Stained Glass Summaries

(I just saw that I never posted this, and meant to back in the fall!  This project was one of my FAVORITES from the year!  I loved how they turned out, and got lots of compliments on them from other teachers.  They were amazing! But, I'm too lazy to rotate the pictures right now...)

We just finished reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen in our Shared Reading.  It's one book that I remember reading and loving in elementary school, and I can officially say that it still holds true today.  Everyone in my class loved it.  I do recommend getting the audio book version and listening to it with the kids.  There are subtle sound effects that add to the story and the narrator is sooooo good to listen to.  It was so amazing to look out across the classroom and see every single student following along and turning the pages at the exact same time.

I gave my students read aloud logs (see previous post) that asked them to respond to one question or statement about the book each day.  I would then take 4 or 5 responses and add them to a Smart Notebook file.  It sparked some interesting discussions about how Brian changed throughout the story, predictions, questions, and observations.

I recorded their response exactly as they shared them!

After finishing the book and taking some time to reflect on the story, I gave my students a Story Summary Flow Chart.  It had 6 boxes with arrows pointing to the next box.  As a class, we decided that the first box should be that the pilot has a heart attack while flying the plane, and the last box should be that Brian turns on the emergency transmitter and is rescued.  Then, we made a list of events that happened in the story and decided if it was a major event or a minor event.  Students then chose what went into the remaining 4 boxes.  In each box, they had to draw a picture of what happened during that event.  Then, they had to take the events and write a summary of the story.




Today, I had to do some testing on kids, so I came up with an idea to extend their summaries and to include practice on quoting from the text.  I call it, "Stained Glass Summaries."  I had my kids take a blank piece of water color paper and draw 2 lines in the middle.  They could be slanted or straight, whatever they liked.  In this section, they had to write the title of the book, so the letters were very supposed to be very big and take up the whole space.  They could be bubble letters or just stick letters, up to the kids.  Then, they divided the top and bottom sections into three smaller pieces, for a total of six small pieces.  In each box, they had to use the quotes from their graphic organizer and put them into the box, basically telling the WHOLE story through 6 quotes.  After their quote was written (with the page number!), they had to draw an illustration that matched the quote, and color in the ENTIRE paper.  To make it look like stained glass, they used a black marker to trace their lines.

Here are some examples of their Stained Glass Summaries.  I think they turned out pretty well!

Hmm...It's Been Awhile! And New Info on Social Studies Notebooking!

Wow!  I can't believe that  I haven't posted anything since Halloween!  I really meant to post more things, at a more regular rate, but the year got busy!  Seriously, the school year flew by so fast!  And now I can't believe that I'm in my 4th week of summer vacation!  Oh, no!  Summer slow down!

I've been spending a lot of time this summer working on my Social Studies notebooking units for next year.  I loved notebooking this year, and I learned a lot!  Next year, it will (hopefully) go a lot smoother, and it'll be much more organized!  I've been creating units and posting them on TeachersPayTeachers.  So far, I've posted a unit about Native Americans and Explorers of North America.  I created these units to work for me, but they can easily be used in any classroom or for homeschoolers.  What drives me crazy about some products on TPT is the lack of thoroughness.  If I'm using a packet of worksheets, I want to have good directions!  So, my packets have directions and comments about how I use notebooking in my classroom.

What I discovered to be the most important part of notebooking was the discussions that my class had about each topic.  I would have students volunteer to read paragraphs aloud to the class, then we would stop and discuss it.  We'd talk about how different the schools in colonial times were, the differences between Aztec and Conquistador armor, how the horse made a difference to Native American tribes, etc.  My students loved connecting the past to today through these discussions, and would bring up details in later conversations.  Yes, sometimes they got a little animated, but I figured that they were INTERESTED and ENJOYING learning about history!

Right now, I'm working on the Colonial America notebooking unit.  That should be available in the next few weeks!

