Winter Holiday Alternative/Class Recipe Book

Holiday Parties...

You know you are expected to do something.  

This year I have absolutely no parent helpers.  Every time I put an "all call" out 

for any type of help or support 

I feel like I am at the Grand Canyon 

shouting into the abyss.

HELLO....................

But that's OK.  

Last year I had to beat them off with a stick.  

If there is anything that I have learned in education it is that no two years are ever alike.  

That's what makes teaching 

such an adventure, right?

So back to that Holiday(winter) Party.  

Why not do what I am doing?  

Tie your winter celebration into 

an actual assignment.  

Students have to participate because it is graded! 

Brilliant!

I have it all put together in my 

Class Recipe Book on TPT.  

Here is is in a nutshell.  

1. Students discuss a family recipe at home and come up with something they want to share with the class.  It's usually a baked item, but it could be anything. (I always indicate that we leave nuts out of all dishes just to be on the safe side.)


2. Students complete a recipe card page that I turn into a class recipe book.


3.  We do some brainstorming on "How-To" essays.  We read and analyze the elements.  Students write their own essay explaining how the dish is made. (Writing Grade!)


4.  On the last day before winter break kiddos bring in samples of their goodies and present a short power point presentation in front of the class, showing sequentially how the dish was made. (Super fun use of Technology here and an Oral Language Grade)


5.  So there you are on the last day before break.  Treats and goodies have been brought in.  Half the day is taken up with presentations.  Kids are having a great time.  You have a "clean up" game the last 15 minutes where you play fun music and the kids clean like crazy and you are out the door to begin your own FESTIVUS with your loved ones.

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I think I have a class of budding vegetarians.  They really got serious about their writing assignment to save the life of a turkey. 

So much to be thankful for.

Wishing a peaceful holiday to all!

Novel Unit Sale of the Century!

Novel Unit Blow-Out Sale!

I'm throwing a sale 

on all of my Novel Units.  

If you want to stock up 

you can choose from 

Wonder, 

Esperanza Rising, 

Holes, 

or Because of Winn Dixie.  

They are already a great value 

at $2.50 a piece, 

but for the next 3 days 

they are 20% off.

Print and GO! and have fun reading!

Candy Science & Mr. R

I spoke in a prior post about a partner that was influential to me early in my career.  

Now I find myself mid career and in a new grade level.  

Again I am lucky enough to have another excellent partner.  

We are still on a Year Round Schedule at my school and Mr. R had always flown solo.  

Another 5th grade was added, so we became an instant team.  

He was forced into a partnership whether he liked it or not.  

I could not have lucked out more.  

He shared his vast knowledge of the grade level with me, 

opened his plan book, took me under his wing, 

and literally walked me through particular math lessons step by step.  

Mr. R is everything I am not:

Young

A Man

Tech Genius/Math Savvy

Calm

Fearless with Common Core Implementation

He also comes up with great science experiments that are so fun 

that the kids have no idea that they are learning anything.  

In the name of Halloween and all things CANDY, 

our classes got together for a boisterous afternoon of Candy Science.

Did you know that....

Gobbstobbers added to vinegar creates a beautiful chemical reaction?

or that...

the M&M logo is actually a sticker of some kind that comes off the candy 

and floats to the top when submerged in baking soda?

Thanks Mr. R!

                                      

  

Pain, Tears, Anxiety, and Selling My Home

After 3 weeks of painting and primping, contractors and handymen, my home is finally ready to be listed.  The signs are up in the front yard, flyers are done, it's official.  

I've done the For Sale By Owner thing 

twice before, that's where the anxiety comes in.  

It's really tough-even with a 

retired realtor mom coaching me.

The pain?  Well that is purely physical.  I'd turn around to say hello to you, but I can't move my neck after painting the bathroom ceiling.   Why does my 47 year old self think that she can do the things that she could 20 or even 10 years ago?

Ouch! Another 800 ibuprofen please.

The tears come in from the overall frustration 

of wanting something so much 

(the new dream home that is probably 

just a tad out of my reach) 

and the reality of trying to sell a home 

for top dollar in a market that is 

still trying to recover.

So here is my darling family/dining area.  

I am going to relax in my recliner and 

spend the day binge watching MadMen 

and alternating heat and ice.  

Here's to a buyer with a lot of cash 

and a speedy escrow.

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What! No Party?

Halloween

Love the holiday…

but can’t stand to teach that day. 

I used to be on a track system that was off 

during that time and it was fabulous.  

But here I am looking it right in the face.  

It’s out there in just a few weeks and I will be expected, as any red blooded American teacher is, to somehow acknowledge it without wasting instructional minutes, upsetting various parents, or supplying my children with the banned treats that could get me in hot water with admin. 

