It's Late, but.....CURRENTLY

It's super late, but I've feel like I'm finally breathing again (See previous post: Coming Up for Air).

Here's my {CURRENTLY} for September...

Just think, in less than a week, I'll get to do another one!! :)

Brianna

Coming Up for Air

Whoa!

I haven't written in three weeks! That should tell you what the beginning of the year has been like for me. I have been SUPER busy with my fantasy football team, TEACHERPROBS10 my plans for my students!

Here's an update on what's going on in my class....

Math: We are slugging through a review of multiplication and introducing how to multiply by three digit and four digit numbers. It's not required that they learn past two digit x two digit in my state because we are not Common Core, but after looking through the sixth grade standards and seventh grade standards, I realized that they NEVER actually learn it. How is that right?!?! It doesn't cost me too much time, and I am PRETTY SURE it's a life skill to be able to multiply large number, so I'm going to teach it!

Science: The Scientific Method is LIFE!! We started an experiment on how to dissolve eggshells using different liquid. Of course, as teachers, we all know that the answer is vinegar. Each year, however, I use vinegar, water (for a control), and one other new substance. Last year we chose apple juice...this year, we chose ginger ale. Holy moly! The ginger ale's carbonation cracked the eggshell and the yoke is now sitting OUTSIDE the shell. It's been an incredible opportunity for observation. They have really risen to the challenge. We have talked about how even though it's cool that the shell cracked, the fact that they can observe the sound of the eggshell still bumping against the jar, they can infer that there hasn't yet been chemical change in the shell itself, just a physical change.

In order from L--> R: Vinegar, Water (control), Ginger Ale (check out that YOKE!!)

History: We are about to jump into a review of the regions of Virginia. Honestly, I'm really hoping the kids remember this well, but when we did water features this week...**Crickets** Here's hoping they at least remember that we live in the Coastal Plains region @ sea level. We shall see...Why are we doing a review? In VA, students don't take a state test in fourth grade, they take it in fifth grade covering TWO SCHOOL YEARS worth of information. Can you say #workcutoutforme ?? We will add to the regions too, so it's not JUST review, they do get some new information in the form of products and industries that make our state economy turn. For this, I usually do sorts and color-coding. Lord knows I love a color-coded key!! :)

Reading: We are finishing up our "First 15 Days" of creating a classroom community. I'm kind of bummed because I really like to use the time to create a classroom community for writing as well, but we've had to put that on hold because of a new performance based task we're taking on this year. A couple years ago, the state took away our fifth grade writing test. They have implemented a new assessment in the form of these tasks. Their first task is to write a fairytale for a first grade audience. It's actually been a lot of fun, but it has been time consuming. I haven't had nearly as much time to use any of my awesome beginning-of-year Six Traits lessons. #merp Meanwhile, in reading, we are getting ready to start our guided reading groups. I'm pretty stoked to use our new reading program with my kids. I'm really hopeful that it's going to provide a little bit of what we've been missing! Only time will tell. I'm working really hard to get my students to start practicing a little metacognition. Do you do this in your classroom? I have taught them how to use sticky notes, and am in the process of reminding them gently to use, USE, USE them. They are responding several times a week whether in their Reading Response journals, or using KidBlog, or in their Reading Response letters. I think they are frustrated with how much they are being forced to talk about their reading, but I know it will pay off in the end!

Do you love finding cool anchor charts on Pinterest? I do...both of these are modeled after anchor charts I found online.

I'll try to add pictures later this week. I find myself forgetting to take them when I'm in the moment.So many of you other bloggers are way better than I am about it. I aspire to be more like you! I can't believe I remembered to take them today, and only ONE DAY after the original post. YESSSS....

Hope you are relaxing my teaching friends,

Brianna

First Week Teacher Tired

Is this a hashtag yet? Tell me you don't feel it, ladies?!

It's Thursday and I have been met with, dragged around, called for help, given advice, drawn on for inspiration, admired, envied, and many, many more things in just this one tiny week. In a word: chaos!!!!!

As I have mentioned a few times, my district has adopted a new reading program. I went to a training for it ALL DAY yesterday. As valuable as I'm sure that time was for some people...I happen to luckily been born with two eyes and a decent understanding of technology. Therefore, it was a 7-hour waste of my very valuable pre-students time. I came back today feeling like I had a million things to do and still spent hours in meetings, planned and impromptu!

