I {heart} Recess: Workshop Wednesday

Showing posts with label Workshop Wednesday. Show all posts

I don't know about you, but I often find it difficult to teach Science. Sometimes it's hard to find time in our day to complete a quality science lesson or activity. This year with the use of my Interactive Science Notebooks I have been getting to Science more than before, and the best part I ENJOY teaching it!

This week we worked on Phases of the Moon and I was able to tie it back to our literacy lessons as well...double like!

We read The Man in the Moon for our RL skills and What the MOON Is Like for our RI skills. We related facts from our informational text to information presented in our fictional text. I love this time of year of teaching because the students are able to make the connections as we are reading, not after I ask them comprehension questions!

As you know I LOVE using technology and videos in all of my lessons. We watched Brain Pop's Moon video and Phases of the Moon video, and my students took notes as they watched.

Students then created Collaboration Cuties Moon Book to show what they have learned this week. I love to save my copies so I copied the book in mini-size! My kids actually like working on the mini-size books, my girls think they are cute and my kids who don't like to work think they are doing less. (When in reality they are doing the same work, they just have to write smaller :) )

My students enjoyed making their books and couldn't wait to take them home and share them with their parents. To extend our skill I told our kids that there will be a LUNAR ECLIPSE April 15th! Even though I want them to get their sleep I told them to set their alarms between 2-4 AM to look out the window for see the phenomenon.

Science is just so fun to teach.. I hope you share the love! So some friends and I have teamed up with Educents for an amazing bundle of instant downloads for you!

For a limited time it is $10.99 from Educents which is about 65% off! It also includes these other great products so there is sure to things you love!

You can also take peek at some of the other products included in the bundle at any of the links below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Have fun teaching everyone!

Today I am linking up with my BBB Jivey to share Geometry ideas. I have posted several of them in my Mathematical Monday Linky, but since we are most likely the ONLY district who teaches Geometry the first nine weeks, I decided to highlight some of the great activities we did.

We used straws to discover different types of triangles. Read about it HERE.

We manipulated shapes and letters to find lines of symmetry. I also posted a Symmetry Freebie HERE.

We reviewed how to measure angles with the protractor while making a fall craft.

Some of my favorite geometry resources are:

Task Cards for 4th Grade Common Core - Geometry

Common Core Math Task Cards - Measuring Angles CCSS 4.MD.6

Kim Miller's Task Cards Math Mojo's Task Cards

Downeast Teacher's Geometry Printables

(She also has a wonderful protractor freebie!)

Next week we will FINALLY be in the month of April! I cannot wait to say good-bye to March, it's over welcomed it's stay! April of course is Poetry Month! I have spent the last couple of days gathering the resources in my room to prep for the upcoming weeks.

My all time favorite book for poetry is Giant Children by Brod Gagert and Tedd Arnold. You can read about how I used this book earlier in the year HERE.

This year I am going to try to go outside of my comfort zone and use poetry books I normally don't go to. I personally like the fun, silly, and entertaining poems like those in Giant Children and Where the Sidewalk Ends. Requiring myself to go outside of my comfort zone will result in exposing my students to a wider variety of poetry. Every year I have students who think ALL poems must rhyme. My goal is to expose them and introduce them to a variety of poems that do not rhyme.

For example Popcorn by James Stevenson (top right in picture) has a variety of poems that do not rhyme, some are written in different fonts, and all are illustrated.

Image from Amazon.com

This is a perfect example of a poem that doesn't rhyme. I am already thinking of some text dependent questions for this specific poem. :) Popcorn also has some examples of shape poems :)

For our poetry unit I am having my students create Poetry Journals. I am using Pinkadot's Student Poetry Journal, which by the way is included an exclusive Educents Poetry Bundle. I can't wait to see the poems my students come up with!

There are ELEVEN INCREDIBLE products in this bundle! Click on the image to check it out!

I asked my students their opinion on banning loom bracelets in school...and they had opinions! We then read the "Debate" in our Scholastic Weekly Reader titled "Ban Rainbow Loom Bracelets?". We discussed each student's opinion. I then related the article back to last week's skill, RI.4.8 Author's Claim, and asked if they felt each student had provided sufficient evidence to support their opinion or claim.

Then it was their turn to state their opinion or claim and support it with evidence. We used Tales of a Teacher's Free Oreo Opinion Graphic Organizer to plan our writing. Students then planned and wrote their opinion piece on wether or not loom bracelets should be banned from school.

Here is one student's opinion that they SHOULD be banned...

Here is another student's opinion that they SHOULD NOT be banned...

They both did a fantastic job supporting their opinion!

