Five for Friday - June 6

Whoosh! It feels so good to be able to just sit down and BLOG again!

School got the better of me and the end of the year was such a bullet to the finish. I can now officially announce that I had some really great test results. I was kinda worried with this group, but they came in with flying colors. So proud of them!

But now Summer is HERE! I have sent my little ones off into the big wide Fifth Grade world and already started printing out materials for next year. I've got Saving Fred already set to go, and the Personal Graphs waiting for students to fill in with their personal preferences regarding school subjects.

With a little time before the new year flies in my face, I thought I'd link up with Doodlebugs again for some good old fashioned Five For Friday!

 

On Monday I laid out my plans for the next couple of weeks. This would keep me focused and off the couch. I started packing up my kitchen for the remodel starting in July. That was all finished by noon. I got started on making some chair pockets (another post on that later), but then I broke the sewing needle.

 

 

New day, more plans. I set about organizing a new internet connection. It was taking Clear up to 35 minutes to download a 2 minute video of dancing cats. I was tired of waiting! I put it out on FB that I was looking for something new. The resounding votes were for Comcast Xfinity. I called them up and set up an appointment for tomorrow to come out and install it. Yay!

Today was the day to sit around waiting on Maintenance People. Comcast was set for 1-3 and then I had the Wildlife folks coming out to check traps in the attic for critters. They said mysteriously sometime after noon. Turns out after noon means 3:30. Comcast came out at 2:15 and drilled a hole in the wall and installed the new modem I bought. Clickety click, they were done. OooOOoOoOh, it was so faster!

 

 

I stopped by school yesterday to check out my new chair pocket and make sure they fit. It was perfect, if a little large. So I went back home and cut out all of my templates and folded them. Turned on the sewing machine and the it just hummed at me. Now I am not the best sewer in the world, but even I know a humming needle that doesn't move is not good. I turned that thing off.

 



Today is all about Orange is the New Black. I know I should be thinking about those brave soldiers that made DDay so successful, but I've been waiting for months for this new season to start! I'm already two episodes in and I feel the couch calling my name. Not good. Maybe I'll go sit by the pool.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Chocolate Factory - Pin It to Win It!

If you've been following my past posts you know that I just finished a run of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with  my fourth graders. They loved it and I did too. The book just leaves so much for the imagination to grow. While I was creating lesson plans for the book I thought it would be fun to throw a little TpT packet together.

116 pages later, my novel study packet is done. You can go back through my last seven posts to see some of the pages in action. If you like this idea and would like a whack at picking the packet for free you are in luck!

Let's play a little Pin It to Win It. If you visit the store product here:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Novel Study

On the left hand side there is a little Pin It button. Make a copy of your pin post and list it in the comments below for a chance to win it for free. The contest will end next Friday and the winner will be revealed here.

If you'd like a SECOND chance at winning it for free, have a look at my ScrappyGuy Facebook page and become a fan.


Here's a little

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

GREETINGS TO YOU, the lucky finder of this golden packet of stuff! I'm so excited to release this product since it is about one of my all time favorite books. Charlie and I go way back and he continues to amaze me every year.

This packet is geared more towards the Fourth Grade common core curriculum, but third and fifth should be able to use it to its full advantage.

Inside you'll find a veritable rabbit warren of goodies. There are pre-reading activities such as predictions and characterizations. There are things to do while you are reading such as chapter summarizations, story flow charts, and some poetry. Then there are tons of activities to do after you read such as writing prompts and yummy websites to visit to learn more.

Of course you'll find vocabulary tests, comprehension questions, and a final exam for each chapter.

I've included a section on Grammar and Math activities. You can find such topics as:

*Homophones – To, Too, Two
*Linking Verbs
*Verb Tenses
*Run-On Sentences
*Prepositional Phrases
*Possessive Pronouns
*Parts of Speech
*Subject-Verb Agreement
*Relative Pronouns

*Fractions
*Area and Perimeter
*Candy Bar Math
*Map-making

Just for added flavor I've also thrown in a Chocolate Inventing Machine Project with a rubric for scoring!

