Another Fact/Opinion Activity

Blog post #2 for the day!

We have 19 more days of school!  I know some states and districts are in school much longer, but I'm so glad we're close to the finish line.  I have really enjoyed this year, but I'm ready for summer.  The kids are evidently feeling the same way, which is showing up in their behavior and motivation.  Out of sheer survival instinct, I have been more creative in my lesson planning lately.  (This could possibly be because I've been so busy that I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants.... I tend to be more creative in those situations!)  However it happened, I actually think it is working to keep kids engaged AND keep my sanity. My secret weapon:  CREATION!  A few days ago, I blogged about students creating screencasts for a lower grade level.  That was a hit!  Talk about student engagement and motivation!  Wow! 

The next thing they created were advertisements using both facts and opinions.  They were able to choose what they were selling.  This could be a service or product.  They were very creative and most chose to create a business like "Ashlee's Nail Salon", something that they would really like to do in real life.  They produced one slide on powerpoint that included at least one picture, a title, and an ad that included at least 3 facts and 3 opinions.  It also was to be persuasive, using persuasive techniques that we studied a while back.  Again, they loved making these ads and were intent while they worked.  The best part..... as I showed them to the class on the projector, the students kept a tally for each ad to assure that there were 3 facts and 3 opinions.  Voila!  Grading done during class!

  

Cuteness! (and an awesome freebie!)

In honor of my new cute blog (thank you Christi!), I am writing TWO blogposts today!  This first one is a fabulous freebie for anyone who happens to check my blog today ONLY!  I just finished creating an Interactive Fact/Opinion Powerpoint (actually Pdf).  I think it's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself!  Click on over to my Tpt store and get yourself this "free for one day only lesson." I would love it if you would leave some feedback for this item as well.  I would also love to hear what you think of my new blog design!   

Coming Next Week: Extreme Makeover - Blog Edition

I can't wait for this weekend. My blog is getting a makeover! Christi from http://designbychristi.blogspot.com/ is making a new custom and cute template for me. I tried to make it cute by myself, but I'm not tech savvy enough to satisfy my cuteness standards. Cuteness matters, you know! My husband does NOT understand this concept. To celebrate the new look, I'll get an awesome blog post ready (including a freebie, of course) with a great tip to share. Come check it out!

Fun Cause/Effect Activity

Has anyone else ever used these commercials for teaching cause/effect?  We had so much fun with this writing activity today. I played a couple of these commercials and had the kids follow along, writing the cause/effect in a graphic organizer.  They loved it!  Next, I had them use a blank graphic organizer to write their own commercial using the same cause/effect format.  Next, they used powerpoint and google images to make the commercial for the class to see.  I think the "get" cause/effect now. 

Tip for Sub Days and Beyond...

Hello everyone!  I hope everyone had a great Easter.  I did!  Our son who is in the Air Force was able to spend some time at home before he deploys to Oman this Saturday.  He drove home so we could store his car, and then we drove him back this week.  Two days off for me!  I'm going to share my sub plans for those two days because it worked so well.  I've recently been introduced to screen casts.  This is probably not new to anyone else, but it is to me. 

I am so in love with this idea that I'm afraid I will overdo it and screen cast everything! I was in the middle of a writing unit, teaching my students to write using the text structures.  I didn't want to stop and do fluff work for two days, so I made a screen cast of my lesson for both days.  The sub reported that students paid attention because they weren't sure if I was "live" on the internet or not.  I loved it because when I got back, all the work was done up to my expectations.

Making a screen cast is easy and free.  I used "screencast o matic", but I know there are others you can use for free as well.  All you do is make your powerpoint or other presentation, open the screencast o matic, and push record.  I went through the powerpoint just as I would as if I were teaching to a live class.  I saved the file to my desktop and labeled it "Monday's screencast".  All the sub had to do was push play and monitor the kids. 

Students follow along with their copy of the article and the interactive notebook pages for writing with text structures. 

Here comes the "beyond" part. When I returned on Wednesday, I admit, I was not prepared for the day.  I wanted to look through the writing they had done instead of teaching.  I had one of those "great idea" moments!  I told the students they would choose one of the text structure paragraphs they had written to make their own screen cast.  They were to "be the teacher" and explain the text structure as if they were teaching to a younger student.  I told them I would pick the top screen cast lesson and send it to a first grade teacher to show their students.  This turned out very well.  They were busy creating their powerpoints the whole period while I looked over their work. 

