The Idea Backpack

In the last five years, I have tried many classroom management systems. I have tried sticker charts where they purchase items from a classroom store based on their stickers. I have tried creating avatars and using a point system that works sort of like a video game achievement system. (You can read about the way I used video games as my inspiration for classroom management here.)

This year I tried www.classdojo.com. I love Class Dojo. I think it works really well much of the time, and my students loved creating the little avatars. I decided to try Class Dojo because since all of my students have access to laptops I have tried all sorts of technology and websites. Because we use the computers off and on all day, I think Class Dojo seemed like less of a novelty for my students. They could not see their points all the time, so it was out of sight out of mind. I do not have a Smart Board to display for everyone all the time.

I recently decided to try something a little different for our classroom management system. I felt we needed something more tangible and visible. Another teacher suggested using a classroom economy. So I went to www.teacherspayteachers.com and searched free resources on Classroom Economy. I found lots of great resources.

I chose to use the classroom cash from this set because I like idea of Hoot Loot. Our school mascot is the owls, and my classroom is decorated with owls.

Source: teacherspayteachers.com viaApril on Pinterest

We used the little printable wallets from this set to put our Hoot Loot in.

Source: teacherspayteachers.com viaApril on Pinterest

Laura Candler also has a Classroom Economy pack. Every thing Laura does is amazing!

I created this little form to track our points or cash flow for the week.

I created different categories and for each category they can have cash added or taken away (debits and credits.) At the end of the week, they turn in their form. I give them their hoot loot. They then can purchase items from a class store. Any cash they do not spend, they save up in their wallets. You can get a copy of my classroom account summary form here. It is a Word Document, so you can make any changes you need to. How do you run a classroom economy?

With only two months left of school, I am trying to narrow down what I want I feel is most important to still cover. There are always so many things I feel we never get to. One of my goals is to do as much informational, narrative, and persuasive writing as we can. I am going to try to rotate through them and do at least one of each each month if we can. Thus, they will get 2 more of each. I want to cover a lot of poetry this month as well.

We also are going to start mystery novel units (literature circles) this week. I want to do a mystery unit this month, and one more novel or nonfiction unit next month. I probably will have us to at least one of each type of writing with the book units as another way to incorporate reading and writing together.

Last week we did persuasive letters. I let them pick the topic of their letter and who they wrote it to. Persuasive letters are a great way to review persuasive writing along with the parts of a letter. We brainstormed ideas for our letter in our writing journal. Once they picked their topic and three main points, we used Read Write Think's Persuasive Map to plan out our letters. I told them the letters had to be 5 paragraphs. Here is a picture of my persuasive map:

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Here is the persuasive map for one of my students:

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We brainstormed one day, created persuasive maps the next day, and then spent the next two days drafting. I like to encourage my students to edit while they draft. I want the writing process to be authentic. Most of us do not plan, write, then edit and then revise. Most of us plan a little, write a little, and make revisions as we go. Writing evolves as your thinking through a topic.

I wrote my letter to my cat to ask him to be less annoying. When we do major writing assignments, I like to model my own writing and planning process. Last week there were several linky parties on writing workshop. I really wanted to join, but ran out of time to blog several days last week. One of the linky parties was on Mentor Texts. One of my favorite websites for mentor text writing lessons is Writing Fix. I will be honest with you though. I have seen more growth from my students in their writing when I take the time to model my own writing and writing thinking process.

After I modeled writing my persuasive letter to my students to my cat, many of them chose to write to their own pets. At the beginning of the year, many of my students could not write a cohesive paragraph. Now many of them wrote a 5 paragraph persuasive letter with introduction, 3 body paragraphs, and conclusion. I love seeing the growth in students, especially in writing. It is an area many students struggle with. When I model my own writing, I do not always finish the piece. I usually write with them while they are writing for the first ten minutes or so, and then I circulate and help my students. I do not have a document camera, but when I did I would model writing from my own writing journal. Now, I just type and project my computer screen for them to see.

I really would like to do more formal conferencing; however, I have found sometimes by modeling and explaining my own thought process I can convey one message that many of them will get that then I do not have to try to explain individually. Then after the initial draft, I can conference and help them individually where they need help.

This was as far as I got modeling my own persuasive letter, but I was able to show them three paragraphs where I modeled how I would use empathy as a persuasive strategy as part of the process to convince my cat to make some changes. As we work on revising for a final draft, I will finish the last two paragraphs to show them.

Do you model your writing? How do you find it helps?

Since I am all about finding outlets for new ideas and trying new ways of doing things, I love this linky party. I am very excited to link up to Holly's Tried it Tuesday.

I think this is such a fabulous idea for a linky party. I actually discovered Holly's blog and Jivey's blog through other people who linked up to this linky last week. I am already in love with both of their blogs!

