Shiver me Timbers! Talk Like a Pirate Day Linky Party

Ahoy Matey! Happy National Talk Like a Pirate Day! I don't know about you, but my kiddos and I enjoyed ourselves today.

The celebration started this afternoon. We read my favorite pirate book, Dirty Joe, The Pirate by Bill Harley.

We then created our own pirate names, made pirate eye-patches, then we had to Walk the Plank while we practiced our pirate vocabulary. We also worked on a little pirate math thanks to my lovely blogging buddy, Laura..

We then enjoyed our Pirate Booty (and cookies) and told a tale about our parrot.

So me hearties, what did you to for Pirate Day? Shiver me Timbers and link up below to share your tales from the day. (All those that link up will receive some pirate booty from me.)

Workshop Wednesday-Building Stamina in a Reading Workshop

Happy Wednesday! I don't know about you, but this has been a long week. I'm excited to link up with Ideas by Jivey for Workshop Wednesday.

 

Today I want to share with you how I start my Reading Workshop. After my kiddos and I set up our Reader's Notebooks. My kiddos and I make a chart of what Reading Workshop should look like and sound like. Having Reading Workshop is totally new to them in 4th grade (although the 3rd grade teacher is trying it this year) so we brainstorm together what I should expect.

Once we make our chart we begin to build stamina. The students start out reading for 15 min. at a time. Each day I add a few min. until we hit 30 min. of reading. My mini-lessons for the first few weeks are about genre types, how do we take care of our books, how do we use our reading logs, how do we choose a just right book, etc.

This week my students and I are working on our first real reading skill. "Reading is Thinking." My students and I generate a list of things that they think about while they read.

After we have made a mini list together I give them this bookmark to show them other things they can think about while they read. You can grab it for free from TPT.

What do you do to launch your Reading Workshop and build stamina?

Don't forget that tomorrow is National Talk Like a Pirate Day. If you do anything with your kiddos to celebrate, I'd love to have you join my first linky party!

A Peek at My Week and a Mentor Text Suggestion

Well, my weekend is flying by...I can't believe it is already Sunday! I'm linking up with Jennifer at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings and the lovely ladies from Collaboration Cuties.

This week is going to be an adjustment for me. My student teacher (who is doing a wonderful job) will be picking up another subject. That will mean three for her (Bible, Social Studies, and Language) and three for me (Math Workshop, Reading Workshop, and Writing Workshop.) She isn't my first student teacher so I know how it feels to "not" teach, but it is still a weird feeling.

On Monday this week my kiddos and I will start doing Mentor Sentences. I am really looking forward to introducing this class to the art of "noticing." We use it a lot in Writing Workshop-so doing it with grammar is a natural addition for me.

My kiddos and I will be celebrating National Talk Like a Pirate Day on Thursday. My students and I will celebrate this fun day by creating our very own eye patches. We will read a wonderful story that I shared with you two weeks ago, and we will be doing some fun free activities I found on TPT. You can check them out here. You can also check out this linky party at Frog Spot to get more ideas. I am planning on doing my first linky party to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day.

If you plan to do something fun with your kiddos to celebrate I'd love to have you link up! (Is it wrong to admit that I am nervous that no one will join?)

I'm also excited to share a science mentor text with you, Everything Volcanoes and Earthquakes. I just purchased four copies of this text from Scholastic. I love the National Geographic for Kids Everything Series.

This series presents facts in a fun and engaging way. I love using these books to teach text features as well as content. I'm excited to have four copies...but I think I may order enough so every pair of students can have a book. Good thing I'm a Red Apple Teacher.

What are you up to this week?

Spark Student Motivation-Magic Squares

Happy Saturday! It is a beautiful day here in PA. I am so excited to have my windows open and not by seating to death! I hope many of you are able to have the gorgeous weather I am enjoying today!

I'm linking up with the wonderful Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching to share an activity that I use to motivate my kiddos during math.

I am always looking for a fun way to stretch my kiddos thinking. Last year I stumbled across Magic Squares on TPT. HoJo, one of my favorite Magic Squares sellers has a lot of great products for all elementary ages. She has a blog post about how to use them here.

This week during our math stations I had my kiddos work on her Place Value set. Because I like to hold my kiddos accountable for their work in their stations so I copy them on white paper, cut them apart, and paperclip all the squares together. When the students solve the puzzle I have them tape the squares down on a blank piece of paper.

