The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and Character Traits

This past week we used an amazing book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, to learn about character traits.

This book is about a 14-year-old boy, named William, who builds a windmill in his drought-ravaged village in Africa bringing electricity and running water.  William is truly a hero that students can relate to.  William shows that no matter how young you are, with creativity, determination, and hard work, you can save your world!

While reading, students recorded character traits to describe William and we paused to record them at the beginning of the story, in the middle, and at the end.  Here is what our chart looked like when we were done...compliments of my student scribe.

Afterwards, students selected the 4 best character traits to describe William and then defended their reasoning for selecting the character traits with evidence from the text.

Students published their writing in a fun windmill display for all to see.

I organized all the graphic organizers, worksheets and templates that I used in this mini-literature pack for the book, available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  I also included a few extended response worksheets for students to practice writing about reading in preparation for state testing.

Check out the book!  It's the perfect addition to your Black History Month read alouds!

Fraction Fun for Monday Made It

Well, last Monday Made It was just a few posts ago (sorry) but it's time again for February's Monday Made It.  Boy, does time fly!  Cheers to Tara, from 4th Grade Frolics, for continuing to host Monday Made It throughout the school year.  I must admit, it is the one linky party that I simply can't resist.  No matter how hectic life gets...I just have to link up!

Today we started our fractions unit.  So, my Monday Made It focuses mostly on....you guessed it...fractions!

On Wednesday we are going to learn how to estimate fractional amounts using benchmark fractions.  This is usually tricky for some of my kiddos so each year I fill up water bottles with water and food coloring to use as a visual tool.  This year, I decided to fill the bottles with Crystal Light.  I did this for two reasons.  One, because I forgot to buy more food coloring.  Two, because after Wednesday's lesson I plan on drinking them!  Crystal Light is one of the few things that I can drink without my blood sugar spiking...and enjoy!

Today we created these adorable fraction books from the fabulous Amy Lemons.  I put a little spin on them.  Rather than turn them into books, we spread out the pages a little so that you can see each page of fractions.  Students can reference this lovely book throughout our fractions unit.

This fraction book will definitely come in handy on Thursday when we start equivalent fractions!  You can easily use a piece of paper to line up the equivalent fractions.

Purchase Amy Lemon's fraction book and then snag the template I used to line up all the pages here!

Have you seen Fourth Grade Flippers amazing Monster Fractions Centers?  We will be using these fun centers and games throughout our fraction unit.  My favorite is the Monster Half Stack.  I have it laminated and ready to go for the day we cover comparing fractions.  Students play with a partner to sort fractions into two piles: greater than 1/2 and less than 1/2.  The monster theme is absolutely adorable!

I have a few fraction products in the works.  However, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to try out all my products before I post them on Teachers Pay Teachers.  So, I can't share them until after my students have used them!  Check back though...I plan on taking lots of pictures of our fractions unit and I will definitely have lots to share with you!

Last but not least, I had to revamp our math centers.  We have had a few additions to our class so our groupings have been getting a little crowded.  I also needed a quick way to be able to rotate students through centers and it seems that each day we have less and less time to spend on them.  So, modeled after my reading center wheel, we now have a math center wheel!

I'll share more details about my math centers in a future post!

Don't forget to check out all the other Monday Made It's!

Super Bowl Sale

I know I know...my poor blog has been neglected.  But, I'm back!

My last few weeks have been a nightmare...to say the least.  I've had a lot going on and to make matters worse, I've been sick.  Very sick.

It started out as a stomach bug.  Then, just when I started feeling better I got the flu shot and the very next day...I got the flu.

Well, the flu then turned into a sinus infection.  I went to the doctor and was forced to wear a mask.  I felt like a zombie.  The walking dead.  Everyone staring at me and not wanting to sit any where near me.

The the antibiotic the doctor prescribed made me nauseous.  So I got to take some anti-nausea medicine.

For weeks food tasted like a combination of paper and acid...so I didn't eat or drink much (very bad decision) causing me to get dehydrated.

This is the first time I've been sick...I mean really sick...since I got diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.  It was not pretty.  My blood sugars were up and down and all over the place.

