100th Day of School

Today was our 100th day of school! Hard to believe it has already been 100 days of fifth grade, 100 days through my first year of common core and teaching in Florida! Yay!! 

Since Fifth grade is a little old to be doing some of the standard 100th day activities but I still love doing them we celebrated in our own "grown up" way. 

1. Using number die cuts we created a Space Colony scene and then wrote about it. The kids were asked to use the die cuts in their picture and then explain why they chose this new place for their space colony.

2. We had a 100 cup tower stack challenge. I split the kids into two groups and gave them 100 cups and told them to create the tallest tower they could using all 100 cups. One group just couldn't get the cups to stay standing. The other group built two towers! one was 29 inches tall and the second was 48 inches tall! They really seemed to enjoy this activity. They do need some help working together and talking to each other like a team rather than just yelling but we are working on it. 

Oreo Moon Phases!

While in our Space Unit we get to cover the 3rd and 4th grade material too for review and because unfortunately Science isn't tested in 3rd and 4th grade it isn't as much of a priority so we really focus on it in Fifth grade. (no one would admit to the above statement if you asked them of course all subjects are important and taught to their entirety based on the standards) :) 

So while reviewing I decided since I have never gotten to teach moon phases or space for that matter that I was going to do it up right this year. I LOVED making my space smartboards and find pictures and videos to help my kids better understand the standards. Space is truly amazing and beautiful. Seriously beautiful.

So while on Moon Phases I decided to do the Oreo Moon phases activity. I learned about this in college and our 3rd graders did it at my old school. My kids hadn't done it yet so it was even better for me! 
I prepackaged the kids with 4 oreos, a little tongue depressor (I can't think of the teacher words for these little wooden sticks is!) and a paper plate. We then drew the Earth in the middle of the plate. And drew the sun on the left hand side. After drawing these two on the plate we discussed which phases would be occurring and why based on the location of the Sun and Earth. I drew on the whiteboard while they wrote on their plates. First we just labeled the moon phases and then I let the kids go with their oreos. 

We did discuss the secret trick of twisting the oreos to get the icing on one side or the other of the oreo. Obviously New Moon and Full Moon were the easiest followed by the first and third quarter moons. Crescent moon were the trickiest for the kids. 
 
Another trick I discovered during my planning of these lessons was the difference of Waning and Waxing. Waxing means the light is growing and each phases should be growing with light to then get to Full Moon or full light, after full moon the light then wanes or decreases until it comes back to New Moon. I loved this idea having never had to learn the moon phases (that I can remember anyway) it totally helped me remember the phases. My kids even started saying "Wax on" more light..."Wax off" less light. Bahahahaha close but not quite! Still funny though. 


Enjoy checking out our pictures of the this awesome activity. Of course after I checked off their phases they got to eat their cookies. I didn't make them glue the cookies down or anything but you can!

Florida Literacy Week Day 2 and 3

Day two of Florida Literacy week was Reading is fun year 'round! Yes it is. My favorite time to read is on school breaks. I can usually finish 2-3 books at Christmas and Spring break and about 5-6 over the summer (depending on what else is going on)! I LOVE that I get to read for me!

I decided to wear my Merry Christmoose shirt that I found by total chance at the little thrift store near my school for $1! YES A DOLLAR!! (For those of you that don't know I LOVE moose! My house is decorated in moose decor and at Christmas time my house throws up Moose! I also happened to use my gingerbread coffee cup that we got from our Art fundraiser when the company sent us a duplicate set of the mugs! (Yay teacher gifts) 

But I am distracted...back to reading and literacy week!


My kids came dressed in various outfits ranging from Christmas outfits with little antlers and bells to halloween costumes, decked out in Mardi Gras beads, St. Patrick's day hats and Native American attire to represent Thanksgiving. It was great seeing all their holiday outfits!

Day #3: Put your thinking cap on and Read!
Tons of Hats today! Probably the easiest day of them all. Wearing hats to show your love of reading. Almost every kid in my class had a hat on. I wore a hat my grandmother gave me at Thanksgiving before she passed away. It was a hat she had when she was younger (I want to say high schoolish age range but could totally be wrong). The hat is a beautiful teal color and I happen to have a cute teal shirt to wear with it too! 

Tomorrow...Snuggle up with a good book! Wear slippers, bring blankets and stuffed animals to snuggle up with a book. We aren't allowed to wear our Pajamas though. Only our kindergarten class gets to wear their PJ's and they only wear them on the last day of school before winter break. So strange we don't get regular PJ days. It isn't my favorite dress up day but everyone else loves it, so I am totally on the bandwagon of complaining that we don't get it at my new school! Excited to see what my kids bring in tomorrow...guess what slippers I am wearing?? Yep my moose ones!! 

Happy Reading Y'all!

Florida's Literacy Week Day 1

Florida's Literacy Week: Day 1 Reading Ties Us Together

Today we got to wear a tie with any outfit. I wore one but didn't take a picture of me or my kids! 

Ahhh!! I did get to snag a picture of some awesome first grade teachers wearing their ties though!

 They are reppin' Tennessee, Florida State and the Patriots! - I will have to get a Dallas Tie for next year!

This was a great first day to literacy week because it really helped us think about why does reading tie us together? This was a great conversation to have with my kids. I think sometimes we forget that books are a link to many worlds including our own and that without them we may or even could lose track of ourselves and others. This theme for the day also worked well with our ELA review which asked use to discuss and explain the quote by Samuel Johnson "A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it."

Ready for day 2! Reading is Fun All Year 'Round!

How do you celebrate reading year round? What would you wear as your favorite holiday outfit? 

I promise I will post pictures tomorrow! 

Martin's Big Words

Last week we read Martin's Big Words.

I was thinking this might be too "little kiddish" for my fifth graders, nope it was great! (And it is an Accelerated Reader book too!) 

I loved the great quotes that were bolded in the text. Made for an on the spot teaching moment about bolded words being important and how we knew they were important. How come these words would be bolded, how do you think that fits in with the title of the text...etc...It was great conversation. I decided that after reading it we would all trace our hands on card stock, trace the pencil outline in dark crayon or marker and then color our hands using Crayola's Multicultural Markers. 

If you have never seen these markers they are amazing. Coming from a school where most of my kids were Hispanic these markers were incredibly awesome because they were finally able to color kids that looked like them. My students here in Florida were just as mesmerized with this concept that they could color their hands to match their skin. Some of them were even coloring on their hands with the markers to find that perfect match, it was a great think to see. So while they were coloring their hands I was writing all the awesome quotes on sticky notes and then giving the kids colored card stock to write the quotes on. They were asked to write the quotes in big blocky letters and make them stand out. 

We discussed whether to put them on the windows that face the school yard (where the whole school passes to go to lunch) or put them on the windows that face the car rider line. The car rider line won! So we hung the hands up in the windows, some of them interlaced with other hands, some by themselves with the various quotes from the book. 
Then we took a field trip around the school building to see our art work. 

The result is pretty sweet! Hope you all enjoyed this activity we did in Fifth grade! Happy January!