Edmodo Book Club: City of Orphans

 Hello all! I hope that you are all enjoying your breaks and spending time with the ones you love most. I am so happy to be spending some quality time with  my family in my hometown.

After spending the evening trimming the tree my mommy, Grandma and sister (while the boys watched football), I am about to curl up with my new book club selection: City of Orphans.

At our school, we have been using Edmodo as a forum for book clubs.I wrote more about that HERE

 We started off the year by reading Ninth Ward. The kids loved the book and we celebrated with a pizza party before we left for Christmas Break. 

We are now reading City of Orphans by Avi.

I

I've just started the novel but so far it's great. The setting is especially interesting: New York City in the 1890's. 

One of the other teachers at school posted these videos to help our students visualize the setting:

 

Several of the kids have already started reading and discussing online. It makes me happy to see them so excited about reading...even on their break!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas Break!

3 more days....

but who's counting?  :)

I picked up some goodies during the Cyber Monday Sale and I have final had a chance to use them this week.

First up, this fun Christmas Around the World pack form Christina.  

This pack is adorable!! It comes with mini books about the traditions in different countries. I bought the bundled pack which includes a powerpoint for each country as well. I am so glad I found this pack. It saved me so much time and energy since I didn't actually need to do any research myself.

I made some quick reading comp questions to go with these fun little books and a couple of writing prompts so that I can hit a few standards before we leave for the break and review some test taking strategies before the break.Gotta keep my principal happy. And the kids haven't complained about the questions once since they are having so much fun with learning about each country.  Great fun way to practice comprehension skills

We will also be using Larura Candlers's December Activity pack later this week.


I can't wait to make the cute little sugar cone Christmas trees!

On Friday, we will also be making a variation of these little guys:

(SOURCE)

These last three days are going to FLY by! I will be napping by the fire by Friday! Can't wait. :)

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week, too!

Happy ChristmaHanaKwanazaa!

Last week we started gearing up for the winter holidays. As a class we researched Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa. We spent a lot of time reading informational text which is a BIG standard in California for 5th grade and obviously important with Common Core, too! (Getting ready for our school's official switch next year!:) )

Here are some fun resources we used to find out about the history, symbols and traditions of each holiday.

Love, love, love this book! 

I just picked up this book and the photographs are amazing! 

Okay so my kids are a little old for Elmo's world but sometimes he does a better job at explaining things then I can. We watched a clip about Hanukkah from Elmo's holiday special. It really helps to have the students wee children actually celebrating each holiday. 

As we read and researched, the kids practiced taking notes. They looked for connections between the holidays we studies. 

We turned those notes into these quick little foldables.

 Each holiday foldable was divided in to four sections: history, symbols, traditions and  connections to other holidays. 

             

I had originally wanted to add a larger writing component to this mini unit but the week just went by too quickly. Plus, I think the kids really enjoyed being able to show their understanding of the content without having a formal writing assessment.

 How do you teach about different holidays in the classroom? 

Sending thoughts and prayers to CT...

Currently

It's that time again! Time to link up with Farley  for this month's currently. Don't you just love the fun Christmas graphics on this one?!?!?!

My responses are pretty self explanatory this time around. I am finally starting to get into the holiday spirit  I really tried to get into it last week but I couldn't bring myself to pull out the decorations or start my shopping. This weekend that might actually happen! This cold weather is making Christmas feel a little bit closer. Changing the Calendar over to December helps too!

Speaking of December and Christmas....I wanted to share a link to The Family Giving Tree. It is a great organization  Every year our local Wells Fargo partners with them. You can choose a child from the tree in their lobby and purchase presents for them. I know that their are similar charity drives going on through different organizations. I have participated in several similar organizations over the years and I can truly say that purchasing a gift each year is one of my very favorite parts of Christmas.

I hope you all are having a great start to the holiday season! Don't forget to link up! Head on over to Oh Boy Fourth Grade! 

Liebster

It's been awhile since I've blogged. My computer officially died over Thanksgiving break. Boo! SoI've been a little out of lube in the bloggy world. I haven't even been blog stalking...but I"M BACK.

While I was gone I was nominated for the Liebster Award for blogers with 200 followers or less. First of all I wanted to make a quick shout out to my nominators: Heather form Wild Rumpus , Janet from Mrs. D's Firsties, , Marie from Beach Lovin' Teach and Danielle from Classroom Cupcakes! Thank you ladies! If you aren't already following them ...please head over and check out their amazing blogs. 