The students love doing them. A few of my high kids asked for new squares when they finished the set they were on because they enjoyed doing them so much. I loved it because they were very engaged and they solved 24 math problems in a fun and exciting way.

Have any of you used Magic Squares with your kiddos before? Be sure to head over to Joanne's blog to find more ways to motivate your students!

Writing, Reading, and Monsters...Oh My! (Five for Friday)

Happy Friday everyone! I hope that you have all had a wonderful week. This week was our first full week of school. I'm excited to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday.

It has been a busy week in fourth grade. We fully embraced Reading Workshop this week.

We spent time this week finding our comfy spots around the room to read. One of my boys commented that this was the first time he has finished a book in less than two weeks. When we ended reading time today a few of the kids groaned from disappointment.

This little one likes to sit between my Elmo cart, desk, and bookshelf!

We also wrote our first two mini-pieces in Writing Workshop. The first was an I Am poem.

Then we found Monster's in our Classroom (click the link to read when I blogged about this activity over the summer.) I love doing this activity with my kiddos at the start of the year. It is such a fun way to teach them how to be descriptive.

I'm also excited to share that one of my blogging friends is holding a 100 Follower Giveaway! Gary from Scrappy Guy Designs is also holding a linky to share.

I remember when I had 100 followers. It was in April. I had been blogging for about two months when I hit the "magic" 100 followers! I couldn't believe that there were 100 people that wanted to read about what I was doing in my classroom. I remember the first thing I did was contact Classroom Friendly Supplies to receive my free sharpener to review. (I am still in love with that sharpener!)

What have you been up to this week? Happy weekend everyone!

Teaching Elementary Students about 9/11

Yesterday was September 11th, a day that makes all American adults pause and remember. Most of you know that I teach 4th grade, that means that I am currently teaching students that were not alive in 2001. They only know the story of the World Trade Center Attacks as just that, a story. So the question is, how do we handle 9/11 with kids so young?

To start this conversation I ask my kiddos to tell me what they know about 9/11. We listen and talk. As the conversation turns into more questions than facts I play a video from BrainPOP. The video is normally the featured video on Sept. 11th, so even if you don't have a BrainPop subscription you can still show the video for free.

After the video the kids and I read the story Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey. The students and I talk about the book, and how normal people became heroes that day. Fair warning to read it first before you read it to your kids...I get choked up every year.

Then we read September 12th: We Knew Everything Would Be All Right. This book was written by a first grade class. It shares how the students knew everything would be okay. Many of you know that I am in a private school, so I am able to share with the kids that we can trust in God when bad things like this happen. I remind them that it isn't a surprise to God, and that even though we don't know why He allows bad things to happen we can trust that He will help us through it. It's a good lesson for me to remember too.

How do you explain 9/11 to your students? What are your favorite activities to do with your kiddos to help them deal with such a heavy topic?

Workshop Wednesday: Building Stamina in a Writing Workshop

It's our third week of school, and my students and I are finally getting comfortable in our routines. I'm excited to link up with Jivey for Workshop Wednesday. It's been too long since I have had the chance to link up with her, but I wanted to have pictures of our activities!

I like to spend a lot of time at the start of the school year frontloading my kiddos Writing Notebooks. Fourth grade is the first year that they aren't "done" during Writing Workshop. I tell them from day one that they will write during workshop time, and if they finish one piece they move on to another without needing to talk to me. In order for that to work I have to help the kids come up with possible topics.

After we set up our notebook categories the students and I being to brainstorm. Most of our brainstorming takes places in the lists section of our notebooks.

The students start by writing all about themselves on one page in their notebook.

On another day the next activity is to list our 10 Best Life Events and our 7 Worst Events. I do 10 best and 7 worst because I like to keep things positive.

The next day the kids list their favorite places.

 Then they list the things they are an Authority on. (I love this because Authority has the word Author in it!)

 We also list things that make us upset using the book, One of Those Days by Amy Krouse Rosenthal as a guide. 

After each activity I have the students star the items that "have a story to tell." You can see from the pictures above the different stories that are planted in her notebook. To help build stamina I have the kids pick one each day and write about it. We start with writing for 5 min. Then we share with a friend.

Most of them have not finished the pieces that we started-but a lot of them want to go back and finish those stories...that is what they will work on when they have "free writing time" later in the school year.

At this point in the year my kiddos are writing for about 10-15 min each day (that does not count the brainstorming part of class.) I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but we are slowly building. I am hoping we will be up to 20 next week.

How do you start Writing Workshop in your classroom? How do you help your kids build stamina?