American Revolution - Trading Cards

This year we tried a new project for the American Revolution, trading cards. That is right, just like baseball cards but each card is focused on one topic from the American Revolution. Each student was given 6 cards and a few directions to go with the cards. The parent letter, directions and template is below. After the cards were turned they were laminated and graded. I think they turned out great! 

 
We will have trading card day next week. The fifth graders will meet in the library and the students will be able to trade cards. I am looking froward to that but couldn't wait to post. Once we our trading day I will post pictures.

Parent Letter

Rubric

Card Template

Sunshine State Reader Board

I shared a picture of my Sunshine State Reader board at the beginning of the year in my Back to School post. Below is an undated picture. I love how the board turned out. It is right next to my door so the students see it when we line up to leave and as they come in. We have actually stretchered the graph our several times and had to add kids outside the graph line. :) The visual graph has really helped them see how they and other students are doing.

Before

After

January 14th

My wonderful husband sat with me for 2 hours tonight and helped me catch up on grading. Love is grading papers for your wife.

New Year's Resolution Linky Party

 

I am linking up with Jen at The Teachers' Cauldron for her New Year's Resolution party. Check out all the resolutions that everyone is posting. 

My personal resolution is to eat healthier. My husband and I have been watching documentaries about whole food eating. We have tried in the fall, as school as starting, to fully commit. I bet you can guess how that went. This year I want to begin taking small steps towards whole food eating. 

Buddy Day/Gingerbread Man Hunt

Today we had the best day with our buddies!! It was a half day and 5th grade stayed with me all do so we were able to spend the whole day with our little friends. We started the morning writing about how we would make the Grinch grin. 

The 5th graders helped their buddies write their sentences. 

We then watched the Dr Seuss's The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

After our Grinch activity we ate lunch outside with our buddies. My students love to eat outside and their buddies were SO excited to sit with the big kids at lunch. It was a great day to be out, the wonderful thing about Florida is that the week before Christmas the temperature is in the 80's. :)

The real fun started after lunch. Our buddies had special cookies to share with us but the gingerbread man stole them while they were at specials. When my 5th graders showed up the kindergartners were so upset. They made lost posters to hang up in the room in hopes that the gingerbread man would return the cookies. 

We then followed the clues to find the cookies and gingerbread man. The kindergartners were so excited and my 5th graders were great sports. I could tell that they loved it but still wanted to be cool. Several of my students remembered the same hunt when they were in kindergarten and afterwards were telling me how it was different/wrong. 

I am happy to report that while we were out searching for the gingerbread man he returned all the cookies. Our principal and vice-principal caught him and made him give the cookies back.

Today was a fun day and nice break from the everyday lessons and schedule. I think that my kids enjoyed playing like a kindergartner for the day. :)