Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Friday, December 19, 2014

Five for Friday

Happy Friday!
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We had a very Grinch-y week in 4th grade!


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We finished our Weathering and Erosion unit-with a lot of success on the test!


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and started our States of Matter unit.


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I made this little cutie...
and gave him some snowflake friends for a garland for my door!

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Vacation!



Done! I love my kiddos, but I always enjoy vacations-they always seem to come at the perfect time!

Happy Holidays!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Thursday, December 18, 2014

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

I had an idea.

A wonderful, awful idea.

This week, we've spent the week focusing on my favorite story How the Grinch Stole Chirstmas.

The first day, we read the story and then compared it to one of my favorite Christmas movies-the 1966 animated version.
Video for those who are nerds and don't have all the TV Classics (including claymations!) ;)


Watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas [1966] (Classic) in Family | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com.

Before we even started, we talked about comparing and contrasting.

Then, we listed things we noticed in the story.

Video time!

After that, we listed things that we unique to the movie.

Off to compare and contrast! I asked them for 5 things in each section.

Those that were finished, started doing a description of the Grinch-I left it totally up to them on how they described him.

The next day, we worked on character traits of the Grinch.

I put a Grinch on the board, and we listed traits-with backing up our thinking as a whole class.
Then, they did their own character sheet-showing how the Grinch changed from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.

BTW, I got the Grinch description sheet and character change sheet from Fun with Firsties-good for all ages!

Since I did get the sheet from a lower grade, I added a little bit extra for my kiddos-I wanted them to tell me what made the Grinch change.




Students also had to FAST the Grinch  in their Reading Notebooks.


On Day 3, we worked with the song- You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.

I printed out the lyrics, and found a video that had them all in it!


We worked with pulling out adjectives first-highlighting them. Then we underlined and labeled different types of figurative language.

Student had an adjective sheet to do (from Jivey!), and they had to pick one of the figurative language sections and illustrate it.


And there's is so much more that you could do with this book-and all of these activities tie into the CC as well! (We only did 3 day because we had a dance thingy rehearsal/show on Thursday, and our party is on Friday!)

Have a happy holiday! (Don't be a Grinch!)

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Holiday Poems

One of my favorite things to do with students this month is ...Nicole Shelby's Holiday Sensory Detail Poems!

Holiday Sensory Detail Poems
This year, I did it a little differently.

First, I reviewed the different sense that we could use.

Then, I brainstormed a bunch of things that went along with each sense (although I used the 4th of July to model!)
The students then decided that they wanted to brainstorm in partners words/things that they associated with the holiday season (some asked if they could focus more on Christmas, and I said that it was fine)

(I had offered them partners, trios or quads. I picked their partners from my stick bin)

Of course, some were more organized...

than others...
After they brainstormed, we did a gallery walk and I let them add words if the wanted

I gave them on of the sheets from Nicole's pack, and had them brainstorm words (independently) that they wanted to use in their poems.

Then I modeled a very simple poem on the board-and had them do the same on the back of their paper.

After they finished, we talked about how boring that poem was, and how we could make it better-with revisions, adding in more details and figurative language.
Now it was their turn!

They revised their poem, and then went to their final drafts. They had their choice of papers, or they could do it on plain and decorate it.


Some wonderful poems!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn