It's January....and Here We Go....!

What a wonderful break, but now it is time to get back into the swing of things again. If it's this hard for us, imagine what our students are feeling! I know that when I go back, I will ask my class a question and they will all just stare at me with blank expressions. I call this "mush brain," and I give them one week to clear the cobwebs and get back in the game! I always make a joke out of it, so we all laugh together, but seriously...do they do any thinking at home with their families? =D January means Martin Luther King, Jr. and Black History month (the Civil Rights Movement). February means President's Day. Lincoln and Washington. What better way to get these concepts across, than using the actual words of these historic figures? Washington can be a bit dry, but both Lincoln and King were quite articulate and spoke in beautiful figurative phrases.

I love to pair the words of Lincoln with the words of King, and set up a Socratic Conversation or debate situation. The students jump right back into the game with these types of activities! I also find that it is a great time to have my students start to think of others besides themselves.

Random Acts of Kindness fit in perfectly at this time of year! And do the parents love it when the homework for the evening is to do something kind for your parents and report back on what happened, how they reacted, and how it made you feel! It's a great way to get your students and their families back into the swing of school!

Responding to Quotes Bulletin Boards - A Great Way to Teach Figurative Language!

"Life is about using the whole box of crayons!"

I have found that the best way to teach figurative language is to incorporate examples all year long. At least twice a week, I have my students address a quotation as a prompt. They need to identify the type of figurative language, explain the meaning of the quote, and connect the quote to their lives. By doing this activity weekly, followed by a class discussion, my students show marked growth in understanding this abstract concept. Another benefit is the wonderful classroom discussions that come out of this activity! It really warms my heart!

A few years ago, I decided that I wanted some of this outstanding thinking to be reflected in my bulletin boards, but I wasn't sure how to go about it. I didn't want to just put their writing on the board, that doesn't work unless someone goes and reads the bulletin boards (which rarely happens.) So, what to do? I started choosing specific quotes for a bulletin board, and then had my students create parts of the board to show their connections and responses to the quote. Here's my latest bulletin board:

My students created their own individual crayon in the computer lab using a crayon template that I had attached to my class webpage. They inserted their picture in the tip of f the crayon, and used word art to add their name, an adjective that described their strength, and a color word for their chosen color. This was a thesaurus lesson, a technology lesson, and a response to a figurative language quotation. Here is a closer look at some of their crayons:

If you would like a copy of my template, click here:

Another one of my bulletin boards this year uses the quote, "Those that reach the stars walk in stardust!" Here's a picture:

On this board, the students created two arms. On their left arm they put their name and their strengths, on their right arm they put their goals (both long term and short term goals).

Other quotes that I have used for bulletin boards are: "Those at the top of the mountain didn't fall there" and "Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?"

What Did You Do This Summer? Research Project

Many years I like to start off with a research project for my students that gives lots of student choice. I learn so much about my class, and my students are getting back into the swing of things by learning more about something they experienced over the summer. The topic can be anything that has something to do with their summer, and the research activities are selected from a Tic Tac Toe menu. Not only do I learn so much about my students, I also can set the groundwork for my research expectations. We discuss choosing reliable sources of information, paraphrasing vs. plagiarizing, and keeping a bibliography. I am not hard nosed about these yet, but I do start to discuss my expectations. I have had such great luck with this project that I have it put together as a unit in my TPT store - if you are interested. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Beyond-The-Garden-Gate-Shari-Bithell ">

I'm not sure what I did differently, or if it is just the students that I have in my class this year, but the creativity and work that I got this year was incredible! Every year, I give my students a Tic Tac Toe board with choices of activities based on Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory, yet many of my students tend to choose the same three or four activities. Technology, Fact Gathering, Compare & Contrast, and Survey. (It's interesting, even when we try to give student choice - they aren't always ready to take a risk at the beginning of the school year) Not this year though! This year I had students demonstrating how to do something they learned, singing songs to the class, building or creating items to share with the class, and creating their own videos for us! Listening to the presentations was so much easier, because of the variety of styles!

