Five for Friday (plus 2 more)

It's been a busy week! I'm going to get right into my Five for Friday (with two extra). Link up with Doodle Bugs and share too! This linky has become quite popular!!

#1:  For morning work, I like to change things up from time to time. Denise from Sunny Days has created wonderful monthly printables packs. Though she created them with first and second grade standards in mind, they are NOT too easy for my 3rd grade smarties! I started using them as review, but what I have found was my kids are weak in many basics, especially grammar. We have some work ahead of us! Check out her newest March Printables Pack! You will find these are not just for "busy work", but real quality practice!

#2: Our focus this month has been on reading informational text and internet research. For President's Day, I created this President Pack for just this study. I love President's Day and I like to go beyond George and Abe.  I whipped up these cards to start our research. The students picked randomly (I took out George and Abe). For most of my kids they had never heard of the president they selected, so I heard a lot of "darns" and "ahhs". They each got a President Poster that was perfect to guide their research. We headed to the computer lab after a mini-lesson in the room about  internet searches. They did a fantastic job! They were SO excited as they read about their president. They found so many cool facts and realized there was so much more to these leaders of our country. They couldn't stop sharing with me!

#3: An activity from my President Pack that the kids really enjoyed was creating a "presidentbook" page. This printable has a Facebook like feel. Using their internet research, reading of informational text (I checked out lots of books from our library), and facts from the poster, they decided what their president's "facebook page" would be like. First, we discussed what is on FB. Most have seen their parent's pages and everyone of them had heard of FB. (We had a little talk about social media and internet safety, too.) For this activity, they had to think about who their president would be friends with (past or present people were ok), interests, groups they would belong to, and status updates. They came up with some creative ideas. I love this as an alternative to a traditional report. Having to present the facts in a new way showed me that they learned and understood about the life of the president they researched. I was really pleased with the way these turned out. The kids "got it"!

#4: To wrap up our president study, I assigned the kids a reader's theater script. I had 3 different president scripts I had downloaded from Scholastic Printables last year. I gave them out randomly and the groups practiced for several days. I visited each group to be sure they understood the scene from history they would be presenting.  One group had Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase. They had to understand terms like "implied powers". Reader's Theater cover so many skills: fluency, vocabulary,  cooperation, speaking and listening. We talked about what a good audience looks like and how to project your voice if you are the speaker. Even my shyest kids seemed to come out of their shells.

➣Here is a site with free reader's theater scripts. Click ➣here for another site. Try it with your kids! It's a fun change of pace, too!

#5: If you did not see my post this week about the author Elvira Woodruff and historical fiction you might want to check it out. The day of that post was when my blog was a little out of sorts! I'm so glad it's all back to normal! THANK YOU HONEY BUNCH BLOG DESIGN!!

#6: On Friday, I showed my class a DVD called In Search of Dr. Seuss. If your students are ready to learn more about Theodore Geisel, then you must show this! The movie goes into the real meaning behind many of the books and the reasons he wrote them! I suggest this for high 2nd graders and up. The movie talks about how he was a policial cartoonist and it does mention Hitler, as he is the basis for Yertle the Turtle. I give the kids a little background before hand. The movie is fun and fast paced, lots of color and music and has many famous faces.  I have shown it for years and the kids are always engaged when watching it! (It is about 90 minutes so have a chunk of time to show it or show in two parts.) Yesterday when they left they were saying how they couldn't believe how much they learned about presidents and now Dr. Seuss! It was a successful week!!

#7: Not school related: My daughter danced in a flash mob yesterday. A young man asked our studio to dance as part of his proposal to his girlfriend. It was SO cute!! The girl had no idea what was happening. Our group danced while her family brought her roses. Then at the end the guy came out and got down on one knee! It was neat to be part of such a special occasion. So glad she said yes!! What a happy ending to the week!


Hope you had a fantastic week, too!!