TEACHnology in the Classroom!!

I attended a local conference here on campus (Missouri State University) for RCET and gained SOOO many new technology resources for my classroom!! Let me introduce you to a few of these gems!!

The first one is called "Lino"  (find it HERE)

Lino is an online sticky-note board that your students can post to. I posted "Name a positive personality trait" and the kids all added their traits to the board. These are updated live and can be moved around on the board! I just gave my students the web link to my sticky-note board and they posted away!! I know the options on this one are endless and that you can even create student accounts, but this is as far in it as I have gotten! It is VERY easy to use and is FREE!!

Another one I have used is called Literably!

This is a website that you can upload your students names to and helps with Running Records. You input your students names, select their reading level, assign a passage to them, and then they read the assigned passage, answer comprehension questions, give a re-tell, and POOF!! POOF means you submit it to the site (or use the APP that is WAY easy for your kids to use) and they complete the running record for you!!! Yes, you heard me...they analyze the running record and comprehension FOR YOU!!!!!!!  You can only submit 10 a month or else you have to write the small company and work out a small fee, but BAM within 24 hours they return the record to you ANALYZED!!! Talk about a time saver!!

Doceri is an APP that will allow you to navigate your computer screen FROM YOUR IPAD! It is also FREE!! This app can be downloaded on your IPad and your desktop computer in order to be able to access both! So for those of us who want to teach from around the room without being tied to the computer, this is perfect!! I have not been able to put this one into action yet, but I have heard AMAZING things about it!!

Diigo is another APP that is wonderful for adding to your browser! It can be downloaded on a desktop computer or IPad. Diigo is an annotation app that will allow your students to capture what they are reading, highlight from a website, collect and store information from websites, share information from sites, and sooo much more. This is geared towards an upper ele or middle/high school audience. When you create an account you can highlight something on a webpage using the Diigo browser tool bar and it will save it to your Diigo account! This would be PERFECT for students who are emerging into research papers! Check it out!!

Finally, my FAVORITE and my kids ABSOLUTE FAVORITE...KAHOOT!!!

Kahoot is a "Game Based Class Response System." You create a multiple choice "quiz" through Kahoot and then launch it for your students. The students can use ANY device to access kahoot.it and then enter the "Game Pin" to sign in to your quiz. Once students are signed in you begin the quiz. It presents the question on the board and they select their answer on their device. It gives them points based on how fast they respond and if they are correct or not. It displays the score after each questions which is fun for the kids! At the end it displays the top 5 and allows you to download all of the kids' scores. You can then look at it in an excel sheet and see exactly what questions each student missed. There are also THOUSANDS of quizzes that you can use that other people have created! We use this for inside recess too! There are random quizzes for logos and Disney movies as well as every educational topic imaginable. This is a BIG WINNER in my class! (*Note each student must have a device of some kind to do this. My class is 1:1 laptops, but I allow them to use any device when playing. Some choose to use an IPad, Tablet, or even phone.) 

What are your TEACHnology favorites??? 

Fraction Action and Character Types

My last post was a long one about our Character Study Unit! We are almost finished with our book and have been getting into how to write a character analysis essay. I am forcing them to really dig deep with this one! Here is one last Character "Thing" that we have done...

I made this page for them to fill out on their own and paste it into their Reading Interactive Notebooks. (This will be added to my Character Analysis packet on TPT-See previous post) We fill it out together and talk about specific examples. There is also a good flat/round character YouTube Video that we watched that can be found HERE.

We made an anchor chart similar to this one found on Pinterest with nothing other than the image:












We are going to begin our Characterization Foldable Friday and being with Thesis statements and the Analysis on Monday!

We have been studying fractions this week and I found these awesome FREE Fraction Task Cards! They are from HERE. There were only 3 in this set, but it worked great for my classroom. The task cards are designed for students to create fractions based on pattern blocks. Then they have to justify how they know their design represents the fraction that they were given. Explaining or justifying is not a strong point for most. BUT some of them just amazed me with this!!

 Here they were tracing their design. Next they had to color it to match the blocks they had used.

Finally they had to explain or "Convince Me" as the Task Card says how they know it is an accurate representation. 

Here is some of their work:

Yesterday we did this Fraction Smarties activity:

FOUND HERE - Click on the Image to go to the ORIGINAL BLOGGERS POST WITH DOWNLOAD LINK :) 

What are your favorite upper level fraction activities?? 

Character Analysis Unit

I have really started to love all of the Character Study we have been doing. I think the depth in which my kiddos are thinking is just amazing!!

One of the lessons we started with was on Inside/Outside Character Traits. We talked about how you often have to infer and use Text Based Evidence to justify inside character traits. We practiced by reading Amazing Grace and making the foldable picture below that came from HERE (I forgot to take pictures so here is the blog that shows the orginial). The site even has the printable frame to make this!! My kids listed the outside traits on the outside and the inside traits WITH TEXT BASED EVIDENCE on the inside. I made them realize they had to SHOW ME how they know what the character is like on the inside.