Topics vary greatly. This year we learned about places such as National Parks (Yellowstone, Zion, Grand Canyon), travel destinations (Hawaii, Washington D.C, Las Vegas, San Diego, New Mexico, Disney World), summer activities (snorkeling, whale watching, horseback riding, canoe rowing, surfing, and other water sports), and even more about video games from one of my couch potatoes!

How to's included: How to draw Tigger:

How to row a boat or canoe:

How to snorkel:

Summer Activities included: Horseback Riding:

Surfing:

Whale Watching:

Students love the choices they can make, and they were truly interested in each other's presentations! What could be better than that?

Valentines and Core Curriculum

As a fifth/sixth grade teacher, I want my students to have the fun and innocence of Valentine's Day in the classroom.  But, with so much to teach, I don't want to let go of academics at any time.  Every classroom moment counts!  So, how to do both?

Since it was mid trimester for us, I took the opportunity to show the students their updated grades - then we talked about the areas each student needed to focus on.  Next, I offered the students an extra credit opportunity.  Every student in my class, was to make a valentine's box at home to bring in on the day of our Valentine's party.  They could decorate their box with hearts, flowers, and Cupid - or - they could look at this year's curriculum and create their box to teach or reteach the class about something they are to learn this year.  I don't particularly care if the students go ahead in their books, or they reteach something that we already covered.  Students could choose any subject to focus on, but they must focus on the grade level standards.

For example:

• The solar system is covered in third grade and fifth grade - they must share information from the fifth grade standards, not just discuss things that they learned in third grade.
• If a student wants extra credit in Reading, they must focus on the elements of literature of a book.  They cannot simply summarize a book that they read for us.
• If a student wants extra credit in Math or Writing - their box must focus on some of new standards that they learned this year - not simply a review of previous years' learning.

Students were required to make their box into something that fit their topic, they had to write a paragraph explaining their topic, and they had to present their findings to the class orally.  This was a great time filler on the day of the party as well!

I couldn't have been more pleased with their efforts.  Let me share a few of the highlights with you:

This student has always been a reluctant learner - he would rarely complete assignments and turn in his work.  And extra credit????  Not a chance!  Yet, here he is with his Revolutionary War Valentine box! He not only wrote one paragraph - he wrote three!  And you should have heard his presentation!  He recreated a scene of the Battle at Bunker Hill, and talked about it with intelligence and passion.  He knew his facts, and easily answered questions for the other students.  I couldn't have been more proud!

I must give sixth grade Social Studies fair time here!  This student recreated the first Olympics in Ancient Greece and told us all about it.  She talked about the fact that only men were allowed to participate at first, and told us when women were permitted to join in!  This was clearly a topic of interest for her.  The sides folded up - and she had pictures of Ancient Greek architecture.  Then she told us about how our White House was modeled in the design of Ancient Greek architecture.

Other subjects, oh yeah!  I must say, however, that most of the students did topics in either Science or Social Studies.  These subjects are the easiest to use for an assignment such as this.  But, here is an example of extra credit in Reading.  I have been reading the book Touching Spirit Bear with my class, and this is a spirit bear.  Not only did she create a great looking box, but her analysis of the elements of literature was spot on!  She discussed the theme of the book, the mood, the character development, and examples of figurative language.  Probably more than I would have asked for in a book report!!!!  

And one of my favorites was the Fractionator BoomBox!  This student created an adorable Valentine's box with examples of how to work with fractions.  He included things like, LCD, finding a common denominator, simplest form, adding, subtracting, multiplying fractions.  Really nice work!  But it was his paragraph that I really loved.  He talked about how music and math are linked, and how important fractions are to reading music.  He talked about multiplying a note by 1/2 if there is a flag added to it, and by 1/4 if there are two flags added.  He talked about adding notes together to create a full beat.  

These are just a few examples.  They all did an amazing job - even the students that only decorated for Valentine's Day.  They were so proud of their masterpieces, and anxious to get up in front of the class to share their work!

What a fun and educational day we had!  What could be better than that?

Don't Skip Christmas in the Classroom!

In Depth Study of the Ancient Winter Solstice Celebrations

That Led to our Modern Day Winter Holidays

Well, it's that time of the year again to plan our lessons for the holiday season.  While I feel strongly that we must be careful not to disenfranchise any of our students, at the same time it is important to be inclusive of all students (including our Christian students!).  So, rather than skip Christmas in my classroom, I like to do a study of all of the Winter Solstice Celebrations.  


