Good-Bye FCAT Writes!

I am so glad that FCAT Writes is over. 

That is all :)

Knots on a Counting Rope

I found an amazing story called Knots on a Counting Rope by Bill Martin Jr. If you have never read this book it is wonderful story about a Native American boy who ask his grandfather to tell the story of when he was born. There is symbolism and theme all throughout. I love the story and wish I had found it years ago. It is a 5th grade Common Core book. 

I did so many things with this book! 

First I read the book aloud but did not show the pictures. Then I gave copies the story text only, no pictures, to the students. They created list of character traits for the grandfather and Boy-Strength-of-Blue-Horses. The students used their story text to find proof from the story to support each character trait. 

On day two the we discussed the mood of the story when the boy was born and when the boy raced for the first time. Again students used the story text to find proof for the mood of the story. This was a great conversation! On day three we discussed the theme of the story.

Day four was the best day! The students had not seen the pictures from the story at this point. The students had discussed the book so much they were very excited to see the pictures and story. We watched a read aloud on YouTube, Knots on a Counting Rope. After watching the read aloud the students realized that Boy-Strength-of-Blue-Horses is blind. A few of my students had caught on to this earlier in the week but we did not discuss it until now. The students looked for clues in the text that showed that he was blind. 

Our week was cut short because of county testing or we would of spent another day on this. :(

This has been my FAVORITE lesson with 5th grade this year! It was so much fun to read this book and spend so much time digging deep into a book.

Cereal Box Book Report

One of my favorite book reports my students complete is the cereal box book report. This report allows the students to be creative with their report. The directions are of the Cereal Box Book Report are on my Google drive. 

Five For Friday

This is my first Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching.

1. After several busy weeks and not being able to post on my blog I have been able to post 4, YES 4 new post!

2. We started the week with 5th grades American Revolution Trading Card Day. It was fun to watch the kids trade and bargain for different cards. Some student loved their cards so much they were VERY particular or would not trade at all. I loved watching them take so much pride in what they created.

3. My 5th graders are in the middle of studying the American Revolution. After looking at and discussing political cartoons from that time period the students created their own political cartoon. Check out my post on this activity. 

4. My 4th graders completed their cause and effect paragraphs for the story A Bad Case of Stripes. 

5. Today my daughter and I took our first train ride. It was the birthday of my friend's son, we took a train ride on a real Amtrak train. It was so much fun!

Cause and Effect with A Bad Case of Stripes

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon is my favorite picture book! I love this story! Anytime I can use this book with my students I do :) We just finished studying cause and effect and learning to write out cause and effect paragraphs. We first watched a GREAT read aloud for the book from storylineonline.net. If you have not seen this site you should check it out. They have read alouds for many different books. After listening to A Bad Case of Stripes the students wrote a summary using cause and effects words. The students then colored Camilla Cream's face and posted their writing. The idea came from the site Mrs. Heeren's Happenings.