Up next we did a project where they were the character and they had to describe themselves using TBE. Here is some of their work (only a couple bc I don't have time to blur out pictures-which I don't have to, but feel as though I should). Also I always take their picture on that day to print so that if they save the assignment it will show how much they have changed!

Now we have started an AMAZING novel by a Missouri author called The Man Who Loved Clowns. It was written by June Rae Wood. She is a Missouri author and the book is set in MO and has locations that my kids can relate to throughout the book. I am loving it.

We are reading the novel as a part of our character analysis study. We are taking everything we have learned about characters (which is more than what I have listed above- I will post more later!) and are applying it to the characters throughout the novel. We are doing an in-depth analysis.

The students have packets of organizers for note taking that can be seen here on TPT. We are working up to creating something that looks like this:

It is the character analysis project from Teaching With A Mountain View. She is AMAZING and I use her blog and ideas almost daily!! There is even the rubric and instructions for this project along with her completed pictures. The picture above is my model for my students. 

Here are some of the pages from their packets for notes available at my TPT STORE: 

So we are taking notes about everything character related throughout the novel. We will work on the characterization project and a written character analysis at the conclusion of the novel. My kids are already loving it and are really thinking deep! 

*Note- The TPT link above is linked to the The Man Who Loved Clowns edition of these organizers. There is a generic version too that did not get uploaded yet, but I will hopefully get it next week. This version does include blank pages though and would work for any novel. :) 

Enjoy your weekend!! 

Character Changes

We have been working on studying characters. We read both Amazing Grace and Boundless Grace this past week to work on inside/outside character traits and changes in character traits. I will post more on that tomorrow! BUT for now...I took a lesson/foldable idea from HERE about using a Patricia Polacco book to teach character changes. I think P.P. by far has the best selection of upper elementary read alouds! Here is the foldable we made (picture from HERE) THIS IS NOT MY PICTURE!!! SEE THE LINK ABOVE FOR THE SITE IT CAME FROM!! I WILL POST MY PICTURES TOMORROW!!



I used a newer Patricia Polacco book titled Bully. And it was absolutely PERFECT for my group of kids!! I could not have randomly picked a better selection for my 5th graders! This hit the reality of social media on the head! Not to mention it show character changes perfectly!! I will even use this when we dive into character conflict later this week!



An upper elementary read aloud MUST in every classroom!!!!!!!

Valentine's Day Metaphors! (FREEBIE)

I have so much to get caught up with on here, but for now here is what I am giving you...

We have been studying similes and metaphors this week. Since Valentine's Day is coming up quickly I decided that my students should write a metaphor for love!!

So here is what I created...

We will hang these in the hall on our bulletin board, but you could make a class book out of them as well! I had originally thought of just using it as a writing prompt, but then had a light bulb moment *METAPHORS*!!  I always love to hear what 5th graders relate love to! Stay tuned for the finished product!!

Click the picture above to get your Love Is... Freebie!!

Operation Office Decor!

I just really did not like my office. Since I am VERY lucky to have an office (Again, I am at a Laboratory -Private- School we all have offices. We are on a college campus so it is set a little different. Look it up HERE!) I thought it was time to make it MINE. After re-purposing unwanted home decor this is the result:

Can you tell who my favorite little thing in the world is?? He is my everything and he is 15 months old! I still cry when leaving him from time to time! :) (SADMOMPROBS) 

*Glass-less window came from home. I repainted it and added the ribbon and pictures. Its my favorite :) The stars were all from home and repainted. The frames from DOLLAR TREE- again repainted. The baskets from DOLLAR TREE! 

One day I will print 8x10s to fit in the frames ;) 

I made this at the beginning of the year. I love it! 

Lamp from Dollar General. I got the shade on clearance before school. I have another one that is turquoise on my front desk in the classroom. 

I now feel that it is a likable space! Plus it matches my classroom...always a plus! 

Main Idea and January "Bulletin Board Worthy" Writing

As a main idea wrap up last week we did Graffiti Posters (See original idea HERE). I have really become a fan of this because it is very interactive and each student gets a change to get involved! (see involved kiddos below)

And for the finished project, students had to have the main idea and supporting details. The details has to be from Text Based Evidence! They have really gotten good at using TBE! I found the articles through our Time For Kids subscription for the students to use. Some of them even took it to an artistic level making their organizers related to the theme of the text! 

Here is a specific TBE. Notice they quoted and can lead you to the EXACT point in which the evidence was retrieved from! Score!! 

Then for the sake of a "quick" writing activity we wrote about melting snowmen! We do a lot of LONG writing pieces in 5th grade. I am at a Laboratory School (private) and most of my kids are at or above grade level. So we spend a lot of time doing what makes us stronger...WRITING! So when I say a quick piece I mean something not completely through the formal WRITING PROCESS. They are very cute! And here is where I copied the Bulletin Board from! It was just too cute to pass up!

I have one more "quick" writing that we did! My kids all have their own computers so we typed this one and I printed their pictures for them. This is something I will keep of theirs. They turned out SOOOO good! (Idea from HERE)

Up next time: Biography Unit! I have made this a MULTI-SUBJECT Project. It contains a book report, formal written biography, magazine and so much more! AND making my office more like MINE.