Five For Fraturday - Mother's Day Last Minute Craft

Happy Fraturday!

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for a review of my week!

1.

We've been doing a unit on Social Issues, and I found some excellent books for teaching this unit on the Creative Teaching Press website!

When students in my book groups were discussing the book, many of them referred back to the graphs and other text features to share what they had learned.

I loved how the book includes tips for "Making Changes" at the end.

I felt that the book presented the information in a matter-of-fact manner.

I know this topic can politically charged, and I appreciated the middle-of-the-road format of the book.

The book got the students thinking, and that is the main goal of our unit on Social Issues.

2.

Did you get some fun Teacher Appreciation Week gifts?

I thought this one was clever - the card says, "I hit the target with getting you for a teacher", and it included a Target gift card - hurray!

3.

Have you ever wondered about how the TV ratings were made?

Well, I got to be a part of it this week. 

I had to record every program I watched for a week, and was paid a whole $5.00 for it!

4.

We put these together on Friday for a last minute gift for moms.

We had made cards earlier in the week, and I whipped this up while combing the aisles of JoAnn Fabric and Crafts on Thursday night.

The box is from the wedding section, and it is filled with Cookies and Creme Hershey's Kisses.

I had some scrapbook paper for the bigger heart, and I also had the sticks from another project,

The sticks were fastened to the box and heart with tape.

The kids did a nice job of putting them together in less than 30 minutes.

5.

And last, but not least, don't forget about the awesome giveaway of Creative Teaching Press items that ends on Sunday, May 11, at midnight.

Click here to enter - or scroll down to see all the wonderful items you could win!

Peek At My Week First Timer!

Hi All -

I've been absent from the blogging world because I moved about two weeks ago.

I love my new place, and am still organizing, buying, and rearranging, but wanted to jump back into blogging by joining up with my fellow Wisconsinite, Mrs. Laffin, for for her Peek at My Week linky.

We are starting a unit on Social Issues.

This is our second year of teaching this unit during the last month of the year.

It seemed to make an impact on the students last year, and I'm hoping the same happens with my current class.

We start by looking up the words "social" and "issue" in the dictionary to give the third graders an idea of what this topic involves.

Then I use this fantastic book as a mentor text:

After hearing the story, I ask the students to list the social issues that were addressed in the book.

Last year I found the ebook version of the story on our district's Mackin list.

I was able to show the story on my Interactive Whiteboard, and we referred to the text for multiple lessons.

I have put together "I can....." statements for each of the lessons in the unit, and will post them on TpT soon.

It really is an eye-opening unit for the students, and encourages lots of higher level thinking.

I hope you'll stop back to my blog tomorrow for some EXCITING news from a major teacher supply company!!

You don't want to miss it!  

Have a great Monday!