Five For Friday - Biography Life Lessons, etc.

Happy Friday!

I always have good intentions to blog during the school week, but time just gets away from me!  Five For Friday and Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching motivates me to wrap up the week, and check out what the other awesome teacher bloggers have been up to.

 

1. The week started with a school board meeting held at our school on Monday evening.  There are 20+ schools in my district, and the board makes the rounds when holding their meetings every other week.  MANY people attended the meeting because they voted on and approved a huge change to our insurance (we will now have a $3000 yearly deductible for family policies).  Anyway - our third graders put on a musical performance before the heated meeting, and we had decorated the room with student created posters on Life Lessons Learned through reading Biographies.

 

2. We took a field trip to one of our high schools to see the play Peter Pan. The performance was great, but what the students remembered was when the lead said not once, but twice, "You silly a--!" I heard they took it out in the next day's performances - smart move.

3. On Wednesday and Thursday we had a scientist-in-residence program.  Professor Gizmo was so fun and entertaining.  Honestly  - the guy should be on Letterman.  The kids (and teachers) absolutely loved his hilarious way of sharing science.

4. We did our MAPS tests for math.  I was so proud of the growth my students showed in the algebra and number operations sections.  Unfortunately there were numerous questions on fractions, which we've done very little with, and is the topic of the next chapter in our Math Expressions book.  Note to self - change order of chapters next year.

5. Finally Spring has arrived in the Cheesehead State.  We got to out and pick up trash today!  There is a small stream just outside the fence of our playground area, and it always seems to be a magnet for litter.  Jackpot!  And.......not one kid fell in the stream - hurray.

Have a nice weekend!
 

 

 

Five for Friday - More Biography Work

Happy Friday!  It's time for the popular Five For Friday linky brought to you by Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching.

1. We started the week with another SNOWSTORM!  Enough already!  That groundhog is not to be trusted! It will take until June for all of this to melt.  Ugh...

2. We continued our study of biographies, and one of the mentor texts I used was about Matthew Henson.  He was an African American explorer who was one of the first to reach the North Pole.  His story is quite exciting, and I chose to share it with my students when my principal came in to do a formal observation this week.  Afterwards, we discussed cause and effect, and my third graders came up with the idea that Matthew failed many times but kept trying.  And the effect of his effort was that he was finally able to make it to the North Pole. It all went like clockwork.  Yay!

3. Today we talked about the life lessons that we have learned through the amazing people we have read about.  The students came up with great ideas, like Helen Keller taught us that you can do anything if you put your mind to it, and Rosa Parks taught us to stand up for yourself.  We plan to make posters of these life lessons and hang them around the school, giving credit to the people that have inspired us through their biographies.

4. We still have 3 and half days of school before we begin Spring Break.  I am going to Florida with a friend and we got tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld in Tampa.  We got the tickets on StubHub and lucked out on a great deal on some Orchestra Level seats - right in the center.  Can't wait!

5. We finished a persuasive writing project.  The students did a nice job - especially on their closing statements.  I used this funny commercial as an intro to the writing project. 

(Click on the link to view the commercial on YouTube.)

 

Five For Friday

Yahoo!  I made it through Hell Week Conference Week!  I had conferences on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings this week, and full days of school each day.  We were all spent by Friday.  As the true teaching professionals we are, though, we did get some learning in!  Here's this week's version of Kacey's Five For Friday linky.

1. We began a unit on biographies.  My students have been intrigued by each new real-life person they have read about.  We were immersed in reading biographies by doing Readers Theater, Poetry, and Book Club studies.

They were doing a Readers Theater play on Helen Keller.

2.  We used the website called PebbleGo to research more famous (or infamous) people.

I think PebbleGo is a site your district can purchase, like BrainPop.

3. During our small group RTI time, my students reviewed skills through a Reading Tic-Tac-Toe board I created.  This board can be used to with any story or passage. I plan to put it on TPT soon.

 

A letter to the main character

4. I was invited to attend a focus group meeting hosted by a marketing firm representing a local teacher supply store.  They are hoping to increase their business, and were looking for ideas from teachers.  The rep from the marketing firm was not aware of TPT, and was wide-eyed when I explained the site.  Those of us who attended the focus group meeting received a $20 gift card from the store.  Even though I purchase items on TPT, I can always find something I want at a educational supplies store. Do you agree?

 

5. The PTA in our school organized a Scholastic Book Fair in our library during conference week.  Teachers can fill out a wish list for books, and parents are encouraged to check out the wish lists after conferences.  We visit the book fair as a class, too, and the students also fill out their wish lists. It turns into a lots of $$$$$ in books for our classrooms.

 

Teachers fill out wish lists of books, and the book choices are placed in library pockets on this board at the entrance to the Book Fair.

Hope you had a great week.  We have 2 more weeks until Spring Break!