Hocus Pocus, Keep Them Focused! GIVEAWAY

We all know that teachers have magic powers.  From eyes in the back of our heads to super-sonic hearing, we are a talented bunch, I tell you!  But this time of year, spring fever has hit, and with the end of the year in sight, we all need a little extra magic to keep us going!  So, in the next few weeks, I’m joining with my favorite intermediate teachers to put a little extra magic in our lessons and keep students engaged.

Credit goes to these talented graphic & font artists: Krista Wallden, KG Fonts & CC Fonts.

We will be swapping resources that will be just what we need to keep our students engaged during the final weeks of school.   We want to share our finds with you in a fun way – a 2-part blog hop giveaway!

Today, we present Part 1, with each blogger introducing the resource they selected to keep their friends engaged and learning in our final weeks together.   Then, over the course of the next two weeks, we will be using these resources in our classrooms.   On Sunday, May 11, we’ll be back to report on how well these resources kept our students engaged!

I was lucky enough to be paired up with Jessica from I Heart Recess!  I took a look in her store and fell in love with her "Gearing up for the Test: 3-5 ELA Review Game".  With our state tests around the corner, I thought that this product would be a fun way to keep students engaged before testing! Her product includes a board game students can play that reviews the following CCSS reading skills: context clues, theme, main idea, text structure, text features, making inferences, point of view, and character traits. I can't wait to tell you how it goes with my students!

Now to the giveaway!   Here’s what you need to do:

Stop by each blog below to check out the resources being swapped.

Enter to win the resource that is featured at each blog in the raffle below (the same raffle is at each blog, so you can just add to your entries as you go!).

While you are at each blog, if you’re not a blog follower already, sign on to follow!  (You can earn bonus entries for following all blogs once you unlock the additional entries.)

One winner will receive the entire set of resources being featured by ALL collaborating bloggers!

Here’s the list of blogs to visit: 

Swap Stop A

Swap Stop B 

Swap Stop C 

Swap Stop D 

Swap Stop E 

Swap Stop F 

Swap Stop G 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Finally, don’t forget to stop back in two weeks!   On Sunday, May 11, we’ll all be back to share with you how the magic went in our classrooms!   Oh yeah, you might want to know that that there will be a SECOND GIVEAWAY, too!  Until then, enjoy the magic and happy teaching.  :)

New Blog Design

I just wanted to take a second to thank the wonderful Megan Favre from A Bird in Hand Designs for my amazing custom blog design! I am absolutely in love with it! :)

Just for fun, and to spread the cheer, I will give away three copies of my newest product, "Poetry Analysis Booklet 2" to the first three people to comment below (please include your email address).

Have a fabulous weekend, and don't forget to swing by my blog tomorrow for a huge multi-blog giveaway!!!

Test Prep: Part 2

So, I recently posted Test Prep: Part 1 to give you some insight into what I do to prepare my students for our state testing!....Make sure you check it out if you haven't already.  Part 1 is more about the serious things we do to prep.  Now, for Test Prep: Part 2....the fun stuff!

Language Arts Olympics

In addition to what I've mentioned above, and the research papers we started this month, we will have a "Language Arts Olympics" this Friday and the following Monday (which is the day before the reading OAA).  Students will get into groups and work together to answer a wide variety of questions that address the standards we have covered this year.  There is a tentative gold, silver, and bronze medal team after the first day of games.  However, things can change during the second day!  I use the certificated found in the set below to award my students on the top three teams.

Test Prep Story

Testing Miss Malarkey is a humorous book, and it makes a great to read aloud before or after state tests. 

       

Test Prep Songs

(since the videos are a little grainy, see the links below them)

Every year in the weeks leading up to the test, I play the following "12 Power Words" rap for my students. Then, I give them a handout with the lyrics.  My students get into groups and I encourage them to create their own beats to read the rap to.  We practice for a week straight, and then during the second week, each group gets a chance to perform for the class.  I try to make it extra special by selecting a group from each class to present their rap to the rest of the school on our morning announcements.  They love it!

Video Link

Lastly, I cam across this little gem recently, and I am planning on showing it to my students soon! They all love the movie Frozen, and I'm sure they'll get a kick out of this! :)

Video Link

Test Prep: Part 1

Ohio's state testing, the dreaded OAAs, will begin soon. It's crazy how testing seems to sneak up on you every year!  When April rears its head, I always end up on the Ohio Department of Education website to select some released test questions for my students to practice.  We generally do a practice assessment each week on a Monday, students self-grade it on a Tuesday, and after I look over their answers Tuesday evening, they are given a sheet with their percentages and check marks for the skills they showed while completing their practice test.  So, all in all, my students will take four "practice tests".  We've currently completed three, with only one left before testing week! Mind you, I only select two texts a week.  I don't want to bog my students down with too much practice.  However, I think it is very valuable for them to practice completing a test. For example, they will get use to having a separate test booklet and answer document to write on. I truly believe my students will be more confident the day of the test due to the practice we've done in advance. 

1. Students take a practice test

*First, I will start by saying that the OAA practice assessments' questions, at least in my mind, are not as rigorous as many of the questions we have been practicing throughout the year.  Many of my students are amazed at how my "find it" type questions there are, where they can simply find the answer in the text, versus having to analyze what they've read. I know that we will be using the  PARCC assessments next year, and I have heard that they will be quite challenging. 

2. Students self-grade their assessments

*I think it is VERY valuable for students to be able to deconstruct their own short answer and extended response questions.  It allows them to see their work from the eyes of an assessor.  They can better understand what they've done wrong if they ended up missing a point.  

*The checklist I use with my students also encourages them to use evidence from the text and to explain the evidence in their responses.  I have seen such an improvement in my students' short answer and extended responses this year. I am incredibly proud of their work!

*When we go over the test questions together, I make sure to demonstrate the verbs used in the questions and how students need to make sure they are answering what is being asked.  I practice this skill throughout the year with our "I can..." statements.  I always call on students to further explain our "I can..." statements, so they get used to breaking down harder words, such as "identify" and "infer".  I am also planning on using my Super Words posters to review these terms one last time this coming week.

3. I check over responses and write down student percentages and give them check marks for the skills they showed while completing their practice test

*Even though this is time consuming, it is worth it!  Students are able to see their growth over the weeks.  It is also good to check off skills students are showing for encouragement.  I also try to make it fun by giving students small prizes for reaching certain amounts of check marks.  

Click below for a copy of my chart/checklist!

I will be posting Test Prep: Part 2 soon!  

Nonfiction Book Project

We are wrapping up the end of the 3rd quarter of school, so it was time for another book project!...Yes, spring break is within sight! I require my students to complete a book project each quarter.  This quarter's book project had to be on a nonfiction/informational book.  My students were allowed to pick any topic that they wanted to learn more about.  It was fun to see what they selected!  

My students created a cereal box with information about their topic, including Common Core aligned tasks. They had to summarize, explain their use of text features, define content vocabulary, and make connections to the text.  They turned out great!

 Front Cover

 Back of the Box

Summaries and Connections to the Text

 Sides of the Box

Vocabulary and Text Features

St. Patrick's Day-FLASH FREEBIE

I'm linking up with Farley for March's Currently!

The ?????? was....What are some of my favorite novels?

Speaking of March, I decided to do a FLASH FREEBIE of my St. Patrick's Day Language Arts Activities set.  Click on the image below to be taken to the product.  

Also, I have a permanent St. Patrick's Day FREEBIE at my store, so check it out! :)

Lastly, even though my spring break is sadly two weeks away, I know that many of you are already starting your spring breaks (congrats!)....If you are looking for some language arts activities for students to do during or after their spring break, click on the link below.

I will be blogging about my students' nonfiction book reports soon...Stay tuned!

TpT Sale, Jamberry, and Giveaway

                                                                                                 (Image credit: Rachel Lamb)

I will be participating in Teachers Pay Teachers "3 Million Teachers Strong" sale on Thursday and Friday! My whole store will be 20% off on those two days, and TpT will be kicking in an additional 10% savings. To get the additional 10% off, make sure that you enter the promo code TPT3 when you check out!

In other news, I recently became a Jamberry Independent Consultant! I'm loving my Traverse and Leopard Jamberry Nail Wraps! There are over 300 different designs to choose from....So many to try!

If you'd like more information about Jamberry Nail Wraps, check out the tabs on my Facebook page. If you'd like a FREE sample to try yourself, click here!

And, just because....I'd thought I'd have a giveaway.  It includes:

1. St. Patrick's Day Language Arts Activities set

2. Poetry Analysis Booklet

3. Using Evidence for the Text to Support Your Answers Poster Set!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Crafting Connection's 2,000 Follower Giveaway

My buddy Deb (from Crafting Connections) has just hit two huge milestones. She has 400 followers on Bloglovin and 2,000....Yes, 2,000 followers on Teachers Pay Teachers!!!  To celebrate, Deb is having a giveaway on her blog.  There are 15 chances to win!  I have donated any one item from my store (winner's choice) as a prize.  Make sure you stop by for a chance to win!!!  Congrats, Deb! :)

Poetry, Poetry, Poetry!

As I mentioned in my last post, we used the mentor text "Heartbeat" to start our poetry unit.  After we wrapped up that novel, we began our poem analysis and create our own poems!

