Literature Circles and Novel Studies!

Hey All! What have my students and I been working on lately? Reading comprehension strategies and writing in complete sentences! Woohoo! There are pieces of this that my students absolutely enjoy, and there are others that they groan about.

Let's start with the 5th graders. We are currently reading "No Talking" by Andrew Clements. This book is perfect for my little group of 5ths because this particular group LOVES to talk! This is a story about a group of 5th graders that loves to talk. The boys and girls start a competition to see who can talk the least over a two-day time period. It's a fun book with a great message at the end. I'm using a novel unit that I created:

My novel unit contains vocabulary for each chapter and comprehension questions too. The comprehension questions are both multiple-choice and short-answer. Of course, the packet is the least favorite of my students' tasks. They actually would love to listen to me read the entire time, but I take turns reading with them and then we answer the questions together. On the short-answer questions, we are working on using part of the question in our answer and writing complete sentences. I'm kind of a stickler for this skills, as I know many teachers in the future will require them to write this way, and I want them to be prepared for that.

With my 6th graders, we are reading "Among the Hidden" by Margaret Peterson Haddix. This book is a science fiction novel based in the future. The government has made a rule that families can have no more than two children. Luke is a third child, and he has to spend his life in hiding. He begins to wonder if there are other third children out there. This is the first in a series. Kids usually can't wait to read further into the series after reading the first book with me. I'm using this packet from Lovin' Lit:

Lovin' Lit also has vocabulary, multiple choice questions, and more in her TPT store, but I've been using this packet because it focuses on text evidence. I can also keep working on writing complete sentences, using part of the question in the answer, with this group as well. 

If you're interested in either of these books and the questions that go along with them, just click on the picture of the novel unit you'd like, and it should take you directly to the product for purchase. 

Reading novels is one of my favorite things to do with students. I love choosing books that get them excited about reading. The 5th grade teacher asks what I do in my room because her students can't wait to get out the door to my room. All we are doing is reading, and they can't get enough of it. Their next choice is "Holes" by Louis Sachar. This book is one of my favorites, so I'm really excited to share it with my 5ths. However, I'm a bit worried that they won't understand the content since they are all struggling readers, which is why I'm saving it until the end of the school year. I'm hoping that if we take it slowly and spend a lot of time discussing, they will pick it up just fine. 

Thanks for tuning in! Hope you've all been having a wonderful spring break. I know I have! :)

Teachers Are Heroes SALE on TPT!!

Just a quick post to let all of you know about the sitewide sale on Teachers Pay Teachers! On February 25th, you can get all of my products for 28% off by using the Promo Code HEROES. Whoop! Whoop! So, if there's anything you've been eyeing, now's the time to buy it!!

Thank you to all of you amazing teachers out there! You truly are heroes, whether you feel like it or not. This is truly a time to appreciate yourselves and all of your phenomenal colleagues. We ARE making a difference! Each and every day we stand in front of those kiddos, we make a difference. Whether it be big or small, life-changing or not, it's a difference. Those little faces are why we do what we do. Why we walk into that school each morning. Why we put in the extra hours. Why we know in our hearts that this is what we were called to do. Teachers Are Heroes!

Valentine's Day Fraction Activity and a GIVEAWAY!

Are you looking for something for your students to do for Valentine's Day that's fun AND educational? Well, I have this great little product that uses candy hearts to help students work on fractions. Students make fractions and equivalent fractions. They also add and subtract fractions! There's an introduction to multiplying fractions and finding fractions of a whole number. So, it touches on a variety of Common Core standards for both 4th and 5th grade! The best part? Kids are playing with candy, eating candy, and learning! Whoop whoop!

So, all you need for this activity is a group of students, this product, and some candy conversation hearts. I'm going to do this activity with my 5th grade math students on Friday. It's perfect because we've been working with decimals and fractions recently so it will be great practice.

Would you like to win a copy of this product? Simply enter the Rafflecopter giveaway at the bottom of this page and I'll choose a winner on at midnight Thursday so you can use the product either Thursday or Friday in your classroom! Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

SUPER Sale Weekend!

Just wanted to write a quick post to let you all know I'm saving a SUPER Sale this weekend on both TeachersPayTeachers and Teacher's Notebook! My entire store will be 20% off and, if you shop at Teacher's Notebook, you can get an additional 10% off everything with the Promo Code sb2015. The sales are running from 1/31-2/2 so clear out those wishlists and do some shopping!

Have a SUPER weekend!

Novel Units Galore!