**All Answer Keys are located at the back of the packet so that you can print out pages back to back if you need to.

I hope you enjoy the chocolately goodness in this novel study. I'd love to hear how you are using it in your classroom!

Total Pages

116

Answer Key

Included

The Chocolate Factory - Part Seven - Wonka Day!!

We have finished our read aloud of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It is time to celebrate all of our hard work and close reading of this fantastic literary classic. I spared no expense on this blow out. Honestly, I think I had more fun coming up with activities and treats for this day. I searched high and low for ideas that could match the imaginations of Roald Dahly himself.

Looking back on all of it, I'm not sure if I should have kept the schedule and treats for the day such a closely guarded secret. I think they might have enjoyed it that much more if I did a little lead up to the great day. I mean I had treats stashed everywhere in my room just so they wouldn't find them  until we were ready to celebrate. I couldn't believe how many things I was able to find that matched Charlie's adventure. I found:

*edible grass (thankfully Easter is close upon us),
*Exploding Candy for Your Enemies (in the form of Pop Rocks),
*Square Candies that Looked Round (actually, edible Lego squares with the little building block pegs on top),
*Fizzing Lifting Drink out of Club Soda and Mio Lemon flavoring,
*Caramels from the Caramel Lake,
*Edible Marshmallow Pillows (sugar coated marshmallows, oh my!)
*Tiny Bird's Eggs (that may or may not have a tiny baby bird inside)
*Everlasting Gobstoppers (those were easy since they actually sell them)
*Walnuts (sadly they were not opened by squirrels)
*Golden Eggs Laid by Golden Geese (gold foiled wrapped chocolate eggs)
*Rock Candy Mountains (my favorite drop shaped melt aways with candy beads on the bottom Nonpareils?)

YES! I had fun trying to find all of this stuff. I was actually giggling as I went through the candy store. Sadly I couldn't find Lickable Wallpaper in time. I was going to buy those sheets of Candy Dots and cut them up for each kid. Wouldn't you know it, I saw them in a store not three days after the party?

As for the activity list we started out the day completing our Candy Bar Creation sheet for morning work. As soon as they had their chosen ingredients that would bring the cost of their candy bar in under a dollar they came up to get the ingredients in their little muffin cup with a numbered stick. You should have seen me doling out M&M's, Hot Tamales, Mini Marshmallows, Reese's, Oreo crumbles, Marshmallow Fluff, Gummi Bears, Gummi Worms, Coconut, and Peanut butter. That was not fun.

I had the crock pot filled with the Kandi-Quik melting bars and just dropped melted chocolate over all their ingredients and stuck them in the refrigerator until the end of the day. Once they were able to sample their own inventions, there was not a disgusted customer in the house. 

We also had a Pinata stuffed with other goodies for the end of the day. Uh-huh. I ain't dumb. I saved all the chocolate for the end of the day. Surprisingly after 25 kids took a whack at it there wasn't even a dent in the thing at all. We saved it for the next day and got to earn chips for good behavior. After several more whacks the top came apart and spilled on the ground. Thankfully they did not all rush it at once and I was able to pass out the goodies evenly. 

I also had a big garbage bag filled with balloons for the very last moment of the day. One of my little friends got to come up and pull the cord that would open the bag. She required a little help, though. I told everyone to find one balloon and wait for me to yell, "GO!" before popping it. Then the rest were free game. First I made them promise that they would definitely help me pick up every scrap of balloon when we were done. 

1, 2, 3 .  .  .  GO!

Thanks, Mr. Dahl for a most incredible couple of weeks. I wonder how I could make it better for next year's group?  Any ideas? Share in the comments below. I'd love to hear them!

The Chocolate Factory - Part Six - Chocolate Invetions

Part of the reason I wanted to do this novel study now was that it fit so nicely into my Science plans as well. Don't you just love it when you can take an idea across the curriculum? We are currently working through Forces, Motion, and Simple Machines. A unit that asks students to look closely at the world around them and see how we use simple ideas to make our work easier. I like it because it gets them asking about why things happen. One of my students wanted to know if trees weren't planted in the ground, would they go flying off into space. They have some interesting misconceptions about things I take for granted. Helping them see how it all works is part of what makes my job great.

