Colonial Dialogue

While studying the colonies, students were given a colonial character card and asked to get up and move around the room to find the person they are looking for in the "village". Once partnered up, students analyzed colonial clothing online. 
**Other ways I have used my character cards HERE

Interactive Colonial Clothing Website

We discovered that they were LOTS of clothing and that their materials and amount of clothing often reflected a person's social status. 

Using their colonial character bio information, students practiced the skill of using quotation marks and wrote mixed dialogue (blending dialogue with narration) about two colonial characters interacting. Below are some examples of their colonial dialogue - I also shared with them some "colonial phrases and greetings" that they had the option of trying out in their conversations. I think these turned out really cute! 

Learning with FOOTBALL

This last Friday, we had our school homecoming game. With that, we celebrated football throughout our school day, ending with a tail gating party! 

I know that pinterest ideas are not the most original thing to post about (especially if they cost money!), however, these two activities are WELL WORTH a shout out! 

1) Editing NFL players TWEETS

After seeing this article, I KNEW we HAD to do this as a homecoming activity. As suspected, it was an absolute HIT (even got staff members and parents comments!)

WARNING: The initial prep for this takes a while. I basically went down my fantasy league teams and searched through my player tweets, looking for anything misspelled, inappropriate or missing commas, misused capitals, wrong verb tenses, etc. Some players were very simple to discover errors, on others I had to go through multiple tweets to discover something wrong. 

Of course, we all know that many internet mistakes are honest and due to quick typing and small iphone screens. However, as I told my kiddos, it is VERY important, whether you are tweeting, facebooking, emailing, or handwriting, to ALWAYS reread what you've written because no matter how accidental, they often make one look ignorant and open you up for ridicule... or fifth grade editors ;0) 

2) Root Word Football

Incredible lesson from TPT 

THIS was a perfect activity not only for its engagement but also because we are knee deep in roots, suffixes, and prefixes so it worked perfect as a fun review. It is well worth the money! I even allowed the students to THROW the football during the activity (WHAT?? Mrs. B, we can actually THROW the football in the classroom!?) *Coolest Teacher Award* This activity would also make a great test prep review or fun friday activity. 

Do you do any thing fun for your homecoming football game day in the classroom? 

Tell us what has happened in the PAST: A Grammar lesson

Wrapping up our Verb tense grammar study, we looked at the last tense last week - PAST TENSE. This is definitely the easiest for kids to pick out in reading as well as write independently. The biggest reason for this is I believe that it is the chosen writing tense for stories - much of what they (and most of us) are reading everyday. 




We looked at regular vs. irregular past tense verbs. How regular verbs add an -ed at the end to make it past and irregular verbs do not follow a distinct rule (thank you English language-ha), they simply must be recognized. We worked together to create a simple past and past participle chart of common verbs to help us recognize them.

 Again, like we did with the last two tenses, I encouraged them to look for past tense sentences during their independent reading. This proved to be a MUCH easier task for them and some kids really went wild with it :) 

For our quick assessment, students wrote three past tense sentences using a verb given (to grab, to have, to sing).  

 To wrap up our verb tense study, and in honor of the LOADS of snow we have been enjoying, we had an indoor snowball fight! First, we separated into three different groups - past, present, and future. Then, I had them write a large sentence on a piece of scrap paper in accordance to their group's tense. Afterward, we balled them up into "snowballs" which we then used in a lively winter "fight". 

After lots of "fighting", laughter, and obnoxious screeching, the adjoining teachers to my room are amazing - they put up with a LOT! we grabbed a snowball, sat down, and identified which tense the sentence was sharing. After writing which we believed it was, we balled them up and resumed the friendly winter rivalry - followed by another check of verb tenses and a carpet share time.  

During small group/guided reading, we also focused on verb tenses. Students who have been struggling during the quick assessments were pulled and identified which tense the sentence written on their snow flake belonged. 

"I want a present NOW!": A Grammar Lesson

While I do not condone screaming, bratty, kids, which I made very clear to my kiddos! That is what we pretended to be today during grammar in fifth grade. Last week, we discussed future verb tenses, today we looked at present tense.