Have you tried Readworks.org? Next to Read Write Think, it is my favorite free education resource on the web. There are lots of great passages! Did you know they also have novel units? I am extremely excited about these. I had decided that we would be starting a round of book clubs or literature circles using mysteries. I had my students rank their order of preference for Chasing Vermeer, The Westing Game, and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

I already had a novel unit with questions and activities for From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, but I needed chapter questions for Chasing Vermeer and The Westing Game. I happened to be on Readworks.org last week looking at passages and saw they had novel units for both of the two books I needed. Score!

Actually, the novel units are fantastic. They include chapter questions, vocabulary activities, and a unit assessment. On top of that the units include full lessons, so that if you taught the book as a whole group or read aloud full lessons are already ready for you to use as a resource. The novel units are considered for 5th and 6th grade, but there are some great titles I would use for grades 4-6.

Tomorrow I am going to hand them a calendar with due dates of when the groups will meet and what chapters need to be read by those dates. They will then plan out how much they read each day to have the reading/assignments done by due dates. I am going to be having my students make a detective notebook to include info on setting, characters, and clues on the mystery. This will give some consistency among the three books. We will also make Wanted Posters for a character they think is suspicious/guilty mid-way through the book. For Mixed Up Files, I will probably have them make a missing child sign instead of a Wanted Poster. We will also do all three types of writing during the 4 weeks they read the mysteries. They will write an informational writing based on a topic inspired by the book, they will write a persuasive of who might be guilty or what the solution to the mystery might be, and the narrative at the end will be to write their own mystery story.

I will use the chapter questions and unit assessment from Readworks and my other novel unit as quizzes for the material. Have you used Readworks? If not, check it out. You won't be disappointed.

I am excited to link up for Jivey's Workshop Wednesday for Math sites. (I love her new button by the way.)

I teach in a blended learning environment, which means we use a vartiety of actual teacher/student interaction and online learning. All of my students use laptops, so I have tried out all sorts of sites this year. I have a small grade 4-5 class, but for Math they span from 4th grade Math through 7th grade Math. I have had to use a lot of sites to help practice, teach, and reinforce math concepts to help them all work at different paces and levels. During Math, I am all over my classroom helping my students.

Some of these have already been mentioned, but here are my favorite sites for different reasons:

1) Xtramath - Many of my students have struggled with their Math Facts, so we have used Xtramath to improve their math fact fluency. (This reminds me we haven't used it since coming back from Spring Break. I need to make them start logging in again every morning.) It takes about 5 minutes per day. They have to master addition at 90% accuracy before moving on to subtraction and then they move on to subtraction, multiplication, and division as they master them.

2) Sumdog is one of their favorites. It is a fun way to spiral review without making copies. You can assign grade levels or topics to individual students. They create avatars, earn levels, and can play lots of different games against each other. They love when I play, too. Sumdog has a free subscription. If you pay, you can get Sumdog English as well.

3) IXL - My students love doing IXL practice to unlock extra rewards. It takes a subscription, but honestly IXL has been of the best ways for me to give all my students extra practice for so many concepts at so many levels with immediate feedback.

4) Math Playground - Math Playground is a new one we have been experimenting with lately. They seem to really enjoy it.

I like the idea of these weekly linkies. I think I would like to do a weekly post/linky on text suggestions for the Content Areas (Science and Social Studies), especially Nonfiction with the Common Core emphasis on Informational Text. I am trying to think of a name. So far I have Thinking Through Texts Thursday, Common Core Texts for the Content Areas, Informational Text Thursday, or Nonfiction Thursday. What do you think? Any name suggestions? Would you be interested or participate in a linky focusing on text suggestions for Science and Social Studies?

I am linking up with Collaboration Cuties' Mentor Text Linky.

April is National Poetry Month, so I love incorporating poetry and figurative language. We just started a Mystery Unit, so I may push more of our poetry for May or the end of April. (We did some poetry in February and March.) My favorite site for Mentor Text lessons is www.writingfix.com. All of their lessons are fabulous and can be used to incorporate reading strategies as well.

One of the lessons from this site I have enjoyed most was for metaphors. Click to pull up the lesson here. The lesson uses the mentor text Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox.

This book really lends itself to not just discussion of metaphor, but the idea of extended metaphor. The story is very sweet and would also be great for discussing theme. After reading the book, students write a four metaphor poem. To accompany this book I would also have my students read the poem "Hope" by Emily Dickinson. It would flow well with the topic of extended metaphor.

I am also going to link up with Sabra at Teaching with a Touch of Twang for her Monthly Market linky that focuses on Poetry.

What is your favorite Writing Fix lesson or poetry mentor text?

I also am trying to get back to blogging at my personal blog "Balancing the Backpack" as I work toward better balance spiritually, mentally, and physically. I will be focusing a lot on what exercises I am doing, what I am eating, and what I am thankful for. Stop by if you also are working on balance. :)

Common Core in the Content Areas

On Thursdays, I would like to start offering ideas for the Content Areas (Science and Social Studies) to incorporate the Common Core Standards.

