I wanted to start our CKLA Middle Ages unit a little differently this year. Instead of beginning with a textbook page full of dates, names, and vocabulary, I wanted my fourth graders to actually wonder about the people who lived during this time. So I decided to let them become history detectives for the day. We started with  Medieval Mystery Objects , and I have to say, this was a hit. I put six everyday objects into bags: coins, a candle, a horseshoe, wool, rye bread, and a quill. Now, I did have to purchase these, as I don't have any middle ages coins or horseshoes laying around my house.  I found them all on Amazon for rather cheap, and now I will have them in the future.  I chose objects that would give the kids clues about what life was really like for regular people during the Middle Ages. I didn't want to start with knights, castles, and kings. I wanted them to think about food, clothing, work, transportation, light, money, and writing. Inside each bag was an env......

We have just begun the Geology unit in CKLA.  One of the first things the students learn about it Pangea, the idea of continental drift, and plate tectonics.   Super heavy for a 4th grader!  Though they really do seem to be into learning about geological theory, it is a bit hard for them to conceptualize.  To make it a bit more engaging and real for the students, I thought I would bring in a bit of food into the mix. While reading about the three types of plate boundaries, and the geologic formations that appear because of them, I gave the students three Oreo cookies.  For each cookie, I had them twist the two halves apart.  The top part represented the crust.  The creme and bottom cookie represented the magma inside the Earth.  Then I had them carefully break the top crust in half. As we read the information in the book, we used the Oreos to demonstrate each of the three boundaries.  Here is what we did for each boundary: Divergent --......

I have really be into using my windows as an additional project display.  Taking what is otherwise dead space and making it something pretty is just up my alley as of late.  So, using clear contact paper and sharpies, we created this amazing art project that really had some awesome WOW factor!  Honestly, there isn't much to this project. The kids looked at the original painting (we did a narrative writing project with it) and then drew their best rendition of it on a 12" x 17" piece of clear contact paper.  They then used colored sharpies to color it in.  Since we don't have white sharpies, I did buy white paint pens.  Those weren't super successful (they peeled off when I put them on the window) but the rest of the colors looked great! Would you like to know more about the narrative writing assignment my students did in connection with this art project?   You can read what we did, as well as pick up the printables, here. ...

This is our first year with the program CKLA, so I am figuring out how to make what they give engaging and relevant to my students, as well as stick as closely as possible to the program.  The first unit, which is Personal Narrative, had us reading a story called Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio .  It was about a girl who contracted polio at the age of 12 and her year of recovery from the disease.  The story was VERY interesting to the students, who really enjoyed learning about the trials and tribulations of Peg, the main character.   To cap off the unit, and bring in a little bit more polio history into it, we read a non-fiction article from Scholastic News (It is subscription based, but I did find this video with the article on it here .)  It was about a school teacher named Eleanor Abbott who, having polio herself, invented the game Candy Land for children who were bored at the hospital recovering from the disease.  Here is where things got interesti......