I worked off the wonderous mind of Mr. Willy Wonka and his fantabulous chocolate factory and asked my students to give it a go. If they could use some simple machines and create a candy invention, what would they make? Now, I had to have some requirements such as limiting the size of their invention to be able to fit on top of their desk and not taller than two feet. They had to identify at least three simple machines and a heat source. I assured them, and their parents, that it didn't actually have to work. The rest was up to them.

The Big Reveal day is always exciting. The kids come in in dribs and drabs with their projects covered up with bags or paper. All the others gather around to ooh and aah and talk about what they see. They are fascinated with the new machine until the next child walks in and begins the process all over again. They can hardly contain themselves to present their ideas to their friends. Good thing we have Science first thing in the morning. This year they really surprised me with some amazing ideas, some that actually worked.

Here's a student who created chocolate crayons that could actually write. Wouldn't you just love that? He provided samples for everyone to try. I know he used a crayon making machine from the story, but I have to admire his creative thought processes. And the Chocoyons weren't half bad.

Also, he created a fun persuasive poster that tied in our unit from writing. 

Another student went totally original and built her's from a game she loved to play. Build a Better Mousetrap used to be one of my favorites as well as a kid. I had no idea they were still around. But she described it to a Tee. You could tell she enjoyed making this through her description of the machine's finer points. I liked that she also added in another simple machine that we discussed briefly but isn't part of our curriculum, per se. The gears work off the same principal as a wheel and axle, but add teeth.

Oh, and this next child got an automatic A+ because she included a little Mr. Fryns in her factory.

The Chocolate Factory - Part Five - Along the Corridor

Well, we've left poor Ms. Beauregarde behind. Two nasty little children gone, three good little children left (btw, our class discussed whether or not the remaining children - Mike Teavee, Veruca Salt, and Charlie - were indeed 'good' children. There was a resounding NO! So then we had to talk about why Mr. Dahl would have written the story that way. We figured out that was a form of foreshadowing and Mr. Dahl had more in store for us.).

Mr. Wonka dances along a hallway with the rest of the group tagging along. We pass many incredible rooms such as Edible Pillows and Cows that Give Chocolate Milk. As a literary tie-in I asked my students to think of what room they would most like to see in the Wonka Factory. I gave them an index card and had them name and describe their room on the lined side and draw a map of their room on the blank side. They were really creative with their ideas and wanted to share them afterwards. I ended up putting them up on the wall next to their Wonka illustrations.

Here are just a few of the rooms my students wanted to see:

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                      

The Chocolate Factory - Part Four - Goodbye Violet

I am seriously having the most fun with this book. I think it helps that I know it so well that I can think about what's about to happen and come up with some fun ways to engage the kids with it.

Take for instance the chapter when Violet Beauregarde comes to a nasty end as she snatches the Wonka Magic Gum and sets her tremendous jaws to the task. I was originally thinking of making a paper Mache version of her stuffed with gum so the kids could whack at her. Then another idea 'popped' into my head. Someone shouts 'Prick her with a pin' in the book. I remembered the set of darts I have stuffed in my desk from a carnival day I'd had years ago. That led to thinking about popping balloons, which got me thinking about filling smaller versions of Violet and let the kids throw darts at her. I know, I know. It's wicked, but what fun we had!

 

One of my girls overheard me talking to another teacher and then hounded me for the rest of the day to find out what I was doing the day before I revealed the big surprise. I would only tell her that it involved PURPLE. When she saw the darts she knew.



So I let her be the first to throw a dart to try and pop Violet. I could have gotten more creative with my version of the ill fated brat, but it was really all I could do to stuff a piece of Bubblicious down into those pesky balloons. Do you know how hard it is to get gum inside of a balloon? Let's just say I originally intended to put three pieces in each of 24 balloons, but quit after one in each.

