Wrapping Up & Showin' Off!

To begin our week we actually wrapped up our poetry from last week. Students completed their Diamante and Metaphor poems. Check how the instructions here! Here are some adorable examples:

 

 

Monday was also the very first Technology Showcase for Pinnacle leaders and Ipad Pilots in Gaston County. Teachers were invited to come and show off the fabulous things students are doing in their classrooms with technology. I had the privileged of taking three of my amazing students to the showcase and allowed them the opportunity to show their stuff! They were asked by other teachers, administrators, parents, and even school board members to explain their use of technology. I must say they did FABULOUS! They handled the discussion so well, so mature, and did a great job explaining their roles in the classroom and how technology is used. Here are some pictures on their afternoon: 

 

 

 

I absolutely loved it and know my students did too! It went awesome :)

It's Poetry Week!

This has got to be one of the most exciting weeks, at least for me, and definitely one of my favorites throughout the entire year. It's POETRY WEEK! I have always loved poetry and constantly want to spread that passion to my students every year. Therefore, instead of hitting poetry here and there and in spotty times of the year, we hardcore focus on poetry for one week. During this week we dive into poetry review (terms like simile, metaphor, personification, etc.), then we actually write a piece of poetry or two a day! Of course we also look at some poetry and answer questions (but this is done throughout the year). This week is mainly dedicated to students writing their own poetry and expressing themselves through figurative language.

Monday we created "I Am" poems. These poems are three stanzas long about the students and their personality. They are given line starters for the stanzas, but then they feel in with actual dreams, wishes, thoughts, and feelings. Here are some examples:

 

Tuesday we did Pantoum poems. We reviewed stanzas and introduced quatrains. Students really like just saying the word, and were super excited to tell Mrs. Kinnett that they used a Spanish base word in Language Arts. These poems follow a specific line pattern where each line is repeated twice throughout the poem and it follows an ABAB rhyme scheme. Students were given the topic of Spring to write about and here are some awesome ones:

 


Wednesday we reviewed Haiku poems. Many students have written these before, but did not recognize the term when I introduced it. These poems are from Japan and mainly focus on nature. Students wrote two poems dealing with nature following the five syllable, seven syllable, five syllable pattern for this three line poem:

 

Thursday we worked on Concrete poems. This is probably a majority of my students' favorite poem of the week! Students are able to write on any topic they choose (they are excited after being told what to write about for the last two days!). They write their poem first, then choose a shape, then write the poem in that shape. For example if students wrote a poem about a tree, they could create a tree shape out of the poem! Students really get creative with this poem.

 

Finally today, Friday, we actually covered two poems! (We still do work on Fridays!!) We did Metaphor and Diamante poems. Metaphor poems are simply the students writing metaphors to compare themselves to another thing. Students can pick any object, animal, or thing to compare themselves to, then write metaphors (comparisons not using the words "like" or "as") about themselves being that object. Diamante poems (which I believe are my personal favorite) are in the shape of a diamond. Students can also write this poem on any topic. Students choose either two synonyms or two antonyms. The first line is one of those words, line to are two adjective describing word one. Line three is three -ing words describing word one. Line four has two nouns for word one, then two nouns for the final word. Line five is three -ing words describing the final word; line six is two adjectives describing that final word. The final line is the synonym or antonym for word one of the poem. (I'll have pictures of these two wonderful poems on Monday!)

Also at the end of this week (today!) students were turning in their Instagram Project that I assigned last week. Students did a wonderful job with it! Check out the instructions in this post from last week... Here are some final copies and views of the students' work:

 

 


And last but not least...It is the Cinco De Mayo weekend and I could not be more excited! I absolutely love Cinco de Mayo, Mexican food, and everything that goes with it. At Cramerton today we had a pre-celebration lunch with tacos, chips, salsa, queso, and all sorts of desserts. Here's my contribution...Sombrero Cookies (Thanks Pinterest!)

Tener un gran fin de semana!! (Have a great weekend ;) )

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears...Oh My!

We have finished our novel study on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz this week and the students absolutely loved it! They were super surprised at the amount of changes from their favorite, the movie, to my favorite, the book. I do believe I converted a good number to favor the book over the movie :)

For the end of our study I decided to steal some pretty awesome ideas from Pinterest. (FOLLOW ME!!) The first activity we did was with the fantastic foldable cubes. (Here's where I got it!) I have done cubes before...but more on a what's your favorite character, what's you favorite scene type ideas. This one on Pinterest just blew my old ones out of the water!  

Talk about practicality through foldables! I did alter the assignment a little. We actually reviewed some literary terms throughout novels and stories. We did our cube with the Characters, Setting, Climax, Theme, Mood, and then a Title Page side. The title page side was for the title of the novel, the author, and the name of the student. I also told my students to get creative in how they represented these parts to their cubes. Students were instructed to use pictures, and as few words as possible! I absolutely loveee seeing their little minds thinking of how they will represent the theme and mood through pictures! Here are some of the absolutely adorable cubes I got!

