Tried it Tuesday: Showing Off My Folders

The other day I posted about my Social Studies and Science Interactive folders.  A nice person commented asking me to share what they look like - so here they are. These are my examples that I do with the students, so not all the information is filled in.  

We took the file folders, opened them up, and then folded them in to make bifold flaps.

Folder #1: Land of CA

Front: Definitions and pictures of Compass Rose, Latitude, Longitude, Prime Meridian, Equator

Inside flaps: Flip up region notes - top has land information, underneath has business information

Middle inside: Students colored/shaded the different regions.

Back: Paragraph of favorite region.

Folder #1 - Beginning of Ecosystems

(folded so we could have more flaps)

Front: Definitions

Inside Middle Flaps: Notes on the Land vs. Water Ecosystems

Inside Middle: Paragraph of favorite ecosystem (with facts)

Back: Research notes of ecosystem

Basically, you can see I tend to have them put more definitions/vocabulary on the front, then inside and back are notes with an informational paragraph or two thrown in.  

That's basically what we've finished so far...for some reason the computer isn't allowing me to upload pictures of my Native Californian folder...  This week we are working on the beginnings of Science Folder #2 for Ecosystems...  

Linking up with Holly and Tried it Tuesday.  

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YIPPEE!!

I made it to the front of the TPT page today!!!  Happy Day!!  

A big shout out to Diane over at Fifth in the Middle for passing on the photo.  :)  It made my day!!

Speaking of Diane... I have her Mustache Reminders up in my classroom - on the wall right by the door.  The kids get a kick out of it!  

Do you do something similar in your classroom?  Some kind of reminder list that kids have to do before they get to go home?  

Hope you had a great day!

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Peek at my Week

Ready for a peek at my upcoming week?

This week we are reading the story, "Two Tickets to Freedom" in OCR.  

It's the true story of William and Ellen Craft.  They were fugitive slaves that undertook a long journey on the underground railroad.    In addition to the normal vocabulary, reading/discussing, story map/sequence chart, partner reading/fluency building... we also coordinate a little map action and color in the characters' journey to freedom.

We will be starting Multiplication Properties, Order of Operations, and Expressions - all with Multiplication.  I actually love teaching these concepts this coming week - I love how it ties together and they see the connections between Addition and Multiplication.

We are finishing up Native Californians.  More weaving,  tribe presentations, and a video about daily life.  We will also finish up our Interactive File Folders using the top half of this sheet.  Last week the kids started to record facts they wanted to remember after they glued this onto their folder.  They will use these facts when they are sharing their tribes during the oral presentations.  
  

Side Note - I have LOVED (yes, all capitals) having my students use file folders this year in Science and Social Studies.  While I am using composition books for our Interactive Reading/Language and Math notes, for Science and Social Studies I am keeping each topic separate - basically by chapter.  When a chapter is done I am keeping the folders (stored in their own subject's crate) for the end of the year.  The kids are enjoying them too.  What I stick in the big areas are things from my packs, notes, paragraphs, etc... but above are the headings that the kids write notes under.  My goal right now is to get the headings onto a half a page (if possible) to save copies.  Before I handed it to the kids, I cut the Explorer part off to save for our next Social Studies focus.  

We are working on dependence in an ecosystem - interdependence between organisms, how animals have adapted to fit their environments, and how they will compete for resources.  This week after the lessons, I'm having my kiddos choose an animal and listing details about these 3 areas.  

We will also be working on our Science Interactive Folder and use the top part of this page, adding definitions and gluing in the above animal information.  

We have been working on adding details to our writing, so we will be continuing on with our Native American informational paragraphs (Social Studies).  Our other focus' will be writing strong conclusion sentences and identifying kinds of sentences (Declarative, Interrogative, and Exclamatory).

We finished up Beezus and Ramona last week, so this week we will be starting Charlotte's Web full class.  I had about 13 copies that I purchased last year, but am eagerly waiting for my Scholastic order to show up with the rest of the class books..

Our Mentor Sentence text is Come On, Rain.  I use Jivey's Mentor Sentence unit, as well as her new activity pack that ties into it.    

Linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings!

I hope you have a wonderful week!

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Five for Friday

I'm beyond tired... and this weekend we are leaving right after school to head to the Cub Scout Family Camp Out!  OY!  I haven't technically been camping since I was a little Brownie in Girl Scouts... going to be an adventure!  We have packed so many extra changes of clothes and the potty chair since we have no clue what to expect from our 3 year old.

Linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching to share some randomness about my week.  Since I'm exhausted, you'll just have to deal with some pictures from this past week on Instagram.  :)

Yep, we weaved like our Native Californian tribes.  It's working better than I could have ever imagined.  

We are up to Chapter 5 in Math - and it's all about reviewing our multiplication facts.  So we made up little/big math mansions complete with shutters.  The kids got a kick out of it and it was nice having an art project in math.  

We painted our maps on Monday, and then on Wednesday they took them home.  There is no room to store them in the classroom!  

Thursday we celebrated Talk Like a Pirate Day in class with my pirate pack.  We have so much going on that there wasn't much time to celebrate, but I did give them around 25 minutes to choose a project.  I didn't grade it (a rarity), but now their activities have formed a class book.  The kids are so proud of themselves.  

Last but not least is this beautiful Baked Ziti that my husband made up.  I presented at the staff meeting on Monday, came home absolutely exhausted from school, and then we only had a bit of time before having to head out to the Pack Award Meeting.  It was so nice to not have to cook.  

Hope you had a great week!  

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Facing My Fear...

This week I did something that was up there on my top fear list - I presented at a staff meeting. Speaking to kids is easy, but adults are another ball game...

What was I sharing? The Nowboard! 

In case you don't know, the Nowboard is a little camera and magic wand that makes any flat surface (ie. a projector screen) into an interactive whiteboard.

For the past 2 years I've had it in my classroom. Last year my new principal came in for an observation, saw me use it, and from there ordered one per grade level. So it was my job to show it off. 

I use it for a bunch of stuff in class... 

Brain Pop Quizzes

Playing center games (example Internet 4 Classrooms)

Working on IXL full class

Highlighting passages on K12reader or any reading comprehension thing...

Putting up our math text (we have it online through Think Central) and doing the problems.

Using a typed paragraph and practicing rainbow edit. 

The list goes on and on...

My class 2 years ago had a technology fundraiser in the spring and we raised the money for the Nowboard. We didn't raise quite enough, so my principal at the time used some special EIA money to cover the rest. 

Do you also have a Nowboard?  

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