 

It was actually another girl in my class that managed to finally pop Ms. Beauregarde. Her prize was the rest of the gum! 

 

 

The Chocolate Factory - Part Three - Mr. Willy Wonka

Today was the big day in my classroom. We had reached the chapter when all of the lucky Golden Ticket winners were lined up outside the gates of the Wonka Factory and the clock was about to strike ten.

So last night, I decorated my classroom door to look like the outside of the factory:

And then this morning as the children came in they were greeted with the cast of Glee singing "Pure Imagination" and their teacher dressed like this:

I was making a construction paper top hat last night and didn't really want to spend more time coloring in the paper plate with a black marker when I realized I already had something that would. When I got home last night I dug through the closet and pulled out my Mad Hatter outfit from Halloween two years ago. The kids didn't seem to mind and all the other teachers got a good laugh.

When it came time to read Chapter 14, Mr. Willy Wonka, I gave them a sheet to try their hand at illustrating this fantastical character. The text ran down one side and I asked them to underline the material that they used in the picture. Did they draw his black top hat? His plum-colored coat? I had to explain what trousers were, but they did a pretty good job.

Here's my favorite: I love the nose.

I was going to draw little Oompa-Loompa shadows in the windows of my door factory, but when I saw these I changed up my plans. I took all of their pictures and put them in the windows instead. They turned out super cute!

The Chocolate Factory - Part Two- We Begin to Read

I passed out a BME chart for the students to write in as we begin reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As we made our way through the first several chapters, they noticed that there weren't really any events happening to the characters, but it was giving us information about the Bucket Family and about Mr. Wonka himself. Very interesting noticings.

I also gave them a characterization chart for Grandpa Joe. In this they were to look for information regarding this sprightly 96 and a half year old. When they found something they would record it on their sheet. Then fill in information about what the text meant when they said this, or why the author thought it was important to share. The last column was for them to write down their own reactions to this information. The first thing they noticed was that there were four people sharing one bed. They thought Roald Dahl wanted us to know how poor the family was. Some of the kids wrote down things like, "Wow! That's a lot of people in one bed." or "I wouldn't be able to sleep with someone's feet in my face."

Another activity we were doing for the first couple of days had to do with summarizing each of the chapters. They were to write a sentence or two to explain what had happened and then write down a new title for that chapter. I thought it would be an interesting way to gauge whether they could manipulate material to come up with their own synopsis of a section. I had them turn this sheet in when they finished with chapter ten. I was pleased to see how well most of them did with this. They were getting the main gist and could come up with comprehensible chapter titles. Some of them tried getting away with things like, "Chocolate" or "OMG!"  I had to pull them aside and explain how vague that was. They needed to really think about what was happening in the story and think about how best to explain in three words or less. Very interesting.

After chapter 6 there was a vocabulary quiz to see if they could use their context clues and resources to understand unfamiliar words. Most of them did well with words like drafts, dotty, and margarine. Some of them took the lazy way out and tried to use these new words in sentences like, "My mom is fastened (fascinated) with her new car." or "I want deserted (dessert) after dinner." Pretty funny stuff.

The Chocolate Factory - Part One - Here Comes Charlie!

I was just about to finish up our prescribed extended text, George Washington's Socks. I have been enjoying the process of Close Reading with longer texts and the kids really do get into the stories. I needed to start planning for what was coming next.

Our third nine week quarter was about to end and we were moving into our Science unit on Forces, Motion, and Simple Machines. Whenever I do this unit, I am reminded fondly of the time I had my third graders build chocolate inventions after we read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. One of my favorite days was the big reveal when the kids got to show off their skills and explain how their machines worked. Plus, there was always plenty of candy to be had!

Problem solved. I would use Charlie as my next extended text. Diet be d-----d! I went to the Scholastic site and found out Charlie was being sold for $7. EEK! No way could I afford to buy all of the kids their own copies. I scrolled just a little further and noticed that a combo set of Charlie as well as the Great Glass Elevator was being closed out for $3. Hmm. Parent conferences came up and I asked parents if they'd be willing to pitch in $2 so their child could have two books. They agreed. I put up the rest of the funds.