Also, for the end of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, I assigned a PROJECT! The dreaded project. I did get lots of moans and groans when I said that there was a project...and even some gasps when I told them they only a week to do it! (Whoops!) However, after explaining that, hey, it had Instagram involved, I did get some smiles. I also took this idea from Pinterest. ** I'm telling you... Erin Klein is awesome! She has sooo many ideas worthy tweaking for your own classroom! Mad credit to her!! ** I posted about how it was a wonderful idea a while back...but I am finally now going to use! Whoop Whoop! Finding new things and using them :)

Here's where the idea came from..and here's how they represented it:

Following the end of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, (SPOILER ALERT) all the main characters are separated into different lands. How perfect for a reason to Instagram, right? I mean, how else are the characters supposed to keep in touch with each other? My kids are eating it up! Students are going to choose one main character (Lion, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, or Dorothy) and give them an Instagram account. Then they will make one picture for what that particular character has been up to since they got separated. Finally students will choose a second character and comment on the original picture! I love it!! So, here is my assignment paper and rubric for my students making the project. I can not wait to show some of these off! 

Until next week..and the Instagrams get rolling in, have a great weekend! Love, The Dolphin Team :)

Japan, The Korea's, and Cause & Effect..Oh My!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. It has definitely been an exciting Monday here for the Dolphin Team. We have started this week (maybe like most weeks) catching up and finishing up things from the week before. Aren't we always behind in something? :)

We finished our study of Japan and the Korea's today. (Check out our fabulous SmartNotebook Lesson here!) We were specifically looking into Feudal Japan and the Korea's and understanding their history. Students first completed a map of the area that we are studying. (We did about two weeks ago before moving on. We discussed the locations, islands, peninsula, seas, and oceans that make up the area we are studying!)

Next students created a foldable (my favorite!) for Japan and the Korea's physical geography, history, culture, civics and government  and economics. As we went through that fabulous SmartNotebook file (find the link above), students wrote down three specific facts for each category, and then highlighted the information with a picture. I love including pictures in the notes because I feel like students find the information more relate-able when they can express it in pictures. It also seems to keep their interest to watch me draw. I definitely did not get the best drawer award growing up! Here's some my wonderful foldables on the Dolphin team:

 

 

The students always seem to love getting the foldables completed and seeing how interesting they look. They always choose such creative little pictures to display and represent their information. Now it's time for a little ancient civilization review with the Dolphins before jumping next week into the Middle Ages (focusing on Europe). Bring it on! 

Finally for today, check out what the Dolphin team has planned for the rest of the month in our APRIL NEWSLETTER. I know it is the 15th already (Ah! Tax Day!) and pretty much half-way through the month...but I'll take the whole "We weren't back at school until the 8th because of Spring Break. Therefore, I'm only a week late" excuse. ;)

Well My Oh My!

First, let me start off by saying I am completely full of shame. I am embarrassed with myself for not blogging in close to 2 MONTHS! What is wrong with me? That is just ridiculous! I guess let me explain a little of what has been going on (OK, OK...let me make some excuses maybe). I am currently in my second semester of my Master's program (Middle Grades) at Appalachian State University. I absolutely love the program, but have found myself a little preoccupied with it the last two months. I am currently in a curriculum course, and a technology course (probably my favorite two!). Therefore, I have been devoting A LOT of time to those and it definitely took away from my blogging. Also, more personal, my husband and I have recently sold our house (Whoop Whoop). We started thinking of selling and figured we could put it on the market now and have it sold by the end of the school year. Yea Right! Our house was only on the market for 2 DAYS! So, within the last month, our house was put on the market, sold, closed on, and we have moved into an apartment (we are building in York!). So needless to say...my blogging has fallen away.

But never fear! It is the third day back from Spring Break and I am ready to roll. You may get overwhelmed with my goals of blogging for the next few months :)
Before we got out for break, the Dolphins read the novel Touching Spirit Bear. It is a wonderful novel and my students absolutely loved it! We did lots of activities throughout the novel (Check out our Smart Notebook file here!) as well as a final project. I have always done cute little presentation projects for this novel (check out the project selection list). However, this year...I wanted to do better. I found a site that mentioned students creating Book Trailers. Basically movie trailers, but for the novel. I collected some materials, made an information sheet, and rubric, and gave it a try this year. We created the trailers through Animoto and it has definitely been my students favorite program this year. Check out what my students received for their information sheet and then check out some of their amazing work below!

Until the end of this week (when I blog about the fabulous first week back at Cramerton Middle) have a great Wednesday through Friday :)

Goodies For Sharing

At the beginning of school, way back in September, the Dolphin Team and I created a Book Drive to remember September 11th in the Act of Kindness event. We requested the students and staff of our wonderful school and community donate any books that they were not reading anymore. We collected all ages; everything from infant books, to middle level chapter books, and even adult novels! We were overrun in books and it was a great success! This picture was only about two weeks into the month of September while we were collecting. My back counter was covered in fabulous donations from our community. 

Here are our final book drive totals. You can see that I had to move the books from my classroom and into the athletic director's office for more space. (Thank goodness he is my teammie and allowed me to have some extra room to hold our donations!)

We collected over 1100 books for our community and donated them to areas in need. CLICK HERE to see us featured in a newsletter from a local Intermediate school who benefited from our drive. We gave them close to 500 books in the range from third to eighth grade! 

Below is a picture of myself and Mrs. Crook from Woodhill Elementary. We donated grade level books from kindergarten to second grade to Woodhill. I absolutely loved the blog post from Mrs. Crooks about their experience. I am so touched that so many students were able to benefit from our drive. I could not be more happy with our experience. Check out Mrs. Crook's Blog!

I am beyond proud of the Dolphin team and the support that Cramerton has given our drive :)