The quality of their projects were surprisingly awesome!  Remember, I teach the struggling readers.  I was hearing great things from their conversations as they worked.  They were consulting their interactive notebooks to make sure they had used the right definition of the text structure, gearing the language toward first grade, checking their spelling, and worrying if their content was appropriate.  I love it when those "seat of your pants" ideas turn out to be some of the best ideas!

This is a screen cast by one of my students. 

Spring Cleaning Sale

Happy Easter Everyone!  I decided to participate in the Spring Cleaning Sale at TpT.  Several sellers are throwing a sale this weekend, so I'm joining in by putting everything at a 20% discount.  Hop on over to my store and others and pick out a few items for your own Easter basket.  I borrowed this cute sign from 4th Grade Frolics.  Thanks!

Liebster Award

Well I have been nominated for the Liebster award by Katie from Mind Sparks. She is so darn sweet. She tells me that the Liebster Award is awarded to new bloggers with less than 200 followers.  Well, evidently there are different versions of the rules.  This is what Katie posted.

In order to receive the award the recipient must:

• Post 11 things about themselves.
• answer the questions that the tagger set for you, plus create 11 questions for the people you’ve nominated for the award
• Choose 11 people and link them in your post, and go to their blog and tell them.
• You can't choose people that have already been chosen! In other words---no tag backs!

So I found "other" rules that say you only need to nominate 3-5 other blogs.  I will get busy looking for 11, but no promises.  Here are my 11 things about me.  (Yawn...)

1.  I've been happily married to my fun husband for 28 years!  That is a long time!!  We were seriously teenagers when we got married.  Thank goodness my own kids are not following us in those footsteps.

2.  Speaking of kids... I have two boys, 22 and 18.  The 18 year old is graduating in a few weeks.  The 22 year old is serving in the Air Force.  He is home right now for a few days, and then he's off to Oman for 6 months.  Boo.

3.  My newest obsession is creating/perfecting activities from my classroom to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers.  I am addicted.  I love all the collaboration between teachers in the forums.  I now have "forum friends". 

4.  My favorite vacation spot is Shell Knob, MO.  We rent the same cabin/house every years, sometimes several times a year, on Tablerock Lake.  Can't wait for the next visit in June.

5.  I love water skiing.  Actually, now I love inland surfing.  That's where you are on a surfboard behind a boat... with no handles!  It is so fun.

6.  I'm like the oldest teacher at my school.  I don't like that and don't feel like it could be true, but it is.

7.  I love yoga.  Hot yoga especially.  Currently working on a new type of headstand.

8.  I use yoga in my classroom when kids look lazy.  

9.  I am a big KU Jayhawk fan during basketball season.  Isn't everyone?  They rock.

10.  I do a cartwheel in my classroom occasionally.  My theory...if you do a cartwheel everyday, you will be able to do one when you are 90.  

My Answers to Katie's questions.

1. What is your favorite book? Why?   The Bible.  It is one book you can read everyday for your whole life and you can still find new applications.

2. Who is your hero and why? (Doesn’t have to be famous).  My friend Linda.  A great teacher and mentor who passed away last year.  Such an inspiration.

3. What is your dream job?  Creating lesson activities and ideas from home.

4. Where would you travel if you could go anywhere? I would love to go to Hawaii.  Anywhere tropical with a luxury resort.

5. If you won the lottery, how would you spend it?  I really think I would give a lot of money to family and friends.  Then I would buy my luxury resort on the tropical island and move in.

6. How would your friends describe you?  Old, haha.  No, probably just strange.

7. What are some of your hobbies?  Reading, cooking, creating lessons

8. Cat or dog? Coke or Pepsi?  Cat (but starting a strange pull towards small dogs) and I could go either way on Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi.  I really don't think I can tell the difference.  Usually I buy Diet Pepsi.

9. What is your most embarrassing moment? When my leg fell asleep during a math class in college.  I got up to sharpen my pencil and splatted!  My friend had an asthma attack from laughing.  Quite a disruption!

10. What is one of your goals in life?  To retire to Tablerock Lake and still be able to surf and ski.  Also, would love to write a book.

11. What is your favorite color?  I just like the "Brights".  All of them together.

My Questions for other bloggers:

1.  What is your favorite "fast food"?

2.  Favorite time of the year and why.

3.  What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?  (what free time?)

4.  E readers or old fashioned books?

5.  What is your favorite comfort food?

6.  Do you work in the summer?

7.  Funniest classroom moment.

8.  Favorite reality show.

9.  What is your classroom pet peeve?

10.  What is the most interesting thing about you?

Blogs I'm nominating:

Adventures in Third Grade

Exploring Third Grade

241 Teachers