There is so much to learn about these 
ancient celebrations.  

  

Do you know where the tradition 

of Santa and his flying reindeer with sleigh came from?

How about the tradition of the Christmas tree or gift giving?  

All of these traditions have roots in the ancient Winter Solstice celebrations - some of which are still celebrated today.

For this Common Core based project, I have my students work in expert groups to research their assigned celebration and report back to the class.

Check out this and other holiday projects at my Teachers Pay Teachers store:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Beyond-The-Garden-Gate-Shari-Bithell

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Winter-Solstice-Study-AncientModern-Holiday-Celebrations-CCSS-Aligned-5-8-424950

And the Learning Continues with our Continent Twister Maps!

More Twists with our Continent Twister Game Maps!

I know, I know...I'm probably behind everyone in Social Studies!  That being the case, I'm still going to tell you about the fantastic learning that our Continent Twister maps are still providing!

I teach a 5/6 combination class, so I am always looking for opportunities to not only cross the curriculum in my classroom, but also cross the grade levels.  It is so much easier to teach one lesson to the entire class, than to teach individual lessons and have the two grades working on different assignments.  Of course, I still need to do that most of the time - but when I can have them working all together and still achieving grade level standards, that is magical!

In any case, I was talking to my entire class about early man and hunter/gathers.  Fifth grade standards are the migration routes across the Bering Strait from Asia to the Americas, while sixth grade standards stay over in Africa, Asia and Europe.  I showed them maps and we talked about the Fertile Crescent, migration routes out of Africa into the other continents, and the Bering Strait.  I asked my students to get back into their Twister groups, get their maps and add the Fertile Crescent, the early migration routes, and the Bering Strait to their maps.  I also had them do some research and gather one new fact about each of these, put it in their own words on an information card, and list their source of information.  We talked about finding reliable sources on the Internet.

Not only were my students completely engaged, but their understanding of these concepts was much deeper than I've ever seen it before.  We did all of this prior to reading the lesson in the Social Studies book, but now since I had made sure that they each built prior knowledge, I was able to have them read the lesson independently and answer questions.  

This meets so many Common Core Standards: 

• Reading Standards for Informational Text (Key Ideas and Details, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas)
• Writing Standards (Research to Build and Present Knowledge)
• Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies (Key Ideas and Details, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, Research to Build and Present Knowledge
• 
  
• And addresses the Common Core philosophy of having students read to learn.
• If you are interested in learning more about my Continent Twister Game Project you can click the link below to read previous articles:

http://beyondthegardengateclass.blogspot.com/2013/08/continent-twister-geography-learning.html

http://beyondthegardengateclass.blogspot.com/2013/10/so-much-learningsooo-much-fun.html

And you can purchase this unit at my TPT Store for only $3.00!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Continent-Twister-a-Common-Core-Aligned-Twist-on-Mapping-and-Geography-819648

Continent Twister - Geography Learning with a Twist!

Last year, I came up with the idea to introduce geography and mapping skills by having the students create their own Continent Twister.  You know, rather than "right foot blue" they would play "right foot Europe!"  The students absolutely loved this activity, and I was quite pleased with the learning that took place!  Sneaky teacher that I am, I was able to get in map skills such as continents, oceans, equator, latitude, longitude, compass rose, without the students even realizing that they were learning!!!

This project requires cooperative learning in small groups and problem solving skills, so I was able to learn so much about my students right away!  I allowed the students to choose their own groups, which gave me great insight to which students could or couldn't work together!

The hardest part of this assignment was figuring out how to make it into a game - the standard Twister spinner does not work for this game, so problem solving was required for the teams to come up with a workable solution.  Each team came up with a different idea - but they all worked!

I am definitely going to start my year with this project again!  But this time I have organized everything in a great little Teachers Pay Teachers unit!  All of you can benefit from my learning curve!  Check it out!  I priced very affordably, so everyone can enjoy!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Continent-Twister-a-Common-Core-Aligned-Twist-on-Mapping-and-Geography-819648

This is a true "Butts Up!" activity!!!!

Happy Mapping!!!

Shari