The box arrived with 25 copies of the gleaming gold covers. I couldn't wait to start handing them out. Then it hit me. The kids should be excited about this as well. So the simple machine I call my brain began to turn. The next morning each child came in to discover this on their desk:

It was a fun sized chocolate bar with a label I printed out. But the surprise was what lay wrapped round the bar itself. As the kids arrived each one, slowly unraveled their prize to discover:

Their very own Golden Ticket! If you read it it tells them to turn in the ticket for their very own copy of the book. Such fun watching them run around as each new person arrived begging them to open their bar to see if they got the Golden Ticket as well. The excitement was palatable.

When reading time arrived that day, I had to make them wait just a day longer. We had some predicting to do. I gave them a copy of the text from the lead in page of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where Roald Dahl labels each of the kids. We looked at the description such as - Augustus Gloop, a very greedy boy- and thought, "What would a greedy boy do?" They wrote down their thoughts for each of the characters and then shared them with an Elbow Friend.

That was Day One.

Science Lab Sheets

They've just closed school for tomorrow, too. I'm afraid we might be in school until June. This hasn't happened since I lived in Massachusetts and we'd go back to school after Labor Day in September. Down in the south they go back in early August, sometimes in late July like we did this  year. Before today was called out we had already used up all of our official snow days and teachers were planning to go back for the first time after Memorial Day. Now we've got two more days out. With the possibility of more. Ugh.

It leaves me sitting on the couch watching episodes of Breaking Bad, Orange is the New Black, and House of Cards. All the while thinking about the lessons I had planned for today. We are knee deep in our unit on Sound and having a grand old time with some fun experiments, see previous post. Of course this is when I find a great resource stuffed in the back of my file cabinet on actual paper. It is a simple lab worksheet but it includes all of the great questions I want my students to think about.

I had planned to use it for another science sound experiment today. We were going to determine what type of material sound moves quicker through. Is it a solid or a gas? They would take a rubber band and hold it stretched out between thumb and forefinger. As they pluck it they would describe the sound. Then they would take a plastic cup and stretch the rubber band around the top and bottom and pluck it again. By the end they should determine that the vibrations from the motion of their fingers would produce a softer sound since the air molecules are further apart. The sound from the cup will be louder since the molecules of the cup will move faster carrying the sound to their ears.

Sounds plucky, right? {did you like my pun?} Well, that is waiting for us back in school when we return. Keep your fingers crossed that it isn't in June. Here's the sheet I was talking about.

You can pick it up for free here.

Science - Sound Experiments

Do you ever have those teacher moments when you are actually surprised how well a lesson goes? Me too! Our county provided us with a suggested list of lessons and experiments to try for each of our Science units. Since we are doing Sound at the moment, I downloaded the unit plans. There were some great ideas in there, but I thought they were a bit short to carry an entire 45 min block of time. When it hit me. Why not turn them into stations and have the class rotate through them?

Woot!

I had three stations set up for the day, but quickly realized my 25 students would not work so well in such large groups. They need smaller groups to be more successful. So I came up with two more on the fly. Cuz that's how teachers roll, right?

The first one from the county was to create a straw flute. The kids were to cut an arrow point into the bottom of a straw and then pinch the middle and cut a tiny hole there. As they blow through the flat end a whistling noise will be produced. There was a question sheet I had in a page protector at the station. Each child came to the group with pencil, paper, and clipboard. As they rotate through the stations they would draw a squiggly line underneath as they finish one. This saves on paper and copying.

The second was a weird one. It involved a wire hanger and two pieces of string. They were to tap the wire hanger with a pencil first to listen to it. They could tap the hanger with other objects and see if the pitch changes. Next they were to tie a 6" piece of string to each corner of the hanger, wrap their fingers around each bottom of the string and stick their fingers in their ears. They looked so goofy doing this, but they really got into it.

The final county suggestion was to use three glass jars filled with varying amounts of water. They were to tap each and describe the different sounds they heard. They also had to determine which jar made the loudest and softest sounds.