These might be reading ideas, writing ideas, or even Math ideas. Initially, I will probably focus on text suggestions. With the Common Core Reading Standards placing so much emphasis on Informational Text I have tried to incorporate a lot more nonfiction into my read alouds this year.

I enjoy searching the library for nonfiction on topics we are exploring in Science and Social Studies. I try to always distinguish between which texts seem like they would be great for a project and which ones seem like they would read well aloud.

In Social Studies, we are studying Westward Expansionism. This week we read You Wouldn't Want to Be an American Pioneer by Jacqueline Morley. If you have not read any of the "You Wouldn't Want to Be" books, you are missing out. They are packed full of information on different history topics, are engaging to read, and the illustrations are funny. The kids always love these books and remember all of the details very well.

You can easily cover the Common Core Standards with this book. You could discuss the main ideas and details, text structure, and/or the author's claim with evidence. You could discuss how the illustrations aid their understanding. For writing, you could have your students write an informational piece about the hardships of moving west. They could write a persuasive piece on reasons why should move west or reasons not to move west. They also could create a little persuasive brochure or poster for this same purpose. You could also have them write a narrative about the daily life of moving west. We discussed the book in depth and then I gave them questions to answer at the end. You can get a copy of the questions here.

For each text suggestion I give for the Content Areas, I am going to give you a freebie to go with the book. I may also try and create some mini-units to go with the books to put in my TpT store.

I hope you will consider linking up your own posts on how you incorporate the Common Core Standards in your Content Areas. I look forward to this being a weekly series.

I should have had a 500 follower giveaway over a month a go and a 1 year blog anniversary almost 2 months ago. In 2013 I decided my word for the year was balance. I am trying to make health and wellness more important. I want to eat better, exercise more, and find joy on a daily basis. I very much want to continue to grow my blog and my TpT store. I also have come to realize that we all do the best we can and balance is most important.

Last week I started a bootcamp fitness class that lasts for four weeks. I am trying to make food adjustments to go along with it. As I am trying to work out and plan out what I eat, I am just trying to fit in time for grading, blogging, and creating products as best I can. I am also trying to remind myself to fit in more time for prayer and keeping my gratitude list. It is all about balance. :)

Now, I decided I wanted to do a giveaway related to being a better you. What can you do to be healthier? I am going to give away a $30 gift card to a place of the winner's choice. The winner just needs to choose something that will help them be healthier. It could be to Whole Foods, Trader Joes, or maybe Academy. Maybe even Amazon if there is a book or fitness item they have been wanting.

Enter the giveaway and start thinking about how you can be a better, healthier you in time for summer.

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I am here to join up to Jessica's Workshop Wednesday (on Thursday morning). I love that the idea for this week is on Writing Workshop mini-lessons.

I really enjoy teaching writing and watching my students blossom as writers. It is hard to pick one favorite lesson idea.

First, I will share a couple of my favorite resources for teaching writing. One is www.readwritethink.org. My students all have laptops so we have used the interactive graphic organizers a ton this year. They have really enjoyed them and responded well to them. My second favorite resource is www.writingfix.com. There are many lessons on this website with free printables and mentor texts. When I first started teaching, some of my best lesson inspirations came from here.

Now, my favorite writing topic to teach is probably Point of View. Point of View is a skill that students need to understand in Reading, Writing, and History. I have found it to be a key skill to unlock creativity and higher-order thinking. I usually introduce the topic of point of view early in the year with mentor text The Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume. The book shows the point of view of both a brother and sister and how they view each other. It is a cute text and something many kids can relate to. I think this text could also pair well with My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother by Patricia Polacco (since the CCSS put so much emphasis on comparing and contrasting).

After we talk about Point of View, I introduce the writing strategy RAFT. I love using RAFT. RAFT stands for Role, Audience, Format, and Topic. For a lot of our writing assignments, I have my students think about the role they are writing from (point of view), who their audience is (author's purpose), the format (letter, journal, essay, story, etc.), and the topic. Often you make 2-3 of these aspects mandatory and give them options for 1-2 of the others.

I have found using RAFT a fabulous way to incorporate writing into Science and Social Studies as well. We have done a lot of assignments where we have written from the point of view of historical figures. Point of View helps students make connections to people in History or characters in books or even think about how friends or family members feel. While studying light in Science, my students had to write from the point of view of a shadow.

In November for Thanksgiving, we do the persuasive writing from the point of view of the turkey who does not want to be eaten. We studied Point of View when we studied and wrote fractured fairy tales.

How do you teach Point of View? I will be back later to share my text suggestion for integrating the Common Core Standards in the Content Areas.

Don't forget to enter my Be a Better You Giveaway. I am giving away a $30 gift card to a store of the winner's choice in order to be a "healthier, better you" for summer.

My new weekly series is called Common Core in the Content Areas. Eventually if people show enough interest I think it would make a great linky.

