Activ(e) Classrooms!

Do you have a Promethean Board...or wish you did? If you've got one or you're making the case for your school to buy them, check this video out!!!

And if you haven't heard of Ron Clark or the Ron Clark Academy, check them out!!!

Yonder Mountain: A Cherokee Legend

This week's story is a Native American Legend.

My students were super excited to know that I have ancestors of Cherokee heritage. In fact, the town of Bono, Ohio is named after them! I had heard something about it as a child, but it wasn't until did a Google News Archive Search of the Toledo Blade (where most of my mother's extended family still lives) that I found more information.

Here is a very small part of my family tree:

Francis Bunno (Cherokee Chief)

His son's obituary:

Here are the articles I found: 

Cherokee People video

Cherokee Indian Powwow

Native American Indian Cherokee War Dance

Here is a video made by a modern Cherokee Indian in Ohio. Notice how "Americanized" they look.

New Jersey was once home to the Lenni Lenape tribe. On special days, Waterloo Village is open to the public for field trips. Get more information here.

For more Journeys blog posts, click here.

For more Journeys resources, check out my class website.

For information on how to create a family tree, click here.

Time Management

 This website is perfect for keeping students on task and teaching them to manage time...just as long as they concentrate on their work and not too much on the clock! We use them during timed math computation quizzes and to budget prewriting time before writing a first draft, plus parents use it at home to help students to do their homework more quickly. It can be used on a cell phone or iPod too!

Check out Onlinestopwatch.com! Here are just a few options:

Check out my class website for more websites!

Multiplication Madness

 Here are just a few things we've been doing to practice our multiplication facts.

Playing hopscotch with multiples

(click here to download the Google Doc)


 Using Bingo Markers to create arrays

Using poker chips to create arrays

 Using coins to create arrays

 Using Unifix cubes to create arrays

Multiplying numbers on playing cards ( 2 x 5 = 10)

Multiplying numbers on dice (2 x 5 = 10)

Multiplying coins (2 coins x 5 cents = 10 cents)

Our fifth graders made these adorable factor trees in December.

Check out other math posts (especially the famous "Nine Trick") here!

Check out my class website for more math resources.

Journeys Lesson 11 - Jump / Black Athletes

Our Journeys Reading story for Lesson 11, Jump! From the Life of Michael Jordan by Floyd Cooper, required us to write a descriptive paragraph about our favorite athlete. I challenged students to write about an African American athlete for a few reasons.

1) The teacher-dork in me loves alliterative bulletin boards...have you noticed?
2) It will be perfect for our February bulletin boards.
3) February is Black History Month.
4) Michael Jordan is a black athlete.

Others who were in our guided reading books or Projectables. include:

• Tiger Woods
• Hank Aaron
• Wilma Rudolph
• Jackie Robinson 
• Roberto Clemente

Other black athletes we didn't read about but knew about:

• Lebron James (basketball)
• Muhammad Ali (boxing)
• Leila Ali (boxing)
• Dwayne Wade (basketball)
• Venus and Serena Williams (tennis)
• Dominique Dawes (gymnastics)
• Derek Jeter (baseball)
• Alex Rodriguez (baseball)
• Pele (soccer)
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee (track and field)
• Florence Griffith-Joyner (track and field)
• Althea Gibson (tennis)
• Lisa Leslie (basketball)
• Sheryl Swoopes (basketball)

Of course, I also allowed them to write about other athletes, who were also in our reading, especially ones such as:

• Michele Kwan,
• Jim Thorpe
• Babe Ruth
• Mia Hamm
• Nomar Garciaparra

We created this anchor chart to show what we learned when we analyze the author's craft in Jump.

One of my students found this book in our library:



If you'd like to do the project but don't have our reading program, check out these links!

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/340194-black-history-month-top-10-greatest-black-athletes

African American Athletes book

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