Summer Reading Challenge - Nerdy Book Club Book A Day

I am SO going to do this with my class this summer through our classroom website.  What a great idea!

The Fifth Annual #Bookaday Challenge

I'm completely in love with the nerdy book club blog.  Must be because I'm such a nerdy book lover myself.  LOL  Anyway, this seems like the perfect way to stay connected with my class over the summer, and provide a chance for my students to feel accountable toward reading this summer.  I've already copied our summer reading contract - I found this great FREEBIE resource from Jen Bengel on TPT.  Check out the link HERE.

We are going to spend the next three weeks during reading workshop immersed in book talks, trailers, and recommendations to build our summer reading lists - but now I'm going to weave in our classroom website as a place to visit with each other and talk about the books we are reading. We ALL know that fifth graders love social media - so why not give them a safe place to visit, chat, and learn in the process! We already have a book recommendations tab set up that we've used all year long to discuss books, why not extend it through the summer!  I'm so excited - and such a nerd!  LOL

We use Weebly for our classroom website.  It's FREE and easy to use, even if you're not an experienced blogger.  Check it out!

Happy Sunday everyone!  Summer is on the horizon, I can feel it!

Enjoy  :)

Friday Freebie - Shared Reading in the Upper Elementary

Even big kids need shared reading!  It's the perfect way to model/practice comprehension strategies and build oral fluency, and it only takes 10-15 minutes a day.  I'm linking my Shared Reading in the Upper Grades FREEBIE on Freebie Friday at Teaching Blog Addict and Manic Monday on Classroom Freebies.  This resource outlines how we share reading each day in room 206 and it includes our shared reading note-taking graphic organizers.

    

So how do we share reading in room 206?  Each week I choose a 1-2 page short story, drama, poem, or nonfiction article.  Highlights Magazines, Time for Kids, Scholastic News, Zoo Books, and Kids Discover are my usual go tos.  But there are tons of great websites that offer FREE short texts too.  This text is the piece we examine all week during shared reading time.

On Day 1, (preview and predict) before I pass out the text, I give students the headline/title of the piece and they predict the genre.  First they think on their own, then write their predictions on the shared reading graphic organizer I've included HERE, then they share their thinking with a partner and eventually we discuss the predictions as a class. Great conversations occur from their predictions and they can't wait to see the text of the week. I pass it out and students preview the text and predict what it will be about on their graphic organizers. (Think, pair, share again).  We put the text and the graphic organizer away in our reading folders for safe keeping.

On Day 2, (fluency and wonderings) I read the text aloud.  This is the day we practice our oral fluency.  You can play all kinds of fun games to enhance oral reading fluency.  My favorite is just reading a paragraph at a time and having the students repeat it when I'm done - just like I sounded.  I call off random groups of students so they never know who's next to read and it keeps them engaged.  I might say "everyone who brought cold lunch please read paragraph number one after me," or "everyone wearing blue, or sneakers, or with brown hair," or "everyone who loves video games, or animals, or pizza," etc.  It's fun and they have to listen carefully while I read, so they can read it with the same expression and fluency.  Plus, the class is hearing each paragraph twice so it increases comprehension.  After we finish the text. Students record their wonderings on their weekly shared reading graphic organzier, share with a partner, and then we discuss as a class.

On Day 3, (author's purpose or perspective) depending on the genre, students reread the text with a partner to determine the author's purpose for writing the piece and the point of view of the author (nonfiction) or perspective (fiction). Students again write their notes on their shared reading organizer and we talk about how the author's purpose, point of view/perspective influence the text.

On Day 4, (text structure) students reread a few sections of the text (that I've determined ahead of time because they contain organizational clues) independently. They take notes on the organizational structure (cause/effect, problem/solution, etc.) or the story, drama or poetry elements.

Lastly, on Day 5, (determining importance/theme/summarizing) the students reread the entire text independently and highlight the main ideas from each paragraph (nonfiction) or the evidence of the theme (fiction). Students use all of the information on their shared reading graphic organizer to compose a summary of the weekly piece.

So, there you have it!  I would love to hear how you do shared reading with your upper elementary students.  I love getting new ideas!

