Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper - Let's connect our subject areas and use our valuable classroom time wisely!

Cross curricular planning. SO IMPORTANT! I always feel like the clock is my greatest enemy in the classroom. Do we ever really have enough time for everything? The answer is no. So, we need to plan smart. Use read alouds to foster a love of literacy and learning - hook your little readers and get them excited to pick up a book on their own - but also tie it to your curriculum!

Stella by Starlight is a great example of a read aloud text for intermediate grades that will definitely connect to your Social Studies content. (I tend to find a lot of book relate to Social Studies well, and that's fine by me since we could only get to Social Studies a couple of times a week for a formal lesson, anyway.) 

Stella by Starlight is set during the Great Depression in the South, which was still segregated at the time. The Ku Klux Klan has an increasing influence over the residents of the small rural town of Bumblebee, North Carolina. The protagonist is Stella Mills, 11 years old and ready to confront racism, as well as deal with the everyday problems in school, her family, and friendships that a pre-teen tends to be challenged by.

Here are a few other great texts that connect Social Studies curriculum:

Toliver's Secret

The Hope Chest

Eagle Song

Journey to Nowhere

Any of the I Survived series books!

Five For Friday

Ever since our school incorporated a STEAM component into our summer school sessions last year, I have been Lego crazy! The kiddos are SUPER motivated when Legos are involved, so I continue to figure out ways to fold them into my teaching, recess, or more!

Click here for a link to my newest activity that focuses on using Legos while writing.

These Valentine Science kits literally save my life every year! They're educational, fun, and totally engaging. Plus, they don't cost me an arm and a leg to create! Seriously, my kiddos brought in so much candy to devour on Valentine's Day that I couldn't rationalize giving them even more, so this is how I rolled!

Click here to check this out.

My boyfriend and dog visited Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca, New York over our February vacation. If you can believe it, the weather was gorgeous! It was nearly 60 degrees and sunny! We hiked all over and checked out a bunch of waterfalls. It tired Lucy out so much that she's been spending a lot of time dozing on the couch since we went. While hiking, my boyfriend had his fitbit on. It told him that during our 3 mile hike, we walked over 50 flights of stairs! That was a lot of elevation! It was pretty awesome.

Has anyone read Pax by Sara Pennypacker? I seriously cried for the first 10 chapters! It's our newest read aloud chapter book in my third grade class and the kiddos are really enjoying it! I even had some tears from my third graders! It's pretty powerful when a book can evoke that kind of emotion in ten year olds. Anyway, it's the story of Pax, a pet fox, and his owner Peter. Peter's dad makes him release Pax into the wild and the story flip flops between Pax and Peter trying to be reunited. I highly recommend it!

Check out the novel study that accompanies this book here.

Lucy always uses a pillow :)

Writing Narratives

Our class revisited our old anchor charts about personal narratives this week because we are starting narratives! We are writing descriptions of our own personal Neverland as we read the novel, Peter Pan.

Our third graders are LOVING the book, Peter Pan, which is part of the EngageNY English Language Arts Modules that our school district is using.  Last week we warmed up our brains to the idea of writing about our own Neverland. I demonstrated writing with a timer. The class put a 3 minute timer on me and I wrote about my own Neverland in front of them. I didn't stop writing AT ALL. Then, the class got a five minute timer and had to write about their own Neverland for five minutes WITHOUT STOPPING. It was really amazing how much they got done...much more writing than a laid back writer's workshop day!

Check out the anchor charts we revisited this week:

Five for Friday

Hi! I'll be linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday today. 

I've been loving GRAFFITI WALLS! They are great for review of an ELA domain in second grade. I can see what pieces of information kiddos felt were most important, plus the students absolutely adore any marker writing or Post It writing they get to do! It's an easy, collaborative review, and takes minimal set up. Throw it up during Daily 5 as a Work on Writing choice for the day!

Chalkboard Paint.

Does anyone else LOVE this stuff?

