Chocolate Touch and Fever

I can't believe it's almost December. Soon it will be time to cover the house with lights, snowmen, candles... In the classroom that means it's time to read 2 of my favorite chocolate books. Yes 2. I can't just choose one like Jessica said. The beauty of the books is that they are short. Like you can be done with them in the 3 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break.  

Chocolate Touch and Chocolate Fever are very similar books, but different enough to hold the kids' attention. I like reading them in December because it leads to a great discussion about moderation with all the treats that are out and about (especially with what goes on in the stories).

In class I have a ton of whole class read aloud books.  I know I've mentioned it before, I had a field day a couple of years ago spending bonus points and loading up on $1 books.  We read together every afternoon for about 20 minutes.  Last year I also bought a bunch of Audio books for my read alouds.  Over at Audible they have versions with the authors reading them, it's amazing all the different inflections they use.. much better than I could do!  I have the recordings on my nano (which I plug into my speakers).  

After reading we always do a Venn diagram between the 2. Comparing the characters, the plots, etc.

This summer I also made up these activity cards that go along with Chocolate Touch. I made similar ones for Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing and it kept the kids busy thinking more in depth about the story. I would pick a couple a day to go over after our daily readings. 

In addition to the activity cards I have my kiddos use the my mini pack's chapter summaries to write main ideas down, and at the end of the books they write down their favorite parts. Then all the pages are stapled together and they do a compare and constrast between the two. 

Well, that's it! I got nothing else at the moment... Other than reminding you about the blog naming contest going on. 

If your idea is chosen there are multiple prizes to win... Like over 20! 

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Time for Another Peek

To be honest, when I left school on Friday afternoon I didn't really know exactly what I would be doing on Monday morning.  I mean, it is the same routine - finally a normal routine this coming week.  But I was exhausted - the day after Halloween... I spent the entire day yawning, and then fell asleep on the couch when I got home.

Thankfully I always bring home my plan book (which was blank), and had my yearly pacing guide (which was full) - so at least I could figure out what comes next.  I am so excited about a "normal" week this coming week!  :)

Just being honest.  

Okay - time to link up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for another installment of A Peek at My Week.  

This next week we actually have a fiction story to read.  :)  I know!!!  I'm so excited.  Not that I don't love reading nonfiction stories, but it's just not the same as tearing a part a fiction one.

The story is about a visually impaired boy that decides to start a business making greeting cards.  At this moment in time I don't have a fun connection in mind - just going to focus on the basics - defining vocabulary, making vocabulary cards, adding to our interactive notebook, making connections to self/text/world, creating a story map, rereading out loud with a partner, and writing a summary.  

In math we will be starting to multiply double digits.  I mentioned it yesterday, but I made up a new task card set for my kiddos.  

I'm having a pin it to win it until later on tonight in case you are interested.  

Read Alouds this week will be continuing on with Lemonade War - so far we're up to chapter 4, and the kids are so into it.

Our Mentor Sentence book is The Wretched Stone.  

We will begin learning about the California Missions this next week.  It will take us forever, but we get to start our mission a day booklets.

Basically each day we learn facts about a specific mission.  There are 21 of them, so we will be doing this for weeks to come, ending up right before Christmas break when they choose their own mission to learn more about and to begin their research report.

November means we will also be working on our Traditions books.  These books are so special (at least to my class) because they turn into their Christmas presents for their parents.  This is another project that takes weeks to complete, since we tackle all the different holidays and write descriptive informational paragraphs for each tradition. 

A couple of years ago I tried to do this in a matter of days by having the kids publish them through Student Treasures.  It was a wonderful idea to give it as a hardbound gift, but it caused a lot of stress.  Instead, I now just use card stock and bind it in our own school library.

Well - that's it.  5 days until we have a 3 day weekend.  :)  

Hope you are having a great day!  

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My Day in Pictures

Hi Everyone,

Well today I would like to show you my day in pictures. 'Twas the day before Halloween... with a pj spirit day as well (Put drugs to bed).  Now, please know I really tried to remember to take pictures... just there were some moments that I couldn't exactly grab a camera... I'm sure you understand.  :)  

Here we go:

Before school it's the calm before the storm. I unpack my bag, feeling slightly guilty that I didn't grade those papers last night. 

At 8:15 it's time to get the kids from line up and head back with them to our home away from home. 

The kids get organized- homework on desks, they are working on morning math meeting on the floor when I'm checking it in. Then we go over it (meeting and hw) full class.  

Soon enough it's prep time- kids go to PE, come back for 5 minutes before they head to recess. Those 5 minutes between the 2 are filled with filling a bucket. 

What am I doing during prep? Actually today I was correcting those papers from last night. Fun times - NOT!!

After recess is our math rotations. The kids were put into groups on Monday for the week. I use pocket charts that are magnetic on the whiteboard so they just stay up. I only rotate the station card at the top when it's time to switch.  

Math facts- Fall Roll a Dice

At your seat - Problem Solving worksheet

Teacher Time - lesson on multidigit patterns

Hands On - All Halloween math cards - all types of review.

