Five For Friday

Happy Friday, Everyone!

I hope you have a great weekend ahead of you! I will be working on a collection of paperwork… observation paperwork, committee work, plans, etc! It’s been a VERY cold week here in Chicago… but we did not manage to get a cold/snow day. I have seemed to come down with a cold among it all!

1-      A highlight of my week was studying non-fiction text features with my students. I love how excited they get. After our interactive read alouds, students used a chart in their reader’s notebooks to go on a hunt and see how many non-fiction text features they could find in their independent reading books. We had such a powerful student share these days. The students have even remembered one another books and are sharing discussion such as, “My book has a table of contents just like Abby’s biography!” Now, I am extending their work into higher Depths of Knowledge by having the students choose a text feature, explain how that text feature helped them understand the main ideas using text evidence to support their thinking. (I’ll share my tool once I make it later this weekend!

2-   Anyone else with cabin fever? Do you have any good indoor recess ideas? My kids really like to have that free play time, even though we do a Go Noodle. However, they have had so much indoor recess at this point that social issues are becoming more prevalent over games etc. The exercise breaks developing help give them the needed movement and keep us laughing too!

3-   The students are learning how to write lab reports as part of our informational writing unit of study. We did a shared writing experience where we tested whether a car would travel farther down a ramp on tile or carpet. This week the students were able to design their own experiment using a ramp and a car. ULTIMATE ENGAGEMENT! I love that the students were able to think like a scientist, use math measurement skills, use information writing skills, and social-emotional skills with their groups. It can be challenging to use hands-on experiences in writer’s workshop, so I would definitely approach informational writing through hands-on science again!

4-    These were my two most helpful anchor charts for our opinion writing unit of study! The students chose a fiction book that had a well-defined character and plot (Arthur, Froggy, Pinky and Rex, Mercy Watson, Fly Guy, Amelia Bedelia, Henry and Mudge, etc).  They learned how to form opinions about different qualties of the book (as seen on the chart). Then, they wrote opinion letters to the class about their book. Each post-it on the blue chart was a mini-lesson to help them make their letters more convincing. It was very motivating to have their classmates as their audience and try to convince them!

5-    I love this verse! While there is always a lot going on, it seems as though there is more deadlines and stress points this month! Keeping this verse in my mind and trying to trust and pray through it all!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you will come back for the first Tech Tuesday! 

Head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to link to more Five for Friday posts!