Monday Made It {June 2}

I love the idea of keeping myself accountable through out the summer. I know that if I don't have a list, I tend to just veg and then wonder where all my time went! That's also part of why I started this blog. I'm really good at starting projects and then not completing them for various reasons. I've technically been out of school for almost 1 1/2 weeks, but I had a week long training so I consider this my first real week of summer!

My training was in Kagan cooperative learning. It was great! I had heard a lot about Kagan and it actually worked very well with the GLAD training I've previously had. The main thing about setting up Kagan structures in your classroom is having your students grouped in heterogeneous groups. That means looking at all of you kiddos and organizing them by their academic scores and then arranging them into groups, keeping in mind your "difficult clients." I was a little overwhelmed at the idea of needing to do that with all my kids, as we switch for reading, math and science/social studies. That just seemed like a lot of work that I would have to continuously be doing. I'm not a fan of work that continually needs redone (dishes and laundry are going to be the death of me for this reason!), but decided to just accept it and go forward 100%. If you don't give it your all, then you'll never know if it really works. In this case, I'm really excited about the possibilities that the Kagan structures may allow to happen in my room!

So with that… I luckily already have my class list for next year for my homeroom, reading and math classes. I decided why not make my card early and have my first groups already formed! I know that I'll have some students end up not coming and new students that do come, but the bulk of the work is done! It's not a very exciting "made it" but it's something that I won't need to do in the fall when I have a lot more to do.

This is the suggested way to create student info cards. I decided to use the colored index cards for a couple of reasons. I can color code by class. Pink is students in my reading class, and orange is students in my math class. Also, I already had them, so it was free! Best kind of project!

I filled out their SBA (state test) scores from 4th grade and their 4th grade Spring MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) scores for that subject. I also left room for their 5th grade MAP scores. Students may change colors throughout the year but I wanted to be able to quickly see if that happens by looking at their card. Each kid is also assigned a color based on where they fall within the class. 

Blue = High

Green = Medium High

Yellow = Medium Low

Red = Low

I will have the intervention reading class, but whoever my top kids are, are colored blue. I like that. I'm excited to have this done and in my brain. This will really help me when I'm thinking/planning over the summer.

Thanks for stopping by and hopefully I can include some home made its! 

*Steph*

A Book A Day --Playing Catch Up

Wow! It has been a whirlwind the last week or so. My husband has been in an engineer training class to drive the fire trucks for the past 4 weeks in the evening/weekend. (Yes, I am married to a fireman and yes, I know I am lucky :) ha ha! ) Mother's Day was a relaxed, but spent most of the day not at home. Then, the fourth grade from my school went on an overnight field trip Tuesday-Wednesday. Grades were due today and we have 3 more school days. Phew! I'm going to be playing catch up on quite a few things for the next few weeks. I also have a big statewide Girl's Camp to help take care of the food for the girls in my church ward and 2 other wards. Here comes the end of the year and summer! YAY! Bring it on!

Anyways…. just some books to play catch up…. I don't know what days they are….

The kids find this book hilarious! I pull it out when we discuss homonyms and homographs. The pictures really help them decipher the meanings of the words.  

Our librarian has used this book at the beginning of the year to help build community. I think it would be fun and eye opening to give each kids their own color and have them create a bigger picture. You could even divide them up into smaller groups if you don't have enough for each kid to have a different color.

This last book was recommended to me by one of our 1st grade teachers. She said that her students love it and that my daughter would probably like it too. She was right!

Pete the Cate and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin

As you can tell, my 17 month old daughter has loved this book well. This is a great story for anybody! You could use this book when introducing subtraction. It even has subtraction problems written in the book. My husband said that it had a good lesson for me. I tend to stress and worry. Pete the Cat does not. Check out the official Pete the Cat website. It has videos and activities to go with the stories.

Salmon Dissections

4th grade is generally state history. In Alaska, we study the life cycle of salmon because it is very important to our state livelihood. We are able to invite the Alaska Fish and Game to come and lead a salmon dissection for our grade level. 

We rotate each class through one room, so we only stink up one. A lot of the kids start out kind of timid but eventually most of them at least touch the fish once. They review the external anatomy. Our students aren't allowed any sharp tools, everything is done with their hands. The Fish and Game specialist cuts open the fish and then the students get to determine if they have a male or female. They also learn the internal organs of the salmon. It is a great activity that the kids talk about for a long time! 

We also raise little salmon fry from eggs to be released at the end of the year. We've had bad luck the last couple of years, but its looking good for this year! I will post about that activity at the end of May!

Do you do any dissections in your classroom or grade level?

Class Community

At the beginning of the school year, I  really wanted to build a class community. My school creates heterogenous homeroom classes and then levels for reading and math. Sometimes the homeroom class doesn't really connect because some kids are never with others during the core subjects. I wanted a fun way to have the kids and work together before we started switching for classes. I found this activity at Science Gal's blog. It was great! Most groups figured it out with out too much trouble. 

Materials per group:

6 cups

1 rubber band 

4 pieces of strings 

(Science Gal suggests that you tie the strings to the rubber band prior to the activity, but if you want it to be more difficult, don't.)

Set Up:

Goal:

Some of the kids at work:

This last group had the most trouble. There were two very strong personalities that clashed. I would not  let them change groups and everyone had to be working a string. It took awhile but they finally got it.

I feel like this was a very beneficial activity for the beginning of the school year. This activity was a simple set up. It allowed the kids to talk, work cooperatively, and practice classroom expectations. I am definitely planning on using it again.