St. Patrick's Day fun activities

Here are some things we've been doing this March to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Click the links or images to go to my TPT store.

St. Patrick's Day Lucky Opinion Writing

St. Patrick's Day Math coloring pages

St. Patrick's Day Rich Opinion Writing

Dolch Rainbow Sight Words Pack

                          
                        

Check out my old post for some more fun St. Patrick's Day ideas!

Growth Mindset

Early on in the school year, we learn about Growth Mindset. It's based on a concept / book by Carol Dweck, and it has been adapted to apply to classrooms. Students are taught that effort and hard work are more important than thinking some people are naturally born "smart". The focus is on the journey of learning and growth vs the end product and a number grade.

Click on the image or grab this freebie over in my TPT store! Please leave a rating. :)

We read My Fantastic Elastic Brain as well as some of the following books, some of which were part of a funded Donors Choose project on Social Stories:

Your Fantastic Elastic Brain: Stretch It, Shape It

 

Thanks for the Feedback, I Think (Best Me I Can Be!) by Julia Cook

I Can Do Hard Things: Mindful Affirmations for Kids by Gabi Garcia

I Won't Give Up (Persistence Project) (Volume 2) by Daniel Kenney

There are so many cool resources out there on Teachers Pay Teachers!

Click here to find other Class Dojo videos on Growth Mindset!

What challenges or successes have you had with your students?

Can you recommend any other resources?

Reading-Rewards reading log

Do you struggle with getting your students to read? Or do they read, but not log their reading? Do their reading logs never get signed or mysteriously vanish? Do your students magically need to run to the bathroom when you try to check their reading logs? I have the solution for you-Reading-Rewards!

Here is a video I created to teach students how to log their reading.

Students are really motivated for a few reasons. 

1. They can choose and change their avatar.

2. They earn badges and RR miles.

3. It is a social thing. Others can see what they are logging, or not logging.

4. Because they can see what other classmates are reading, they often want to read those books, too.

5. They know they are going to be held accountable. Believe it or not, they like this in fourth grade.

Check out some of my (free) rewards they can choose from. This year, they are all about sitting with a friend and reading to another teacher's class. Previous classes really loved to sit at the teacher's desk, have lunch with the teacher, and to be teacher for a day.

Here is a rubric I created. Students get a monthly reading homework grade. I actually give students a copy of the school calendar and have them color in the days they logged. Then they look at their online log to give themselves a grade. They also keep a copy of the rubric stapled into their homework folder.

What do you think? Are you willing to try it out with your class? 

Do you already use Reading-Rewards or do you have another system?

Intermediate Roll and Write

Are you or your students out of ideas for writing? This product is just the thing for your class!

Students roll dice to determine what to write. Avoid the problem of taking forever to brainstorm by having students roll dice and select writing elements according to these charts. Options are included for both fiction and non-fiction writing. 

They are general enough to provide choice and creativity, but specific enough to point students in the right direction.

Click the link below to download and be sure to leave a comment either here or on Teachers Pay Teachers after you use it. I'd love to see how creative your students get!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Intermediate-Grades-Roll-and-Write-4401536

Black History Month: Compare and Contrast MLK and Nelson Mandela

In honor of Black History Month and reading My Brother Martin and Me by Christine King Farris (Martin's sister) in our fourth grade Journeys book, we decided to compare and contrast Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela. 

My class is a 1:1 Chromebook class, so we did this assignment together as a class on Google Docs. 

If you purchase this item on TPT, you can easily copy and paste from the PDF into Google Docs.

If you haven't used Google Docs as a class, I suggest going over a procedure for erasure. If someone accidentally deletes the graphic organizer, we all stop immediately and take hands off the keyboards until the mistake can be fixed by the person who deleted or until the previous version can be restored.

The great thing about this lesson is that I have adapted it for you so that it can be used in whole or in parts, independently or in small or whole groups. This would even be great if you homeschool! Rubrics are included for different expectations. You also don't have to search for resources to make sure they are appropriate since I've included links for you!

See more pages and download this resource in my TPT store.

We also watched his I Have a Dream speech 

and made this beautiful dove bulletin board. 

Students wrote ways they will and already do use peaceful, powerful words.

Who else would you like to see included in another compare and contrast project?

Black History Month: The Harlem Renaissance

My students and I just read Me and Uncle Romie by Claire Hartfield in our Journeys book. It's a fictional story written from the first-person point-of-view of James, who was a nephew of real-life deceased artist Romare Bearden.

 They almost immediately recognized the illustrations as being familiar because we recently finished reading a poetry book called My Man Blue from our Making Meaning / Collaborative Literacy Pilot. Both books were illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue.

These books were perfect for lightly touching upon segregation and discrimination while teaching kids about friendship, family, and life in New York City / Harlem. 

Click here or on the image above to download my character trait inferencing form.

I also paired Me and Uncle Romie with Students made text-to-text connections with My Hands Sing the Blues: Romare Bearden's Childhood Journey, which is written as a form of poetry like My Man Blue.

Check out some of Romare's artwork on the Romare Bearden Foundation website. Make sure to preview images of his art before showing students! One neat project we didn't get to do just yet was collage art. Hopefully we will have some time soon!

Oliver K. Woodman Letter Writing Project

In third grade, we read The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman by Darcy Pattison.

A fun extension we did was to write letters to friends and family across the U.S., North America, and all around the world. We asked them to send us a letter or email back tell us what they did with Oliver.

 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Oliver-K-Woodman-Letter-Writing-Project-4401747

We posted mini Olivers on a map with their location so that we could learn more about geography and landmarks.

It was a blast! If you want to join in, here is a link to our letter as well as a map and printable Oliver you can mail out to others.

Here are some other cool resources we used to track Oliver's journey in the book, plus a neat video of the book in case you don't have it.

Check out my other Oliver K. Woodman post!