Liebster Blog

I returned from Thanksgiving break to discover that I was given the Liebster Award! Kristin from Tech'n'Tex sent me the award, a BIG, BIG thank you to Kristin. This award is given by bloggers to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. It is to show new bloggers that they are appreciated and to help spread the word about new blogs. I hope it also encourages them to keep blogging. 

The Rules:

- You must post 11 random things about yourself..

- Answer the questions that the nominator 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 I can learn more about you)!

Random things about me...

1. I have ridden cross country twice on the back of a motorcycle. 

2. My first job was mowing yards in my neighborhood.

3. I collect Nutcrackers.

4. I don't eat pie or cobbler.

5.My favorite movie is 'Gone With the Wind'

6. I have not read the 'Twilight' or 'Harry Potter' series, but have seen the all movies.

7. I am oldest of four girls.

8. I love to bake, but don't usually eat what I make.

9. I can't go to the movies without getting popcorn.

10. I love John Mayer

11. I do not drink coffee.

Answers to Kristin's Questions:

1. How did you end up in your grade level and/or subject area? I taught 3rd grade for 4 years and wanted a change. My first choice was 5th grade reading and then my principle asked if I would teach 4th / 5th reading.
2. How many teammates do you have? 4 reading teachers, 2 in 4th and 2 in 5th
3. Do you plan alone or as part of a team?  5th grade plans social studies together and reading on our own, 4th grade plans everything together.
4. What is your favorite read aloud? Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
5. What games/activities do you do at your student holiday party? We are very low key, movie and pizza.
6. Why did you start blogging? I love reading others blogs and thought that this would be a fun way to share my ideas.
7. What “makes” your holidays? baking!!
8. What is your favorite pizza topping? lite sauce and cheese
9. What book are you currently reading? War Brides by Helen Bryan at home, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen at school.
10. What is your favorite holiday carol/song? All of them!!
11. If you weren’t a teacher/educator, what would you be doing? stay-at-home mom

Questions I'm Asking My Nominees:
    1. Why did you decide to become a teacher?

    2. If you had to move grade levels what would you want to teach?

    3. If you weren’t a teacher/educator, what would you be doing?

    4. Would you be the principal of your school? Why or why not?

    5. What is your favorite lesson/activity?

    6. What book/s are you currently reading?

    7. What is your favorite read aloud?

    8. What is your favorite part of blogging?

    9. Do you share your blog with your teammates?

  10. What is your favorite part of the holidays?

  11. What are you asking Santa for this year?

Blogs I'm Nominating:

1. Fabulous and Fun 4th Garders

2. Fifth Grade Dugout

3. Fifth is Fabulous! 

4. Learning's a Hoot

5. Life as a Teacher 

6. Miss R's Room

7. Miss White's 5th Grade Class 

8. Tales from a 4th (and 5th) Grade Teacher

9. Tales from Rm 17! 

10. Teaching Special Kids

11. Teaching with a Touch of Twang 

Kindergarten Buddies - Pumpkin Fun

This year my 5th graders helped our kindergarten buddies with their fall pumpkin activity. Both classes loved working together and learning (playing) with pumpkins. 

My students each had a station and helped the kindergartners discover how many lines were on their pumpkin, can a pumpkin float?, how much the pumpkin weighs, and the distance around the pumpkin. We love working with our buddies and teaching them new things. 

Better late than never - Vocabulary Hat Day

Well....Halloween was almost a month ago and I am just getting around to posting our Halloween activity. I actually forgot I had the pictures until I was at Seaworld and flipped through the pictures on my camera and saw the hat pictures, LOL! 

So, we do not do ANYTHING for Halloween at my school. The primary grades have book character day but the older grades do not. This year we decide to have Vocabulary Hat Day. The students picked a vocabulary words they have learned in math, science or reading and created a hat to illustrate the word. The hats were awesome!!!! I was only able to get a few pictures but check out how creative our kids were.

My vocabulary word is glisten and the teacher next to me used crave.

Dumbfounded

Reinforce

Glassy

Multiplication

Incredulous

Inferencing Lessons - 4th Grade

We have had lots of fun learning about inferencing. Each day for two weeks we practiced inferring with stories, videos and real items.

Day 1 - To start our lesson we watched a great pod cast from a class on inferencing. Check it out!

After watching the video my 4th grade students sorted through my trash. Yep, trash! I brought in 'clean trash' (mainly items I was recycling). From the trash the students created inferences about my family and me. After sorting through the trash the class discussed what the items said about me. It was fun to listen to the students come up with ideas of what everything told them.

Day 2 - We watched a great short film called Pigeon Impossible. It is really funny and has lots of opportunities to pause and infer. The kids loved it and everyone had their hands up to answer questions. These are some of the questions I asked: What is the man's profession? What is the setting? What might happen? As you watch the video you will see many other questions you can ask. 

Day 3, 4 & 5 - We looked at cartoons that have one empty thought or speech bubble and inferred what we said or thought. After discussing, inferring and using background knowledge for two days each student created their own comic strip. 

Cartoons - I only used the cartoon pages. 

Week 2 - The second week we read mysteries and inferred the answer. This was a short week for us so we did not have a full week of lessons. 

After all the different way that we practiced inferring my students had a better understanding of inferring than any class before. YAY!

Inferencing Lessons - 5th Grade

We have had lots of fun learning about inferencing. For two weeks we talked about an practiced infering with books, videos and real life situations. 

Day 1 - To start our lesson we watched a great pod cast from a class on inferencing. Check it out!

After watching the video we looked through a packed suitcase to make inferences about the person the suitcase belongs to and where they went. I packed a suitcase with a few of my husbands things as if he was going to a baseball game. I would show the class 2 or 3 items and then let them discuss with their group.

Day 2 - We watched a great video called Pigeon Impossible. It is really funny and has lots of opportunities to pause and infer. The kids loved it and everyone had their hands up to answer questions. These are some of the questions I asked: What is the man's profession? What is the setting? What might happen?As you watch the video you will see many other questions you can ask.
                                     

Day 3 - Crime Scene

This was my favorite day!! It was so much fun! Check of the post I made about our crime scene. 

Day 4 and 5 - Riddles 

We read a few different riddles and then students created their own riddles. For my higher students I had them write a riddle about something that is not physical; wind, love, etc. Each riddle included 4 clues and the answer. 

Week 2

We read poems and discussed how to infer what is happening. I used kids poems and poems by Robert Frost. We also read a mystery and discussed the clues that help us infer what will happen.