(I used to have them use their whiteboards, but I switched it to scratch paper and pencil - they have to turn in what they accomplished to get credit.)

After math is reading. Wednesdays mean rereading the story with a partner (read to someone using comprehension check marks) then today we reviewed a bunch of stuff in our workbooks.  

{Just imagine a picture of two children reading together... my picture was somehow totally blurry.}

When done is workshop time. Kids are finishing up their Spooky Spelling Stories as a must do, and have daily 5 choices when done. 

Listen to reading - MP3's, iPad  

Word Work - Trick or Treat word brainstorm

Work on Writing choices - journal writes

It's time for lunch, then after lunch is our read aloud and read to self. 

Today we worked on a special book report instead of doing our normal workshop and science lesson. Pumpkin Character Book Reports. I'm sure you have seen them, I just didn't want the mess of using real pumpkins in class. 

The kids each had a form to fill out about a book they chose - the main idea being that they could choose a book that they enjoyed to expand other student's horizons. I wanted them to learn about other books out there.

When done with their form they took a foam pumpkin and decorated it to look like their character. Instant bulletin board recommendations. This project took about an hour and then we moved onto pack up & clean up. 

I do have yard duty afterschool this week... Then there is 25 minutes before my own son starts squawking that it's time to go home. 

Another day - I hope I'm ready for tomorrow!  

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Tried it Tuesday: Design a Store

 A couple of weeks ago we started our "Dollars & Sense" unit in OCR.  The first story is a nonfiction, 4 page one - full of good information to get kids thinking of what goes into starting a business.  This year we have been challenged to take the information and adding even more real life connections, so I picked up this project from The Science Penguin.

She has a bunch of different pages in it, I choose 4 of them that I wanted my class to focus on.  

They started out completing the brainstorm pages to design their own store - type of business, their products, and then answering some questions about their store.  It was almost identical to the same questions posed in our textbook.  

After they were through with those pages, they went on to the designing part.  They decorated the outside of their store, and then designed the inside layout.  I wanted them to focus on making sure they thought of their products.  

The above are a couple of the covers students created.  We took a piece of 12x18 blue construction paper, folded it in half, then glued the Store front onto the front.  Inside the blue construction paper, we glued the layout onto the top, and they stapled in the 2 page brainstorm pages to the bottom.  

They LOVED this project, and I loved the connection it made to our story.  Definitely would recommend it to anyone that has a business/store unit, or just a fun activity to tackle on one of those "special" days.  

Linking up with Holly for her Tried it Tuesday!

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Peek at my Week

Linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings again to share a peek of my week.  

We are moving into our business unit.  For an introduction to the unit, I have students brainstorm a business that they are familiar with, and then they have to come up with a product list.  Our story this week is a short one, so it allows us time to really talk about what makes up a business.

We are still tackling doing everything in multiplication (switching from addition and subtraction), so this week is working on patterns and function tables..  I've been adding task cards into my morning math meeting to make it an easy switch out at the end of the day and to give some variety.  

I made up this freebie to help my kids review - there are 14 function tables with

 different operations to get my kids thinking of finding the rules.

The past couple of weeks we have been so focused on science that social studies took a back seat. This week is all about learning about the CA Explorers - Cabrillo, Drake, and Vizcaino.  

I'm using my pack to have the kids compare/contrast the men, writing informational paragraphs, and drawing portraits.  

We have one more chapter about Ecosystems - so this week my students are bringing in an empty Kleenex box to paint their own ecosystem - that's the plan for Friday.  I'll talk more about that in a different post - basically it's this idea - picture is from last year.  

Our Mentor Sentences this week focus on commas, apostrophes, and quotation marks.  I'll be using Where the Wild Things Learn's Task Cards to help kids focus.  

Then I picked up a box of elbow macaroni, and the students will be creating their own examples on sentence strips - gluing on the macaroni.  I'm so excited about this project!  

Have a great week!  

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Scholastic Big Bonus Point Order

How does that song go?  "Whoops, I did it again..." Yep, I did do it again.  Another 10,000 bonus point beginning of the year order.  

Just like last year, I used the home letter that Laura Candler created, sent it home, and hoped for the best.  We reached our goal!!  Score!!  

I also added a bit to the cart... couldn't help myself...  

I bought a class set of Frindle for only $1 a piece.  Yep, Frindle!

I'm not going to read Frindle in class though... that is going to be their Christmas present.  Yep, I'm one of THOSE type of people that start Christmas shopping in September... Mama always said that the early birds get the worm... 

As for all those bonus points... well, I already spent a little bit of them to finish up getting our class set of Charlotte's Web (only 75 bonus points each).  Our story this past week was "Escape" - an excerpt from Charlotte's Web.  So many of my students had never even heard of it before... so we will be reading that next full class.  :)  Every student needs to hear the full tale of Wilbur and Charlotte...  

Hope you have a magnificent Sunday!  

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