Five for Friday! Linky

I've been completely off for one week (except for Monday which I just remembered). I spent this week doing things around the house which usually get neglected. This means that the things that usually get done are not done. I just replaced them with things you can't see with the naked eye.
Such as cleaning out the closets, painting trim, and trying out dozens of recipes from pinterest that I usually wouldn't invest the time in!

These are my five pictures that show what my week has been like:
It's a little embarrassing that most of these pictures are food. At least they're healthy food. I didn't take pictures of the apple strudel I made or the wine I drank all night. That's NSFB: not suitable for blog.)
I have cut up more zucchini this week thanI have in my whole lifetime. I tried three different recipes for zucchini chips (I have a thing for chips) but I can't get it right!

This is one of the recipes I tried. It was tasty immediately out of the oven, but it took them no time to get kind of gummy.

 Then I tried this recipe I found on pinterest, too! The original recipe came from FoodGawker. I left out the potatoes, though, and just used squash, zucchini, tomato, and onion. It was pretty tasty, but then, I like anything with parmesan on top!

This is my sneaky dog, Penny. She knows she's not supposed to be up there. We invited my family over last weekend and we were all sitting outside on the patio. When we came in for dinner, I left the cushions (which I usually put in the deck box for just this reason!) on the chairs. I looked outside and saw naughty Penny enjoying her evening.

And I think this is my mostest favoritest picture of all! My brother and sister-in-law are pregnant! They're due to have a little girl in September, and I've been a shopaholic. I bought the most adorable shoes at JC Penney last week. Couldn't help myself!

That's my week. Mostly food, a little family, and some time in the yard! Now go check out all the other link-ups at Doodle Bugs! Pin It

Throwback Thursday: Math File Folder Games

I am at a total loss for what to write about. My brain is seriously in summer mode, and you can only talk about all the tasty snacks you've made so many times.

Fortunately, First Grade Parade is having Throwback Thursday!

My instinct about this was that it was going to be about clothes from the 70s, but that was not correct. Mrs. Carroll wants a blast from the past: for us to re-post a blog post from the olden days.

I hunted back through all of my old posts, and honestly, it's a little embarrassing! I guess my blog has evolved in some ways, but there are some pretty silly patterns.

At least, as you'll see in the post below, I've figured out how to arrange my pictures!

For my Throwback Thursday, I chose a post about some math ideas that really helped me in my fourth grade classroom. It was also great for the school-home connection that was so important to my kids. It was also one of my first posts that wasn't holiday-related, because I started blogging right after Thanksgiving!

So check it out, get some ideas, and when you're done, go link up with The First Grade Parade for Throwback Thursday, or spend some time browsing through the other link-ups there!



-Original post January 27, 2012-

*This is a linky party. I wrote the whole thing and realized I left that out! But it should be obvious, cause I'm not good at coming up with specific things to write about. I'm a rambler. So here it is:

Link up with the Lesson Plan Diva about Center Organization!
Do it!!

So, I'm kind of a mess.
To be organized, I really have to think about, like,
Ok, I have this thing in my hand. Where am I going to put it?
Is there a place it goes?
Do I want to walk all the way over there?
I probably should.
Walk, walk, walk.

Wait. Why am I over here?
Absentmindedly set belongings down in the wrong space.
An hour later, I'll find them and wonder why they're there.

So I have to create systems.
My necklaces hang on little hooks in my bedroom
and my earrings are in compartments like a tackle box.

My barrettes
yes, I'm an adult and I'm allowed to wear barrettes if I want
hang on a ribbon in my bathroom
and I have a special, designated place
for my keys in the basket by the front door.

That's what has to happen to keep me running.
If one of these things doesn't happen, I'm up a creek.
You know which creek.

So my center/station activities have to have a special system, too, or they don't happen more than once.

This is how I organize them.
It might not fit everybody's needs, but as an upper grades elementary teacher, it's really helped me stay organized. Keep in mind, centers aren't my favorite. My style is not too center-y. For you diehard center or station people, you might be kind of waaaaay beyond all this basic stuff. But maybe something will help out!

Centers may not be my favorite. But I love file folder games. So...

All of my centers become file folder games. All of them.

I glue the instructions on the front and the activity on the inside. I try to shorten it to only a couple of pages so it fits inside, but if I have to, I glue two file folders together to make a muy super wow expandable folder.