Jessica at Ideas by Jivey was kind enough to help create a great blog button for the series.

Since it ties into Science, I am also going to link up with Collaboration Cuties' Must Read Mentor Texts since I am offering book suggestions for Science.

This week I am going to share some ideas on studying Biomes. I decided I wanted to do an end of the year project to incorporate Science and Social Studies as well as Reading and Writing. I have tried to incorporate a lot more Nonfiction this year, but I felt that the Informational Text Common Core Standards are the ones I really want to review at the end of the year. Informational Text is much harder for students to read because they have to be much more active readers. I decided that a project on biomes would be a great way to tie up the year. With tomorrow being Earth Day it is also a great time to begin our discussion of biomes. I am going to be stalking all the blogs I follow and Pinterest for some cute Earth Day freebies to tie in tomorrow.

We introduced biomes last week with a Discovery Education video to preview all of the biomes. Then, the students had to choose a biome they wanted to learn more about. I asked all of them to check out at least 2 books at the library on their biome to bring to class tomorrow. We are going to practice all of the Reading Informational Text Standards over the next several weeks while they read/learn about the plants, animals, climate, etc. of their biome. I have been looking for some cute books that would also make great read alouds over the next couple weeks. The students will be reading Nonfiction independently, but I will probably choose some other texts for read alouds.

I found a unit on TpT that is going to make a great starting point for our research. Today I just need to finish my informational text graphic organizers and plan for the unit. (Every weekend I plan on getting so much accomplished but in my effort to be eat better, exercise more, and be more balanced I have found I have less time at home for blogging, grading, planning, and creating products.) The biome unit is by Tanye Rae Designs.

The unit has some great research organizers, handouts, and even book suggestions for each biome. After going through the library, here are some books I found on biomes, ecosystems, and habitats. I am going to have my students research the plants, animals, climate, and the various plant and animal adaptations for these biomes. We also probably talk about food chains during this unit.

Last week, we started reading What is a Biome? by Bobbie Kalman. It is a great overview book. I would say it is probably more effective read independently or in small groups than whole group. We are going to read it in small chunks. (I found the Discovery Education video a more engaging preview to the unit.) It will make a good book to do mini-lessons on reading informational text though as I have them practice different reading skills over the next couple weeks.

You can never go wrong with Magic School Bus. I found a couple of Magic School Bus books related to Biomes. The kids always enjoy the videos more but the books are great as read aloud. To talk about animal habitats and ecosystems, there is The Magic School Bus Explores the World of Animals.

To talk about Food Chains, there is The Magic School Bus Gets Eaten.

I found a cute book called Crinkleroot's Guide to knowing Animal Habitats. An old man is your guide and leads you through ways to find animals in different habitats. There is a whole Crinkleroot series of books.

I always love searching through the Graphic Novels in the kid's section for ideas as well. I found
A Journey into Adaptation with Max Axiom. We will read this when we talk about adaptation.

If you go look in the Junior Nonfiction section at your library under 577 and 578, you can find a ton of nonfiction books on each of the biomes. These are the books we will use for their independent research. As we get started, I will share more of my ideas and finds on studying biomes. Do you have any fun books or lessons you use when studying biomes, food chains, ecosystems, habitats, or plant and animal adaptations?

Don't forget about my Be a Better You Giveaway. You can earn a $30 gift card to a store of your choice to get healthier for summer.

I was looking for some ideas for Earth Day. While linking up my biomes book suggestions at Collaboration Cuties, I saw this suggestion to read Dear Children of the Earth by Schim Schimmel at The Balanced Classroom.

I had picked up this book at the library when I was searching for books on biomes and looking for possible read alouds. I decided after Tammi's post that this would make the perfect read for Earth Day. It has beautiful illustrations and is written from the point of view of Mother Earth.

Today we will read the book, discuss the theme, answer some questions, and then my students will write their own letters from the point of view of an animal or plant on Earth. They will have to choose what message they want to deliver. Click here for your own freebie copy of the activities.

So the last two nights have been super busy, and I have been really tired by the time I finally stop moving. Exercising and eating better is great, but boy is it time consuming.

I wanted to link up with Holly's Tried It Tuesday and Technology Tailgate's Techie Tuesday on Tuesday. (Now, it is Thursday night.)

My students use laptops on and off all day long, and many of them are working at different paces. Helping everyone get organized has been a constant struggle. I have tried so many ways to help them keep up with when things are due and what is missing. We tried paper planners, which I could not get most of them to actually consistently fill out. I tried making different chart templates that they would fill out (but it was already partially filled out for them). This worked better for some of them.

I have been researching online student planners. I looked at quite a few, but most of them seemed more appropriate for high school or college students. They seemed a little more involved than what I needed for my 4th and 5th graders. I also wanted a tool that would allow me to send them assignments and due dates. I remembered from some Facebook posts people mentioning that Edmodo had a planner type application. I had signed up for Edmodo ages ago, but I had never done anything with it. Edmodo has all sorts of applications and uses, but it does have a planner application.