I have this tiny, annoying, yucky chalkboard. I basically only use it for the date and reminders. Chalkboard paint made it so much cuter!

We're finishing up our current read aloud, Wonder by RJ Palacio, this week. Up next? CRENSHAW by Katherine Applegate. We read The One and Only Ivan and my second graders were OBSESSED. Crenshaw is written by the same author and is about a boy whose family has to live in their van for extended periods of time. Crenshaw is the boy's imaginary friend who shows up to support him.

Here is the novel study: Crenshaw

We've been working a lot on extended responses to our guided reading texts this week. It's tough for second graders, but this checklist helps them.

I've been using the differentiated GIANT ANIMALS OF THE WORLD leveled texts from ReadingAZ and my kiddos are really engaged. They are all reading about similar creatures, but at their level. It's awesome. I love ReadingAZ.

Gotta love Lucy.

Five For Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching this week for Five For Friday!

A few weeks ago, a fellow teacher filled me in on the sweet new idea, PLICKERS! (Check out THIS recent post to read all about how they work.)

Anyway, I tried this interesting idea out this week. The kids had their own barcode type answer cards (printed on cardstock). I programmed questions into my phone, asked the questions, and gave multiple choice answers. Kids held up their answer cards and I scanned them with my phone. (On my phone you could see their names POP up when I had scanned them.) Next, their responses popped up on my Smart Board through the Plicker website. I could see graphs of the responses or individuals. The kids loved it!

Problem: You can't store answer responses, only questions, so I had to write them down. Solution? I adjusted for the next Plicker experience and did true or false questions. Way easier. Still cool.

Cards!

Immediate results!

My class has been having a blast with Sheppard Software, a great educational website. We've been putting math games on the Smart Board at the end of the day, like Fruit Blasters, to continue our fluency work. It's a sweet website for lots of subjects!

Fruit Blasters

Multiplication or Division questions pop up and you shoot the answer on the fruit! Different difficulty levels and speeds are options.

I've been using a bunch of math games on this site for fun fluency practice. We've also been trying out some of the Social Studies games because it turns out that my fourth graders need review of geography! Does anyone else have major challenges helping kiddos realize that there is a huge difference between states, towns, continents, countries, etc? The kids who get it, get it. And the kids who don't...well, it's just tough.

I'm reading The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate to my class currently. I love it, and I'm eager to get into some awesome culminating activities (lap books, Tagxedo character traits word clouds, researching the real Ivan, etc.), but I'm also excited for our next read aloud, The Hope Chest.  I plan on reading this EngageNY ELA grade four module text with my summer school kiddos before they head off to fifth grade. Has anyone else used this text with their fourth graders?

I just received an email that my first Stitch Fix will arrive on Tuesday! I am super psyched and will update when it arrives!!! I just can't wait to see what the stylist chooses for me!

Emily, over at Style Closet to Classroom, introduced me to Stitch Fix through a blog post. Check it out here! Emily also blogged about SlantBox in the same post. Has anyone ever tried this? It seems neat-o!

Stitch Fix (referral link)

My new refrigerator is being delivered...TODAY!

...which means that I should go food shopping this weekend.

...since my freezer is literally empty right now. As always.

I'm not kidding...it will take 3 minutes, MAYBE, to clean out the old fridge.

Anyway, I'm psyched because the fridge has a touch screen! So I can listen to some Pandora jams while heating up my leftovers! 

Tried It Tuesday: Culminating Activities for Novel Studies

Let's link up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday!

I'm always on the hunt for fun ways to end a novel study. Wrap up a read aloud in a neat little bow! I read Wonder earlier in the year and did lap books. That was sweet. When I finished The One and Only Ivan we brainstormed character traits and made Tagxedos. For Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, I made these story elements organizers (Theme, Perspective, Setting, Genre) and BLEW THEM UP on our school poster maker. Kiddos got in pairs and filled in the cloze activity and then presented to the class.