My two lessons were to look at some handmade musical instruments students have made in the past and describe materials and purpose for each of these instruments. This was to act as a preview of the Science Project I was about to send home for them. The other lesson worked with the computer. I turned on the media player and played a tune without sound showing the visualizations page. The students were to determine what was happening, why the bars got taller and shorter, why some always stayed short, and what type of pace the song was. Then they got to turn on the music and check their predictions. They loved doing this.

I let them bang away and talk through the stations for about 7 mins before I had them all stop and start the writing portion. Otherwise this group would use the whole time to tap, strike, hit, smash, throw the instruments and never do any serious thinking. We rotated the stations after 15 mins. We weren't able to get every child through every station, but the interaction and results I was seeing them write were really awesome. I told them we could save the stations for another day if we finish early.

Hurray for Science!

American Revolution Hanger People

Last year when I was hunting around for ideas to improve my American Revolution folder, I found this great blog post from Teaching in Room 6 where she detailed tons of fun ideas to enhance her curriculum. One of the things that she talked about was creating a Hanger Person. Her students picked one of the famous names from the period of turmoil as those colonists broke free from that pesky King George III. They wrote a report about their person and then went a step further and created a little visual display of their person using a hanger as the body shape.

I printed off a bunch of biographies from Mr. Nussbaum's site on American Peoples. His site is AWESOME! Seriously, if you haven't been there, RUN. Tons of great ideas and free activities to help you out. He covers all of the topics, so check it out. I laid the choices out on the floor and let them pick someone they were interested in.

My students were told to really concentrate on the period of their person's life that covered the years of the Revolution. That way they could narrow down their topic. I gave them a graphic organizer to use to help organize their notes. I had this great sheet that helped them break down the introductory paragraph better. I will look tomorrow to see if I can find it. But it basically had them focusing on their hook and summarizing the rest of their paper without giving too much away.

After the writing was done, I let them at the hangers. I have a ton of scrapbook paper from my previous creative life that they can rifle through to make their people. The tricky part was trying to get the head to stay on the hooky part of the hanger. Since the shoulders went over the upper edges of the triangular shape, I had to take the tape dispenser away from them and show them how to fold over a piece of paper to glue down on the back of the head with the hanger sandwiched between.

I had to send a few back to the drawing board to make their people 'more authentic'. They were starting to look like just some random person. I had them think what they could add to their person to show who they were. That's when they came up with adding in the Declaration and a quill pen for Mr. Jefferson. One of my girls added a huge snowball for Crispus Attucks from the Boston Massacre. Much better!

The project came out great. I just wish my class could complete these things a little faster. They take a long time for everything. I'm hoping my lesson on Jon Scieska's Battle Bunny will really spark some engines to race tomorrow!

Here's a shot of a few of my hanger people:

Snow Globe Writing

I was wondering if anyone was going to ask me what I meant a few posts back when I said I was taking pictures of my students as they came in all bundled up. I had a pretty sweet prize pack from my TpT store for those curious minds. But alas, no one took the bait.

I took those really great pictures of my students, printed and cut them out then had them design the interior of their snow globe to go along with their engaging writing piece. I bought some clear plastic plates at the grocery store and some Buffalo Glitter. It's not actually glitter, but more confetti. Still very aggravating as it got over everything. I put a spoonful of the shimmery stuff in the middle of their design and then hot glued the plate on top of it to create a snow globe.

You know I didn't come up with this on my own. Total JIVEY moment, of course!

Their story concepts ranged from giant flesh eating teddy bears that needed to be taken down with a chainsaw (no idea where they found one inside a snow globe, but okay), to the mysterious stranger giving them a snow globe and warning them not to shake it. Oops! All of them were creative and engaging stories to read, so I accomplished that message. We still need to work on those pesky capitals and understanding how to paragraph appropriately. I got them to indent! Wheee.

Here's a picture of my friend, Meghan's student results. I took mine down and sent them home before taking a picture.