What did I accomplish today?

1. Nametags are finally taped and numbered on desks. 

I always wait until late in the week so that if I get any new students I can fill them in to the lineup in alphabetical order. I hate to have a random "John Bencher" at number 26...it just irks my nerves. Doesn't really even matter in the end because we all know we're going to get some kid later in the year with a last name that starts with C anyway! #amiright?)

2. Book baskets are done

I was expecting a students of mine from a few years ago to come and help out today, but I got an email early in the morning not to count on it. I was bummed mostly because I couldn't see her, but just a TEENSY bit because I was looking forward to her extra set of hands!! #imtheworst! She was going to be in charge of cleaning my book baskets and cutting out name-tags for them and tying them on with string. Either way, I got it done and they look adorable. If I remember, I'll take a picture tomorrow for you and post it!

3. Math plans finished

I updated my plans from the first week last year to include the new Place Value Detective activities I bought during the TPT sale. If you want to check them out, they are by Mary over at Teaching with a Mountain View and can be viewed on TPT HERE. Technically, in my state, place value is not an official fifth grade strand, but it's so important for them to continue to develop their understanding of place value, since it is the BASIS for all math calculation pretty much.

4. Pre-assessments for 5th grade reading and SMART Goals organized

I don't know how many of you know about SMART Goals, but they are BIG in my district. They stand for Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic and  Timely. Do you write these? My school is currently acrredited with warning in reading. Because of this, our SMART Goals are going to be completely centered on reading, as is our 30 minute remediation block in the mornings. To have a remediation block the second week of school you need.......???? DATA of course. What better way to attain data than to give a pretest to students?! Naturally though, those pretests needed to be created. After our fifth grade meeting this afternoon where we analyzed last year's data and looked and fourth grade's data (to gauge where we're starting this year), we discovered that no one had a valid and reliable assessment to give us this data. I bit the bullet and made this my charge for the rest of the day, and I, "Got 'er done!"

____________

It was a productive day, and yet I still have so much to do. A teacher's work is never done. We'll see what Open House brings tomorrow! I'm getting excited!

Brianna

An Exploration of Genre

Hey everyone!

Happy Sunday...otherwise known as my last free-of-school-Sunday!! I head back to work tomorrow. I am both excited and terrified...probably also a little depressed. My summer was (as yours was) way too short!

Today, I've been going over my first 15 days of school I mentioned in an earlier post that my district got a new reading program. It offers a "First 30 Days" similar to "The First 20" of Fountas and Pinell. My principal feels that 20 days (much less 30) is far too many days to spend on classroom cohesion and prepping for the reading block for the year so we get a condensed NINE days. That means, roughly three mini lessons a day. I have no problems fitting this in because there is no small group reading during this time while we test the students to see what level they're reading at after the summer. Still, though, it's a LOT of information to try and squeeze into 20 minute blocks. Not to mention I am a Daily 5-er and I like to start my stamina building DAY 1, so I have to fit that in too!

In any case, to help get a leg up on the year, I also try to squeeze in a genre review during these first couple of weeks also. Since I use an interactive notebook for each of my subjects, Genre is the first thing to go into Reading.

Because this isn't actually a full blown unit, I needed to make something that got me the biggest bang for my buck. Fifth graders are expected to have a good understanding of genre already and I like to bring in some more sophisticated subgenres like memoir and the individual fictions instead of just going with the generic Fiction (realistic) vs. Nonfiction (informational).

First things first....the Genre Overview. For this I used a t-chart to do a broad comparison of fiction and nonfiction. I left room for notes as well as a listing of subgenres. I know not everyone makes as comprehensive list as I do, so I made two versions to suit.

Now we get into the specifics! I created a Fiction Overview and a Nonfiction overview to detail out each chosen subgenre...

I would use the one with with ALL my subgenres listed. This is the more generic version for those people who maybe wouldn't cover quite as much as I will. I did create similar versions of each that are not showing in the pictures above.

I then created two versions of Venn diagrams for each of the comparison subgerenes. I like to compare:

1) Realistic and Historical

2) Mystery and Adventure

3) Fantasy and Traditional Literature

Here are two examples...

You see that the first has a cut and paste (similar to the drag and drop option on our state tests!) and the second has an open-ended written response question based on a situation prompt.

I also created a page for Science Fiction where the student reads a summary and decides whether that IS or IS NOT SciFi and explains why.