When you present a topic students can relate to they can write forever, present a topic they dislike and it's like pulling teeth to get them to write one sentence. I personally don't like teeth, so I try to provide my students topics they are interested in when it comes to our Reading and Writing assignments. :)

Today is the last day to grab these Test Prep $1.00 Deals!

Do you have a snow day today? We are on our second snow day and I am secretly hoping for another one tomorrow! There is no better way to spend a snow day than reading teaching blogs and checking out Pinterest for new fun ideas and lessons to use when we go back. Today I am linking up with my friend Jivey for her Workshop Wednesday.

I wanted to show pictures of my students starting our Historical Fiction unit, but due to the snow we only got through the first day. If you teach the American Revolution or a Historical Fiction Unit I hope you have The Scarlet Stockings Spy in your collection of resources.

I discovered this book from my BBB's and other teachers at my school. The story is a tale about a little girl, Maddy Rose, who helps spy for Washington's army. Maddy Rose uses her clothesline, wash, and scarlet stockings to help send messages to her brother Jonathan, who is a 15 year old soldier. The Scarlet Stockings Spy is a wonderful story about loyalty, patriotism, and an emotional tale of the American Revolution.

I start my Historical Fiction unit by going over what Historical Fiction Text are. We also reviewed the American Revolution using online resources. Since we are just starting this unit we haven't discussed many of the major events, but I knew my students had some prior knowledge because of what they were taught in third grade. We watched a Youtube video and a Brain Pop video. Later in the unit we will watch Liberty Kids videos as well.

As I read aloud The Scarlet Stockings Spy my students completed the Historical Fiction sheet. We discussed their answer as I read and after I read aloud. It was a amazing to watch them work hard in the beginning of the story, but once I reached the climax of the story their pencils stopped and they sat there listening intently, waiting to see what would happen next. I LOVE when I find a story they all enjoy!

Since I am unable to share more of how we use this unit in my class I am sharing my suggested lesson plan. I link I am going to switch days three and four, because my students were already picking up on Maddy Rose's character traits as I was reading on Monday.

I created a Smart Board file to go along with this unit, and have included it in the product. For those who do not have a Smart Board I also have the unit available without the SB file. The SB file follows the suggested lesson plan, includes images of the sheets making it easy to go over with students, links to the videos for day one, and interactive games.

PIN IT TO WIN IT!

(Unit & Smartboard File)

1. Pin the Area & Perimeter Pack image above on Pinterest.

2. Leave a comment with your email and the URL after you have pinned the image in your comment.

I will choose a winner Friday the 31st using a random number generator. Good Luck and thanks for entering!

Don't forget to "Follow The Trail" to enter a chance to win 14 products and a $25 TpT gift card!

*I LOVE linking up with Jivey's Workshop Wednesday and didn't want to miss out on an opportunity to share my favorite chapter book to use in Reading. I am reposting my Teaching Theme post from October. I fell in LOVE with Wonder by R.J. Palacio this summer and knew I HAD to use it in my ELA instruction. So far this year I have used Wonder to teach theme and point of view, continue reading below to see how we used Wonder to teach theme.

Theme is a large focus of our 4th grade Reading curriculum, and a skill students often struggle with. We have spent two weeks working on theme and I am impressed with how well my students are grasping this skill, one week using poetry and this past week using literature.

I started with Nicole Shelby's Reading Interactive Notebook to teach the concept of theme, if you have not purchased this product I HIGHLY recommend it! I usually start all my reading lessons with Nicole's notebook, this is what we do the first day and refer back to the information as we work on the skill.

I also used two sets of theme task cards this week in whole group, guided practice, and small group. {I used Rachel Lynette's Find the Theme Task Cards & Deb Hanson's Theme Task Cards} On the second day I glued a task card to the center of a very large post-it note that was given to me from my BBB Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching. Each student wrote down what they believed the theme was and provided evidence from the text to support their thinking. Teams then shared with the class their task card, theme, and evidence.

On the third day I provided students a copy of "The Summer Table" from Wonder by R.J. Palacio. {We are reading this aloud and my kiddos LOVE it}. Students silently read the passage circling any unfamiliar words. We then discussed the words and they read the chapter again with their partner. Pairs then determined the theme of the chapter and supported their thinking by finding evidence from the text.

The fourth day we read "Weird Kids" from Wonder and followed the same steps as the day before. Using these two chapters we then compared themes. Again, my kids did great!

On the final day, I had a sub, and left her passages to use with my students to review the skill. Learnzillion.com has some wonderful videos/power points for teaching theme as well.

What are some strategies, resources, books, etc. you use to teach theme? Here are a few of my favorites!