The best news is that this year the 31^st is on a Friday, so I won’t have to deal with the effects of the dreaded “sugar hangover” that most children stagger in with on November 1^st.  

Don’t get me started on the parents who take
 their kids out of school so they can go to the 

Disneyland Halloween Celebration.  

Happens every year, and it’s always the 

kiddos who SOOOOOO should not

be missing any class time.  

But that is a rant for another day.

What to do about Halloween? 

I have kids from all over the world in my class.  It’s a culture clash of epic proportions. 

With that in mind, and in the name of all things Common Core and Rigorous, I put together a 

mini Halloween Unit that I can’t wait to use on the 31^st. It consists of several sources of informational text on the holiday as well as explanations involving how other cultures celebrate.

 It’s loaded with all kinds of reading, 

responding, analyzing, interpreting, 

and a fun little drawing project at the end.

For my kiddos who are used to cupcakes, crossword puzzles, and The Great Pumpkin video on Halloween it will be quite a shock.  

Sorry kids, it’s a new world out there.  I have to get you college and career ready. I’ll be getting several grades out of this unit.  Students will be actively engaged.  
Brains will be turned on! 

Not frightening at all.

Are you a Cat or a Dog Person?

I Really Like Cats!

Maybe a little too much.  

My mom says my first word 

was not "mom" or "dad", 

but "kitty".

My cat Marilyn had kittens 

in my hair when I was 3.

I named my a cat Harry 

after my dad so he would let me keep it.

How can you get rid of your namesake?

I don't trust people who hate cats.

My students always ask me if I am a 

crazy cat lady and I vehemently deny it.

However....I totally "get" the lady in this video.

The debate over cats and dogs always 

gets the fur flying and students excited.  

My Cats & Dogs Mini Unit 

has fun with this topic using

 three non fiction sources and an 

emphasis on defending your position.

Twist! Lick! Dunk!

Had a ball revamping my 

Oreo Cookie Mini Unit.  

Feeling nostalgic for the 

commercials of my childhood.  

Remember this Oreo cookie song?

It's surprising how engaged a child becomes 

when they are enticed by a cookie!

We're Reading What?

I remember it like it was yesterday.  

(cue weird time warp sound...)

It was my first year as a 3^rd grade teacher and I was teamed up with a fabulous partner.  

You know when you are lucky enough to just click with someone?  That was her.  

She was the yin to my yang, 

the peanut butter to my chocolate…

well you get the idea.  

Anyway, one day she tells me we are going to be reading Holes with our classes.  

She pretty much wrote my lesson plans

 back then so I was fine with it, but I had my doubts.  It didn't seem like a story I would 

like at all.  If I don’t like the story,

 it’s really hard for me to fake it. 

But in the name of peas and carrots 

I said, “I’m in”.

More than a decade later and I have 

read Holes with every class 

(except for that horrible year in first grade when I got all my gray hair).  

This story is super high interest.  

Bad Boys 

Fate 

Underdogs

 Buried Treasure

  

Even reluctant readers can’t wait to 

find out what happens to Zero and Stanley. 

I've revamped my Holes Novel Unit 

by adding more diverse responding activities (charts, thinking maps, etc.).  

I usually read this one at the end of the year 

as a sort of “send off”, but my class is going through novels so quickly this year 

I may have to bump it up in the rotation. 

So here’s to you TG! 

She’s still out there teaching, 

though sadly not with me or even at my school.  But I think of her often, 

and the teacher I am today 

is due in no small part to her influence.

Have you ever had that special partner 

who made you a better teacher?

Because of Winn-Dixie

Most of my teaching career has been spent in third grade.  I thought I’d never leave. However, I love a challenge and tend to get board easily so when a fifth grade opportunity came my way a few years ago I decided to go for it.  

So glad I did. Love the 5th grade mentality and independence.  One thing I thought I 
would have to give up was reading 
Because of Winn Dixie as a Read-A-Loud.  
I thought the kids wouldn't get into it.  

Boy was I wrong.  

In a year when I had a group of 5th graders that needed lessons on friendship (naughty group), I dusted off my class set and went for it.  To my surprise the novel lends itself even better 
to upper elementary.  I found there was so much more I could do with the class 
relating to themes and characterization.  

I beefed up my Winn Dixie 
Student Engagement Journal and Activity Unit 
by adding more textual/inferential questioning with an emphasis on citing passages or quotes that relate to major themes. 

As a pre-activity, students created a bubble map about their best friend.  The friend’s name goes in the middle, then adjectives that describe the friend, followed by examples.  

They looked something like this:

Although I generally do not like to show the movie version of a novel read in class, this segment of Opal and Otis in the pet shop, with Dave Matthews singing Butterfly, 
is simply gorgeous.

