I {heart} Recess: Blog Hop

Showing posts with label Blog Hop. Show all posts

Have you enjoyed your Christmas break? I know I have! I'm also sure you are in need of some great resources to use when you go back :) The ladies of the Lesson Deli and I have put together a Jumpstart January Blog Hop to help you create your plans for the next few weeks and a chance to win a $50 Target Gift card!

One of my favorite stories to use this time of year is Snowflake Bentley. This is a great text to use for informational text, biography, timelines, sequencing, character traits, and science! I love a text that touches on a variety of skills!

My freebie for you is a mini Snowflake Bentley unit!

This unit includes 4 comprehension questions (that require Higher Order Thinking) for Fan-N-Pick or Team Showdown, Character Trait Map, and an Informational Text Feature template for student writing.

Some of my favorite ways to use task cards are by using the following structures. With these structures you only need a few task cards instead of a whole class set.

Fan-N-Pick/Showdown

1. Provide each team (4-6 students) with a set of cards.

2. Each team member should be assigned a number (1-4).

3. #1 Fans the cards

4. #2 picks a card

5. #3 reads the card aloud to the team

6. EVERYONE writes their answer on a sheet of paper or student white board

7. #4 shares his/her answer first and then students continue to share their answers in order.

8. Rotate the deck of task cards to #2 and repeat the steps. Each student will have a different job this round.

9. Continue the steps until all cards have been answered.

I combine two of Kagan's Cooperative Learning Structures to ensure ALL students are actively engaged and participating in the team discussion.

When students identify the character traits of Wilson Bentley they are also required to support their thinking with evidence from the text. I have also created a text feature template for students to write their own summary or informational text piece on W. Bentley or snow using a variety of text features.

Along with the other members of The Lesson Deli I am putting a few of my products on sale for $1! This is a great time to stock up on some great deals using those TpT gift certificates you received for Christmas!

Math: Fractions with Recipes
Fractions with Recipes 4.NF.4

Science: Nutrition Close Reading Passages

Nutrition Close Reading Passages & Corresponding Activities

Social Studies: The Scarlet Stocking Spy

The Scarlet Stockings Spy {Unit ONLY}

I {Heart} Recess

We all know teachers are magic, but it seems that this time of year, our magical powers need a little extra umph and a maybe even an ABRACADABRA to get us to that last day of school! So, I teamed up with some amazing intermediate bloggers to create some magic of our own! You may recall that a couple of weeks ago, we joined forces to swap some of our favorite resources, armed with the goal of putting a little extra magic in our lessons and keeping our students engaged during these final weeks of the school year.

Credit goes to these talented graphic & font artists: Krista Wallden, KG Fonts & CC Fonts.

As promised, we’re all back today with Part 2 of our blog hop giveaway – the big reveal – viola!

Nonfiction Book Report Project (Aligned to CCSS)

If you remember from my previous post I chose Kathleen's Nonfiction Informational Book Project to keep my students engaged this time of year....I am happy to report it was a hit with my students!

We collected cereal boxes for a week so we could have them ready to use. The first day I attempted to teach my kiddos how to wrap a cereal box like a present using bulletin board paper. Now, do you ever have those moments when your realize you are in too deep to abandon ship? I had that moment about two steps into this process! After repeating myself, hearing my named called over and over, and running out of glue we ended up with 23 boxes successfully wrapped.

On the second day I passed out the rubric, yes I saved my copies by shrinking it down, and showed examples of completed projects from Kathleen's blog. Students then read their nonfiction text and started taking notes and working on the assignment requirements.

On the third day my students started working on their boxes. I broke up the requirements by day, day 1 the front, day 2 the sides, day 3 the back, and day 4 was for those who needed extra time.

Here is an example of a completed front. I hate that I don't have more pictures today, I was out Friday and didn't get pictures of the completed boxes. If you check back Tuesday I will have more completed pictures.

I am so glad I chose this product! My students absolutely LOVED working on their projects and asked every day when they would get a chance to work on them. Normally, I would of assigned this project as a homework assignment, but at this time in the year I wanted to provide my kiddos an opportunity to be creative in class. While they worked I was able to pull students for their end of the year DIBELS assessments. I highly recommend Kathleen's product for a fun end of the year project! It's a fun way for students to demonstrate what they have learned about informational text.

Now to our second round of magic giveaway! We decided to switch things up a bit by having several winners this time around! In fact, 14 classrooms will receive a little magic for their own classrooms! Each of the blogs featured below will be giving their prize to a different winner!

So, perhaps you want to know what MY winner will collect! Whoever is drawn as the winner from my blog will receive

"Winner's Choice" That's right, the winner will receive one item from my store (excluding bundles)!

Good luck!

Here’s what you need to do for this giveaway:

Stop by each blog to read about all the magic that has been spread around classrooms near and far!

Enter to win each blogger’s resource using the raffle below. Each blog is showcasing the same Rafflecopter, so you can just add entries as you go!

