I keep meaning to post...and then I get all caught up in enjoying my time at home with my baby...first holiday! I hope everyone else is having a great holiday season and has an even better new year tonight.
See you in 2012.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Happy Holidays to All!
The days have gotten away from me these past few weeks and I have not posted as much (or at all) as usual! I hope everyone has a great holiday season and a wonderful new year.
See you in 2012! Merry Christmas from the mini Lyons!
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
The Daily 5...fully loaded!!
It's been about 2 weeks now and my students and I have transitioned into full choice mode of the Daily 5...or as we call it the Daily 3. We have been working on Read to Self, Work on Writing and Convention Connection. I decided to change Word Work to Convention Connection because I wanted to integrate a lot more grammar and not just spelling and vocabulary. Things have been going so well and I have been super proud of my students. On the days when we just can't fit Daily 3 in due to other curriculum expectations from the administration they are asking for it and wishing we could do it!! I love it! Where has this been all my life?
To start off with we reviewed all the I charts we had made throughout the introduction of each part of the Daily 3.
I am hoping to get organized soon so that I can do a great big freebie of the Convention Connection (Word Work) stuff I have been developing for my class but until then...which most likely won't be until after the holidays...you know how it is!!... here are some pictures and descriptions of what we have been working on in class.
In other class news, our media-inferring unit is wrapping up and I wanted to share some of the anchor charts we have created and used throughout the unit. We have been learning about inferring in advertising and the features of advertising at the same time. It's been challenging to say the least but from the diagnostic task until now I can really see improvement in most of my Grade 4 friends.
To start off with we reviewed all the I charts we had made throughout the introduction of each part of the Daily 3.
Sorry, the green doesn't come out too well in a picture.
Then we created a Daily 3 Promise for how we would work when we have free choice during the Daily 3...and of course, everyone signed it!
To start off with we have been working on nouns and verbs. The students have written stories attempting to use as many nouns and verbs as possible...so fun! Of course, they have done some work on using nouns, conjugating and verbs and identifying the nouns and verbs in sentences. So here came the hard stuff...I posted this list of vocabulary words and the students were required to sort them using a venn diagram into words that could be just nouns, just verbs or both. For some of my 4's this required some real thinking!
Of course, here is the Pinterest inspired Boggle board as bonus work.
This is where the students find all their Convention Connection handouts...and just like the rest of the Daily 5, there is lots of choice! (Please note my super fun Charlie Brown mug in the background!!!)
In other class news, our media-inferring unit is wrapping up and I wanted to share some of the anchor charts we have created and used throughout the unit. We have been learning about inferring in advertising and the features of advertising at the same time. It's been challenging to say the least but from the diagnostic task until now I can really see improvement in most of my Grade 4 friends.
Soon we will be starting Geometry and 2D figures...so as an introduction we reviewed these 4 quadrilaterals and then used them to create Kandinsky style abstract art! Pictures coming soon.
Whew...so much going on at school, at home and with the holidays....8 days to go until vacation. Happy Holidays everyone!
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Merry Freebie!!
I am super excited to be part of TBA's 25 Days of Gifts...but things are super crazy! So I do have a freebie for you...but I don't have a long story to with it.
I made these quick reading conference forms to record my discussions with my students during our Daily 5 discussions. I have a fiction and a non-fiction version.
Fiction Conference Form
Non Fiction Conference Form
I really hope to be posting soon with all sorts of news and pictures and freebies and stuff!! Soon!!
Until then...enjoy.
I made these quick reading conference forms to record my discussions with my students during our Daily 5 discussions. I have a fiction and a non-fiction version.
Fiction Conference Form
Non Fiction Conference Form
I really hope to be posting soon with all sorts of news and pictures and freebies and stuff!! Soon!!
Until then...enjoy.
And....here is the link to my ongoing Christmas idea Pinterest board.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Christmas Christmas Christmas
Learning with Ms Parker has organized the TBA's 25 days of Christmas gifts. I will be hosting on December 7th but I encourage everyone to check out Teaching Blog Addicts EVERYDAY to read all about the other days of giveaways as well.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Linear Measurement Foldable
After the craze of Foldables Week I really wanted to implement more foldables into my classroom...so we started our measurement unit off with creating a vocabulary foldable for linear measurements.
Take a look!
Take a look!
As you can see some of my students choose to be creative with their foldables and some like the minimal approach!
Monday, November 28, 2011
Frindle Storyboard
Sorry for my absence all last week. After a crazy few weeks filled with report cards, parent-teacher interviews, a workshop I led for parents AND a bathroom renovation here at home I just needed some time off!
My grade 4 class and I are reading Frindle by Andrew Clements together as a read aloud. I have planned this primarily as an oral communication project. In the Ontario Language Arts Curriculum students are expected to listen to oral texts and analyze them just as they do when reading.
Expectations
- demonstrate an understanding of the information and ideas in a variety of oral texts by summarizing important ideas and citing important details (e.g., present an oral report to the class after listening to a guest speaker; use a graphic organizer to map the important ideas in a text; represent the important ideas of an oral text through visual art, music, or drama)
- make inferences using stated and implied ideas in oral texts (e.g., listen “between the lines”to detect bias in an oral text)
- extend understanding of oral texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights; to other texts, including print and visual texts; and to the world around them
This is the assignment handout and rubric that I have given to my class. The rubric is based on on the Grade 4 Ontario curriculum so it will need to be adapted for your use unless you also teach Grade 4 in Ontario!! (All clipart is from Scrappin Doodles.)
