Thank Goodness For Weekends!

Yes, the heading for this blog is my inner dialogue! I am zonked. I have never been so worn down each Friday, than I am this year.

Nevertheless, weekdays are inevitable! So here is how we made the best of it.......

When my students come in from lunch recess, they are flyin' high. So, I take a little time out to read to them..... calm them down..... and try to put into use what we've been learning during our Literacy Blocks.

I am currently reading The Hunger Games to them..... and the LOVE IT. Of course the majority of them have watched the movie, but they are slowly beginning to see how much better the book is :)

What I love is the highly descriptive language-- perfect for any lesson, really!
My students struggle BIG TIME with text support, so this book really helps me to model how to use "evidence from the text" to support their answers.

This week....using the Hunger Games, we took a deeper look into "Character Traits/ Characteristics".

Our focus was the character 'Katniss'.

(No judging my artistic abilities! Ha)

I have been trying to create Interactive Literacy Notebooks with my students.

Here is an attempt at our interactive visual reminder that Character Traits are found on the "inside".
Next to the trait they were required to include evidence from the text and their own ideas.

I am in love with Lovin-Lit's ideas! She is my J/I literacy hero!  

From there, my kids used what we worked on as a whole group, in their small group in Literature Circle.

They took a deeper look into the characters in their own books.....

I have been using various Lit. Circles Roles (giving each student the same role-- so that there is no complaining, and keeping everyone on the same page). Plus, I can focus on something specific during whole group teaching and then give the students time to show me what they have learned, during small group.

In addition, this also lets me see what each student is struggling with. Here is one of the discussion packs I like to use during Lit. Circle. There are lot of freebies out there!

This week I also introduced my students to an app I discovered called "3:15".

We are lucky to have Apple TV in our school lab, so I airplay his app. off of my phone. You could also purchase these series on Amazon.

Here's how it works:

1) Watch and listen to the video introduction online.

2) Read the story.

3) Watch the conclusion of the story online.

The 3:15 stands for 3 components (the three I have above) and 15 for the fact that it takes about 15 minutes to read the story.

This week we read "Buried Treasure" and looked at Plot Structure (writing & reading).

In Visual Arts, we have been working with 2 and 3 point perspectives.

Using an awesome lesson by the "Lesson Lady", we worked on creating 3-Dimensional boxes at different perspectives. My students were then given the task to transform these 3 boxes using their creativity. Here are a few early pics.....We still have another art period to work on them.

My students also worked on Remembrance Day posters for their local Legion Contest.

Very proud of their efforts.

Looking to create a little Remembrance Day Pack for upper grade students, if time permits.

In the meantime, I am working on a new Math Journal Pack for Grade 5-8. So stay tuned :)

You can also check out our Primary Math Journals here, here and here.

Happy Weekending!

Don't forget to change those clocks and Fall Back :)

An extra hour of sleep sure sounds delightful to me!

~Kaitlin~