November Currently

So let's break it down.

Listening: We are doing our Tune Up Tuesday today. This is where I find a song that generally fits with the year's theme of being proud of who you are. So today it is Katy Perry's Roar. They are going to be excited!

Loving: Chris Van Allsburg- who doesn't? He is an amazing author that has helped my guide my class in questioning and thinking through the text.  Such a great mentor author.

Thinking: I can... I can not really think too much more about them or my head my actually spin around. Have you seen the Exorcist? That's pretty much my take on it right now.  Ugh!

Wanting: I really need to rearrange my room. I currently have about 10 bookshelves housing well over 2000 books, which is great and all...but with 32 children there is little room left for us. And, we need to spread out!!

Needing: I need a day to actually work in my room and prep and plan and do all the stuff that is expected of teachers.  The last thing I want to do is it to take it all home- I'd like to see my family a little bit.

A Yummy Pin:  This soup is amazing. It was 1 degree when I woke up today!! 1 degree!!!!

Leaders in Time of Conflict

So keeping with our Unit of Inquiry we really needed to begin looking at leaders so we can examine how they responded in time of conflict and ways they expressed themselves.  I wanted the students to examine both sides of the Civil Rights Movement and make comparisons on what each contributed to the movement, good or bad.  So I composed a list of supporters and opponents and had the children choose one from each side. They were then to research a bit about each person, telling me what they did and how the two were connected . The students organized their thinking in a Venn Diagram.

This was a big eye-opener for some of my children because they just could not fathom how someone would think in such a "backward" way. 

Studying Conflict Through Biographies

      In our district we use the Linda Dorn model for literacy instruction. One component of that is to apply our CCSS for literacy into a study of genre.  Our current genre study is Biographies. So within this we not only tie in our IB Unit of Inquiry, but we also tie in our standards of focus for the unit.  With this unit our Power GLE or CCSS is RI.3, "Explain events, procedures, concepts, or ideas in a historical text, scientific or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text."  The students are also expected to conduct a short research project.  Whew! What a lot to put into a 6 week study!!

    We launched with our study of conflict.  This was used a gateway to open discussion up to how we express ourselves in times of conflict. Sounds easy enough, but to tie in our genre and GLEs is challenging. So our first goal was to build some background knowledge of our content tie in, for the first part it was Civil Rights Movement.  We read several biographies from Martin Luther King Jr, to Rosa Parks, and Ruby Bridges.  Within these we studied specific features of the genre biographies.

After modeling, I sent the students out to find examples of these characteristics within biographies around the room, they flagged the examples they found.  I feel it is not only important for them to be able to identify these characteristics, but to also explain how these help us gain understanding of the text.  This part was done as a response in their reading journal.  

An Inquiry Into Conflict

     Our next unit of inquiry is into the central theme of How We Express Ourselves. We are really trying to get the children to see how conflict brings out different forms of expression from peaceful protests, songs, poems, riots etc.  So the first day  I chose some kids at random and gave lots of special privileges and candy, or whatever I could find to start to create some conflict within our room.  Honestly, at the beginning no one was getting upset!! I was glad my children got along so well, but it was throwing off our social experiment. I had to up the ante and start handing on the big guns, like pencils, stars- I even had some teachers come in and give out prizes.  Then we had some conflict (directed toward me)!
     I never really shared what was happening- I just asked the kids to go home and reflect upon their feelings today and how they were expressing themselves in time of conflict.  They came in on Tuesday with some great ideas!!  ** I did let parents know on Facebook what had gone down so there were no concerns about why someone was intentionally left out**
Here is a picture of our chart the kids made- we first discussed their feelings- then they added what they new about conflicts within our world, school, or community.

It was a great discussion, and I found a lot of gaps in their understanding of war, and different types of conflict occuring now.  

First Day Plans

I've spent the past few days coming up with my plans for the first day, as well as the remaining week.  This year our district approved for the first day, Monday, to be a full day.  Normally on Mondays we are out at 1:55 for staff development.  So I had to do some revising of my plans to take in the extra time we had.  Here is my jing captured plans!

Made It Monday!!

I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics to share my awesome chair for Made it Mondays. I found this rocker at a garage sale for $15, and the stools from a friend for $20.  I thought, score!  I've been wanting a rocker for my room for a while.  My mom had offered to sew me a cushion, but I thought I would try my hand at painting it and see where that went.

Link up Here 4th Grade Frolics 

So here is what I started with, a couple of red stools, and a dark finish walnut,  I think, rocker.  Nothing bad about them...but they needed a little pick me up!

Then I added some detail to the stools- pulling colors from my room.  I got the acrylic paint from Wal-mart for about $.97 a bottle. 

Next up was the rocker.  Now this was an undertaking, just for time sake!  First I primed it with some white primer by Krylon.  Then I used banner red from Krylon and sprayed it with about three coats. The whole chair took about 1 1/2 cans of the red paint, but so worth the extra coverage.  

Next up was the design and details.  It was actually harder for me to decide what to do than to actually do.  I learned to go nice and slow. Patience is key here people! I used chalkboard paint on the top so I can write in different messages, or names of guests.  And without further ado...

I've actually added a bit more detail to the upper spindles, and a little glitter paint.  I am super excited to take it and place it in my classroom tomorrow when I go in to work!! 

Our Class is Growing!!

So I have begun to check my class roster daily. I started with 30 and am now up to 32.  32!! Holy cow my largest class ever!  I know these kids are going to be awesome so I am not too concerned, the assessments will be a challenge, but after a multi-age room last year, I'm pretty sure I can handle it.  It's all about organization and time management!  Today I played around on Tagxedo and created a print that I am going to put up in my room.  I love that you can put your words into shapes.  I chose the heart shape- normally I don't like hearts, no explanation as to why, just don't, but as a teacher we need at times to be reminded that these children who enter our rooms are someones whole world!! I think about my little guy who went off to first grade today and hope his teacher will know just how special he is, how sensitive he is, and how smart he is.  I know that each parent trusts me to not only teach their child, but to make sure they feel safe, loved, and respected at all times.  I like to put up reminders around my room of each child, whether it be a drawing, a picture of them, or some little token they have given me to help me remember they are still children, they are still trying to find their way. It is those little reminders that help me when I may get short of patience as we all do!
So here are my little cherubs for this year- we better be feeling a whole lot of love in the room- with 32 we are going to be quite cozy!!