We have started off very slow with this assignment. We wrote the retell for Chapter 1 together and created a checklist of what makes a good retell.
As a class we then brainstormed the important ideas from Chapter 2 on the board before they started writing their retell independently. For the third chapter, the students brainstormed the important details in groups and then did a gallery walk to gather any missing ideas from the other groups. Finally, for Chapter 4 they were on their own!!
I just read through the storyboards tonight and I am very proud of my students are doing on this assignment. Chapter 5 is quite long so instead of doing a retell the students will just be drawing a picture of their favourite part of the chapter.
Here are some pictures of the kid's assignments so far...just Chapters 1- 4.
My grade 4 class and I are reading Frindle by Andrew Clements together as a read aloud. I have planned this primarily as an oral communication project. In the Ontario Language Arts Curriculum students are expected to listen to oral texts and analyze them just as they do when reading.
Expectations
- demonstrate an understanding of the information and ideas in a variety of oral texts by summarizing important ideas and citing important details (e.g., present an oral report to the class after listening to a guest speaker; use a graphic organizer to map the important ideas in a text; represent the important ideas of an oral text through visual art, music, or drama)
- make inferences using stated and implied ideas in oral texts (e.g., listen “between the lines”to detect bias in an oral text)
- extend understanding of oral texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights; to other texts, including print and visual texts; and to the world around them
This is the assignment handout and rubric that I have given to my class. The rubric is based on on the Grade 4 Ontario curriculum so it will need to be adapted for your use unless you also teach Grade 4 in Ontario!! (All clipart is from Scrappin Doodles.)
We have started off very slow with this assignment. We wrote the retell for Chapter 1 together and created a checklist of what makes a good retell.
As a class we then brainstormed the important ideas from Chapter 2 on the board before they started writing their retell independently. For the third chapter, the students brainstormed the important details in groups and then did a gallery walk to gather any missing ideas from the other groups. Finally, for Chapter 4 they were on their own!!
I just read through the storyboards tonight and I am very proud of my students are doing on this assignment. Chapter 5 is quite long so instead of doing a retell the students will just be drawing a picture of their favourite part of the chapter.
Here are some pictures of the kid's assignments so far...just Chapters 1- 4.
I am excited to keep going with this project. Along with more retells we are going to be making connections, inferring and so much more!!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Foldables Week: Friday Foldables
I would like to send a HUGE thank you to all the contributors during Foldables Week and an even BIGGER thank you to Leslie from Kindergarten Works who created all of the amazing Foldables Week graphics and buttons. She is amazing and so is her blog...check it out!
Here are some great all around foldable resources:
Get In the Fold
Foldable Wiki
How Make Minibooks from squid
Lapbooks combined with foldables from Sunny Days in Second Grade
Larry Ferlazzo's List of Best Teacher Resources for Foldables
The Foldables Week link party will be open for a full month so please, please, please link up as often as you like! Thanks again everyone!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Foldables Week: Social Studies Thursday
Mrs. Howard's Class site shares some resources for teachers about Social Studies foldables
Review Activities using Foldables (specifically US content) from US History
Real Classroom Ideas has a great pdf download to help create your own foldables! MUST HAVE
Catawba County Schools Foldables Resource This one is a wow resource, great pictures.
A huge list of Social Studies foldables related to US curriculum
Plus don't forget to check out these blogs that have volunteered to contribute to Foldables Week for Social Studies when you get a chance...
Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes
Classic Crafter
Classic Crafter
If you have a foldables idea that is related to Social Studies and would like me to post about it please leave a comment below with a link to your blog post and I will share your great foldables as well.
Coming up tomorrow:
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Foldables Week: Science Wednesday
Vocabulary/ Scientific Method from My Science Lessons Blog
Ocean Ecosystem Foldable from Nicolette Speziale
Free foldables from Science Inquirer
Plus don't forget to check out these blogs that have volunteered to contribute to Foldables Week for Science when you get a chance...
Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes
The Teacher's Cauldron
Jack of All Trades
Charmed in Third Grade
Classic Crafter
If you have a foldables idea that is related to Science and would like me to post about it please leave a comment below with a link to your blog post and I will share your great foldables as well.
Coming up tomorrow:
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Foldables Week: Language Arts Tuesday
Main Idea, Inferences and Supporting Details from A Teacher's Treasure
Making Connections to Characters from Get in the Fold
Parts of Speech Flipbook from Jimmie's Collage
Parts of a letter and types of sentences from ELL Classroom
Layered Story Elements from Foldables are Wonderful
Plus don't forget to check out these blogs that have volunteered to contribute to Foldables Week for Language Arts when you get a chance...
The Teacher's Cauldron
Charmed in Third Grade
Classic Crafter
If you have a foldables idea that is related to Language Arts and would like me to post about it please leave a comment below with a link to your blog post and I will share your great foldables as well.
Coming up tomorrow:
Monday, November 14, 2011
Foldables Week: Math Monday
Welcome to Foldables Week! I love the concept and idea of foldables but this year has been crazy and I haven't been able to incorporate as many into my daily program as often as I would like...but I sure have found a tonne of good ideas from other fabulous bloggers out there.
We are going to start with Math!
Here are some more foldable ideas to use in Math class:
Subtraction Strategies from Step Into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons (Gotta love that Mrs. Lemons!)
Plus don't forget to check out these blogs that have volunteered to contribute to Foldables Week for Math when you get a chance...
If you have a foldables idea that is related to Math and would like me to post about it please leave a comment below with a link to your blog post and I will share your great foldables as well.
Coming up tomorrow:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