With that said, in order to remember present tense, I told them to remember a whining child yelling, "I want my present NOW!" This helps us keep in mind that the present tense sentences include verbs occurring at this very moment. We had a good time with this, but I reminded them that if they were my child the consequence of that screaming display would not be a fun one ;0)


We looked at three present tense linking verbs - AM, IS, ARE - and how we always want to combine these with THREE little letters -ING to create the present tense. I found THIS great anchor chart that displayed this idea, plus a cute way to remember it with a 3 for 3 memory technique. Use one of the THREE linking verbs and and THREE letters -ing. I recreated this anchor chart for our room.
 Again, I gave them the task of looking for a present tense sentence during their independent reading time.

 When I was sharing with them how we don't say, "I is going to the movies" I explained that, while many of us may not struggle with the talking part of verb tenses, it is in WRITING that the struggle becomes apparent. SO often, kids, and adults, {myself included} will either get wrapped up in their writing, or forget to reread sections and find that their story ribbons through lots of accidentally written tenses. I explained that while sometimes this is intentional in a story, a lot of times it isn't and can really confuse the reader.

In order to practice staying within a verb tense, I had them take a look at a very "exciting" picture with lots of action going on {great for boys who struggle with writing} and had them write, as if they were a reporter coming upon this scene, what they are seeing, hearing, feeling, etc. AT THIS VERY MOMENT! They HAD to stay in the present tense using AM, IS, ARE and -ing verbs to describe the scene. They really enjoyed this activity and the picture spurred quite a discussion about how this appeared to be anarchy {yay previous government vocabulary word!} and what may have occurred to place the capital in danger.

For our assessment, I had them create a three sentences, each using one linking verb and adding an -ing verb.

Tomorrow we tackle Past Tense Verbs!
Do you do anything unique with verb tenses?

BACK TO THE FUTURE: A Grammar Lesson

I had been sharing Thursday with the kiddos how 2014 had sounded so futuristic to many of us and here it was! Many of them had seen the Back to the Future movies props to their parents! and I stated that the "future" in the movies was NEXT YEAR 2015! It is always funny how we all picture the "future" in our heads. My mom shared that her teacher in elementary school had had them write about what they thought the millennium 2000 would be like and she remembers including flying cars and jet packs. '99 did bring us the internet, however, many of us are still waiting on the flying cars!

I was ready to dive into verb tenses after break, but Thursday's discussion gave me a lesson idea for teaching verbs - at least future tense verbs. And thus was born "Back to the Future Verbs!" A grammar lesson.

For morning work, I had them draw a picture of what they thought life would be like in the year 2050. 

During writing class, we discussed three simple future verb forms. We also glued our lesson insert into our Thoughtful Logs and did some power teaching to help us remember them which included running around the room in a line shouting "I WILL run, I am GOING TO run, I am RUNNING TONIGHT"

As we went into independent reading and small group time, I encouraged them to identify at least one sentence using a future verb form from their books. Many of them did and we looked at them during our share time. After that, I explained that they would need to USE the different future verb forms during a creative writing where they answered future questions about themselves in the year 2050. I plan on putting this sheet, along with their future picture in their All About Me books that I bind at the end of the year and give them at graduation. It will be a fun thing to look back at 20 years or so from now :0)

For our lesson reflection, I had them write one sentence for each future verb form.

My professional learning goal this year is to encourage more student reflection both for their own learning and for me to utilize in pulling for small groups and to help adapt/re-teach lessons. I have been trying to find a way that I could document these in a tangible way so I could keep track of student reflections and see the whole class's data without hanging onto every little scrap of paper. I decided to create a google spreadsheet document and am using a "Blooms type" rubric to assess reflections. 

Ode to English Plurals

my mom sent this to me and i thought it was GRAND! 

especially for ELA and English teachers. so fun. 

i am not sure where it is from {if someone knows PLEASE inform me as to where i may give credit!} 

i even shared it with my kids when we were doing plural spelling words, and though parts of it were a little over their heads, they understood the gist of it and laughed at all the right places :) 

{Ode to English Plurals}

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,

But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England .
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend..
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and
get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
in which your house can burn up as it burns down,
in which you fill in a form by filling it out,  and
in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And in closing, if our Fathers are Pops, how come we don't call our Mother's MOPS?

Hope everyone has a FANTABULOUS weekend! Get out and ENJOY the weather! 


 Living GREEN FAIRY style for St. Paddy's Day 
{. .. .. and yes, the green garland is for St. Patrick's Day .. it isn't still up from Christmas, though that would be how I roll so I don't blame your questioning thoughts! *haha*}