For nonfiction, I made one organizer for all of it since most of the subgenres have many things in common. 

I'm excited to use these because I know that they are far more in depth than a lot of genre overviews out there. Using them as a quick reference guide will be perfect for my students when labeling book genres in their 40 Book Challenge log. If they have any questions, they can simply refer to these for help! 

If you like them, join my blog below and I'll send it to you for free for the next week! If you get to this post too late, fear not, there are in my TPT store HERE.

Brianna 

Fast Finishers: MATH

Hey everyone, and happy Tuesday!

Random fact for ya...did you know that Tuesdays boasts the label of LEAST likely to schedule services or appointments in the United States? That's right, Tuesday is the least popular day to go to the doctor, have Home Depot come measure your flooring, have your teeth cleaned, or get your therapy on. I know it's the least likely day for me to do it because Tuesdays are faculty meetings at my school!

Anyway, moving on. Today, as I worked to label my remediation station folders, I thought about how my remediation block went last year. Specifically, I tried to think of any "Wishes" or "Suggestions" that showed up on my informal evaluations for that time period. Academically, it went swimmingly. The only thing I can remember my administrators saying is that they thought that my students were finishing too early and that meant my stations weren't rigorous enough. Now, mind you, I work with some of the higher students in the building, so I could give some of them Algebra I or Moby Dick to read, and they'd still be done before 30 minutes was up! Needless to say, however, I needed a fix for this.

I put that set of thoughts on the back burner for a few minutes while I attempted to organize some math materials on an extra set of shelves I have over by my desktops. They were dusty from lack of use. I was standing there thinking to myself how VALUABLE these resources are, but sometimes I just feel like I have SO MANY resources, it's impossible to use them all, and I constantly am forgetting about these because they're not able to fit in with the rest of the resources in my large cabinet.

BAM!

It hit me.

Clearly what I needed was a fast finishers area. I know a couple people in my school have some QuickWrites or flashcards for fast finishers, but I wanted something more substantial. These extra math resources were the answer I had been waiting for! I hardly ever use them during ACTUAL math, and there are such a variety of options, the kids would be able to choose a different activity every day of the week if they finished early all five days.

Here's what I decided to offer...

This first shelf has a variety of math games in that magazine rack on the left that can be played by one to two players. The next set of folders to the right of it are resources I got from Lakeshore. Here is an example of one of the folders.

Inside there are 4 different scenarios, each with two different question cards. These are all Real Life types of of questions. It also comes with two other pieces to help students answer the questions, and an answer key. This particular one discusses money (decimals) by talking about neighborhood jobs students can have. I also have a set for fractions/decimals/percents, measurement, geometry, and another number/number sense. These are perfect for one person, AND they're entertaining!

The last thing on that shelf is Math Literature. I am a firm believer in Real Life Math and that students needs to be exposed to math in more ways that just solving problems. Math Lit. helps this and the kids really enjoy it. This is where I keep all of my Sir Cumference books, etc., for those of you that use them. I actually recently added Math Literature as one of my Guided MAATH Rotations. You can check that product out HERE. It's one of my best sellers!

On the second shelf for Fast Finishers we have....

On the left, I have several games that were designed as take-home games for students who need continued work in a skill. They come with a two-sided gameboard, pieces, die, question cards, and a letter to the parents explaining why they are receiving the game, how/when to return it, and the instructions for how to play. This particular kit is Level D, which equates to grade 4 (which is what I taught when I purchased it). I cannot TELL you how valuable this kit has been to me even though I have NEVER sent it home with a child. It's excellent for building math stations stamina where children are learning how to control volume during math stations, not to mention just the skill review it offers. Games like this are 2-4 players. If you don't like to have noise, then these are probably not for you. Onto the next!!

These are AWESOME, one-player, all inclusive file folders (also from Lakeshore). I have one for Fractions/Decimals, Number Sense, Measurement, Geometry, and this one for Data and probability. It comes with ten individual folders with the title and skill covered on the top tab. Inside each folder it comes with cards and coverall pieces as well as a self-checking answer key for the kids. They LOVE these. I have actually used these as Fast Finishers before for my math stations. They can just come over, pick a topic they like and play!

I forgot to take a picture of the third shelf up close but here are some of the games I have one it. All for individuals.

Caps Off!

