Literary Pumpkins

For Halloween every year my previous school and now my new school (thanks to me!) do a Literary Pumpkin Patch activity to display in the library. The kids LOVE dressing up the pumpkin and then getting to vote on the best one for the school! This year my class won Librarian's choice award for grades 3-5! It was my first year winning an award for our pumpkin!

My first year in Second Grade we made Nate the Great.

My second year in Second Grade we made Bunnicula.

This year my fifth graders and I had just finished our Native American unit and my kids loved the book we read about the Native Americans of the Northwest, so we made Raven Child from Raven a tale of a trickster. Librarian's Choice Winner for grades 3-5!

 Does your school do anything for Halloween that incorporates literacy?

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Update: Constitution Week

I have previously been given resources to teach about the Constitution but have never had the time to really teach anything. Not to mention I was teaching in 2nd grade and thought it was a little over my kids heads. Well this year...Constitution week is required in Florida, I was teaching fifth graders so I thought I would give it a shot! And I LOVED IT! So did my kids!
I made an awesome smartboard lesson with tons of videos and information about the Constitution and the Preamble. Florida Department of Education gave us TONS of resources.

One of the resources I used in my classroom was this close reading activity. It was easy to use in reading groups as it had leveled passages. Fifth in the Middle posts awesome resources head over and check her out! 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Constitution-Day-Close-Reading-Nonfiction-Texts-for-Upper-Elementary-Freebie-1385078

I also used the Preamble Match from Hooty's Homeroom! My kids LOVED this preamble match!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Preamble-Match-863607

Update!

It has been a while since I posted...I have tons to catch up on so get ready for several posts about awesome learning activities!

Let me start by say that I am LOVING teaching fifth grade. My kids really make it great for me. They are like giant sponges and they soak in everything and love even the corny little songs, dances and hand motions that I use to help solidify vocabulary terms or ideas.
I am so glad I made it through the first quarter! Only three left to go! 

And GO for the catch up of Curriculum Posts!

Patriot Day - Teaching Rememberance

Today is a tough day for all Americans. 

But we are Americans and we will not let terror win. 

That was the message that this great resource from The BrownBag Teacher held for my students. (Click the picture above to get this free download at The Brown Bag Teacher's TpT store). It was a wonderful reading passage with a graphic organizer that outlines the main idea of the passage. The passage discusses the events of this tragic day 13 years ago. The great thing about this Patriot Day resource is that the message is about how we as a nation changed and overcame the attacks not about the scary, sad, and horrifying events that could be too traumatic for younger kids. 

It taught my kids that the world was different before this happened and opened a conversation about the events my kids weren't aware of. My kids focused more on how we have changed and asked about how life was before. Some questions I was asked were  

"Was I really alive then?" "What was it like?" 

"Did you have to miss school?" "Did you know anyone?" 

The comment that most struck me was "I don't want to go to New York it's too scary." This was probably the most heartbreaking comment. But unfortunately in the news all they hear is the bad things. After this comment I googled pictures of what New York and the World Trade Center Memorial looks like, so they could see how New York had changed and grown out of something so tragic. I also showed the memorial pictures of the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. (Hilarious that my kids had no idea what the Pentagon was...when I explained it was a Government Building they were shocked.) 

We also watched the Brainpop video September 11: America Under Attack. Even if you don't have a brainpop subscription you can watch this video it's free! This video was helpful in explaining the day as well. 

I also found these resources that I will be using next year (already ordered the book!) from Corkboard Connections! Click the picture to see the resources that go with this great story!

Today is a tough day, even 13 years later it still gives you chills when you think about where you were when you go the news. Living through this day in any capacity is even tougher to explain to kids, especially kids who weren't even born when this terrible day happened. 

Hopefully you find these resource as helpful as I did!

We are Americans and we will not let terror win.

Proud to be an American.

Liberty Kids for $5

Have you seen this deal!?

THE ENTIRE LIBERTY KIDS SERIES FOR $5!!!

I loved watching Liberty Kids as a kid on Saturday mornings and now to be able to use them in my classroom is even better! They are awesome for teaching US history in a fun interactive way. There are videos for literally everything that is in our standards whether they are Common Core standards or one of the few states without Common Core.  

Head on over to Amazon or check out the Liberty Kid's website to get this great deal!

Be sure to visit the Liberty's Kids website. The teacher section offers resources on how to make life in Colonial America relevant to your kids and key ideas that led to the War of Independence. You will also find games and activities centered around the series and even some scripts for short plays that kids can present!