On the back, I glue some sort of sheet where kids have to practice the skill in writing with a vis-a-vis.

I take all the little pieces, stick them in a zipper baggie and staple the bag to the inside of the folder.

This one's not very pretty. 

It is special, though. The letters necessary to build the sight words on the orange cards are in the little bag. They're stuck on magnet tape. Then the kid can build them on the magnet tape string and write them with a dry-erase marker.

Wow. I just realized these pictures are pretty bad.

Then, they all go in a file folder crate. I have one for reading and one for math activities, and one special one for sight words.

Math: Needs a new label.

Reading: Also needs a new label. Like the extra junk underneath it?
Yep, it's all part of Ms. B's charm.

Is it just me, or can you never get your pictures to line up the way you want them?

To get extra mileage, I also use the games for this:
Family Math Weekend!
Or, Family Game Weekend!
Every weekend, with my kids who struggle in specific areas, I send home a game that they can practice.
This is the letter I send home to parents. Grab it here.

Clipart by ScrappinDoodles, border by Karen Cox: TPT Store.

The first time I sent home a Family Math Weekend 'Game' with my students, I sit them down to try to psych them up a little. This is how the conversation went this year. (Honestly. This is THE conversation. I am in black and the student is blue. Obviously, unless they are sending home extra stuff for ME to learn over the weekend.)
Notice how everything I say ends with an exclamation mark because we fake it till they believe us.

You know how we spend a lot of time practicing good math skills?
Yes. suspiciously.
And how we have to keep practicing to hold on to those good skills?
Yes. even more suspiciously.
Guess what you get to do this weekend?
What?
You GET to take home a fun game to play with your parents!
I GET to?
YES! You GET to!
Oh.
Yeah! I know! You get to take this game home and play with your family!
I GET to?
Yes! And then you GET to write down what happened on this cute paper with the bees on it and bring it back on Monday to show me how smart you are!
This sounds like extra work.
Oh, it's not work. It's a Game! See? It says GAME.
But it is math.
Yes, it's a math GAME!
So...it's like a video game...that I play by myself...except I'm going to play it with my family...and it's on paper.
Yes! Exactly like that!
Hmmm. a little excited. So it's like they played games before they had electricity?
Yup! That's exactly how they did it!
Okay! a little brightly. 
Teacher chuckles diabolically, having finally tricked the student into doing what he's supposed to do and liking it.

 Included in the file folder is this sheet for the student to fill out with their parents:

Grab it here from Google Docs

Happy Family Math Weekend!

Monday Made (too much of) It! Kale Chips.

So I have been off for about three days and I think I've made excellent use of my time. I already told you about how I painted the grout in my bathroom. I love it so much. I just go sit there and look at it and think about how nice it looks.
I mean, I would be spending some time in there anyway, but now, I'm enjoying it.
I've also watched the entire first season of Wilfred. It's dark and twisted and I like it.
In addition to these outstanding accomplishments, I've been trying to eat better. (This doesn't count Sunday, which was Father's Day, because that's a holiday and holiday foods don't count. That includes my tasty Village Inn breakfast of eggs, cheese, and various breakfast meats, nachos at my grandfather's house, and the bratwurst on the grill we made for my dad. Whew! Good thing it was a holiday!)
I have, though, been eating better the past couple days. I made myself a smoothie thing but it came out a little gloppy. I drank it anyway, but I have a feeling it's supposed to be a little smoother. But this isn't what I'm sharing about for my...

with Fourth Grade Frolics!

