Five for Friday

This has been a crazy yet exciting week. I've been looking forward to writing this post since the beginning of the week because I knew this week would be jammed packed with excitement. So once again I'm linking up with Doodle Bug Teaching for Five for Friday.

1. This week I tried something new. After publishing a piece of writing, I had each of the students read each others pieces and then write comments telling what they liked about the story. This worked out very well. Read more and see more pictures here.

2. On Wednesday I was out for a workshop entitled Innovation Institute. This workshop is a series of four days and Wednesday was day three. The focus of this workshop is for the participants to discover their creativity while beingallowed to be very reflective about their personal and professional lives. I'm extremely happy that I took advantage of this opportunity because it was only offered to a limited amount of people in my district. Here are two products from this week.

I plan to do an entire post after the final session.

3. If you have been reading my blog, you know that I'm a member of a skeeball league. Our skeeball season started on Wednesday. Each week each team of three play against another team. Team and individual scores are tracked and after 8 weeks we have playoffs and then a championship Saturday. I just wanted to share that I played really well this week and I'm looking forward to continuing this throughout the next few weeks.

4. Thursday was a huge day for my school. To begin we had our spring concert. There was an international theme. We had students singing, dancing, and stepping. It is truly amazing at how talented our students are.

Here is a video clip of three students from my class performing a Nepali dance that they created.

Here is a picture of the fifth graders singing their song at the concert.

Thursday evening we had an International Festival. There was a school wide pot luck dinner in which families and staff brought food to share. There were over 300 people crowded in the gym for this event. Once most people were seated the performances began. Out step team performed again, some of the students performed their dances from the earlier concert, one of our teachers performed an Irish folk dance, and our TD students performed an African drum and dance number. It was truly an amazing night.


5. Friday was another jammed packed day. We had our third quarter awards ceremony this morning. After school I went to visit a friend who just had a baby. He was so cute! And then a friend and I headed over to see our Latin dance group perform this evening. This group of dancers is sponsored by a local Latin American group. Our students along with two other schools combined for a final performance tonight. We were a little late so I missed them dancing but I got a picture of them when they were receiving their medals.

Five of my students are in the group and they were extremely excited to know that I was there to watch them perform.

After a week like this I further realize that I am extremely fortunate to do what I do each day. I work with some amazing students. I am also very happy that my students are given the opportunities that they are given.

Well that was a glimpse into my week. I hope you had a great week as well. Don't forget to stop by Doodle Bug Teaching and share your week.

Peace, Hope, Love, and Kindness Linky

Today was an extremely long day. I left home at 6:45 this morning and just returned home around 7:00 tonight. And yes I was at work the entire time. We had International Night this evening so I stayed to help and enjoy the program. I definitely love attending after school programs, but it just makes for a very long and exhausting day. We also had our Spring Concert, which also had an international theme, during the day today but I'm preparing a post for that later.

I was thrilled when I first heard about this linky party from Jessica from Ideas by Jivey.  With all that is going on in the world, it's nice to see what good things are happening.

A few days before Easter I posted about an amazing blessing that was provided to one of my students.  Her family is struggling due to the incarceration of her father. This means that her mother is now bringing in the only income to feed a family of 6. Luckily, my school received some donations that allowed us to feed four families Easter dinnee and thenalso provide some canned goods for spring break to make sure that the kids had food while they were out of school.

Here is the original post.
Thankful for Easter Blessing

Stop by to visit Ideas by Jivey orCollaboration Cuties to link up and share some love and happiness happening in the world.

Tried It Tuesday: Commenting on Peer's Writing

It's Tuesday again which means it is time to link up with Fourth Grade Flipper for her weekly Tried It Tuesday.




After completing out book projects last week, I wanted to give my scholars a bit of a writing break on Thursday and Friday.  I knew that they were super excited to read each other's stories so I took advantage of their excitement.

I printed out copies of their writing and stapled it inside two pieces of construction paper.  Then I placed the booklets around the room and gave them instructions.

They were asked to walk around the room and find a story.  Read it and then provide a positive comment stating what they liked about the writing.

Here's a picture of one of my scholars working.

Here are a few pictures of some of their comments.

What I Loved About This Activity
1. My scholars really enjoyed being able to read each others writing.
2. Everyone was completely engaged in the activity. (It was amazing how quiet they were. I have an extremely talkative class this year so anytime they are quiet for longer than 10 minutes is amazing.)
3. I was able to see exactly what they focus on while reading. (Some comments were really generic.)


What Needs to Be Improved
1. Some of the comments were very generic. I should have modeled the types of comments. I will definitely do a better job a modeling next time I do an activity like this.


After we were finished, I gave them time to decorate the cover of their booklet and then I placed them on the bulletin board.

This was a very simple activity that I will definitely try again.

Now it's your turn. Stop by Fourth Grade Flipper to link up and share something that you have tried.

Let's Get Acquainted

It's Sunday so that means it's time to link up with Latoya from Flying into First Grade for her weekly Let's Get Acquainted linky party.

Today we are sharing our favorite parts of our classroom. Since we spend so much time there, our classrooms say a lot about who we are.

Welcome to my classroom.


CLASSROOM LIBRARY
I am in love with my classroom. I posted about it here. It definitely doesn't look this neat at this point in the year, but it is still pretty organized.

CLASSROOM DOOR
I also love my door. It definitely sets the tone for anyone entering my classroom.

DATA WALL
Here is my data wall. We track data for each of our assessments in reading, math, science, and social studies. For more information about my data wall click here.

