on Wednesday, September 17^th. Since I have a half day, I am going to spend the day doing activities from my Constitution Day – Across the Curriculum activity packet. It has lessons covering reading, writing, math, social studies,  science, and more.

The reading activity includes a reading piece which has questions, websites, and additional books to read incorporating research.

The math activity compares the populations of the colonies when the Constitution was written and word problems.

The activities for social studies and science explore interesting facts about the Constitution and activities about temperature.

Other fun activities are also found in the packet – art activity, ABC book on the Constitution, and a word search. 

You can find this product at my TpT store – Applejacks Teacher.

First Day of School!

Tomorrow is my first day of school! I am teaching 5^th grade this year. Here I am sitting in bed about to fall asleep and excited about tomorrow. A week ago, I returned to set up my classroom. I had bags everywhere after arranging the desks. I had to reorganize my library, put things away, and label all the supplies for the students. It doesn’t sound like much – but it is!

On Saturday, I was able to leave with the pleasure of knowing I was all ready for Tuesday and I could enjoy my holiday too. Here are some pictures of my class room set up. 

I also decided to use binders for the students again this year. I have had more success with the binders. The folders were getting all bunched up in the desk. Plus the students would wrinkle the papers as they closed the folders. I label my binders with tabs for each subject – Reading, Writing, Math, Social Studies, and Science. I feel I have a good handle on the binders after doing it for a year.

Well, good luck to those who are starting tomorrow! I know a lot of teachers have already started, so I hope all is going well for you too! I will be back next week to let you know how my first week went and the fun things we did.

Returning to School in One Week!

I always have ideas to share, so here is two this week. When I get into the full swing of school I will have many more. I am technically on vacation still – 5 more days! And what am I doing – teacher stuff. It is in my blood and I can’t help it!

I never used my plan book for a whole year until I bought one from Erin Condren. For about 16 years, I always started with good intentions of filling out my plan book and after a few weeks, it started to collect dust. I am not saying you should run out and by one, but now that I have been using it for several years, I have found some great value in writing in it. First of all, I am now using last year’s as a guide and a reference to what I am teaching this year. Sometimes I forget when I did something or how long it took us to complete. Second, it helps me plan units (especially math) so that I complete a unit at the natural breaks of holidays and vacations. One of my pet peeves is I hate giving tests on Mondays – I don’t think it is fair to the students.

Anyways, I am already excited to start writing in this year’s planner – so weird how something cute and fun is a motivator for doing something! Here is a picture of my planner this year!

My next tip is Class Dojo – Love it! I have the app too. If you have not tried it – you should check it out. It is free and is a nice way to keep track of positive and negative points your students earn in class for behavior. I use mine as a currency, so students can buy privileges and rewards. I have it displayed on my Promethean Board when I am not teaching and my students are very responsive to it. I also use the app when I go pick my class up at the line-up area. They can earn points for lining-up quietly and if they don’t – well you know. The amazing thing is by the time I get back to the class the points are already there on the Promethean Board – amazing! Each year the company has been improving it – this year it went school wide. So, if you team teach or share students, more than one teacher can give or take away points. Pretty Cool!!! Anyway, check it out at classdojo.com. 

My Summer is Almost Over!

School starts in less than a month and my vacation is almost over! I am glad though! I get really excited this time of year. The start of new beginnings and a refreshed outlook.

This year has its challenges because I have 22 students looping with me. I had them as 4^th graders in my 4/5 combo last year and I am very happy to be teaching a solid 5^th this year. However, as you know, this poses its own challenges, since I can’t use anything that I did last year – books, lessons, projects, etc. So I have already been working on new ideas to revamp my room for this year while getting my students excited about 5^th grade.

One of the new things I will be doing is changing my first day picture book that I read to start class off. I usually use The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown and Leonard Weisgard. I read it with the class and then we look at the pattern of writing the author’s use in the book. Then my students write about themselves using the same pattern. I also take a picture of each student on the first day of class. Finally, we publish the poem with the picture for Back to School Night. I always get a lot of great comments from parents about them.

This year I will be using another book that was an idea from my partner, LeAnn. She has used The Best Part of Me: Children Talk about Their Bodies in Pictures and Words by Wendy Ewald. After she reads the book to the class, she takes a picture of their body part they want to write about, and then the students write a paragraph about it. For example, a student may take a picture of his eyes and write about how he views and interprets the world through his eyes, while others look into them to learn and understand him. Another student may take a picture of her feet and write about how her feet take her places in her life. I am looking forward to using this book in September.

No matter when you start, all of us have to get things together – shopping for supplies, organizing classrooms, and preparing for a new start. I wish all of you a happy and low stressful beginning to the school year of 2014-2015.