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.