Now, to get some rest, because I have to be at school meeting for our new reading curriculum at EIGHT O'CLOCK in the MORNING tomorrow.  Seriously?!? It's summer!  8:00am?!? Oh well, I'm excited to find out some more info on this reading program (Good Habits Great Readers), so I can start making plans for next year!  Oh, did I mention that next year I'm teaching ONLY Reading (with some Social Studies) and Writing!  Yahoo!  I'm so excited to do this, though I'll REALLY miss teaching science (some of it at least...), but I get all of the fifth graders during the day and I don't have to teach math!

The Dam Project

We have these Land and Water kits that EVERY 5th grade class HAS to do.  They're basically plastic tubs filled with dirt, sand, gravel, and red clay, and the kids experiment with different flows of water and slope and such to see the effects of erosion and weathering.  They're a big mess, but they're actually pretty fun.

So, we've been working away at our kits for almost 2 months.  This week, my technology instructor came in for a class visit to see the kids using all of our technology.  She had told me about a teacher who used to be in our district who had put most of the kit online and added some things to make it more technologically advanced.

Thanks, Mrs. Ghumm, for your great resources!  It's a great site, and I think I'll use it a lot more next year!  We were ready to begin the portion of our kits where students experiment with how humans affect the flow of water.

After doing a Wall Wisher activity where the kids posted what they already knew about how we affect water, we moved on to researching different types of dams.  Amazingly, there were only a couple students who giggled at the word "dam."

Students were put into groups of 4 and each person had a different type of dam to research.  After researching, they had to share and decide as a team which type of dam to build.  Then, they had to create a project proposal that included a diagram of their dam, then they presented these to the class.  After all that, they were able to build their dams. 

They turned out pretty well!  Out of 2 classes, 8 total groups, we had only 3 dams fail and flood their town!

Buffalo Hide Art

We've been studying the Native American in Social Studies and we're currently working on the tribes of the Great Plains.

I used a great site about buffalo hide stories found on the Smithsonian's website.  It was about Winter Counts (calendars).  I also found video of an artist painting on the buffalo hide and describing his technique and symbols.

 

 Found the video on this great site:  Prairie Edge

After looking at these, I gave my kids a list of Native American symbols and had them "write" a story using only pictures.  This was tough for them at first, but they quickly got the hang of it.  After drawing their symbols on brown construction paper blobs (cut in the shape of a buffalo hide, of course), the mounted it on construction paper, and wrote our their stories in words.  These were great to display in the halls during parent-teacher conferences!  The kids did a great job with this project, and I've received many compliments from parents and teachers. 

New Schedule...Again!

Well, we're on our 3rd or 4th schedule this year...yep.  We had one schedule that had to change due to times that our special ed and resource room teachers had plan times.  We started Read 180 3 or 4 weeks in to the school year, so had to rearrange the day again.  And just last week, we had System 44 begin, and yes, another new schedule.  Our poor kids!  The poor teachers!  It's ridiculous!  We'll get our schedule down and be going along pretty well when we find out it's time to switch it up again!  But, the good thing is that this is the best schedule yet, and we are all REALLY happy with it.  It's all chopped up, but it's much better than the other schedules we've had this year!

7:35-7:55: Arrival, Morning Routine, Journal
7:55-8:00: School-wide Rise and Shine
8:00-8:40: Writing
8:40-9:30: Specials
9:30-10:30: Math #1 OR Science/Social Studies #1 (Read 180 kids leave)
10:30-11:00: RTI
11:00-11:40: Reading Instruction (sort of like a mini-Reading Workshop) (Read 180 kids back)
11:40-12:20: Lunch/Recess
12:20-1:20: Math #2 OR Science/Social Studies #2
1:20-1:40: Free Choice Reading
1:40-2:00: Recess
2:00-2:35: Shared Reading
2:35-2:45: Pack-up/Dismissal

I really, really like having reading chopped up.  It keeps the kids engaged so much better.

During Reading Instruction, I spend the 1st 10 minutes on a mini-lesson, then send the kids to their books to look for examples of the lesson (cause and effect, character traits, predictions, etc.).  We spend the last 10 minutes reviewing what the kids found in their books and compiling them into a list/chart.