I was so pleased to be nominated for the Liebster Blog and wanted to share the love, too!  

The rules: 

• You must post 11 random things about yourself.

• Answer the questions that the nominators set for you.

• Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.

• Choose 11 blogs you love (with less than 200 followers) and link them in your post.

• No tag back, (but please leave me a comment on this post with the URL to your Liebster post so that I can learn more about you!)

Random Facts

1.  I have a crazy cat named Maise who steals the magnets off of my fridge.

2. I think about 75% of my wardrobe is from Target.

3. I HATED math as a student but now it is one of my favorite subjects to teach.

4. I have the best grandma in the whole world!

5. Thirfty’s Double Fudge Brownie on a sugar cone will always be my favorite treat.

6. The Real Housewives are a guilty pleasure of mine.

7. …so is US Weekly.

8. I ALWAYS wear flats.

9. I love country music.

10. I heart leopard print.

11. I have a betta fish and Maise is always trying to get him, too. :) 

Questions I was asked by Heather. 

What is your best teaching memory?

Umm…I am drawing a blank. But my favorite memory from this week was reading Island of the Blue Dolphins with my class. One of my reluctant readers was full of questions; “I wonder if Captain Orlov is coming back. If I were Karana I would go with Tutok? What would have happened if Ramo didn’t die at the beginning?”  I think he’s hooked!

What is your worst teaching memory?

One day I was subbing and a student spilled a whole carton of milk onto my foot.My socks and shoes were soaked and by the end of the day I smelled like spoiled milk. Not good.

What made you decide to start a blog?

I loved reading teaching blogs. Being a new-ish teacher, I found teaching blogs to be a huge inspiration!  Eventually I bit the bullet and created my own blog.

What's your favorite season and why?

Summer! I just love everything about it.

Do you have a teaching idol? Who and why?

Mrs. Wray, my fourth grade teacher. She was so fun! I was actually talking to my  friend about her today. We were both in her class 20 years ago!

Do you have any hobbies, and, if so, what's your favorite?

Does blog stalking count? How about eating? If so, I have two hobbies!

Coffee or Tea?

Both! But Chai Tea Lattes are my absolute fav.

Dessert: chocolate or other?

Chocolate. Always chocolate.

Snack: sweet or salty (Can you tell I haven't eaten yet this morning?!)

Both I LOVE good eats!

What were you prior to becoming a teacher?

I was a student… and while I was being a student I was also a nanny, store clerk, restaurant  hostess, after school program worker and camp counselor...gotta pay for school some how!

If you hadn't become a teacher, what would you have been?

Hmmm….that’s a tough one! Maybe something to do with community health or social work, but I really can’t imagine  not teaching.

Questions for my nominees:

1. What is your favorite kids’ book?

2. What is your favorite subject to teach?

3. Chocolate or Vanilla?

4. What school supply can you not live without?

5. Who would play you if they made a movie about your life?

6. What is on your Christmas list this year?

7. What is your favorite holiday tradition?

8. Where would you go on a dream vacation?

9. Dog person, cat person or neither?

10. How would your friends describe you?

11.  How would your students describe you? 

And the nominees are...

Starring in First Grade 

Miss R's Room 

Mr. Michelbook's Classroom 

Middle Grade Maven 

Smiles and Sunshine 

Polka Dots and Teaching Tots 

Seriously Read

Teaching in a Small Town 

Teaching with a Touch of Twang 

Go check 'em out and follow along if you are doing so already! 

Youtube Finds!

I've had a bit of a leisurely day today and spent some time perusing pintrest and youtube. I am so excited about some of my finds so I needed to share! 

These videos are so fun and catchy! 

I actually found this song, "Meet the Elements", last year and showed this years class the video on Wednesday. Since then we've all been singing it! It gets stuck in my head every time I hear it and the same is true for the kids. Hopefully the info gets stuck in my students' their head too! 

This one is perfect for the introducing the Age of Exploration in Social Studies. 

Love this video, too! Great for talking about perspectives on the war. 

These videos are so fun and add an extra level of engagement to the lessons. If youtube is blocked at your school, check out keep vid. I wrote about it in this post. 

If you have a video that you love, please share!