American Revolution Maps and Task Cards

As promised, I am back to share another lesson idea with you! We finished up our unit on the American Revolution last week. It was a long haul as we study the events leading up to the Revolution before breaking for the holidays. Then we come back and hit 'em hard with some major battles and the famous names from that era for three weeks. Whoosh. We are done.

This year I thought I'd try something a little different and have the students recreate the famous battles using play-doh. They were to draw the map on 9 x 12 construction paper and use the play-doh to highlight how the rebels used the geography around them to help. For example, at the Battle of Bunker (Breed's) Hill, the Minutemen hid behind trees and fired on the advancing Red Coats. So they students made trees and little soldiers out of the play-doh.

I had them work in groups of 4-5. When they were done we took a little 'field trip' around the room. Each group had to explain what battle they were representing and how they used the play-doh to show geographical features.

In honor of all their hard work, I made a little set of task cards to help them study for the exam. It's a simple set of 20 cards with an answer key provided.

We had two exams with all of this material. One before Winter Break called Road to the Revolution and the other after break called Revolutionary Battles. My students did really well with the Road to the Revolution. But not so great on the battles. Hmm?

You can pick up this Task Card set here for $2!

Snowpocalypse 2014!

Snow Day! Snow Day!

AND I just found out we have another one tomorrow. This is crazy, especially for Georgia. If you've been watching the news you already know how awful things have been done here. People stuck in cars for 15 hours, school buses delivering students at 10 P.M., teachers sleeping in their classrooms with their students, and the aisles of Publix stuffed full of people who have to spend the night because they can't get home.

Like I said. Cray- Zee!

On the flip side it offers me TONS of time to catch up with y'all. It's been two months since my last post and I have been missing you every day! Now I can't be totally at fault. There was that jaunt to Australia for three weeks that took me away. Then there was all that trying to get back into the swing of school after having been gone for so long. So many papers to grade and enter because report cards were due.

Now, life is back on track and I have some time to sit back and relax with  my blog. I even went all hog wild and put up tons of new things on my TpT site. You should check out the two freebies on there.

One I used in a figurative language lesson that my BBB Jivey showed me. We were talking about being more engaging in our writing pieces. Thinking ahead I took pictures of all my students as they entered the classroom with their hats and coats and scarves. I just told them to look scared. Of course they were totally interested in what I was up to. So I started off showing them a Pixar short called Knick Knack on youtube. It was so great. A wordless short film about a snowman who no longer wants to stay in his snowglobe any more. The kids laughed and wanted to see it again.

I then posed the question to them, "What would you do if you were stuck in a snowglobe?" I gave them a story organizer to jot down their thoughts. As they were working on that I was walking around prompting them to think about some idioms or similes that they could add to make their writing more flavorful. I 'made them famous' by reading out any particularly great examples.

The next day I gave them my little Figurative Language Snow Globe sheet to illustrate their examples of different figurative language. As a little more pushing towards adding more creative language to their writing. After they cut each of the globes out I had them fold them in half face forward. Then they glued one edge to the other, working around until the final edge of the fourth globe was glued to the last edge of the first globe. Here's a picture.

They had these on their desks as they were writing their HELP! I'm Trapped in a Snow Globe piece. Their stories were so funny and yes, more creative. You can grab this sheet here.

The other one is my Text Structure Flip Book.

This was for our interactive notebooks to learn more about how story structure works. I found a powerpoint presentation on TpT from Emily Kissner that we worked through as a class. The students took notes from the slides under each of the flaps. We've been looking through books and determining their structure making sure that we use Evidence Citing Sentence Starters that my friend Joanne has available on her TpT store. They are getting better at identifying and discussing the text structures. You can get this little flip book for free here.

Look for more product updates in a few!

Factors Multiples Arrays OH MY!

It must have been all the sleep I got during the Thanksgiving Break, but I managed to finish up a math packet I've been working on for a bit. I started it when I noticed my students weren't having much luck grasping the idea behind multiplication strategies. I want them to have several ways to think about solving multiplication and division problems when standardized testing time rolls around. I usually start by asking the class what ways do they know to solve a problem like 3x12.