I decided to try it just for the planner part. We have been using it this week, and so far I love it. I can input assignments and due dates. They can upload assignments directly to Edmodo to turn them in. They also can add their own tasks to the calendar to keep up with when they are due.

(See, if you look at the planner I meant to blog on Tuesday.) One of my other favorite features is that I can set up different classes and within the classes I can setup small groups. I am doing three different book clubs (literature circles) right now, so I created small groups based on the Book Clubs. I can add different assignments for each book club, so not everyone in class necessarily sees the same assignments due on their calendar. As they finish assignments, they turn them in. For tasks they add themselves, they check the box when they finish them.

We are still new to using it, but so far it seems to be working better than the other paper type planners I have tried. I know Edmodo has all sorts of features and eventually it will be fun to test them out, but for now I am just excited about an online planner that was easy to setup and use.

So far my students all updated their profiles on their own and are sending class messages to each other with things like "If you were a super dog, what super powers would you have?" Do you use Edmodo? What are your favorite applications for it?

In my effort to get healthier before summer, I am having a Be a Better You Giveaway. It ends tomorrow, so I hope you will enter. You can earn a $30 gift card to a store of your choice to get healthier.

I will be back later for a more informative post. I took this weekend to just get some rest and enjoy the nice weather. I wanted to announce the winner of my Be a Better You Giveaway. The winner is Jen Ormsbee. Congrats on winning the $30 gift card to a store of your choice to be healthier. I will be emailing you.

Today is Tuesday, which means it is time to link up with Techie Tuesday and Tried It Tuesday.

We have been studying biomes. I have been loving loving this unit! My students are reading nonfiction books on biomes and practicing the different nonfiction Common Core Standards for Informational Text while reading. It has been a great end of the year project and fabulous interdisciplinary unit.

I decided I also wanted to try a webquest with my students. I decided to create my own. We have been working on it the last few days for Science, and it has been really fun to watch them engaged in student-centered learning, practicing reading and note-taking skills, as well as being creative. We used the Biomes of the World website for our research. They had to take notes on each of the biomes and then come up with their own idea for a zoo to represent all of the biomes. They will then create a brochure for their zoo and a map of their zoo. We are done with the web research and still working on the zoo projects. (I will show you pictures of the maps and brochures when we are done).

You can get a copy of the webquest here.

You can get a copy of the notes form I made here. There is a note page for each biome.

Here was a post from about a week ago from Technology Rocks Seriously with lots of different online games for kids to learn about animal habitats. I plan on checking them out to have my students try some of them.

Have you used webquests? This was my first time to make one, and I have really enjoyed watching my students work on this project.

I realize I have not posted in a week. I came down with a cold last Tuesday night, and since then it has taken all my energy to get through a work day and then go home and nap. I also slept the entire weekend. Apparently, this cold told me I needed rest. I am ready to get back into my workout routine and even get back to blogging, etc.

I guess for this week, I am going to say my Tried It Tuesday is a thematic unit. We have been studying biomes in Science and English the last couple weeks, and so far it has been one of my favorite things we have done all year. We have used lessons from Science, we have done a webquest, we have done projects, and we have done a lot of reading nonfiction. I have been creating handouts to review all of the nonfiction Common Core Reading Standards while they read their book. We will do a major informational report next week after all of their research and reading for some more writing. (Hopefully in the next couple days I will have a whole Biome research unit to post in my TpT store. I am almost done with it.) After this, we will spend the last couple weeks of school immersed in Westward Expansion. I found it was too hard to do the Westward Expansion and Biome activities, so I decided to just focus on each for a couple weeks.

This is our last week of studying biomes. It really has been a fun unit. I have loved watching my students practice their nonfiction reading skills, research skills, and the creativity they have shown.
For their final project on the unit, I gave them a menu of options. Their projects are due next Monday. One of my students made a commercial for his biome (the temperate Deciduous forest) using iMovie. You can click here to view the video. One of my goals this summer is to play with iMovie and Garage Band more to think of fun ways to use them next year.

Yesterday, we were talking about adaptations. They spent some time reading their nonfiction biome books and looking for at least 5 plants with descriptions of the plant and the adaptations. They had to make a 2 column chart. You can see a picture of mine below. I usually try and do some of the same assignments they are doing. I am reading about Grasslands and Prairies.

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Then, we watched the Magic School Bus episode "All Dried Up." The episode talks about adaptations and conditions in the desert. In the episode, Arnold who is usually terrified of field trips is prepared for once. He has created a field trip survival guide and survival kit. I thought this was an awesome idea and felt totally inspired. Here is a copy of the episode:

My students are still reading and taking notes in their books about adaptations. Tomorrow they are reading about animal adaptations. They will be creating their own field trip survival guides for their biome (just like Arnold did in the Magic School Bus episode). I made a little booklet for them to fill out. You can get a copy here.