Time Of Your Life

Fall is such a great time of year to have students write autobiographies. I understand that there is a big push to have students write about the nonfiction pieces that we are analyzing together in class. I get that. But let’s be honest, sometimes you just want your students to write. You want the words, sentences, and paragraphs to come pouring out of them. What better way to do that than to have them write about themselves. 

Yeah! My favorite topic...ME! 

Plus, I get the added bonus of finding out more about my kiddos. Teachers know that the better they understand where their students come from, the more equipped they are to reach them. With that in mind, I created a pre-planning journal for my students to use as the first step in gathering notes and information that they will eventually turn into their autobiography.

I am offering it as a Freebie on TPT.

It includes a take home portion where students interview a family member and concludes with questions about their future goals and dreams.

As always, I like to begin new topics with a song or video clip to get students thinking 
about bigger themes and ideas. 

I play Green Day’s Good Riddance video.

       

I ask students to think about what message they think the songwriter was trying to convey.  Students write ideas down on sticky notes and then we have a discussion afterwards.

Our interactive map might look 
something like this.

This is my attempt to get students thinking at a deeper level beyond, “I love my DS and recess”. 

There is No Rose Without Thorns

“No Hay Rosa Sin Espinas."

"There Is No Rose Without Thorns.”

Earlier this year I read the novel 
Esperanza Rising with my 5^th grade class.  It’s the second time I’ve used the novel as a Read-A-Loud and I can honestly say I am in love with the story.  It’s an absolute joy to read.  It’s bursting with figurative language 
and is heavy on themes.

Identifying the theme of a story can be challenging. It requires students to distinguish main ideas and extend the idea 
to their own world.

I believe that a student’s ability to connect with themes in novels is what creates lifelong readers.  It’s important to me that I do the most that I can to facilitate this process every year.

I always begin a novel unit by building background and context.  Music helps to set the atmosphere. This year I played the Lonely Bull and showed photos to activate imagery.

Rows of Vineyards

 

Casa de Las Rosas may have looked like this.

Esperanza and Mama live a much different lifestyle in the USA.

Backbreaking work in the fields

With so many of my students speaking Spanish as well as English, it’s just fabulous to hear them proudly correcting my horrible accent.

As the novel progresses there is much to discuss as the topic of immigration is central to many.  I am lucky to teach in an incredibly diverse area.  I have students from three continents and a multitude of countries in my classroom.  Looking at my student demographics roster only one family out of 32 identified as White/Non-Hispanic.  The idea of coming to the United States for a better life is not just a story in a book.  This is History and Social Studies wrapped up in a gorgeous novel.  

The possibilities for learning, discussing, 
and writing are endless.

You can check out the Esperanza Rising Theme Unit at my TPT store.

Natalie Merchant - Wonder

I just posted my Thematic Unit on the novel Wonder  on TPT.

Enjoy Natalie Merchant's phenomenal performance of the song "Wonder"

"God’s Own Creation"

I started my third novel unit with my 5^th graders today.  Don’t freak out, I am at a year round school and actually began my year in July.  I like to read a novel a month with my class.  Novels are a big deal with me.  They are non-negotiable.  I’m pretty sure that my district is in the “no time for novels” phase, but I’m not.  I’ll squeeze them in between textual analysis, cross curricular instruction, thinking maps, graphic organizers, journaling, flipping my classroom, differentiating instruction, integrating technology, small group interventions, creating performance tasks, ELD, PCT, PTT, and OMG!

So yes, we began Wonder by RJ Palacio today.  I don’t have a class set.  I encouraged parents to buy it from Amazon or Scholastic.  I’d say about half the class has a copy and the other half are happily cuddled up with a partner. 
I’ve been hyping the book for about a week. 
 It’s like a premier party.  
I started off talking about the 
themes we’d be encountering.

Bullying

Physical deformity

Friendship

Kindness

This is no Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

We had a pretty serious discussion about physical handicaps and being “different”.  
Everyone wanted to share. 
The buzz was building…

I showed the video of Natalie Merchant singing "Wonder".  It’s just her at the piano with her fragile, gorgeous voice, and those emotional lyrics.  You could have heard a pin drop while she sang. I was so into the song myself 
(child of the 80’s) 
and they were so quiet, that I thought they had left. Afterwards, they shocked me. They all started clapping.  Not that pounding fake clapping that is so annoying, but an honest round of applause.  They were hooked.  
They were primed.

My novel units are living breathing entities.  They change every year.  Every class has a different perspective and children relate to themes in ways I will often never know.  
This time is sacred in my classroom.  
Yes, I make it engaging.  
Yes, we have a student journal and we make connections to themes, and analyze character 
and plot development. 
Yes, we respond to literature, 
discuss vocabulary,
 and examine figurative language. 

All the while the kids are loving it.

Engaged Kids

Happy Kids

Happy Teacher

"With Love and Patience and with Faith"