My kids love Free Choice Reading and beg for more time to read their books.  I absolutely LOVE this!  I love guiding my kids to books and I love when they start to laugh about or get mad at something they read. 

During our Shared Reading, I play an audiobook and everyone follows along in a paper copy of the book.  We've already read Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar (kids still talk about the characters!) and we're working our way through Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.  I think I'll be the coolest teacher ever because of reading Hatchet with them!  They love it and can't stop talking about it!  

I use a Read Aloud Log daily during our Shared Reading.  My students follow along in a book as I read aloud or as an audiobook plays.  I'll stop reading at different points to discuss what is going on or to predict what will happen next.  At the end the of the Shared Reading time, my students stop and fill our one of these boxes per day.  Each day focuses on a different reading strategy, like making predictions, making connections, describing setting or characters, etc.

There are several different reading strategies I listed on the response pages.  We'll take a few minutes to discuss the responses and I make a list of them on SmartNotebook.  I have a different SmartNotebook page for each reading strategy listed.  We'll look back at previous days and mark off incorrect predictions, discuss the answers to questions, and so on.

Students keep all of these pages in a folder and then turn it in once a week to be checked.  I don't really check for correct or incorrect answers, I mainly check for completion and effort. 

It really keeps the kids accountable AND talking about the book!

My Read Aloud Response Sheet is available for FREE on TeachersPayTeachers.

Neglect!

I apologize for neglecting my blog! I feel so bad! It's been a crazy start to the school year, with lots of scheduling changes, and moving kids around.  I feel like we're a quarter in and just now getting started.  Parent-teacher conferences will be in 2 weeks and grade cards are due then, too!  Holy cow!  What happened to the school year??


I have been reading up on some reading strategies.  Right now, we have a 60 minute reading block, and are including our 30 minutes of social studies as reading to make it a 90 minute reading block.  But, we switch classes, so I have one class of 5th graders for science and social studies while the others are at math.  So, social studies is social studies (and not just reading), but we incorporate a lot of non-fiction reading and reading strategies into social studies...which works well with interactive notebooking! 

I've been reading a book that was recommended to me by a friend and fellow 5th grade teacher in my district.  You've probably heard/read The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, but if you haven't here's your first introduction to it! If you know me, you know that I have NEVER read an instructional book EVER, not even in college!  They don't interest me and I find them boring.  I would much rather read a blog written by a teacher who is experiencing the idea right now.  So much more appealing to me! 

So I was more than hesitant to pay for another book to sit on my "teacher shelf" in my classroom.  But I did fork over the dough and buy the book.  BEST TEACHING INVESTMENT EVER!  I was hooked after the first sentence.  This book is written by a teacher for teachers, and it's really like reading a blog.  It seems personal and interactive.  And there are so many "duh!" moments where you think, "Gosh, I know that..."  What I really enjoyed is that here is a published book that's all the rage and AGREES with many of my ideas for reading education!

The premise of the book is to get kids excited about reading.  For a 2nd year teacher, I have a pretty huge library (thank you, St. Louis Book Fair and garage sales!).  I love to read and I want to pass that love on to my students.  This book tells me how to do it.  It's really pretty simple-- give them access to books and time to read those books.  I started to use this with my kids last week and can already see/hear the results!  When I say it is time for "Free Choice Reading," I hear kids make joyous exclamations!  I've had several students finish 2 or 3 books already!  Amazing! 

On top of The Book Whisperer, I've been reading Laura Candler's Power Reading Workshop, which is absolutely PERFECT for my short, 1 hour reading block.  It's exactly what I wanted to do, but wasn't sure how to fit it in.