Arnold made one for the desert, but each student will make their own guide for the biome they have been studying.

Today the students had to make a habitat for a polar bear that lives in a zoo in Arizona. They had to create a model of their habitat and write a paragraph about it. They had the option of drawing it, designing it on the computer, or trying to make it 3D. Most of them opted to make it out of paper. This is one of my favorite student made polar bear habitats:

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Make sure you check out Holly's 500 Follower Giveaway. There are so many prizes, I got tired reading them all! I am contributing $15 to my TpT store.

Like everybody else, my TpT store is on sale for 20% off today and tomorrow. If you enter the code, TAD13, you can save up to 28% off. What are your favorite thematic units for upper grades?

Just for fun I realized today is my 200th post. Have you ever had one of those days that would have been stressful if so much of it wasn't just funny? That was my day... It did end with happy hour though.

I still need to have my students do something for Mother's Day. One of my favorite lessons I have done for Mother's Day is from www.writingfix.com. The lesson is to write poems modeled after the book I Love You the Purplest. You can read the lesson, download handouts, and also download student samples for the lesson here. Students write a poem about their moms using color to describe them and what they associate with that color.

Sabra had a cute suggestion to make word clouds for moms and then mount them on scrapbook paper. We are definitely going to do this. We will also make cards. I am going to give them a large envelope to put their word cloud, poem, and card in. They can decorate the envelope.

I have a freebie in my store to make Mother's Day coupons, awards, and cards. I usually have my students write their moms a thank you letter.

Today is also Workshop Wednesday. The topic is how to motivate your students to write. Here are a few things I have found to be pretty successful.

1) Allow students to type when possible - Many of my students have been more successful typing than when they have to handwrite. (We do still handwrite though as well).

2) Give students choice - I love love RAFT (Role Audience Format Topic). It is a fabulous way to get kids writing, use higher order thinking, and allow for structured choice.

3) Model your thinking - I have mentioned this before, but I have seen more growth from my students when I model my own writing than even just through using mentor texts. Students like knowing that you write, too. It helps to see how writing really works.

4) Choose random points of view - My students get so excited about writing from the point of view of small animals or random objects. Why be a pilgrim on the Mayflower when you could be a rat on the Mayflower observing everything? Why not describe light from the point of view of a shadow? Why not describe the setting of a book from an object located in the setting?

5) Allow students to write with a partner - My students love writing together or swapping journals and finishing each other's stories. I have a couple students who have decided to start a daily comic together (that actually gets made like a couple days every other week, but they enjoy it).

These are the things that come to mind most when I try to remember what motivates my students to write. I am off now to see if I can find some scrapbook paper and envelopes for Mother's Day projects.

So...I have not blogged in almost 3 weeks. I apologize for the absence. I had been in a great routine in the month of April. I was eating great, exercising like 5 days a week, blogging, etc. Then, I got sick and the routine got thrown off. Yeah, then I just realized I was tired and had been running on empty.

In the month of May, I have slept and read a lot and just tried to push through to the end of the year. The weekend before last I had a great time with my Big Sister from Big Brothers Big Sisters. We celebrated our 17 year anniversary since we got matched. She has been an amazing part of my life since I was 12. (It really is a fabulous organization that changes lives.) We had a lot of fun in Fredericksburg. We shopped at the trade days and visited some wineries. I bought a dresser for $85! It looks great in my dining room with my farm table (that I love).

Memorial Day Weekend was very relaxing. I got to go to the Taylor Swift concert. She is really amazing, but I felt like other than the moms of Tweens I was the oldest person there. I visited with the in-laws some and slept a lot. The house got cleaned, and I read about 4 books this weekend. I kept thinking about blogging or grading, but then went back to reading.

I also spent a lot of time in May trying to get all of my application requirements in to apply for a PhD program in Educational Psychology. I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was hilarious.

I found out last Thursday that I have been admitted to a PhD program in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in Gifted and Talented Education at the University of North Texas. I start in the Fall for sure, but I hope to even take a class or two this summer. I will still be teaching and just working on my PhD part-time. I am excited to see how my classes and research inspire my teaching and blog posts. So stay tuned - I promise I really do blog regularly.

Following our thematic unit on biomes, we spent the last couple weeks of school focusing on Westward Expansion. As the last couple weeks are always hectic and filled with last minute items we forgot to do, I did not have as much time with this unit as I wanted. I wanted to have them do a web quest on different locations on the Oregon Trail and write a journal as a pioneer moving west. The other thing I really wanted to do was one more read aloud.

While reviewing the novel units earlier this year at www.readworks.org, I came across a book called Riding Freedom by Pam Munoz Ryan.