Then I hunted all over pinterest for some tasty and better-for-me things I could make to snack on during the day. And I happened on... kale chips!
This is my kale adventure.
I had never purchased kale before. I've heard lots about it. "It's a superfood." "It's so good for you." "It really helped me control my diet." What I hadn't heard was, "You can make it into chips." CHIPS? Yes, please.
So when I hit Wal-Mart for my SUMMER IS STARTING shopping spree, I added to my cart a giant bag o' kale. And then I got it home, and I looked at it and thought, "Now what do I do with you?" After about an hour of pinning (I started out looking at kale and ended up pinning things like "sexy shoes", "my patronus is a bookworm", and "pretty wedding hair") I settled on this recipe I found at Carla's Confections.
But I never quite do things as I'm told. Mostly because I'm impatient and pretty lazy. So this is what I did: I poured some olive oil in a large plastic zipper bag and dumped a bunch of kale in it. I tossed it around and poured the kale onto the pan.  I turned my oven to 275. Then I stuck the pan in and set the timer for thirty minutes.
After fifteen minutes, I looked in the oven and the kale was still squishy. Probably because it had only been fifteen minutes and I was supposed to leave it in for, like, forty. But I got impatient because I really really really wanted some kale chips, which I'd never tried before, but I assumed I really wanted them because they have the word 'chips' in their name. So I turned up the heat to 325 and set the timer for ten more minutes.
After ten more minutes, I went back in the kitchen and poked my head in the oven and they were kind of starting to look done-ish but not quite, so I set the timer for five more minutes. When the timer went off, I went in and took the pan out of the oven and saw that I'd kind of burned up half of the kale. 
So I took the pan and poured the kale chips/ashes into a bowl and I started over again, pouring olive oil in a bag and filling it with kale (it was a really enormous bag) and tossing the kale in it. Then I stuck it into the oven at 425, because I'd found another pin that said 425 was a good temperature to bake kale at. I set the timer for twenty minutes. 
Then I took the bowl of kale ashes & chips and salted it.
And I ate it all.
So then I went back into the kitchen after twenty minutes and took out the kale that I'd baked at 425. Aaaaannnndd...
it was also kind of ashes-y and a little oily.
So I turned the oven down to 275 and poured a very very small amount of olive oil into a large plastic zipper bag and dumped some kale in and tossed it around. Then I put it onto a pan (again) and put it into the oven. And I left it in there for thirty minutes. During this time, I ate a second bowl of kale ashes and olive oil.
When the timer went off, I took out the third pan of kale and dumped it into a bowl. 

And I ate it all.

So all in all, I ate three pans of kale chips and ashes. It was pretty tasty by the third time around. Kind of like broccoli but crispy. So I would recommend it. But I would NOT recommend eating three pans of it in one day. I do NOT want to tell you the consequences of consuming that much kale in such a short time. Let's just say I've had plenty of time to appreciate my excellent grout-painting. 

I'll give you a minute to think about that...

Make sure to link up with Monday Made It with Fourth Grade Frolics! Very fun.

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Earth Day: Michael Recycle* DELAYED POST!

Okay, so I really like Earth Day, all right?!  I didn't intend for my Earth Day post to come out in June, but, you know, sometimes things happen. Like sometimes you ask the teachers to have the kids finish coloring their pieces and sometimes the teachers misunderstand and sometimes they send them home with the kids and sometimes you have nothing to put on display until sometimes one kid brings her piece back to school and you can share your post.
And then you forget about it cause you're on crazy endofyear mode until the Tuesday after school lets out, but then you already posted about your toilet, so you schedule it for tomorrow. 
Anyway, that's why my second half of my Earth Day post isn't happening until the second week of June. I figure it's not actually that much worse than my MLK Day post in March, right? 
So anyways...
With my third grade pull-out group, we focused on the 3Rs. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.  First, we watched a BrainPop Jr. about the 3Rs and we charted out the important ideas: We used what we'd learned to complete The Lesson Plan Diva's Earth Day Craftivity Freebie! (That's a lot of capital letters.) You can grab it free at TPT. I also did this with my kids last year. Short & sweet, but they enjoyed it. You can read about the whole persuasive writing conservation unit shenanigans here.

Not the best picture, but you get the idea.

Then, we read Michael Recycle! It's pretty cute, it rhymes, and it's an easy read. Yay, right?

After that, we had fun. We brainstormed a list of words that were related to "Helping the Earth." It was a pretty hideous chart, so I'm not picturing it here. My next charts are also terrible, so you can imagine how bad the one I'm actually censoring was. I modeled (badly) making up a name for a superhero using one of the words off of our list and a blast of alliteration! I'm Captain Conservation.

Then I wrote several sentences using as many C-words as I could (because Captain Conservation starts with Cs) describing how Captain Conservation helps the Earth. I also modeled (as you can tell by the hideous-ness), some revising.

Yeah, that's the ticket. Revising!

Then, I embarrassingly sketched out what my finished product would look like. 