So, to make a long story short....I have been a mess for the last few weeks.  I could barely drag myself out of bed, let along manage all my school responsibilities or home responsibilities which in turn left my poor blog abandoned.

But, I'm back!  I'm starting to feel a little better and I'm chomping at the bit to show you some of the cool things my students have been working.  Not to mention, I'm very excited to finish up some of my new Teachers Pay Teachers products.

Speaking of Teachers Pay Teachers...tomorrow I will be participating in the big sale!  Check out my store tomorrow for some awesome discounts on all of my products!

I may be posting a few new products throughout the day tomorrow.  I have a number of math word problem products just about ready to go, I just need to proofread them.  If anyone has some time Sunday to proofread math word problems shoot me an email or comment below.  I'll email you the products, and the final copy as well, so that you can have it for free in return for your help.

Be sure to check out Teachers Pay Teachers tomorrow before, during, or after the big game!  You won't want to miss this sale!

Clutter Free Classroom Challenge and Giveaways

Whoa baby.  The last week and a half has flown by.  It's hard to believe that not only is Christmas break over, but it is now 2013 and my New Year's Resolutions should be in full force.  Should be.

One of my New Year's Resolutions for this year is to clean up and organize my classroom.  This has been my goal each and every year and every year I make small (and sometimes huge) steps to obtaining this goal.  But truth of the matter is, when your a classroom teacher, organization is a never ending challenge.

 
Take my desk for example.  Over the summer I created an awesome toolbox and labels for my plastic drawers to help me stay organized.  Every afternoon, before I go home, I clean off my desk so that it can look neat and tidy when I return the next day.  However, something strange happens from the minute I step in my classroom to the minute I clean up at the end of the day.  It's like a tornado whirls though throwing miscellaneous objects and papers about.  My desk starts off like on the left and then ends up like on the right hand side.  (Now granted my before picture was taken back in August - notice the green wall.  The after picture was taken this week.  But, you get the idea.)

I think I'm good at organizing....but I want to be great!  I can organize and clean when I allot myself a planned time.  But, I can't seem to keep things clean.  In the heat of the moment, when I'm in the mist of teaching, I throw things anywhere and everywhere!

Now, on to my second problem. I keep things neat and tidy on the outside....but behind closed doors....you don't even want to know.

Take my cupboards for instance.  When the doors are closed they don't look great...but they don't look horrible either.  Open them up and shazam....your in for a whirlwind of hurt.  Don't even try to find anything in them.  If you pull something out everything else will come toppling out and crush you.  Over the summer I actually cleaned these out and organized them.  Apparently my system sucked because here I am, half way through the school year, and it looks like an explosion occurred behind each and every door.

Sadly, it's not just behind the doors that I need to worry about.  It's also inside each and every drawer.  I go with the mind set of out of sight out of mind.  The issue is, I have a wealth of great resources that I completely forget about until I reorganize again over the summer.

Lets face it, organizing a classroom, and keeping that said classroom organized, could be a full time job in and of itself.  So, I've enlisted some help to push my classroom organization to the next level.  I'm joining up with the Clutter-Free Classroom's challenge to clean and organize my classroom so that it looks and runs smoother throughout the rest of the year.

And now for a few giveaway announcements. 

Check out the Fourth Grade Flipper for her amazing 300 Follower Giveaway!

And...the winner of my 300 Follower Giveaway is ....

Lori R

Congrats Lori!  Check your email!

January Monday Made It

I'm linking up this month with Tara, from 4th Grade Frolics, for her January Monday Made it.  It's been so nice having time off from school to rekindle relationships with friends and family, relax, and enjoy something other than school.

With NY's crazy winter weather I've managed to squeeze in a little time to get cozy and create this week.  Here's what I've made:

1.  Picture Perfect Photo Table

My hubby gave me a new digital camera for Christmas.  In hopes to update my blog with fabulous photos I decided to put together a little photo table in my home office.  Now when I take photos to share with you they can have a clean white background. 

My photos are already looking a little more professional!


2.  Survival Kit for Teachers

Although teaching has stolen my heart and soul, the winter is a crazy time of year.  Lesson plans, data, observations, meetings, new common core standards, new teacher evaluation systems, state tests looming over our heads.....ugh.  The list goes on and on.