It sounded like a great book and since Readworks already had a free novel unit to go with it I thought it would be perfect. The novel is an easy read that is only about a 127 pages. It would be perfect to read with grades 3-5 as the chapters are short (which also makes for a great read aloud). The book is about Charley Parkhurst, who was an orphan girl who disguises herself as a boy to become a stagecoach driver. The historical fiction novel is based on a real story. As the Gold Rush commences, Charley moves West with some other stagecoach drivers to find opportunity. She ends up losing an eye in an accident and still is able to drive a stagecoach with one eye. She disguised herself as a man most of her life and built a reputation as one of the best stagecoach drivers in California. She was the first woman to vote in California (even though she really voted under the pretense of a man.)

In order to integrate this book with Common Core, you could compare settings in the novel, you could discuss theme, you could look at Charley's development throughout the novel, and you could also discuss point of view in the novel. Readworks does a great job with their novel units of emphasizing the CCSS. You could choose to write an informative essay about the life of Charley Parkhurst or stagecoach drivers. Students could write a persuasive essay about whether or not women in the West should get the right to vote. They could write their own narrative inspired by the story.

Another great book on Charley to pair with Riding Freedom is Rough, Tough Charley by Verla Kay. This biographical picture book includes the story of Charley's life but is told in poetic verse.

This would be a great book to pair because you could discuss any differences in details about her life between the two. You could also compare and contrast the portrayal of Charley. Rough, Tough Charley would be a fabulous book to discuss narrative poetry. I love the idea of even having students write a biographical poem of a historical figure.

I hope you are having a great start to summer. I look forward to being able to get back into a blogging routine now that the end of the school year is over.

So one of my goals this summer is to finish all of the products that I started this year and only finished about 50-70% of the way through. One of the units I really enjoyed this year was studying Fractured Fairy Tales. Fractured Fairy Tales are such a fun way to challenge students to think creatively and practice all of their comprehension skills. There are so many ways you can use Fractured Fairy Tales to meet the CCSS. Here is a link to a post I did earlier in the year on Fractured Fairy Tales with a freebie story map for fractured fairy tales.

Today I have a couple text suggestions for you for doing Fractured Fairy Tales with Little Red Riding Hood. Aaron Frisch has written a new book called The Girl in Red with illustrations by Roberto Innocenti.

The Girl in Red is a new version of Little Red Riding Hood that takes place in modern day in a large urban city. The illustrations are beautiful, but have a dark undertone. I would use this picture book with either grades 4-5 or even Middle School. I actually think this would make a fabulous mentor text to use with Middle School or even High School. The way the illustrations are drawn it alsmost reminds of me of graphic novels. You could have your students make a graphic novel version of a fractured fairy tale.

If you haven't really explored the Common Core Exemplar Texts, there are some fabulous texts on there. You can click here to get a copy of the Appendix B from Common Core State Standards website.

One of the Common Core Exemplar Texts for Grades 4-5 is Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf by Roald Dahl. In this narrative poem version of Little Red Riding Hood the little girl shoots the wolf at the end. This poem would also open the door to getting your students to explore the idea of writing a poetic version of a fairy tale. I read this poem with my students this year and they loved it. I had wanted to use the poem again but never got around to it. The poem comes from Roald Dahl's book Revolting Rhymes, which are all somewhat naughty versions of fairy tales.

After Revolting Rhymes was written, some short videos were made of the poems. You can find them on Youtube. Here is the video for "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf."

Dahl also has another book called Vile Verses.

I would look through the books carefully before handing them out to your students. Some of the fractured fairy tale poems in the books probably are not the most appropriate choices for lower grades, but there really are some great fractured fairy tales with a lot of humor. Both of these books would be great sources of text for Grades 5-8 for a unit on Fractured Fairy Tales.

Another great text source for a unit on fractured fairy tales is the book Newfangled Fairy Tales by Bruce Lansky.

Hope you have a great weekend!

I have been trying to sit down and write a blog post for 2 days. Tuesday was my husband's birthday and yesterday we had dinner with out-of-town family. On top of that I am trying to balance work this summer (I'm working all summer reviewing curriculum and doing summer school), working out every day, and my first class for my Doctoral program. This first summer session I am taking the introductory statistics class. Luckily so far, I have found it really easy. I am trying to sit down and make a list of what products for my store I want to finish this summer and a list of some blog post series. Many of my posts will probably focus on incorporating the Common Core skills into the Content Areas. I also want to start gathering lesson ideas for the Common Core Writing and Language Standards.

One of the skills my students have always struggled with when doing Narrative writing whether they were Middle School or Elementary students is how to use dialogue. When using dialogue, students have to consider rules of punctuation, characterization, and paragraphing. Using dialogue correctly is a higher level writing skill. (Using dialogue falls under CCSS Writing Standard 3 (Narrative Writing) part B at most of the grade levels.

This year I would like to spend a little more time on how to use dialogue. Thus, I decided to search Pinterest and the internet for ideas on teaching dialogue.