Enjoy!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

If you're still looking for a few more items to add to your cart before the big TPT Teacher Appreciation Sale ends, all my items are 28% off (including the discount from TPT).  Check out my store! I just added my newest product "Fraction of the Day" - which includes four weeks of warm-ups and quizzes (appropriate for 4th-6th grades) to reinforce those tricky rational number skills.

You may also be interested in my Complete Guide to Book Clubs Resource.  It's my best seller right now and offers everything you'll need to succesfully guide your students through book clubs during reading workshop.  We are just finishing a round of book clubs in room 206, and my students enjoy book clubs so much, we're starting another round next week!  How can I say no when they beg to read more???  :)

Well, I'm off to add a few more things to my cart to stock up for the fall!!!  Happy Shopping!!!!

Hey all you Math Lovers!

This linky is for you!  I'm linking up with Miss Math Dork for her K-12 math linky party.  Come check out the fun.  You'll find both paid and FREE items, yup FREEBIES, to grab up and use to cover those last few Common Core standards!

I've linked up my Decimals Numbers Formative and Summative Assessment Pack (full of quizzes, exit slips, vocabulary cards, a study guide, and test - to guide your instruction of decimal numbers) and my Decimal Numbers Exit Slips FREEBIE for you 3rd-5th grade teachers.

 

I've also linked up my FREEBIE recording sheet for the factor game. This is a fun, engaging game for reviewing factors and multiples.

Lastly, for all you 4th-6th grade teachers, check out my Algebra (order of operations and simple expressions) Formative and Summative Assessment Pack to help you squeeze in a few good weeks of algebra instruction before that final bell rings!  Grab it now!

Anyone else scrambling to fit it all in these last few weeks?  I always panic as the end of the year nears.  We have so much more to do and so little time.  I feel like we've finally gotten into a groove, and soon it will be time to pack it all up and start all over again with a brand new group! I completely understand why teachers loop with the same group of students. Does anyone else feel like the end of the year sneaks up, just when you've finally got all your kiddos needs figured out?

Five For Friday

I'm pretending like summer isn't peeking at our door in room 206, and all things are like usual.  So far so good, spring fever hasn't hit my kids too hard yet - so we had a pretty regular week.  Here's a quick glance.

1.  We are immersed in historical fiction during reading workshop.  We spent the week discussing a few mentor texts, and the students are reading historical fiction novels during book clubs.  Here's a quick photo of the mentor texts we examined. Our purpose is to notice the setting clues and to infer what the time period looked and felt like in each book. We practiced using precise words to describe the time period. (We also analyzed perspectives and characters as well to continue practicing skills from our previous unit).

2.  We are reading informational texts during shared reading. This week we continued to practice previewing and predicting (Monday), wondering (Tuesday), determining importance (Wednesday), author's purpose and text structure (Thursday), and summarizing (Friday).  We look at the same article all week, for about 10-15 minutes a day, with a different purpose each day. I'm currently working on an upper grades shared reading product for my TPT store. I can't wait to share it with everyone.

3.  Anyone else use Words Their Way for word work?  We implemented this program about five or so years ago.  My lowest group moved up into the next book this week!  I'm so excited. We've spent weeks and weeks practicing homophones.  They finally graduated!  Yay!  I'm so proud of their hard work.

4.  We have WIRELESS!!!   It officially started working this week and I am so excited.  What a change it has made in our classroom already!  This week our computer lab was closed due to testing - and we didn't have to suspend our informational writing project.  We just researched right from the room on our Kindles and iPads.  BYOD baby!   LOL

5.  Lastly, we stared preparing for our Mock Trials.  We will present two cases.  The first is the Citizens of Boston vs. The British Redcoats for murder (the Boston Massacre), and the second is The East India Tea Company vs. The Sons of Liberty for destruction of property (The Boston Tea Party).  The students auditioned for their roles this week and our attorneys have already begun to reseach and build their cases!  More about this to come later!  

Can't wait to hear about everyone else's weeks!  Happy Saturday!!

Workshop Wednesday - Multiplication War Card Game

Okay, so the card game I'm going to share today, in response to Jivey's Workshop Wednesday (share your favorite math card games)  probably isn't new to most of you.  But I just have to post it quickly because it is such a favorite of my students.  They actually beg to play it during Daily 5.  The game is called Multiplication War (but you could play it with addition, subtraction, and even fractions or decimals.)  If you don't have this game in your regular rotation, add it now. Seriously! There is absolutely no prep time, and all you need are decks of cards.