So, in order to relieve some stress, I created little survival kits for my fourth grade teacher buddies..

I found these cute containers at the Dollar Tree.  Inside I put little notepads, gel pens, hand sanitizer, heart shaped chocolates, hot chocolate and a candle.

You can snag the template for my survival kit here!

  

3.  Winter Poetry Writing Unit

Last but not least, my pride and joy...my new Winter Poetry pack.  I plan to start our poetry unit at the end of this week!

Included are 6 different poems: 

Each poem includes a teacher direction sheet, sample poem, rough draft worksheet, and a final copy sheet for students.

There are also 2 versions of a Winter Poetry Book cover.  Simply combine the final copy pages together in a book or display them on bulletin boards or in a hallway display.

I'll be sure to post some pictures of students' final products in the upcoming weeks!



Before you go, don't forget to enter my giveaway for a chance to win a $10 giftcard to Dunkin Donuts and 3 products from my TPT store!

Check out all the other Monday Made Its on Tara's blog:  4th Grade Frolics.

Guest Blogging Exchange - Techie Daily 5 Centers

Today I am happy to share that I am taking part in a blogging exchange. 

As part of the exchange I'm hosting a guest blogger!  Check out her awesome post:

I’m Kristin from iTeach 1:1 and I’m so thrilled to be guest blogging today for Jennifer! This is my second year teaching with 1:1 technology, meaning each student in my classroom has his/her own laptop. I piloted a 1:1 program when I taught first grade last year and now I teach fourth grade with these same devices. We are also fortunate to have five iPads to share and a SMARTboard.

Since I have all of this amazing technology at my disposal, almost all of my Daily 5 centers incorporate some form of technology. Today I’m going to share my (and my students’) favorite techie centers for each of the Daily 5.

Read to Self: I recently subscribed to an amazing free site called Tween Tribune , which has current event articles for kids. I require my students to post a comment to an article that they feel they “connected” with. This provides for student accountability and the kids are motivated by the fact that others can read about their opinions. (Teachers who subscribe to Tween Tribune moderate their own students’ comments to ensure the site is safe for all kids who read it.)

Work on Writing: My students love writing journal entries using Penzu, which is a free online journaling site. They each have their own personal journals, which save automatically. Sometimes I’ll post photos on our class website so they can add those in for entries about field trips, science experiments, and other classroom happenings. 
 

Word Work: Each week I post our spelling lists (regular and modified) to Spelling City. We use the free version, which has plenty of engaging activities for the kids to practice their weekly words. My students take their weekly spelling tests online as well.

Listen to Reading: Our two favorite online storybook sites are Read to Me and Storyline Online . Both sites are free and have great children’s books read aloud by celebrities.

Read to Someone: When I read with my guided reading groups, we use Raz Kids on the iPads. While this site is not free, it has an amazing selection of high-interest leveled books. My guided reading lessons are split up into two days and I see each group twice a week for 20 minutes (except for my lowest group, who gets seen more frequently). Here’s what a typical week looks like: We preview the text and I introduce the skill/strategy in about 5-8 minutes. Then my students read silently at the table while filling out some sort of graphic organizer so I can track their thinking. This is when I do my individual conferencing and remediation. At twenty minutes, we stop and they go back to their other Daily 5 Centers. On the second day, they finish reading the book and we do most of our discussing and re-teaching (if needed). 

If you would like to see some of my Daily 5 Centers in action, hop on over to my blog. Be sure to click on the Freebies tab where I have free guided and independent reading activities you may be able to use in your classroom.

 

After stopping by Kristin's blog check out all the other blogs linked up with Primary Possibilities and make sure to enter my 300+ Follower Giveaway!

300 Follower Giveaway

Wahooo....I have more than 300 followers.  When I first started this little ole' blog last Spring I never dreamed it would grow this big this fast.

As a thank you to all my followers I wanted to offer a little giveaway!

So, what will you win?

$10 of teaching materials from my Teachers Pay Teachers Store

and a

$10 giftcard to Dunkin' Donuts!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!