This year when I asked I got the logarithm method of straight vertical multiplication. When I probed for another way...*crickets crickets crickets*

Even when I lead them with ideas such as drawing 3 circles and putting 12 shapes inside each, or mentioned arrays I still got complete blank stares out of my 19 students. They were fascinated as I showed them the lattice method of multiplication and moved into the area model. They loved those and started using them right away.

And the idea for this packet of activities was born.

I didn't manage to get everything in this one, but after 34 slides, I figured it was time to let it go. Here's what I did include in it:

Classroom posters (1 each for Factors, Multiples, and Arrays)

Divisibility Rules

Factor Activities including worksheet and game

Array homework and worksheet ideas

Making Arrays

Array word problems

Multiplication tables (blank and filled)

Multiples word problems

Multiples games

You can find it right HERE

TpT+Cyber Monday!

Did you survive Black Friday? Or are you still feeling the shopping itch?
TpT is throwing a huge Cyber Sale Monday and Tuesday, December 2 & 3. For these two exciting days only, I will be offering 20% off ALL of my products. Even more amazingly, TpT is going to stack their own sale onto mine, making for a combined 28% off my entire store! Make sure to use Code CYBER when checking out.
Might be time to grab that Frindle novel pack you've been eying, or that Mentor Sentence 10 week unit while you can!

Frindle - Novel Study

This year was the first time I tried an extended text as a read aloud. Extended text involves a lot of very close reading and asking the students to do more than just listen to the story or ask questions. It delves deeper into the text and the nuances of the novel, revealing more depth and meaning behind the text. The students need to do some serious thinking and interaction with the novel (insert groans and sighs from them here) but they come out on the other end understanding so much more.

Our first foray into this was Elizabeth George Banks's, Sign of the Beaver. I am ashamed to say I had never read it before. Once I did I really enjoyed it. It took us about three weeks to get through the entire novel. We did so many different activities that I pulled off of TpT for free that it got my brain thinking.

Our next novel was to be a little fun book by Andrew Clements. Scholastic had a sale on it in September for $1 so I bought the class their very own book. Now I could get them to do even more delving, this time with a highlighter! We've only read chapters one and two but already they are noticing things on their own and predicting about events to come. They love reading it and don't want me to stop.

As I was reading through it again for ideas, I started putting together a plan for what I wanted to teach. Well, that plan turned into an entire set of activities that I could use just from this short 135 page book. I worked on it over several days and finally had a product to put out for y'all to enjoy along with me.

But I had to know if it would actually work in a regular classroom, so I started using the activities in my classroom to get a feel for them.

And wouldn't you know it; they already noticed a mistake on one of the sheets. As we were going through the character sketch for Mrs. Granger, they saw that the textboxes actually referred to her as a 'he'. That's what i get for reusing a previous sheet. Don't worry. I already went back, fixed it, and  reloaded it.

I can't wait to try some of the other activities as well. So keep an eye out for further posts on this subject!

Oh, you can grab the Frindle Novel Study right here.

October S.L.A.N.T. Reveal

I am so SO so late in blogging about this. I hope Susan forgives me. I mentioned before in this post 
that I had joined in the SLANT bandwagon. I had absolutely no idea what to expect or what others were sending out in their care packages around the world. But when I heard it was a little SPOOKY themed, I was all over it.

I sent my contribution all the way to Australia and eagerly awaited my little box. Then suddenly it was here.

I was given the amazing and super friendly Susan from here as my buddy. She contacted me almost as soon as the list was out to introduce herself. She also completely made my day when she revealed that she was already a follower of my blog. It's still fascinates me that people actually read my ramblings. To have someone reference it makes me feel like a ROCK STAR!

And the happiness only continued when I opened that little puppy. Everything I pulled out, from the set of ghoulish drinking goblets, to the scented pens, to the hamburger socks. Yep, I said hamburger socks. I can't wait to strut through the halls of school with those on!

Thanks, Susan. You are wonderful!