Here's how you play -

We all know the age old game of War.  The rules are the same.  Two players split the deck.  They both flip over a card and whoever has the higher card, wins both cards.  You play until one player runs out of cards.  If both players flip over the same card, they announce war, flip over two more and keep them upside down, then flip over another two and the highest card wins all.  The only difference with Multiplication War is that each player flips over two cards instead of one.  Each player than multiplies the two cards together and the player with the highest product wins the four cards.  If the product is the same, war is declared!  I makes aces worth 1, jacks worth 10, queens worth 11 and kings worth 12.  This way students are practicing all of their basic facts.

How do you play it with fractions?  It's simple.  Again, both players flip over two cards - but instead of multiplying them, the first card flipped is the numerator and the second card is the denominator. Whoever has the greatest fraction wins all four cards.  Same or equivalent fractions equals WAR!

How do you play it with decimals?  Equally simple.  Both players flip over two (or three) cards. The first card is the whole number, the second card is the tenths, and in fifth grade we flip over a third card which equals the hundredths.  *NOTE - we take out all face cards for Decimal War.  Aces are still worth one.  whoever has the greatest decimal number is the winner.  Same or equivalent decimals equals WAR!

There you have it!  Great for early finishers, center or Daily 5 time, intervention for those students who STILL don't have their facts mastered, sub plans...........

Enjoy!

Product Swap - Multiplying and Dividing Decimals

Welcome to the next installment of the Product Swap - hosted by Jessica Stanford at Mrs. Stanford's Class!

My amazing partner is Mary from Teaching With a Mountain View.

Check out her TPT store right now!!!!!  She has MANY fabulous resources available.

I couldn't wait to sample her "Let's Go Shopping" multiplying and dividing decimals activity. This item can be purchased separately, or as part of a HUGE bundle of decimal resources.



I wanted to use this activity with my fifth graders as a group performance task review for our decimals assessment.  With the new Smarter Balanced assessments looming, my students need lots and lots of experiences with performance tasks.

The premise of the performance task is that students will "go shopping" at a candy store.  (The activity also includes a snack shop and bakery menu with tasks as well) They will need to multiply and divide money to determine the cost of the candy they will need for specific situations.

Here's the description from Mary's TPT store - Enrich your multiplying and dividing decimals unit with these fun and engaging resources! Students use fun and colorful menus (print great in black and white, too) to practice their multiplying and dividing decimals skills! You can use this is an independent project, homework, math centers, or even a final unit assessment. Aligned to common core and practices depth and complexity of this skill.

Included in the packet you will find the following:

3 Menus: Snack Shack, Bake Sale, and Candy Corner

3 Corresponding Worksheets for EACH Menu (9 activity sheets total): There is a Multiplying Decimals, Dividing Decimals, and Multiplying and Dividing Decimals worksheet to accompany each menu. If you aren't ready to teach division yet, no problem! Hang on to them until you are ready and just use the multiplication sheets now.

Here's a peek at how I utilized the activity -

First, I printed out five "Candy Corner" store menus in color, and laminated them, so that each team of students would have a menu for reference.

How cute is this menu!!!

Secondly, I made a packet that included the multiplying decimals tasks, dividing decimals tasks, multiplying/dividing decimals mult-step tasks, and a black and white menu.  

Then, we went shopping!  It took about ten minutes to distribute the packets, announce the groups, and discuss the directions.  For the remainder of math class, the students worked dilligently in their groups and authentically practiced multiplying and dividing decimals.  It was a joy to watch them work.  I walked around and questioned and probed their thinking, but beyond that they were very independent.  

This is definitely an activity I will use again to supplement my decimals unit!

Lastly, we all know that task cards are also great for reviewing, and Mary has tons and tons of AWESOME task cards to choose from.  I'm using the multiplying and dividing decimals cards next week and I've wishlisted several fraction sets for our next unit!!!

So check out Mary at Teaching With a Mountain View.  She reviewed my Complete Guide To Book Clubs if you're interested in checking it out!

Enjoy!