Christmas Cards in January

(I swear I should make a resolution to try to update this blog more frequently!  Geez!  It seems like life just gets busier and busier instead of slowing down. So I apologize for the infrequent, random posts)

Looking for something to do with all those Christmas cards in January?  I have a project for you.  I should say that this project gets harder and harder each year due to all the photo cards we now receive, but thanks to my mother-on-law, it lives to see another year.  We started back to school after break on a  Thursday (ugh), I wasn't feeling the whole jump right back in where we left off thing, that is what Monday is for, so I thought of a few creative things we could do to get through these 2 days.  I started by tearing the fronts off of Christmas cards that have pretty winter scenes or pictures that my students can copy.  Then, each student picks a card and glues it to a piece of white construction paper.  This is where the "work" comes in.  They are to continue the picture onto the paper as if the card never ended.  For some of them the card they picked was really easy and lent itself to a continuation with no problem, that is good for the kids that don't really like to draw that much.  Others take a little more talent and is perfect for the super artsy kid that loves to draw.  The whole ideas is that you can't tell where the card stops and the paper starts.  Tricky, yes, impossible, nah! They love to do this project and you can always hear a pin drop when they are working.  I make them use colored pencils or crayons because they look better (not to mention I despise markers).  Once they finished, I had them write a story about what was going on in their scene.  They used a story map to write a rough draft then wrote their story which I will proofread, they will do a final copy and then hopefully I can hang them side by side in the hall!   It is a lot of fun and a good way to incorporate some writing into art and ease us back into the school routine. 

FYI - Typed this blog weeks ago but for some reason was just now able to add the pictures, sheesh, computers!

The child that did this picture wrote the most heartwarming story about a hunter that came across this deer and thought it was so beautiful he just couldn't shoot it so he just stood there and watched.  Very sweet.

Road to the Revolution

One of my favorite things to teach in the fifth grade curriculum is the Revolutionary War, one of my least favorite ways to teach is to read out of a textbook and answer questions.  I understand that it sometimes has to be done, but I try to keep that kind of teaching to a minimum. 

It was time to learn about the causes of the revolution.  I think that is almost as important as the actual war itself, which is why it boggles my mind why our textbook puts them all in one chapter (about 3 pages).  I decided to spin an idea I saw on Pinterest here.  I had them sit in groups on the floor around a piece of butcher paper.  They put a heading on the paper and divided it up into 6 sections.  I then read and discussed the various causes while they all wrote notes (they had their books to use if I was going too fast).  They were each to write their own notes, even if someone else was writing the same thing.  The end result was a bunch of notes on each cause of the war.  They then had time to decorate their posters with pictures.  I was able to get through all the main causes and discuss them with them and they really learned a lot.  It took about an hour but well worth it.  I plan on using their posters to write a few questions to use as a quiz to check their learning. The next step will be for them to make their own individual timelines. 

Greek and Latin Roots and Magazines

Long time no post, huh.  Geez.  To be honest, life got busy and I just kind of forgot about the blog.  I hope to get back to regular postings, especially now that state assessments are over.  Anyway, onto roots.  This was not my idea but I am totally stealing it.  Our middle school Language Arts teacher is awesome and she came up with the coolest idea for the kids to practice their Greek and Latin Roots.  She had them use magazines to cut out pictures that "illustrated" the different words.  They worked in groups of 3-4 and came up with awesome posters that hung in the hall. 

 In case you can't see it, they used the word "semi-circle" for the pie and "pedestrian" for the person walking.

So cool!

Who's Who?

I love to display student's work in the hall but I always seem to have one silly problem, no one can seem to find their own paper, there are papers without names or everyone puts their names in different places on a paper.  I tried something new this year, I used word art on a word document and created an outlined header of each student's name that they then decorated.  Then I glued them to the top of a piece of construction, laminated it and attached clothespins to each paper.  Voila, the students now can hang their work on their own paper and everyone knows whose paper belongs to who.  The kids love it because they always know where there paper is hanging and it is clean, eye-catching and different and I like that!

Cell Phone Book Reports

I found this great website adn decided that the cell phone book reports were the perfect culminating activity for the books we read in our Literature Circles this last month of school.  I love when you can purchase an activity that has everything you need from start to finish!  Not to mention the kids LOVED these phones.  They were relatively easy (ask for problem, solution, recommendation, favorite part and a picture), relatively cheap ($4.99 for the download), come with a rubric where the kids grade themselves as well as the the teacher grading, and they look great hanging up.  Take a look! 

 Hanging up in the room.

I think that I will try the gameboard book reports on this same website for next year.

Parts of Speech Books/Powerpoints

The end of the year is fast approaching and it is time for me to be working on some culminating activities and one I have chosen for this year is a review of the parts of speech.  I have done Parts of Speech books in the past and the requirement was simple.  Each student needed to decide on a theme and make their book center around that theme.  Each page in the book had a part of speech, its definition, a sentence with that particular part of speech highlighted that follows the theme and then a picture to go with their sentence.  It was a lot of fun and more importantly it took the kids quite a while to finish, which is always a good thing at the end of the year.  This year I decided that it IS 2011 so instead of making books, they are each making a Powerpoint.  Their requirements were the same except they had to have a title slide and then one slide for each part of speech.  I let them decide on the slide design, font, and clip art.
They started them a couple weeks ago and most of them finished during 3 computer lab sessions (30 minutes each).  I actually had kids that finished start presenting today and will finish up next week.  Perfect for the last week of school!  They should be up on our school's website when they are done.  I will direct you there when that happens. 
Below are some pictures of one of the presentations (obviously this one was a powerpoint about monkeys).

Mother's Day Flowers

I struggle every year with what to have my class do for their mother's for Mother's Day.  It all comes down to 2 things, time and money.  This year, I did not have either so we fell back on my "go to" project for fifth graders (this could probably be done by fourth and maybe third but considering it uses bamboo skewers, I wouldn't go any lower than that).  Here's what they look like:

Here's how you make them:

You will need bamboo skewers (I bought the smaller size at the grocery store, pkg. of 100 for $1.50)
several strips of construction paper cut 1" by 12" (one flower uses 20 strips)
strips of green construction paper cut 2" by 9" (for leaves)
tape
scissors

The first thing you need to do is to put a piece of tape about 2/3 of the way down around the bamboo skewer to keep the strips of paper from sliding off. 

Then, they cut the green strip into a leaf shape and poke the center of the green strip onto the skewer.

After that they use the colored strips.  Starting with the center of the strip, pole it onto the skewer.

Then, grab one end of the strip and poke it on the skewer.

Repeat with the other side.

Then push the petal down being careful not to crease the sides or smoosh (technical word) the other petals. 

Do this with all 20 strips alternating the direction of each petal so that it looks fuller.  Some of my kids didn't use all 20 petals because theirs was already big enough and some needed more because they smooshed too much.  When they are done you will need to add a piece of tape to the top to keep the petals from popping off and then carefully (with a great pair of scissors) snip off the sharp tip of the skewer. 

They look great finished and the kids will have a blast making them.  Most of them finished 2 of them in 30 minutes, but then I have a few that will be working on them for 3 hours.  You know how it goes.  :-)

Oh, I almost forgot, I did give them some ribbon that I had laying around to tie onto the bottom just for fun. 

There you have it.  As always, e-mail me if you have any questions!  Have fun and have a great Mother's Day!