3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade Linky Party

I just love reading teacher blogs! I get more ideas from them than anywhere else. It really has opened up so many new ideas to me! The blog "Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies" is featuring a linky party just for upper elementary teachers. Check it out so you can find some new resources! Just click on the picture below!

Writing Test

Hello all! I have not blogged in waaaayyy too long! Can you say busy??

Well anyway, my 5th graders recently took their state writing test. I wanted to share with you some cute little snacks that I provided them with. I find that food is very comforting to everyone and helps ease their nerves. My kiddos always get really nervous before the writing test (as do I). I think it is because we don't know what the topic will be so I worry that I haven't prepared them properly and they worry they won't know what to write. So all of that to say, I provided a few snack for them as they came in that morning.

The first one is juice to help them remember "juicy" details in their writing. 

-I teach the kids to use "juicy" or detailed words all year long.

Next, I gave them Cheerios! This was so they knew I was "cheer"ing them on to success.

Last, I gave them Chex mix. This was to remind them that a good writer "chex" their work when they are done.

Here is a picture of the snacks all displayed for them as they came in the morning of the writing test. They were very pleasantly surprised!

So do you provide snacks on testing days? I would love to hear what other teachers do!

Homework... To assign or not?

Homework.... 

Is it worth the effort of assigning?
Are they even going to do it?
Most of my students have bigger problems at home.
Is this going to use up all of my copies?
Great... one more thing to grade.

These were always my thoughts when it came to homework. So, my first couple of years teaching I did not assign homework. I used the ol' "Whatever you don't finish in class is homework" motto. This didn't work all that well because most students that did not finish their work in class, weren't going to take the time to do it at home. It just disappeared into the black hole of their pockets, never to be seen again. Therefore, resulting in me making additional copies for them. Yuck!

However, this year I have tried something different.... and I LOVE it! I became slightly extremely obsessed with Vistaprint this summer. In all of my creations, I created a homework punch card! I wasn't sure how I would use it, but decided I would make it work since I could get 250 for free! (If you don't know about Vistaprint, please check out my previous blog post here and look at their website here.

So, with my punchcard, I created my plan for homework. I believe that homework should be extra practice of skills that have already been taught in class. I also believe that homework should not be something that will affect a student's grade due to the fact that I have no control of their home lives and what goes on outside of school. That being said, I think that homework is important for students to be able to practice the skills they are learning and get in the studious habits that a successful student needs.

I decided to make a homework schedule so that my students' parents were aware what type of homework their child would have each night. As well as eliminating the excuse "I don't have any homework tonight." Parents know that their child DOES have homework every night except for Fridays.

Here is what my schedule looks like:

Mondays: Math Practice and Read 20 Minutes
Tuesday: Science or Social Studies Practice and Read 20 Minutes
Wednesday: Language Arts Practice and Read 20 Minutes
Thursday: Spelling List Practice and Read 20 Minutes

As far as examples of what I might assign would be a math game we have create in class, flashcards, short practice page, workbook page for science or social studies, write a few paragraph-long story, write spelling words in sentences, write spelling words with various colors, etc.

Each morning I then ask the students to get out their homework and punch cards for me. I walk around the room, check to see that they did it (sometimes I pick them up if it is something that I want to see how they did on it) and then punch their cards with a hole punch. When they fill up their cards, they get to add $5 to their class bank account that they keep to buy things in our class store.

So far, this system has worked beautifully! I don't have anything extra to grade! The majority of my students do their homework.

Explorer Journals

Last week we started studying early American Explorers as part of our Social Studies curriculum. I thought I would share how we do this. I have seen the ideas below in a variety of places. I have then taken them and tweaked them to fit what we are covering.


My students started with a legal-sized file folder. (I cut them along the fold line so each folder made 2  journals.) They then covered them in masking tape.

After the masking tape, came shoe polish. I just bought the cheap liquid stuff at the dollar store. It dried quickly and gave the desired effect.

I then made journal pages to put inside. Those were stapled into place.

Here is what the inside cover looked like:

There you have it! A lovely journal to keep our notes about explorers. We will tie a string around them when we finish all of the pages.

The kids loved making them! Inside, they are then filling in all kids of information about some of the important explorers that they need to know. There is a spot for the explorers name, years explored, what he was looking for, what he found, where he traveled, and other facts. On the other side of the page, I put a world map so that they can draw out the route traveled. Last, but not least, (my favorite part) is the journaling section at the end. This is a spot where my students pretend that they are a person on the expedition with the explorer. They then write a letter to their family at home. It has been so cute to read what they come up. They all talk about the horrible conditions, getting sea sick, eating hardtack all the time, and the mean explorers. I think it really puts explorer-life into perspective for the students. They seem to really enjoy it! They ask every day... "Who do we get to study today?" 

Along with studying each explorer, we are reading "Pedro's Journal" by Pam Conrad as a class. It is a book about a ship-boy aboard the Santa Maria with Christopher Columbus. I think that the book has made the explorers even more relatable. I would highly recommend it! They are realizing that Columbus might not be the hero that they were taught about when they were little. It has brought up very interesting conversation with Columbus day approaching.

I hope that if you teach exploration, this might give you some new ideas! 

Also, I have linked up with Clutter-Free Classroom's Linky party! Please check out her website to see what other teachers are doing this week in their classrooms!