12.01.2011

Newspapers and Observations

Yesterday, we tool our notes about Author's Purpose and practiced finding the author's purpose using a picture book. Today we once again used a picture book, but we also used newspapers too to help us identify the 4 types of Author's Purposes. I purchased Jen Runde's Author's Purpose unit from her Teachers Pay Teachers store and that is where I have gotten several of my ideas from. It is a great unit! 

I have had newspapers stacking up in my room for several weeks now, and decided that they would be perfect to use for this lesson. What I did was I created 4 big anchor charts for each of the 4 purposes. I then split my students up into groups and gave them a newspaper, scissors, and glue. They had to find articles, advertisements, pictures, etc in their paper that was an example of each author's purpose. The kids loved it because they got to make a big mess that we cleaned up, and I loved it because I could tell that the kids actually got it! I did capture some pictures today of all of the fun, mess, and learning! 

I used the video that I shared earlier this week yesterday in class and we continued with the PIES theme today to help us remember the 4 types of Author's Purpose.
The charts we made in my 1st and 2nd period class. I also went ahead and put them up in the hallway because I was so proud of their work and thought it was such a neat activity.
The charts from 3rd and 4th period.
Some of the ones from 5th and 7th period.

The other 2 from 5th and 7th period.
After we finished, I had my students answer the sentence stem on their post-it note and then stick it to the big chart. I used a different color for each class. 



Did I mention that we made a little bit of a mess with this project? I am pretty sure we took at least 10 bags of trash out today!
Some of my Pre AP kids even decided to pick up a little couponing when we were finished. :)

Today we also had our Sheltered Instruction liaison on campus as well as another lady who is helping us this year since we failed to meet AYP this past school year because of our math scores. They both came in my room together at the same time and ended up staying in there for about 45 minutes. Normally they are in our rooms for maybe 10 minutes tops when they visit. Our AYP friend even came back to my room a 2nd time. I was not really sure if that was a good or bad thing. However, when I was headed out of the 6th grade building to go and check my box during my conference, they were both outside talking to my principal. They stopped me and told me how much they loved being in my room and loved the activity I was doing with my kids today. That made me feel really good and I was pretty excited about it. It put a smile on my face for sure! 

Yeah for it almost being Friday!

12 Days of Christmas Party with Farley

If you have not seen the amazingness of Farley, you must go see it now!!!

You will love her blog! She teaches 4th grade in central Texas and she always has something funny to say! No matter what kind of day you had with your kiddos, her posts will always make you smile!

She is also hosting an amazing 12 Days of Christmas Party that has some amazing giveaways each day! Be sure and go and check it out here!


11.30.2011

100 Posts!!!

I cannot believe it, but this is my 100th post! When I get to 200 followers too (that is only 6 away), I will be doing a giveaway! It is going to be one of my absolute favorite teacher products that I think you would love too!

This week has been a crazy one! Maybe it is because they had 5 days at home with the break or the fact that it has been cold this week. No matter what it is, I hope my 6th grade friends get control of their behavior quickly because they are wearing me out. What sort of things do you do for behavior management in your classroom? Since I have 60 kids, I am looking for a good solution that does not take up a lot of room. 

Saturday is also my last day of grad classes for the semester!!! I cannot believe that I am about to be finished with my first semester of grad school. The best part is that I will only have 2 more after this one! 

I know I mentioned about having a giveaway myself, but there is an amazing one going on right now over at A Teacher's Treasure! 

She is giving away a $20 gift certificate to Amazon. If you are like me, you always have things in your Amazon cart. I am always wanting to add books to my classroom library! It is easy to enter too! You can find out more about the giveaway by going to her blog or her Facebook Fan Page.

P.S. I am going to be blogging tomorrow about my lesson I did today about Author's Purpose! It went wonderfully!

11.29.2011

Authors Purpose

Have you seen this video?


I am for sure showing this to my kids tomorrow because we are talking about Authors Purpose. We are also going to make a foldable for our notebooks and read a story to identify the purpose the author wrote it.

P.S. If you sign up for a free account with Teacher Tube, you can skip the ads.

11.27.2011

December Book Picks

Even though I teach middle school, I still use picture books all of the time. I need to take a picture tomorrow of my picture book to collection to show you all. I use them all the time as mentor texts to teach my 6th graders new skills. We are actually getting ready to use The Polar Express for a big unit.

I thought I would link up with Mrs. Parker to share some of my favorite book picks for the month of December. 

What are your favorite books to teach with in the month of December?

It is a sale!

In honor of Cyber Monday, I have decided to have a week long sale with my Teacher's Notebook store. Starting tomorrow, 11/28, and going through 12/4, everything in my store will be 20% off. 
Yes, you read that correctly, 20% off!!! 

So head on over to my store and start shopping! I am also planning on adding my Polar Express unit for 4th-6th grade to the store later this week so be looking for it!

If you buy something, please be sure and leave feedback for me too!

11.25.2011

Youtube and an Award

I absolutely love Youtube and the amazing teaching videos that I have come across on it. Here is my latest find and I cannot wait to use it with The Polar Express Unit that I am creating for 4th-6th grade. One of the parts that is in the unit is about similes and metaphors. You have got to check out the video. 



I also have been awarded the Sunshine Award from Mrs. Zirhen over at A Teacher's Treasure.

I have gotten so many wonderful ideas from her blog! You must go and check her out.

Here are the rules for accepting this award. 

One. Thank the person who gave you this award and write a post about it. 
Two. Answer the following questions below.
Three. Pass the award along to some fabulous bloggers and let them know about it. 

The questions are...

What is your favorite color? My favorite color is Yellow.
What is your favorite animal? I am not much of an animal person, but I prefer dogs over cats.
What is your favorite number? I guess 11 because it was the year I first started teaching.
What is your favorite drink? Hands down it would have to be a Diet Strawberry Limeade from Sonic. So glad I have conference this year during Sonic Happy Hour. 
Do you prefer Facebook or Twitter? Facebook, but I prefer blogs over both. :)
What is your passion? Teaching, reading, photography, and coaching volleyball.
Do you prefer getting or giving presents? Giving
What is your favorite day? I love Saturdays because I get to sleep in.

I am passing this award on to some of my favorite teaching blogs. Be sure you go and check them out!








Also, be on the lookout for a new blog look in the next week! I cannot wait to reveal it!