I forget where I read about this, but several years ago I decided to try it in partners and it worked really well, but collecting, cleaning and labeling like ten sets of bottle caps (let alone keeping track of them) was frustrating and time consuming. So I combined them all together and let the kids dump them all out in the circle, face them the right way and then begin collecting. For ever one they pick up and get right, they get to keep like points. Anyone can join in and begin collecting at any time. I would say no more than five players though.

Grocery Shopping

For this one, I laminated several grocery store circulars and give the kids a sheet to record their exact prices and estimates. You wouldn't believe how excited the kids get about buying their OWN food, instead of tagging along with their parents (which they all hate...shocking, right?). If you are interested in money computation or estimation, check THIS and THIS out.

Oh Snap!

I also forget where this one came from because I have been using it so long! Let me know if it's yours!

This is basically like the game War except the winner is not the higher card, the winner is the person who can add, subtract, or multiply the fastest. The only thing the kids need to know other than that is that all face cards are 10 and aces are 11. They can also use three "Checks" where they make their partner prove it. I have even made this a little higher in the past by requiring partners who have been CHECKED to create a pictorial or written explanation of why their answer is correct. Partners can also use Checks when they thing their opponent is wrong.

Time's Up!

This one is also an easy setup. All you need are flashcards and a timer. This is designed to help students master their math fluency. Students take ten cards at a time and time themselves adding them up. Then they take the same ten cards and flip them over trying the other side, recording their times on a sheet of paper. Then they do a second round with each side to see if they can beat it. They are so proud of their scores when they improve!! If you are into math fluency, you should check out WBT's site and see their game SuperSpeed Math. It is also a great Fast Finisher that I have used in the past. The only thing I have have a hard time with is that for each student to track their own progress, they really need their own binder with it and that can become cumbersome! 

Okay, so there you have it. Tons of Fast Finisher Options! Some of them cost a little more than other (Thank you DonorsChoose), but some are easy to throw together at the last minute that aren't the "same old thing."

How do you handle your fast finishers?

Brianna

Reading Graffiti

How many of you have read The Book Whisperer or Reading in the Wild?

I have read both and one of the things that I incorporated into my room last year OTHER than The 40 Book Challenge was to create a reading graffiti wall. If you don't know what this is, it's an area of the room where students can write their favorite quotes from the books they are reading. Here is one I found on the internet...

 

Last year, mine wasn't very successful. I had maybe six or seven quotes on it, and two of them were mine from our read alouds. Probably fortunately for you, I don't have a picture of it to show you, so you can't feel THAT bad for me. 

Needless to say, I still love the idea, and rather than throwing it out with all the trash I've been accumulating, I decided to try something a little different.

A really good friend of mine made me some of these last year...

With a piece of plywood and a jigsaw, really what CAN'T you do? #amiright

They are painted with whiteboard paint (that you can purchase from your local home improvement store...I'm pretty sure it's made by Rustoleum).  Last year I used a few of them on a bulletin board I created in the hallway outside my room, but they ended up being mostly decorations. 

SOOOOO....Why not combine the best of both worlds??

I started putting them up just to see how it looked and I liked it so much, I decided to do the whole door that way. 

Here is the whole door covered...

Then I thought to myself that it looked kind of plain so, see that marker hanging on the door? That's what I was originally using on the black paper. Now, I don't need it since the bubbles are dry erase, but that doesn't mean I can't use it in the meantime!!

I decided to spice it up a little bit!

I'm still not done yet. I think I'm going to back and add a little border or something. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, my intention is that hopefully the kids will WANT their quotes up there now, since there is limited space. The brilliance of dry erase is that if more kids have quotes, we can simply rewrite them a little bit smaller and make more room. Either way, this year it won't look so sad :(

How do you keep your kids invested in their reading?

Brianna

Classroom Reveal 2015!!

I know that this post is late considering that almost everyone is back in school by now, but so be it.

Today is going to be a lot of pictures and just a few words here and there...I apologize in advance if anything is blurry because my phone literally has a 5 megapixel camera. I'm pretty sure a Kodak Disposable from the 90s takes better pictures than this phone!! Also, the lighting in my room is weird for some of the photos because I like to have the lights off most of the day. About halfway through taking pictures, however, I realized that YOU GUYS might not be able to see it all so I flipped them on. I didn't go back and take repeat shots though #aintnobodygotimeforthat!!

