Spring Break

For the past TWO weeks I've been on Spring Break! I had every intention of posting these earlier, but I was in vacation mode. Here are a few activities that we did before we left. 

Preposition Airplanes: 

I found this activity on Pinterest via Smart Chick. After learning about prepositions, the students were able to write sentences of their own in a really fun way! We first made paper airplanes using plain computer paper. I made them take an oath vowing that they would not make paper airplanes in class unless I give them permission! Then, the students flew their airplanes anywhere in the class. On their whiteboards, they had to write down where the plane landed using a preposition. They did this five times. After, I had them write where the plane landed in complete sentences. To save paper, I just had them write the sentences on their airplanes. It was fun! 

Junk Art:

For Earth Day coming up, my city hosted a junk art contest for kids. I had the students bring in their "junk"-- anything that can be recycled-- and they were able to create anything they wanted out of the material. I will admit that I was really freaking out with the amount of "junk" that was brought in. While they were creating, I was walking around cleaning! Ahhh! In the end, the projects turned out really cute and the kids were very creative. Aaaaand, they did a great job of cleaning up the classroom too. This was a fun way to connect recycling and Earth Day to the arts. 

Shamrock Art: 

For St. Patrick's Day, we did a fun shamrock art activity. I pre-printed the outline of a shamrock on paper. Then, I had the students use a ruler and pencil to draw as many intersecting lines as they wanted through their shamrock. This was also an opportunity to talk about angles and lines. In the space created by the lines, the students were able to draw any design that they wanted, or some just drew different colors. I just told them that they couldn't use one color and to try not having the same colors touching. After they finished, they went over the pencil marks with a black marker. I think they turned out really cool! 

Chambray: Nordstrom Rack

Skirt: Old Navy

Boots: Calvin Klein

Top: Gap

Jacket: Old Navy

Jeans: Old Navy 

Top: Old Navy

Pants: Gap

Jacket: Target

Cardigan: Gap

Skirt: Kohls

Watch: Fossil 

Sweater: Gap

Skirt: Jane.com

Necklace: F21

Top: Target

Pants: Old Navy

Watch: Fossil

Vest: Kohls

Tee: old

Jeans: Old Navy

Boots: Nordstrom Rack

Necklace: Styles 

Dress: Sonoma at Kohls

Shoes: Toms 

Daily 5

If you haven't heard of the Daily 5 yet, I highly recommend you pick up the book by sisters and teachers, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. Daily 5 is basically a curriculum framework that helps students develop habits that lead to literacy independence. I love how accessible and organized the book is and how it explains every step of the process.

There are 5 components to it (obviously)--- Read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, word work, and work on writing. However, I decided that these didn't exactly work for me and my kids so I modified them slightly. My 5 stations are listen to reading, word work, grammar, comprehension, and work on writing. For listen to reading, groups of students actually meet with me at the back table and we take turns reading from a novel together. I also do incorporate read to self, however, I like for my students to do this every single day so I didn't include it in the rotations. For the other stations, the students complete one a day and then rotate throughout the week. By Friday, they will have completed every rotation.

Daily 5 Rotations

Another thing that I do differently is that I group my students and designate the stations, rather than letting them choose. I felt that this was more appropriate for my students because it ensures they go through each station and I don't feel that they are completely ready for independence just yet. We will get there! It also helps cut down on the talking (slightly). That is a HUGE problem with this group.

Groups and Assignments

This week I decided to use the language arts workbook for the activities during the rotations. Eventually, I will have them "choose" an activity for each rotation from designated folders. I have seen some great ideas on Pinterest for this and I am really excited to get them together.

One such activity that I have started using is the whole class journal during work on writing. I have 5 journals with different writing prompts on the outside. Students can choose a journal and write freely about the topic. Then someone else can continue writing about the same topic in the journal. The students like reading what the other students have written and it is fun to see the different ideas that come from them.

Whole Class Journals

I'm hoping that within the next month the students will have the routine down and I can give them a little more freedom. For now, the structure that I have implemented is working for us.

9-6-13

Casual Friday (TGIF)

Shirt: Cynthia Rowley at Marshall's

Jeans: Old Navy

Wedges: Old

My dog wanted to be in the picture too. Say hi to Duke! 

Blazer: Mossimo at Target

Necklace: Target (old)

Have a great weekend!