Since my elementary students have been spending the past few weeks on assessments (AIMSWeb and NWEA), my classroom has been pretty quiet. In my downtime between testing, I've been working on another of my novel units per customer request.

Novels units are one of my favorite products to create. I've created them for years, prior to posting them on Teachers Pay Teachers. I knew what I wanted for my students, and I just couldn't find it anywhere out there. When completing literature circles or read alouds, I think it's important to devote most of the time to actual reading, but it's also important to review key concepts and work on comprehension skills and vocabulary. So, in my novel units, I always pull vocabulary words and use them in context to help students hone that strategy. Then, I use a combination of short-answer and multiple choice questions to focus on comprehension. My favorite part of each chapter is, of course, the chapter activity. I try to keep these fun, interactive, and educational. These activities push my students to think a little more about the reading, to make connections to the reading and the world around them, and to have a little fun. So many of the novel units I've found out there look great and work on thoughtful and important concepts, but they are so time-consuming. I want something that's a quick review, so we can get on to the rest of the story.

I know I should probably spend more time discussing and talking about the story, but I've found that if I've chosen a good chapter book, my students are excited to read. They don't want to stop to do the questions because they want to know what's going to happen next. They don't want me to stop reading...they want MORE! So, I use my novel units to work on key reading strategies, but I bring the love of reading to my students with my read alouds and literature circles.

So, with that said, I'll post a link to some of my most popular novel units. Maybe you'll find something that works for both you and your students. Bring them the love the reading!

Have a terrific week!

Classroom Scrabble! An Interactive Way to Manipulate and Learn Words and A GIVEAWAY!!

In the days leading up to Christmas break, I've been playing Classroom Scrabble with my 7th and 8th graders as they finish their work. Being a Title I teacher, I have 7th and 8th graders during their study hall time. I was looking for a way to keep them entertained after they finish their work during this time, but I wanted the entertainment to be educational. So, I created a bulletin board sized Scrabble game!

The students play against me and they LOVE it! Now, this works out great because it's all of the students against me, the teacher. So, no matter what study hall it is, if there is one person done with his or her work, that person can play a word; if it's more than one student, they can work together to play words. We've had a lot of fun with it, and I can't even count how many games we've played since school started! I think this is a fun, interactive way for my students to work with words, and a bonus: they have to do math to figure out their scores! :)

I just taped the board on top of my current whiteboard, then I printed the letters on magnetic paper, but there's a number of different ways to print and use this product. If you think this is something you can use, especially now as Christmas break nears...head on over to my TPT store and check it out:

Would you like to win a copy of my Classroom Scrabble? Just enter using the Rafflecopter below! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Enjoy your break! :)

A Tool to Use When Classifying Quadrilaterals

What is a quadrilateral? 

Can your students easily distinguish between the hierarchy of quadrilaterals based on attributes? If so, I'm JEALOUS!! Every year I've taught math, I have a good majority of students that cannot understand this hierarchy. They think a rectangle looks exactly like the picture above and that's it! But we, as teachers, know that in math, there is a particular definition to describe a rectangle: a quadrilateral (4-sided polygon) with two pairs of parallel sides and four right angles. It's really only natural for students to struggle with this concept, since they've been told for many years that a rectangle is the blue shape you see above.

Well, last year I had an epiphany! Why can't I create a tool to help my students with this concept? There's got to be a way for them to visually assess each quadrilateral. So, I created a "foldable" (I know I'm not supposed to use that word, but what else do you call it?) to walk my students through the classifying process.

This tool works for having students list ALL names that classify the quadrilateral, but it can also work for the most specific name, as that's the last name on the list. Here's how it works: 1. Student determines if the shape is a quadrilateral, 2. Student determines if the shape is a parallelogram or trapezoid. 3. If it qualifies as a parallelogram, the student continues through rectangle, rhombus, and, finally, square. 4. Student stops writing names when the quadrilateral no longer classifies, according to the description on the flaps.

Here's some pictures of the tool in action:

As you can see, my students are going through each flap to determine the shape's properties, then writing down the specific names as it qualifies. This shape was a square (which is its most specific name), but it also can be named all of the others based on its attributes.

If you find this foldable useful, please download it in my store! There are two versions of this foldable, both included in the one product. You can print out the foldable with the notes already included, or you can bring a blank one with space for the students to write the notes. (I used the pre-printed one because I only have my students for 20 minutes at a time.)
Here's the link:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Classifying-Quadrilaterals-Foldable-1374246

Have a Happy Wednesday!