Words Their Way--Word Study

As most of my posts go...it is a school break.  Summer break to be exact.  This spring, I bought my first smart phone...yes, I had a "dumb phone" until April.  With it, I took some basic videos that I hope to use as teaching models for the next class.  Below are some videos for word study based from the Words Their Way curriculum.

Classroom Management Ideas

As with any classroom, management is the most important.  I continued with some of my old ideas from my years of experience.  However, I also learned and developed new concepts to help my students focus and learn.

We first went through Hopes and Dreams.  We used a book to launch the idea and then created our own Hopes and Dreams.

 After our Hopes and Dreams, we did a expectation-making convention with our own class.  Lastly, we gathered representatives from all 5th grade classes, convened on expectations, and voted.  Above our the expectations for the entire 5th grade. 

This is our "Hard Work" Bingo chart.  When students are caught working hard (teacher discretion), they put their name on the chart.  Then when the chart is full of names, we play bingo for prizes (usually once every other week).  This idea is from a colleague at my school.  Thanks Mary!

Our partnerships expectations were though about and agreed upon as a class.  We review this chart daily!  (FYI--SWAG is a acronym for working hard in our class).

This chart I created over winter break.  We are struggling with transitions.  I am going to introduce it after break and see what adjustments are needed.

Students created our Morning Meeting expectations the first week of school.  We reference this at least three times a week before our Morning Meeting begins.

My classroom is lucky to have students with physical disabilities.  I have two students in wheelchairs.  Our special education teacher who works with these students did and activity at the beginning of the school year and this quilt was an outcome.  We love it!

Show 5! is a common place in many classrooms.  We discussed what Show 5! means and then created this poster.  The hands are students' "signatures."

Learning Targets (goals for a lesson) are in most classrooms.  When students know what they are learning, it helps with classroom structure.  

Math in Room 316

As one can see from my dates, I usually only update this blog during breaks.  Well, summer break hasn't been really a break.  I'm teaching summer school, which unlike most districts, is really like regular school.  Detailed curriculum maps and basically a full work day is how my teacher summer has gone thus far.  However, I don't mind.  My husband and I are closing on a house in August so the extra money is perfect.  Also, I am teaching 2nd grade for summer school, which is a HUGE difference!


Anyways, here are some anchor charts from my 5th grade math classroom.  What do you think?

As most 5th grade classrooms go, varying forms of mean are a huge part of our benchmark/standards.

We also worked with basic algebra and my co-teacher made this wonderful anchor chart!

And what would a math classroom be without some graphing!  Here is an anchor chart to the parts of a graph that my co-teacher created!  Thanks Jill!

January.....

So far, we have tackled 5th grade math according to our district's outlines.  Below are some things we have done!

We start every math problem with this step-by-step process.  Below are some examples of students applying the process with division problems.  They also added a picture.

                        

Here is our place value chart for decimals.

As we have progressed through the year, students review math concepts with their homework.  Below are examples of step-by-step guides on the most common skills that students forget.  These are posted in the room and copied for students to keep and use as needed.

  

                            
                           

                           

A school year continues with....Reading Workshop!

So I have now been with my school for a few months.  It is a huge change from my last school.  The biggest change is the behavior concerns.  It isn't a class issue, but rather than just a few students.  So I try to look at the class as a whole.

Once I get the behavior under control for a lesson, here is what we are doing during Reading Workshop.

                              

Here is our main Reading Workshop bulletin board.  The anchor charts are changed out as needed.  Below are close-ups of the charts.

We started Reader's Workshop with practicing long-writes.  Here was a model for students and our sentence starters.

We then spend a week or two on reading skills or strategies based upon our curriculum.  Here is an anchor chart for clarifying and text-connections: text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world.

Another major strategy was inferring.  Here is our anchor chart with an example on the chart.  A student example for one of our picture books is posted next to the anchor chart.

Main idea and supporting details is another skill students have learned this year.  We used the magnet summary strategy.  This example is posted next to the anchor chart.

Here is our background knowledge anchor chart as well as our author's purpose anchor chart.

New District, New School, New Classroom....New Start?

So, it has been a year since I wrote.  Partially this is due to the fact that I kind of forgot about this blog.  However, it is also due to the fact that I had to change school districts.  I also started graduate school for a Masters in Literacy Education through Hamline University.

So, here is my new classroom!  I still teach 5th grade, however, I am now on the North side of Minneapolis.

Here is my new classroom.  I have an interesting nook area, which I made into my classroom library. My new school did not provide me with a "real" classroom library (there were about 50 books when I started).  I the library consists of mostly my own books.  I spruced it up with some curtains and paper flowers.

Next to my library are my only cupboards in the classroom and a sink.  I use it for student supplies with post-it note labels for easy access for students.   I also showcase picture books on the top and I bring them down weekly for students to peruse.

My new classroom has really, really high ceilings (I'm on the third floor).  So, I had to put up sheet bulletin boards and the top part of the bulletin boards don't change since I need to be on a ladder.

Here is my desk area at the beginning of the school year.  Things have changed since then!

Here was how the class was set up for the first day of school.  My mom made the wonderful triangle banner (thanks!).  I quickly changed the format after I got to know my 27 students.

Writer's Workshop!

The core curriculum circles around reading, math, and science because of the high-stakes testing in 5th grade. We do have 35-40 minutes a day for Writer's Workshop. So far this year, we did a Memoir Unit and an Interpretive Essay Unit. Below is our anchor chart for our memoir unit.

 

Math Time in Room 106

In fifth grade, we do flexible grouping. I teach the high math group. This is the first time I have EVER done this! Math was not my strong suit as a student and it is not my favorite thing, however I am really enjoying it this year! I finally feel like I have a grasp on the content and can take it deeper with the higher math group. Below are some of the visuals in my room.

 

 

 

For every unit, we discuss vocabulary.  The students do double-column notes and I "take notes" on the bulletin board.  I color code each unit with the vocabulary word, definition, and example.  Then after the unit is over, I move most of the terms to the back bulletin board.

 

 

Here is a close-up of a previous unit.

For the unit we are working in, we have detailed notes on the white board.  I then transfer the words to the bulletin boards shown above.

Word problems always seem to give kids a hard time.  During one of my district trainings, we were introduced to this step-by-step system.  I keep it magneted to my white board to move it around as needed.  Anytime a student comes across a word problem, I expect the problem to be worked with this process.

We are in our major fraction unit right now.  A math professional development introduced all of these ideas with fractions.  The students' favorite is the Patty Paper.  We use hamburger patty paper (in a box, not used!) and fold it to show fractions.  It works great because it is square and can easily be colored with color pencil.