The Best Part of Me

 Here is a project that I have done for many years with my third graders.  I moved up to fourth grade this year and I have a handful of the same students, so I can't do it again until next year!

I read the book "The Best Part of Me."  The book is written by children who describe their favorite body parts.  I have my kids pick their favorite part of their bodies and write a descriptive poem or paragraph.  I also read some of my favorites from past students.  I don't give any guidelines or a rubric, which they love! 

I take a black and white photo and zoom in on their part.  I put one copy into their portfolio books and I created a large scrapbook for the School Art Auction.  I made a photo collage for the title page.  I mounted everything on black and white paper.

This is one of my all time favorite lessons!  I hope you do it with your class.

Friday's Five Fabulous Finds (on Pinterest)

Cute Mother's Day Freebie...also one for Grandmothers and Aunties

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A project for the summer..so many possibilities!

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I taught this method this week...the kids loved it!!!

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Great poetry lesson...make connections to cultural backgrounds.

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Just finished reading "Strategies That Work" and want to start having my children code the text.  Love this chart!

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Quick and Easy Fraction Activity

Being a school teacher, I could not resist the 70%  off plastic eggs at Target.  Once again, my mind had been racing all week to think of something to do with them.  I saw a fraction activity on Pinterest that I tweaked to fit my level.  The one I saw was matching a fraction to a picture.

This morning I had each student write a mixed number and an improper fraction.  We checked them all as a class and made sure there were no duplicates.  I assigned one fraction problem to a student...they each have a class number.

Each student wrote the mixed number on one side of the egg and the improper fraction on the other.  The kids decided that the two egg pieces should be different  colors so that no one would not cheat and just match up colors.  (I love how they think)  I then had them put their class number on both pieces on the inside so they can self-check. 

Instant fraction activity and no work for me!

Blowing Colorful Emotions

We have a school art auction every year and I wanted to get it done a little early this year.(Yeah Me!!!)   Each class creates something that gets auctioned off as a fundraiser...the school earns a lot of money!!!  Projects sell from $30-over $100.

Here is my final project for the auction..please read to find out what we did...



We read several books about feelings and colors.  Here are the books we read.

The next step was to create an anchor chart.  The pictures are from the paint chips at Wal-Mart.  We brainstormed words and feelings for each color.  A great chart to leave up for descriptive writing and poetry.

The art teacher helped out and did a lesson on lines.  I took black and white photographs to incorporate into their artwork.  Here are some of the kids projects.

I scanned all their pictures and ordered a hard cover photo book from Snapfish.

The art project was from the blog below:

http://elementaryartfun.blogspot.com/2011/09/lines-lines-and-fish-bowls-oh-my.html

Building Schema on Immigration

I have been focusing on the "Strategies for Comprehension" this year.   I wanted to model how we "Build Schema."

I started the lesson by having the kids make a schema web about Immigration at Ellis Island.  The children did not have much background information.(which was good)  We were planning to watch the live virtual field trip to Ellis Island on Scholastic later in the week. 

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/webcast.htm

We read several books during the week.  Here are a few of the books we read:

We continued adding to our webs.  I wanted the children to write facts that were stuck in their brains and not copying from the book.  We watched the web cast and it helped the children understand the Tour of Ellis Island and the live Q & A session with kids across the US.  We added to our webs again. 

Here are a few more samples of their schema webs:

I found a great activity to model how schema sticks in your brain using a lint roller.  I had the children each write a fact on a piece of paper and had the kids spread them out on the floor.  I used the roller and the facts stuck to our brain.  (Be careful of rug lint...lol)  The kids loved it...and even better got it!!!!

Click on the images below to links for lint roller: