5th Grade Interactive Notebooks for Engage New York

I am very excited to report that I have started working on the fifth grade interactive notebooks for Engage New York. Some of you may be saying, "Hey, what about finishing the fourth grade notebooks?" Well, I have a guy who helps me digitize my ideas. He is working away on the fourth grade modules, so I decided to start fifth grade while I wait to get his work back.

I am having a lot of fun working on the fifth grade curriculum. I think I like it so much because I have worked with the second, third, and fourth grade units first. I can see the progression, and it makes so much sense! I highly recommend spending some time doing this, if you can. I will be posting about it as soon as I can as well. I just find it fascinating. Plus, if I have a student who is having trouble, we can just back it down to where he has a solid foundation and move up from there. I know this is something we should be doing anyway, but I often had trouble knowing the progression well enough to use it in a meaningful way.

So, fifth grade starts out with place value (same as fourth grade and third grade I think). The place value chart has expanded to show millions through thousandths. It has a decimal point in it. I think this was introduced in fourth grade. Students then learn/review multiplying by tens, hundreds, and thousands. They also work on dividing by tens, hundreds, and thousands.

If you look closely, you can see that when we move to the left we multiply by tens, and when we move to the right we divide by tens. This is the same as fourth grade, so kids should be able to stretch their thinking to include the tenths, hundredths, and thousands.

Something new in this first topic is exponents. I think Engage New York does a nice job of showing the kids that they have already been using exponents when they multiply by ten multiple times. However, some kids may need more practice with this idea. If I can, I will put together something. If you know of a resource already out there, please share it in the comments.

Finally, I really like how the last lesson or two brings everything back to the metric system. We can just layer the names of each unit of measurement on the place value chart and suddenly we are working with measurement and real objects. It makes so much sense to me. Again, some kids will get it really quickly, and others will need more practice. If you have a great resource for this, put it in the comments.

So, this is just Topic A of Module 1 for the fifth grade math unit. I have completed my notes for Topic B, and I will be putting them into computer form today. I might not get it all done because I am teaching some of my fellow teachers how to get started on Teachers pay Teachers, and I have an interview later today. I had been planning on just doing TpT and TN next year, but an opportunity came up that I just couldn't refuse. I will have a lot of freedom in my classroom to try out all my crazy ideas. Hopefully, it works out, and I will be able to share what I am doing in my classroom with you all. If it doesn't work out, that is okay too. I have a notebook full of things I need to be working on.

The fifth grade modules are not for sale yet, but stay tuned!

Biomes Reading Passages and Notes Pages

I was looking through my Google Drive today, and I found a set of reading passages I had made this spring. They were awesome when I used them in the classroom, and I was so excited to put them up on Teachers pay Teachers, Teacher's Notebook, and Edmodo. Well, I guess I got busy because that never happened.

Thankfully, they are ready to go now!

In our third grade we spend the spring studying the structures of life which involves a lot of learning about animals and their environments. You may not know this, but I used to teach middle school science, and I especially love this topic! Actually, I love most of the science topics!

We went way beyond most of the other third grade classes at our school with our study of the parts of an environment. My third graders know abiotic, biotic, factors, and many other high level science vocabulary words.

One part of our study was reading about some of the different biomes. (The biomes include freshwater aquatic, desert, rainforest, grassland, and taiga.) I used this as a reading lesson, but it really helped build the students understanding of our science topics.

I did a jigsaw activity to use these passages in my classroom. I had the students work in groups to read one of the biome passages. They did all of the steps that we always do for close reading (highlighting, circling, etc...) Then, they worked together to answer the questions attached to the passage.

The next day, the groups met again to complete the notes page for each biome. This is where they organized what they had learned about the biomes according to what we had been learning about environments. It was really important to give them a chance to talk about this as a group because some of my students aren't able to synthesize this kind of information independently yet.

Finally, on the last day of the activity, students regrouped so that each group was made up of one representative from each biome. While each student shared about what they had learned, the rest of the group took notes on the final notes page.

Once students have the completed notes pages, they are ready to use the information in some way. I had students do an art project and paint one of the biomes. They had to include details in the painting that showed that they understood the important parts of the biome. They also had to write a paragraph to go along with the painting. (We were working on writing complete paragraphs at this time as well!)

You can purchase Biomes: Passages and Notes Pages at any of the store below:

Engage New York Math: Interactive Notebooks

Last year my grade level decided to teach using Engage New York (also known as Eureka Math). Our school district does not provide a math curriculum, and we decided that we needed some help teaching the new Common Core standards for the first year.

I really liked the Engage New York curriculum. It is designed to get kids thinking, not just memorizing. Plus, it covers all of the Common Core standards, so I don't have to search through tons of resources to make sure I cover all of the standards.

However, the lessons can be a little dry and repetitive. One way that I found to help insert some creativity and fun into Engage New York was to build interactive notebooks to go along with the modules.

Every module has guide pages to help you see how I put the notebook together. I tried to focus on the most important take away ideas of the topics in the modules when building the notebooks, so they would help kids review.

You can buy one module at a time, or the entire set at Teachers pay Teachers, Teacher's Notebook, or Edmodo.

My Goals for the Summer

So, I am staying up way too late to link up with I Heart Grade 3 for her weekly summer link-up. This week's topic: Goals for the Summer. Let me tell you, I have quite a few, and they are big!

1. Write Curriculum for Next Year

Yep, that's right. Write curriculum. Why on Earth would I have to do that, you ask. Well, our district does not provide curriculum. We have this weird online portal they are building that has links to different resources and lessons, but that just doesn't work for me, so I am making my own. Well, as much as I can.

This year we decided to use Engage NY for math, and I really liked it for a lot of reasons. However, I also really didn't like it for a lot of reasons too. I have already made my new math plan, and while it doesn't work in the same order as Engage NY, I will be using a lot of their ideas. 

Luckily, for reading and writing, I have been creating a lot this year, so I will just have to pull from resources I have already created.

2. Vegas, Baby!

Not really a goal, but I am so excited for Vegas! It is going to be a huge whirlwind because we are only coming in for two days (one night!). I still need to get my stuff ordered... I guess that is a goal...

3. Up My Performance on Teacher's pay Teachers

Teachers pay Teachers has been so good to me. It is a blessing in my life for so many reasons. However, I really neglected it last year while I was pregnant, and I didn't see the growth I was capable of. 

Now it is time to nurture my little store again and get back to business! I have a dream that someday my husband will be able to stay home and take care of our many, many kids. I know I can make that happen if I stick with it!

4. Start a Video Presence

I have been wanting to add a video presence to my TpT Universe for a long time, but it is really hard to shoot videos with four kids running around - well, you know, three running and one crawling. I am really committed to getting this videos made this summer. We are hiring two, yes, two, babysitters to watch the kids, so I can take care of business.

Well, I am super-pumped for summer now! It is like ten months long, right? Anyway, thanks for reading! Be sure to click on the picture at the top of this post to visit the linky and read all about everyone else's summer goals!

Friday's News

Well, I am either very late or a little early for linking up with RClassroomsRUs for Friday's News, but I just learned about this link up and I was too excited not to participate right away!

I really love linkies where all I have to do is share what I have been up to this week because that is about all I can process right now.

We are smack in the middle of testing season - my lesson plans just seem to be filled with tests. Insert sad face here. However, a bright spot was this test review activity that the kids got really excited about.

This is an old activity my mentor teacher taught me many years ago. Kids are given some math problems and have to work as a group to solve them. Sounds pretty boring, right? Wrong! The team that gets the most right first wins... Skittles!

That turned this semi-boring test prep activity into one of the best things we have done all year! My kids were so focused that a volunteer mom knocked on our door three times and no one heard her. This is not because they were loud - they were actually really quiet! Everyone was just that focused. Or she was a quiet knocker...

This is the only picture I took. I wish I had taken more! But can we all just admire the fact that at a table of four kids, here are all four kids actively involved in the assignment?! I LOVE these guys!

I wish that I had created the product they were working on (or even bought it at TpT, so I could throw some love to another seller). However, it is just the released sample items from the SBAC website.

Since I couldn't share a product related to this post, i have decided to share a FLASH FREEBIE with just the readers of this post. For the next 24 hours, one of my newest products, Hamburger Paragraphs is FREE! That is a savings of $3, or part of a fancy cup of coffee at Starbucks.

This is another activity that had my students super engaged for the entire lesson. Students put sentence strips into the correct order to create a paragraph, then use the tools provided to start writing their own paragraphs. The paragraph organizer was a great scaffold for getting my students to consistently write complete paragraphs.

Planning for Next Year

The school year is coming to a close. Every day on Facebook there is a message from another teacher who is done for the summer.

Well, in my class we are still going strong. We start the SBAC math test next week. Insert sad face here, but that is a whole different topic.

Anyway, even though we still have a few weeks left of school, I am at that point in the year where I have covered the major things I want to cover, so a lot of my major planning is done. It is a great feeling.

Now, it is time to focus on next year.

My school district, like many other districts in Washington, has no elementary curriculum. None. This has made the last two years a little bit stressful. I moved grades last year, so I couldn't even reuse what I came up with the year before.

Last summer I tried planning with my new third grade team, but we just didn't get as much accomplished as I had hoped. I still ended up scrambling to gather resources and create a coherent plan. 

This summer, I am working on the plan on my own, so I know I will get it done. And, I am putting everything I create up on Teachers pay Teachers, Teacher's Notebook, and Edmodo, so I can share it with you! 

My plan is to create a curriculum that works for both teachers and kids.

I have already started working on the math plan, and I am so excited about it. This year I was really excited to use Engage NY. It worked really well this year because it gave me a plan. Having that plan made math this year a lot more successful than it was last year. However, I think it can be even better. 

Have you noticed that there are some lessons in Engage NY that just don't make a lot of sense? I found myself working so hard to teach a lesson to my kids, and then saw that it was never brought up again. I understand that Engage NY was designed to help kids understand math, but some of their steps just didn't work for me.

I also hated the tests. I felt like the exit tickets did not get the kids ready for the tests which were really heavy on the reading. This was a nightmare for all of my ELL students.

My goal is to create a curriculum that takes the best parts of Engage NY, uses specific direct instruction, creativity, and fun to teach math. I have already come up with the framework for the year, and it looks so good! I have time for every Common Core standard with buffers built in because you know we are always behind. 

Now, it is time to create the lessons, worksheets, quizzes, foldables, anchor charts, etc...

Five for Friday 5/15/15

It has been a most exhausting week! Probably one of the most exhausting weeks since the beginning of the school year. When was that? Five, six years ago?

Anyway, I don't think I have ever been so happy to come home on a Friday afternoon. Here is a look at my week as I link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching  for Five for Friday!

Here is the thing that is most on my mind. I am going to lose a student next week. He is not moving or getting promoted to fourth grade. He is being transferred out of my room. I feel so mixed about this. First, I am sad, and I feel like a failure. 

This is a kid I have been working with all year. We have had some really good times, but we have also had some really bad times. The idea of him being transferred was brought up earlier this week when he was sent home for poor behavior. He was supposed to get it together to be able to stay. Unfortunately, though circumstances and his own choices, he was not able to do this. 

I said I wanted to keep him if we could work things out, but it was best for him (and the rest of the class) if he moved. The trouble is another kid was moved into my class (from another class in our school) a few weeks ago, and the combination of these two is just terrible! They are feeding off of each other. If I would have known this would happen, I would never have accepted the new kid. 

So, while part of me is feeling terrible about all this. Another part of me feels relieved. About 75% of all my time is taken up by this one student. Not just school time - all my time. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking of ways I can help him be successful. About 90% of my school day is redirecting him. I adore this kid, but he is exhausting me. 

Another reason this week felt so long is that our school district participated in the Washington state rolling walkouts. This was a tiring day for so many reasons. First, walking around holding a picket sign is more work than you would think. Second, I had my kindergartner and first grader with me, so lots of child management going on. And finally, I do not like conflict or controversy, and that who issue is full of both. I really need to build a thicker skin.

We started our morning at a local intersection. It was great to hear the horns honking in support of the students and teachers of our school district!

It is not very much fun for a kindergartner to picket, so luckily there was a tree to climb!

Later, we meet with other school districts at a rally in downtown Vancouver. I missed the speakers here because the girls wanted to play at the park, and it had already been a long day for them. How could I say no? Plus, this adorable girl made her own sign that said "It's time... less testing, more learning." She said she wanted to take it home and show it to her teacher. Although, I bet her teacher would totally agree!

 My week started off with a wonderful Mother's Day surprise. My wonderful husband got tickets for the big girls and me to go see Varekai - a traveling Cirque du Soleil show. To say that it was amazing does not do it justice. I was blown away by the costumes, the music, and the talent of all the performers. If you have not seen a Cirque du Soleil show and ever have the opportunity - Go!

Pre-show - Aren't they adorable?!

Post-show: Practicing! 

Both girls are totally doing dance, gymnastics, and circus camp this summer. They are so excited!

 Have you seen that Edmodo is starting their own teacher resource website? It is very similar to Teachers pay Teachers. I was experimenting with it last night, and I really like how easy it is to use. I hope that this site takes off!

Well, I don't really have a 5 - and I have to go get the little kids from daycare. So, have a great week!

Author's Point of View

Do you need materials to teach or assess your students on the Common Core standard RI.3.6? Well, then this is the product for you!

Students start by reading about one event from several different perspectives. A cat runs away from a dog, and it is described by the cat, the dog, a mouse, a mother, a little girl, and a little boy. My third graders especially liked this activity, and it really showed me who was reading carefully for the author's point of view.

The next step is to read an article about elephants. There are two versions for different levels of readers. This gives students a chance to answer both multiple choice questions and a short answer question. It gets to the heart of understanding the difference between the author's point of view and the reader's point of view.

Also included in the product is a short reading passage about homework and two short answer followup questions and a short quiz that tests author's point of view.

Layers of the Earth Reading Passage

I am very excited to let you know about the updates I have made to my Layers of the Earth Reading Passage product. This is one of my top sellers, and I have worked very hard to give it a face lift.

First, I added an easier passage, so that students who struggle with reading can still access the material. I also included a linked up version of the easier reading passage, so students can click on important words/names to get more information on that topic. This includes both websites and pictures. This is a great option for any student as long as your class has access to computers.

Still included are a graphic organizer for students to take notes as they read, and a multiple choice and short answer quiz.

If you have already purchased the product, make sure you go back and download it again. Then, give yourself a pat on the back because the price is going up today! 

You can get it at my Teachers pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook store.

Hamburger Paragraphs

After teaching fourth grade last year, I know exactly what my third graders need to know to be successful next year. This is especially true in writing.

Last year, many of my fourth graders came to school unable to consistently write in a complete sentence. Their pages were full of run-on sentences. This is a common problem for kids because the emphasize on writing right now is ideas and volume (at least in our district).

I feel pretty old school in my belief in the emphasis of grammar in writing. I spend a lot of time teaching the parts of speech and types of sentences because I belief that students need to really know and understand the way we put sentences together in order to do it themselves independently and consistently.

After practicing writing sentences all year (yes, over six months on sentences!), we have been able to start writing paragraphs! I find that literal little third graders need to have explicit instructions to do anything, writing paragraphs included. To that end, I made my own version of the hamburger paragraph model. It is a classic (this is how my third grade teacher taught me to write paragraphs), but the perfect representation for our needs.

After looking at the anchor chart/poster, we sorted paragraphs that were already written to get the feeling for what the model looks like. I had six different paragraphs, so kids could get as much practice as they needed. I also had students copy the paragraphs once they were sorted correctly for even more practice.

I was especially excited when some of my students realized that adding details to their paragraphs was just like adding more condiments - they both make the hamburger (or paragraph) more delicious. I have some smarties this year!

Also included in my Hamburger Paragraphs product is a paragraph organizer which allows students to create a paragraph one sentence at a time. This has been especially helpful for my students who struggled to write their paragraphs independently after the lesson. It just provides an extra layer of support to get students working independently.

I have to say that this was one of the most successful lessons we have done in third grade. We did this about three weeks ago, and we have been writing paragraphs every day since then. I am always so excited when I see that they have used the model all by themselves!


You can get this set for just $3! That is such a bargain for creating stronger writers!

   

Teachers pay Teachers

Teacher's Notebook

Rainbow Self-Monitoring Freebie!

Well, my original post on the Rainbow Self-Monitoring Clip Chart hit 20 views last night! I promised I would share it as a freebie when that happened, so here it is:

Just click on the picture to get access to the Google Drive document I created. You will be able to view/print the pages. If you want to edit it to fit your own needs you will need to...

1. Go to "File"
2. Select "Make a Copy"
3. Select a new name for the copy

Once you have made a copy, you will be able to edit the file to fit your needs (except you won't be able to change the clip art). You will not see any changes I happen to make to the file in your own copy, but if you keep the file I shared with you, then my changes will appear.

I hope you enjoy this freebie! If you like it, check out my TpT and TN stores!

New Greek and Latin Roots Program

One of my best sellers on TpT has been my Greek and Latin Roots weekly program. It is one of the first things I created to use in my own classroom when I was teaching middle school.

Here is what I love about the old program:

1. Teaching roots increases students' vocabularies much faster than teaching individual vocabulary words.

2. It sets up a reliable pattern for kids. They know that every Monday they will learn five new roots, and every Friday they will be expected to know the roots.

3. It is easy for the teacher. Everything is set up, so you don't have to do any extra planning.

Here is what I didn't love about the old program:

1. Five roots a week is way too many for elementary school, but I still wanted to use the program with my students. Prefixes, suffixes, and root words are all a part of the Common Core Standards for third grade.

2. There were only root words in the program, not prefixes and suffixes. I needed to teach prefixes and suffixes, but I didn't want to have two different programs.

3. Many of the third and fourth graders in my classes have not been ready to brainstorm lists of words for each root. I think they just didn't have enough exposure to language to know enough words for this task. They need to be given words that fit each root.

So, I decided to create a new program for elementary school students. It teachers one prefix, suffix, or root word a week. It gives students plenty of sample words to help them understand how prefixes, suffixes, and root words work together to form larger words. Finally, it integrates spelling, grammar, and vocabulary in a way that helps students understand that these three different topics work together.

Here, again, is the binder I am using to organize the sheets for my classroom.

I used tabs to divide the sections in prefixes, suffixes, and root words. I put the pre-test and the post-test up front. I was thinking that I would probably gather more lessons/worksheets for each of these topics, so I wanted to have a framework to build on in the binder.

You can see that every week has a worksheet for the student and flash cards for the class. Of course, you could make them for every student, but that would take a lot of time. I will probably make three or four sets per week, so I have enough for a literacy station.

I printed the flash cards with the sample words and their definitions on them on card stock.

Then, I cut out the cards and backed them with colorful paper. This would help me easily see which cards went together if students were working with different sets of cards. I could have just printed the cards on different colors of card stock, but I didn't have any at the time.

            

Then, because I am a teacher, I laminated the cards. Finally, I punched holes in the corner of the cards, so I could keep them together using a ring. I love these rings to keep cards together!

       

Kids can match up the cards, use them to study independently, or quiz their friends. I think that having the option to see both the vocabulary words and the definitions in the same space will really be helpful for my ELL students.

You can buy the program at Teachers pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook.

Teachers pay Teachers

Teacher's Notebook

If you would be interested in winning a copy of this program for free, just follow the blog and leave a comment below. I will send out the prizes on Sunday.