While you are at each blog, if you’re not a blog follower already, sign on to follow! (You can earn bonus entries for following all blogs once you unlock the additional entries.)

Again, a total of 14 winners will be named! Each blog will award a winner. That individual will receive the prize listed at that blog!

Here’s the list of blogs to visit:

Swap Stop A

Swap Stop B

Swap Stop C

Swap Stop D

http://crafting-connections.blogspot.com/

Swap Stop E

http://createteachandshare.blogspot.com/

http://teachingtoinspirein5th.blogspot.com/

Swap Stop F

Swap Stop G

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Well, friends, here’s the blogosphere sending a little magic your way this May! :)

I {Heart} Recess

As mention in yesterday's HOP post this time of year, spring fever has hit, and with the end of the year in sight, we all need a little extra magic to keep us going! So, in the next few weeks, I’m joining with my favorite intermediate teachers to put a little extra magic in our lessons and keep students engaged.

Credit goes to these talented graphic & font artists: Krista Wallden, KG Fonts & CC Fonts.

We will be swapping resources that will be just what we need to keep our students engaged during the final weeks of school. We want to share our finds with you in a fun way – a 2-part blog hop giveaway!

Today, we present Part 1, with each blogger introducing the resource they selected to keep their friends engaged and learning in our final weeks together. Then, over the course of the next two weeks, we will be using these resources in our classrooms. On Sunday, May 11, we’ll be back to report on how well these resources kept our students engaged!

Yesterday, I shared how I am going to keep my students motivated with Reading Bingo so when I found out I was paired up with Kathleen I knew I wanted to use her Nonfiction Informational Book Project with my class. My kids LOVE reading and I have several who LOVE reading nonfiction books, as I have said before I am extremely blessed with this group of kids!

By this time of year I have run out of creative juice and my mind is on test prep. With this project my students are still going to get the practice they need for identifying main idea and with grade level vocabulary. I am going to have my students choose one of the books they are reading for Reading Bingo to use for this project.

What I love best about this project is that it allows students to be creative! They get to use the other side of their brain while still staying focused for our upcoming state test.

I can't wait to tell them about this project when we go back to school tomorrow. {I am excited to tell them about it, but not excited our Spring Break is over.} I also have a creative bunch of kids and know they will LOVE this project.

If you can't wait to see how my student's projects turn out take a sneak peek at Kathleen's post from when her students completed the project HERE.

Now to the giveaway! Here’s what you need to do:

Stop by each blog below to check out the resources being swapped.

Enter to win the resource that is featured at each blog in the raffle below (the same raffle is at each blog, so you can just add to your entries as you go!).

While you are at each blog, if you’re not a blog follower already, sign on to follow! (You can earn bonus entries for following all blogs once you unlock the additional entries.)

One winner will receive the entire set of resources being featured by ALL collaborating bloggers!

Here’s the list of blogs to visit:

Swap Stop A

Swap Stop B

Swap Stop C

Swap Stop D

Swap Stop E

Swap Stop F

Swap Stop G

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Finally, don’t forget to stop back in two weeks! On Sunday, May 11, we’ll all be back to share with you how the magic went in our classrooms! Oh yeah, you might want to know that that there will be a SECOND GIVEAWAY, too! Until then, enjoy the magic and happy teaching. :)

We are only weeks away from the end of the school year! Can you believe how fast this year has gone by, although I am sure some of you may have wished this year went by even quicker! Are you getting Spring fever, or are your students the ones showing signs of being checked out!?! My BBB's and I have pulled together some of our favorite survival tips for this time of year and along with a few AWESOME giveaways!

By this time of year do you feel like it's pulling teeth to get your students to read? It seems like all they want to do is everything BUT read! Around this time last year I implemented Reading Bingo, I will introduce it this year on Monday when we get back from Spring Break.

Reading Bingo

Each student is provided a copy of the Reading Bingo sheet and can read any of the books off the chart. We use AR at my school so students are encouraged to choose AR books so I can see that they did read and comprehend a book from their Bingo sheet.

Once they have read a book and passed the AR test I use a Bingo dauber to mark of their square. Each time a student makes a BINGO they earn one of the following: a prize from the prize bin, candy, or a classroom ticket of their choice. I do not allow them to stop there! I encourage them to get as many Bingo's as possible for the remainder of the school year. They will receive a prize with each Bingo.

My class last year did not enjoy reading. Once I implemented Reading Bingo I had more students meet their monthly AR goal in the last month of school than any other month! This year's group LOVES reading, but HATES AR test. They truly read for pleasure...I am blessed to have them!

I encourage you to grab my Reading Bingo Freebie to keep your students excited about reading these last few weeks of school! I have created two different Bingo sheets. They both have the similar non-fiction text requirements, but one has students read any book from several fiction series and the other list specific fiction books. There is a color and BW copy for each sheet because by this time of year you may be out of color ink or color copies. :) I hope you can use one of them with your students!