Writing Fix has a couple lessons on dialogue. Here are some links:

http://writingfix.com/right_brain/Serendipitous_Dialogue_Scene1.htm

http://www.writingfix.com/Picture_Book_Prompts/GoodDogCarl3.htm

http://writingfix.com/Chapter_Book_Prompts/TomSwift3.htm

http://www.writingfix.com/Picture_Book_Prompts/webfiles3.htm

The last lesson is the one I wanted to use with my student's this year as a review of dialogue and I ran out of time. It uses the book The Web Files.

We did a unit on mysteries, so I thought this would be a cute lesson to incorporate with mysteries. They write a dialogue to describe the facts of a crime (sort of like the old show Dragnet.)

...So, now I return to this post several hours later after bootcamp, walking the dog, dinner, and a shower. When I find a ton of great resources, they tend to turn into really long posts and take forever to write. Sometimes there are so many great things to share. So I think I am going to have to sometimes split a topic over a couple days so I can share lots of things with you without the post getting way too long.

If you have followed me for awhile, you know I love all things Read Write Think. Here are a couple links to some lessons on dialogue from Read Write Think that look great:

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/choosing-clear-varied-dialogue-291.html

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/character-clash-minilesson-paragraphing-117.html

Last for today, but certainly not least is a freebie on dialogue from Miss Nannini. I can promise you this little unit is getting printed out and put in my Common Core Language Arts binder under dialogue. If you click on the picture below, you can go see her blog post about this freebie.

What are some of your favorite lessons and ideas to teach dialogue? I always like to have students look at their own books they are reading to help them see how dialogue is organized and punctuated. I have always found it resonates with them when they see examples in their own books.

I need to finish my second post on ideas for teaching dialogue. The month of June is already flying by...

Today I was working on making Scopes and Sequences for next year for the different subjects I teach. While looking at our 5th Grade US History curriculum I noticed they covered most of the US History topics and then covered US regions at the end of the year. I understand the logic behind this, but I find having an understanding of the differences of the climate and geography of each region better helps students understand US History and the way people adapted to new environments. I decided we are going to cover the regions at the beginning of the year and then start with the Jamestown and the Colonies after covering the regions. I think we will plan "a road trip across the US" as we study the different regions. Maybe we will make a little "travel scrapbook" or write entries for a pretend travel blog.

Time to teach Social Studies each week is always limited. I also think I like the idea of using an interactive student notebook this year. I tried it some last year, but it did not really work. My students work at different levels and paces so we are not always doing the same thing. I like the idea of interactive student notebooks where they incorporate more visual notetaking and have a creative output to show their learning. I want my students to learn how to take notes and take ownership of it. I think if I take on interactive notebooks I will have to make some templates for them to use and put a detailed guideline of what to do on my class website. I am even playing with the idea of just doing the notebooks in a binder instead of a composition notebook since my students have to work a little more indepedently. I like the idea that in a binder you can move things around if they accidently get put in the wrong spot. I am thinking instead of left/right thinking for inputs and outputs we could just do like front and back of the page.

When studying the US regions, I also like to touch on the Native Americans of each region so students can understand that often many of the differences in various tribes was largely to do with the climate and natural resources of where they lived. I decided that while we are studying the regions in Social Studies, we will complete a unit in Language Arts on Native Americans. My plan is to have us read either Native Americans myths, legends, fiction, or nonfiction each week to go with whatever region we are discussing.

Then I spent a lot of time today doing research on lessons on Native Americans, projects, and book lists of Children's Literature about Native Americans. The other day I read Hiedi Raki's post about how she used Livebinders to create student portfolios. It reminded me I had not used Livebinders in a few months. I have found Livebinders to be a fabulous way to collect research on different units I want to plan. Today I made a Livebinder for a Native American unit. You can see my livebinder below. I am going to make a Livebinder for each major unit I plan to teach with collections of sites and ideas I come across in my research. Here is the link to my livebinder.

What are some of your favorite books to use when teaching about the Native Americans? Do you have a favorite way you like to organize your approach to teaching US History?

Classroom Economy as Classroom Management

Modeling Writing with Persuasive Letters

Tried it Tuesday: Readworks Novel Units

Workshop Wednesday: Math websites

Mentor Text for Metaphor: Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge

Common Core in the Content Areas: You Wouldn't Want to Be an American Pioneer

Be a Better You Giveaway

Workshop Wednesday: Point of View

Common Core in the Content Areas: Biomes and Habitats

Dear Children of the Earth Freebies

Online Student Planner through Edmodo

Be a Better You Giveaway Winner

Biomes of the World Webquest Freebie

Biomes, Adaptations, and the Magic School Bus. Oh, my!

Mother's Day and Writing Motivation

Slept, Read, Shopped, and Got Accepted

Common Core in the Content Areas: Charley the Female Stagecoach Driver

Fractured Fairy Tales: Text Suggestions for Little Red Riding Hood

Common Core Writing Lesson Ideas: Using Dialogue

Planning How to Logically Teach 5th Grade US History