Made it Monday!

So as I have been blog stalking this summer, I have loved checking all the Made it Monday projects that Tara at 4th grade Frolics has been hosting. Here's the latest link up partay here: Made it Monday 7

During a "drive by does Target already have school supplies out?" trip, I saw these large plastic totes stacked on shelves:

and thought "future home to all things recess"

I could see my recess ball bag and other items fitting perfectly, not to mention it will keep things off of the floor ("everything has a home")

So I couldn't just leave it lonely lime green. 

I painted it of course

H for Hawk (duh)

After seeing these Smart Beads on Pinterest

Source: dandelionsdragonflies.blogspot.com via Jennie on Pinterest

I made my own:

blue tub is from Dollar Tree

Beads are also from Dollar Tree

ribbon is from my craft room

so excited to use these in ze classroom

Now go make something....it's Monday

Where the Wild Things are

Source: etsy.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Here are some activities/projects we did during the last weeks of school after reading Where the Wild Things are.

Text to Self connections: When I feel Wild 

and of course I had to make my own Max face:)

We also made Wild things masks

this craft was simple and involved paper plates, construction paper, yarn, and foam sheets

The kids loved them.

I was very disappointed in the movie as I had hoped maybe doing a compare/contrast lesson afterwards. After previewing it myself I was very let down with the quality of the movie. 

But the book still rocks on.

"Let the wild rumpus begin!"

Confessions...

As my first year of having a blog I have failed horribly. But I'm not giving up. 4 more student days, a few teacher workdays, and then SUMMER BREAK FREEDOM! I will be updating soon. Until then...don't give up on my small corner in the blogging universe.

Fractions!

I love fractions. 

I love teaching fractions.

and it seems the kiddos are loving learning about fractions.

I busted out some fraction strip manipulatives to explore equivalent fractions.

Put the students into partner pairs. One partner made a fraction and the other had to find an equivalent. 

Then they traced and labeled the fractions correctly.

demonstrating their understanding of equivalent 

exploring 

fun and colorful fraction strips

hard work in progress

one of my students was having such a blast he continued to find his own equivalent fractions while his partner solved his portion 

Here are some cute pins I found while looking for ideas for my fraction unit

Source: msdurning.blogspot.com via Marie on Pinterest

Source: 3.bp.blogspot.com via Melissa on Pinterest

Source: primaryfilefoldergames.blogspot.com via Tiffani on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Andy on Pinterest

Had to throw some humor in there:)

Brown Bag Book Club: main Idea focus

We just finished reading: 

and have been revisiting Main idea and details

After some blog stalking for follow up activities I came across the Brown Bag Book Club from 

thefirstgradeparade and knew I had my activity.

I passed out brown bags to my students which had a set of cards inside. The cards had details and the main idea from the story on them.  Students then got into partner pairs to discuss and figure out which card contained the main idea and which cards held the details.  Using the book for support, they did a fabulous job in their groups reasoning through why certain cards were just details and not the "big picture". 

They then glued their cards in the correct places on their bag and decorated their bags with visual representations.  While decorating they had to also discuss parts of the book they liked, how they felt when reading the book, etc to tie in the whole "book club" feel. 

They loved it.

getting the groups set up

 our completed bags

another added bonus of the brown bag book clubs is that while discussing the books you can fill the bags with popcorn.

This idea can obviously focus on various comprehension strategies and I plan using it again in the future. 

Martin Luther King JR shout out

For our TDR recently to focus on non-fiction text elements as well as bring in some Black History we read the following

After we read through each chapter students summarized 4-5 important facts they learned about M.L in their reading notebooks.  

Once we finished the book the students then typed their facts into their student blogs via

which by the way is a fantastic blogging host for your students to have their own blogs. Probably my favorite. 

Please click the links below to experience the events and facts our class felt were important. PS: we love comments. It helps fill our buckets as well:)

NG's blog on Martin Luther King Jr

JW's blog about ML

KS's blog about Martin

For another follow up assignment I had students select 4 events from M.L's life.

then we headed over to 

and the students created their own event timeline via comic. They loved it.

Here are the links to some of the completed timelines

Timeline 1

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=24461200C635886

Timeline 2

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=2564225C635837

Timeline3

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=2154054C635848

Timeline 4

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=14358212C635859

We love Martin Luther King Jr and are grateful for the steps he took to bring change

Don't give up on us.

I promise we are all alive and breathing and soaring through our school year. 

I have slacked on my teacher blogging posts and upkeeps and I do apologize to anyone who has been wondering why so quiet over there in the Hawk's nest?

I did update my layout since clearly it's no longer Christmas and I think that's a good start.

Stay tuned for updates, photos, and a better blogging Hawk.

Please,

don't give up on us.