The kids, of course, went to town and had a blast. These is one of their pieces:

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Making Meaning out of Nonfiction

I told this joke to my kids yesterday:

Why does everybody want to hang out with the mushroom?

Cause he's a FUNGI!


HAHAHAHAHA!



They didn't laugh. I don't think they got it.



Anyway, this is why I told them that joke: This week, with my struggling fourth and fifth graders, I wanted them to read with a purpose! The kids I've started pulling out recently have some pretty rough reading habits. Fake reading, mostly, and when I ask a question about their comprehension, a couple of them read a random phrase in the hopes that I will

1. Say. "Close!" and then magically make their phrase into an answer.
2. Tell them a response that should replace their response.
3. Give up and move on to another kid.

I'm pretty stubborn. I don't do those things.

Kids must be accountable for their thinking and responding! So this week, I pulled out an old Scholastic article about the chytrid fungus attacking frogs in their natural habitats. Hence, the fungi joke.

I chose it for several reasons: Earth day is April 22nd, fourth and fifth graders are currently studying life science (habitats, ecosystems, niches, etc.), and also the pictures of frogs are pretty neat. I hoped it would be high-interest and easily connected to by the kids.

It was!

We first previewed the features and made predictions using the information in them. We completed the top half of this chart.

Then I had each student write a question that they expected could be answered in the text. They
recorded these on a post-it. As they read, their purpose was to read for evidence that could help them answer their question. I think that, because the kids wrote their own questions, they were actually pretty engaged and read very deliberately. That was a big improvement.

They read closely and added their evidence to their post-its. Afterwards, we shared and charted out our questions and evidence. The student who originally wrote about the question shared his/her evidence first, and then other students filled in with additional pieces of information they gathered during their reading. This helped us create well-rounded responses to many of the questions.

Here's my fourth grade chart:

I really wanted to encourage kids to find specific pieces of evidence that contributed to their understanding of the question as a whole. This means that they often needed to find more than one piece of evidence for each question.

Here's a similar chart with fifth grade (the second half, where we recorded questions and evidence):

Two questions were so specific that there was not enough evidence to completely answer the question. This was a good conversation - students realized they could only find a piece of the answer but not the exact answer. This was a good talking point: making sure our evidence actually answered the complete question, instead of just being related to the question; a habit they are very guilty of!

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Earth Day: The Great Kapok Tree

So one fun part of my job is that I sometimes get to pull out kids to do fun stuff instead of test practice. This is what happened last week and the week before. I worked with a group of third graders and a group of fourth graders who had been successful in their test-taking, and we didn't want to waste their time with more of it before the test. So we learned about Earth Day!

I mentioned previously, in my Five for Friday post, that I had started working with this group of kids, and I shared a couple charts we made. That's what we did first, before we read The Great Kapok Tree. We also read this freebie article about Earth Day from Rachel Parlett. You can grab it free at TPT and we charted out some basic points about Earth Day.

Using the structure I posted in my Five for Friday, post, the students wrote brief paragraphs about Earth Day and published them on some cute writing paper.

The next day, we read The Great Kapok Tree. 

My purpose for reading this book was to, of course, introduce students to reasons for conserving our rainforests, but also, to have them take the fictional story and rewrite it as a drama. I wanted them to think about what would be the role of the narrator, which character voices they would need, and what would be included in stage directions.

We started off together, charting the introduction to the drama. After a conversation about how we should differentiate between the narrator and stage directions (the kids decided that they wanted the narrator to tell the actions, and the stage directions to describe. This was with some guidance, of course!), this is what we came up with:

Then, I divided the students up and gave each one a chunk of text that introduced a different animal. I had a small group of students, and there were many animals, so only two students had to buddy up. They wrote their chunk of the story as a drama and published it, using their animal's fur or markings to illustrate the border.

After that, each student got a paper plate and enough construction paper to fill their every heart's desire.

 And this is what they made:

Sloth

Yanamamo Boy

Snake

Jaguar (looks pretty tiger-y to me)

Monkey

Porcupine - just noticed she made mistakes in her drama. Poop. Gotta go back and have her redo that one!

Anteater

Toucan (kind of)

Bee.... with a ghostly reflection of myself in the background. 

How funny that, in all the pictures, the only one I came out in is the Bee!

There's also a frog, but he's not done yet.

Stay tuned for my upcoming hallway display debut: It took me two weeks, but it is almost done!

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