Analyzing Poetry

Well, the biggest bummer in my classroom right now is that my Smart Board died (like at the beginning of January).  Yes, the fan failed....And, I'm still waiting for it to be fixed. So, luckily, I have a projector, but it's still not an ideal situation.  Anyways, when we began analyzing poetry, I created a booklet to use with my students (which I posted on TpT).  I projected the poem "Bliss" on the screen in my room, and we practiced going through the text dependent questions together.  I wanted to create free verse poems with rigorous questions to prepare my students for their state test! While we went over the answers as a class, students recorded them in their copy of their poetry books.

Each student had his/her own booklet to work in.  After the first day, students would go through the remaining poems with a partner, and later on their own.  We would always go over the correct answers as a class.

 Here is a sample of what a student's booklet looked like inside...

 One of my students brought in his favorite poetry book, Winter Woes.  With the weather lately, it was very timely!  I love when my students get excited about what we are learning and bring in items to share with the rest of the class! I had never heard of Winter Woes, but it was very cute!  It got some chuckles out of my 5th graders.

Note: The poem "Bliss" and a blank copy of a poetry book (see below) are a FREEBIE in my TpT store!

Writing Poetry

Now, I didn't want to kill my students' love of poetry by making them analyze poems 24/7.  So, we would analyze one to two poems a day.  The remaining class time was spent on creating our own poems!  I must say, I was SUPER impressed with my students' poems!  Since I taught them last year, I was able to comment on the progress they'd made as poets.  Here is a picture I posted on my Instagram account showing the hallway outside of my classroom.

I had a hard time selecting poems to include in this post.  I am not exaggerating (no hyperbole here)!  I just picked a few of the amazing poems my students created.  I was proud of their word choices, including their use of figurative language.  They did a nice job of incorporating repetition in their poems too.

The poem I wrote called "Down from the Sky" inspired a lot of my students to write poems from different perspectives (see the roller coaster poem at the end of this post).

Now that you've seen some of their work, can you tell why I'm such a proud teacher!?!?! :)

Heartbeat-Poetry Mentor Text

We finished the figurative language unit that we had been working on since we got back from break, and we made a seamless transition into our poetry unit.  Every year, after we review the characteristics of poetry (using my Poetry Unit Bundle), I like to use a novel written in poems to provide some poetry inspiration for my students.  Since I used my "go to" novel, Love That Dog last year (and I have the same students this year), I had to find another novel. Luckily, after some research online, I found a fabulous poetry novel (is that even what they're called?) ...Heartbeat!  Heartbeat was written by the same author as Love That Dog, Sharon Creech.

What is Heartbeat about?

Heartbeat is about a girl named Annie who is dealing with three big issues in her life: 1. Her mother being pregnant, 2. Her grandfather having Alzheimer's, 3. Her relationship with her friend Max (and their love of running). Creech jumps back and forth between these three issues throughout the poems in the novel.  

Why do I love Heartbeat?

1. Well, the main reason I love Heartbeat is because it provided my students with excellent examples of free verse poems!  It even inspired me to try my hand at free verse (see below for a freebie). 

2. Creech does a fantastic job of including figurative language in her poems.  There are so many examples of similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, etc.  

3. The book provides an excellent example of symbolism.  We hadn't talked about symbolism yet, so when we got to the end of the novel, it was a great time to cover that concept!  During the novel, Annie is given an assignment by her art teacher to draw the same apple every day for 100 days.  She notices the changes in her apple, and the last poem ends with a description of the last picture, which is a seed.  You'll see where the symbolism ties in in just a second...My students and I had a discussion about the cover/back cover of the novel.  There's an apple on the front and a core on the back. You realize by the end of the novel that the apple seems to represent her grandfather's decline in health, and the seed could represent new life, or her baby brother, Joey.

*We later tied in this new concept of symbolism to the poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost.  I told my students that it was a tougher poem for 5th grade, but some students were able to figure out that the roads mentioned in the poem represented choices/decisions in life.

How did I use Heartbeat in my classroom?

We started each class by reading about 25 pages of the novel.  Therefore, it took us eight days to read. Since it is written in poems, it didn't take very long (maybe 10-15 minutes/day). Our purpose for reading was enjoyment, so I didn't want to have my students analyze the poetry too much.  Before we read the novel, we discussed what Alzheimer's was, since it isn't expressly referred to in the novel (though it can be inferred). We also reviewed the main events from the previous day's reading and discussed symbolism. This past week, we did move on to analyzing poetry (which will be featured in my next blog post).

Image Credit

Click HERE for a great resource for Heartbeat (made by Scholastic).

Here is a freebie that contains a free verse poem I wrote.  I will be writing another blog post soon that covers how we analyzed poems in class, as well as my students' progress on their own poetry books!

Also, I recently joined Instagram...@middlegradesmaven!