That's a quick glimpse into my classroom. Now it's your turn to stop by Flying into First Grade and link up.

Have a great Sunday!

Five for Friday

Happy Friday!! We have survived another week. That only means that it's time to link up with Doodle Bug Teaching for Five for Friday.

1. Test prep
It's that time of the year again. It's time to prepare for the dreades test. We still have 4 weeks of school before we start testing so there is still plenty of time, but I hate shoving test taking strategies down their throats. It takes the fun out of school. My class is a little behind the rest of my grade level so we are only ready to review reading, but the kids are already dreading that subject each day. I definitely need to make it more exciting.

2. Kidblog.org
I mentioned this amazing website last week but I had to mention it again because my scholars have become obsessed with it. It's a blog for kids. I left it pretty open for what they can blog about and they have mostly written posts about personal things but one student shocked me yesterday. I viewed her blog and she had posted a blog about what they had learned in science lab yesterday. I also have a student who had to go out of town for the week for family reasons. She was constantly blogging and commenting and I was able to share some things that she had missed with her. I'm so proud of both of these scholars.

3. Book Drive
Our school is having a book drive so students will have the opportunity to take some books home to read over the summer. The fifth graders were asked to decorate the boxes. Look at the picture below. I'm not quite sure why she was laying inside the box. I just had to take a picture.

4. Fifth Grade Olympics
To control behavior issues, we have started an incentive program where we hold competitions between the five fifth grade classes. Well behaved students are allowed to participate. Today we held our third event: egg and spoon relays. It was hilarious to watch and the kids had so much fun.

5. I got a new phone this week. My last phone, th HTC Incredible kind of just died. I had it for almost 3 years so it was time for a change. I was talked into getting the Samsung Galaxy III. I'm enjoying it so far, but it is a lot larger than my old phone so I'm still getting uses to the size of it. Well I'll have plenty of time this weekend to play with it.

Well I hope everyone has an amazing weekend. Don't forget to stop by Doodle Bug Teaching to link up.

Workshop Wednesday - Cut and Grow Revising

Today I'm linking up with Jessica from Ideas by Jivey Workshop Wednesday.  Today's topic is our favorite writing mini lesson.

Let me first say that until recently writing was always my least favorite and weakest subject to teach.  I have recently started to appreciate the subject and have become a much better writing teacher.

One of my favorite writing mini lesson deals with revising.  I teach that revision improves our writing.  The revision strategy that I use is called cut and grow.

I start by preparing my own piece.  I make sure I use some very weak sentences in my story.  I share my writing and then explain that I now that I have finished my first draft, I now need to look at my work and see how I can make it better.  I select a sentence and grab  a pair of scissors and cut the sentence out of the paper.

After doing this I am left with two pieces of paper: the part of the story before the eliminated sentence and the part of the story after the sentence. I then tape the first part of the story on a piece of large construction paper.

Then I write my new sentence on the construction paper, under the beginning of the story.  I may add more description, more details, vivid verbs, transition words, etc.  After I write my new sentence, I attach the bottom part of the paper.

Here is my picture of the example I did for this mini lesson at the beginning of the year. I think my original sentence was "I hadn't ridden it before."  See how much my sentence grew.

Using this strategy allows students to see how their writing can grow.  They are able to have a hands on experience with their writing and they always love being able to cut their paper.  This strategy makes revising fun for my scholars and provides a visual of what revision is.

Below are some cut and grow examples from later in the year.  My scholars did an amazing job at adding, substituting, and removing parts of their original draft.  They weren't this good at the beginning of the year.  I'm so proud of their growth.

Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party

I can't believe that it's already the middle of April and that there are only 38 more days of school left. Where has the school year gone? At least that means that summer is almost here and I love summer. But for now it's time to link up with Latoya from Flying into First Grade for her weekly Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party.

Here is the code:
Red- Favorite Ice Cream Flavor
Orange- Favorite Memory from College
Yellow- Favorite Sports Team
Green- Favorite Fast Food Place
Purple- Wild Card(Tell anything about yourself)

RED - FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR

When it comes to ice cream, I'm pretty plain. I like to keep it simple with vanilla. Cookie dough is my second favorite, but nine times out of ten I'm going with vanilla. (Now I really want some ice cream)

ORANGE - FAVORITE MEMORY FROM COLLEGE

When I got to college, I dreaded speaking in front of groups of people. That was until I became a BGSU tour guide. I loved the experience that this gave me. I was forced to talk in front of large crowds and I loved it. Since then I've never had trouble speaking in front of groups of all sizes. So my favorite thing about college was being a tour guide because it helped rid me of my fear of public speaking.

YELLOW - FAVORITE SPORTS TEAMS

Being a Cincinnati native, I have always been a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals in football and Cincinnati Reds for baseball. I've endured some awful teams over the years but I will always be a fan of both. Since moving to NC, I haven't been able to go to as many games as I did growing up and I really miss them, so I have to settle for watching them on tv. (I'm currently watching the Reds game.)

GREEN - FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE

I don't really eat a lot of fast food, but my favorites are Wendy's and Chick fil a. It's hard to choose between the two.

PURPLE - WILD CARD (Tell anything about yourself)

l was raised as an only child by my single mom. A couple of years ago I learned that my father, whom I don't know, also has a son, which means I have a younger half brother. We have talked a bit, but I've struggled with forming a relationship with him because the thought of having a brother is still weird to me. I've been struggling with the decision to contact him again, but I'm just not sure where to start.

Well that's a little more about me. Don't forget to stop by Flying into First Grade and get acquainted with other amazing bloggers.