My students come back from math/social studies at 10:10.  I have 4 students gone to Read 180 until 11:00, but we have a 30 minute RTI time that happens first.  So 10:10-10:40 is RTI.  Then, I needed something to do for 20 minutes that the Read 180 kids could miss, but would be beneficial for the kids still in the classroom.  Enter Power Reading Workshop!  Now, here is our new schedule:

10:10-10:40- RTI (free choice reading/study hall for students not in RTI group)

10:40-11:00- Read Aloud and Mini-lesson

11:00-11:30- Reading Workshop (free choice reading while working on a skill from the mini-lesson)

11:30-11:40- Reading Response

11:40 Lunch

Whew!  Makes me tired just reading it!  This makes reading fly by (for me and the kids...teaching reading used to be my least favorite part of teaching, but not anymore!).  I can't wait to see the results of the Power Reading Workshop! 

Social Studies Notebooking- Unit 1: Geogrpahy

I've been meaning to get these pictures posted, but we're STILL trying to figure out pull-out schedules and reading schedules!  It's been a crazy year already!

ANYWAY, I was inspired by Eve Heaton at Science Notebooking to start using interactive notebooking in Social Studies.  We've gone really, really slowly as this is something completely new to my students and to me.  I've never taught with this much creativity!  This is the PERFECT year to try this out...I have 3 or 4 awesome artists and the most of the rest of my class loves nothing more than getting a blank piece of paper and drawing during their limited free time.  Also, we did many lessons on how to glue papers into the notebooks.  I have them put 1 small drop of glue in each corner.  Drizzling glue and putting lots of dots wrinkles up the pages.  1 small drop of glue in each corner will hold everything. 

I decided to start out with a mini-unit: Geography. I've included states/capitols, directions of a compass, continents, and state abbreviations. I thought this info would be good to start with.  I had to create many of these items myself, and I've listed several of them in my TeachersPayTeachers store.

Page 1- Social Studies Cover Page

I used Eve Heaton's method of creating a cover page- divide the page into enough sections, so that each topic you cover can be in it's own section.  I listed our topics (Geography/Maps, Native Americans, Explorers, Colonies, Revolutionary War, Government, Westward Expansion, and Civil War).  Then we discussed these as a group.  My kids had never heard of many of these topics, so I did some quick little overviews.  Then we brainstormed some symbols or pictures that could represent each topic.  These are what they placed in the sections on their cover page. 

This was my favorite cover page.  This guy is always drawing comics, and is really enjoying notebooking.  But don't worry, most of mine don't look this great.  I only picked the best examples to share on here!

I did require that they color in the page- little or no white space.  It makes them look really good!




Page 2-3: What is Social Studies?
I created a mini-book and answer sheet about what social studies is.  I didn't get any pictures of this, but I'll try to remember to go back and get some.  The answer sheet instructed kids to highlight and circle important information, as well as answer some comprehension questions.  This is available in my TeachersPayTeachers store.


Page 4-5: Standards and Geography Title Page

I typed up a list of geography standards that students would learn during this mini-unit.  I used the Missouri GLEs to get these standards.  (Note- I put the Word Doc on landscape, then made 2 columns and pasted the same thing on each column.  When they print, just cut the page in half and you're ready to glue them into the notebooks.) I passed out the standards, and we read them as a group.  Then we brainstormed a list of questions about the standards.  I used the list of questions to create 4 focus questions for the unit.


On the title page, they divided it into 4 sections, and wrote and illustrated each question.  As you can see, these aren't quite as exciting when they aren't fully colored!

(Anyone know why this picture turned sideways?  The original is horizontal and it shows it as horizontal outside of blogger...)






















Page 6-7: Mnemonic Devices and Compass


We did a quick review of the directions on a compass, then listed some mnemonic devices (memory tricks) to remember the directions.  Most of them were: "Never Eat Sour Waffles," "Never Eat Soggy Watermelon," etc, so I challenged them to come up with new ones with out using the words Never and Eat.  We had "New Elephants Stand Wobbly," and "Next Exit: Sea World."

They listed these mnemonic devices on page 4, then created a movable compass on page 5.  The moveable compass template is available on TeachersPayTeachers. On the compass, they had to list N,S,E,W as well as NE, NW, SE, SW.  We used a brass paper brad to attach the arrow and allow it to spin.

This one has the brad in upside down, but oh well, it still works!