Thanks to WE ARE TEACHERS for sharing this awesome deal for a great teaching resource!
Follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest they have FABULOUS resources!

Things I Can't Teach Without

As a teacher is are things we MUST have in order to do our jobs everyday. 

I have been thinking about my next blog post and was inspired by several others who were posting about things they love using to teach with. 

So here is my list:

1. My Smartboard. 

I came from a school with smartboards and was so happy to find out that my new school had them as well. They are the best interactive whiteboards I have ever used. Which for me is really just a comparison between smartboard and promeathean. But having used both, I think that Smartboards are so much better in the elementary classroom. I am going to have to train my kids how to use it because while the school has smartboards, the kids haven't used them much and when I let them manipulate things in my lessons they are all itching to be picked to come up and do something. I also use it for my lunch count every morning.

2. Class Dojo. 

I struggle with classroom management consistency. I have strong classroom management but keeping up with a specific behavior plan is not my strong point. I try to implement too many things to meet all the needs of my kids. Typically I get distracted and stop using whatever I happened to use, but since I have found ClassDojo thanks to Fourth Grade Lemonade! I have really stuck with this and my kids love it! This year my school is implementing PBS (Positive Behavior Support) and I have been able to use ClassDojo to give PBS awards as well as general behavior points. This year I have been able to get my parents involved as well which is fabulous. My kids log in and change their little monsters and most of my parents are logged in and keeping track of the behavior points. I love that the parents are so involved. They have also come out with DojoMessanger which looks like a great feature to communicate with parents as well.

3. A Laminator. 

Do I really need to say more? How any teacher goes through teaching without laminating I will never know. I absolutely love laminating and yet hate it at the same time. Thankfully we have an awesome Workroom Parent who will laminate and cut our things out for us. Which is a huge time saver for us. I even have a personal laminator at home so that I can laminate at home quickly if I needed to!

4. YouTube and Pandora. 

YouTube has some interesting videos on it. However it also has some amazingly educational videos. I found some AWESOME videos on camouflage that really helped my kids understand the concept. I also have found other videos for things that aren't on SafariMontage. I think that teachers should have access to youtube because it is a great educational resource. I know plenty of teachers have youtube channels to share their classroom songs, teaching methods, etc. YouTube is a must!

Pandora is a great site to share music with your students. Even if you are playing music for a movement break, or playing classical music during writing or reading time, but especially when you are lesson planning at school having a good music channel to listen to is great. Good news friends...just heard that IHeartRadio is not blocked in my county!! YAYYYY

5. Pens. Cute Pens. Oh and Smelly Markers! 

Every teacher has those pens that are their favorite. I love pretty pens. I grade in colorful pens or markers and my kids LOVE it. Not to mention writing notes in cute pens makes writing notes so much more fun. My favorite pens are:

 Sharpie Fine Point they come is really cute colors!

Papermate Flair Pens they make everyone's handwriting neat and colorful!

Smelly Markers!!! I check my kids work and put a star on their work and instantly their faces are to their paper smelling to figure out which smelly marker I have picked. I love it and they love guessing what the flavor is. Currently I have Crayola Supertips with Silly Smells but I am looking for new smelly markers because we have run through all these smells.

6. Sticky-Notes. 

I absolutely love Sticky-Notes whether it is for my own uses or for the kids to use for exit tickets, book marks, responses to reading, taking notes, etc. There are TONS of other great classroom uses for sticky notes, check out this blog post for more great ideas.

7. Expo Markers. 

Really good chisel tip EXPO markers are fabulous. I love the colored ones but they leave color on my whiteboard, so I usually just use the black ones. I have used several brands of Whiteboard Markers but the best ones I have found are EXPO. The kids love to use the mini whiteboards and write with them too. I am so glad they are on supply lists now!

8. CloroxWipes. 

CloroxWipes are amazing. Especially in elementary school, germs and germs and more germs. I wipe down my kids desks regularly and my reading table. It makes everything smell clean and keeps germs at bay too.

9. Stickers. 

Who doesn't love stickers? Everyone loves stickers. I love using stickers on my kids graded work. It adds that extra fun to the kids day.

10. ZipDrive/ThumbDrive. 

A good thumb drive or zip drive is a MUST. Keeping track of it is a trick. But making sure you keep a back up of your lesson plans and daily classroom things you might need is SO helpful. I have a super cute panther zipdrive right now but I have seen an Olaf one at Walmart. So cute!

What are your top 10 list of things you can't live without? Happy Teaching!