Here we go....

The view as you walk in the room. I will say upfront that most of my walls are bare right now. I like to have things open so that when class is in session, we can make anchor charts together and put them up around the room, organized by content area.

Reading Nook #1: At the front of my room I have a rug with some cubes that I got for 60% at Michael's last summer #heckyeah

Reading Nook #2: As you can see, this is by my teacher closets. You would think this would be a problem but I never go in those during reading because I am usually in small group or conferencing so it actually works out okay. Those pillows do not stay on the carpet though. You can't tell but my desk is to the left of this area. The kids would be traipsing all over them to get to me during the day and I just CANNOT HAVE THAT!! I store them in a different bin which you'll see in the next photo. The kids are surprisingly good at putting them away if they are trained right from the start #thankyoudaily5

Reading Nook #3: This is my tiniest reading area and my FICTION ONLY library (I forgot to take a picture of my NONFICTION ONLY library # merp). Notice how under the desk on the right is the basket I was talking about in the previous picture. It stores all my pillows from the big carpet AND my collection of MINI PILLOW PETS (given to me by my T.A. Jennifer). The M.P.P.s are used on the tiny carpet only.

This is my personal space at the back of the room. All of my binders are labeled and organized using milk crates (more of these in a moment!). I have my Teacher Toolbox and just out of view on the right are my student mailboxes. Behind my desk I have my Homework Club and my Class Bingo, which is designed for whole class discipline goals. I can't remember if this was an original idea or if I read it somewhere years ago, so if it was your idea, lemme know and you'll get credit, I swear! 

ALSO OF NOTE: don't you love my chalkboard apple??? It was given to me by one of the most challenging students I have EVER had for Christmas last year. I HEART it :)

Homework Zone and While You Were Out. Pretty self-explanatory. This is where they drop off HW in the morning and pick-up WYWO if they were absent. At the end of the day I collect all the foldables, interactive notes, worksheets, etc. on their desk and stick it in a folder with their number on it. When they come back, it's all in there just waiting to be put in their notebooks!

MATTH Rotations Board (T2 not pictured)

Small Group Area with Word Study board in the background. On the left side of that board I usually write different topics for the kids to write about. It normally consists of a list they can make, a What if..." open ended question stem and a "Would You Rather..."

My Writing Process and Six Traits Board (I just love to make thing POP up off the boards!)

Organization is my #favorite! That little yellow sign says "Stealing from Ms. Burch is WRONG!" Care to take a guess what I had an issue with last year??? My favorite thing in this area is definitely my color coded crayon drawers. I give each of my kids a box of crayons each year...but then they take it home for one reason or another and it never comes back. Well, that doesn't help when I do foldables and interactive notes on the daily, now does it?! So, sometimes I'll say, "Choose three colors of your choice," or "Take out a red and a blue." Either way, this allows kids to get ONLY what they need. 

This is part of my Writing and Word Work activity area for Daily 3 + Me. The binders of the left say "Mad Libs" (I store all the mad libs the kids have already written here for inspiration- after I check them for vulgarity of course) and "#NotRight" (This binder is where my kids have the opportunity to write about real things that have happened to them or someone they know that aren't right for one reason or another. It's truly amazing how open they are about it sometimes.) In the green bin are my Class Journals and on the far right are my new Reading Response Letter Journals. In the middle are mostly resources for Writer's Workshop like peer editing checklists, drafting paper, and final copy paper. In the front are my magnetic letters with white boards and behind are my Bananagrams with cork pads for sound muffling.

This is the table at the front of my room. It stores items I use daily including whiteboard, lined paper, staplers, tape, and all the bins that keep my daily math stations materials. You might remember from the MATTH Rotations board the M (math facts), A (at your seat), and H (hands on). I love to you use mild crates to make additional storage! Have you tried this?? To the right is my Power Up area. I have mentioned before that we have a mandatory remediation block each morning. While I am with a small group working on a skill, the rest of my students are rotating stations, one per day. Each one of these bins holds a different activity in the manila folder and when they are done, they stick it in the purple pocket folder behind it. You see that the last bin is already full...that's got my brand spankin' new Comp. Files in them!!

Okay...that's all she wrote on the classroom reveal for 2015. Let me leave you with one last picture...a picture we're all familiar with...

Yep...you too jam pack that cabinet, don't lie!

What did you think??!!

Brianna