Creating holiday gifts for the parents of my 5th graders is probably the most stressful part of December for me.   I want them to have something that is really great and fun, but I also want it to take as little time as possible from the academics that we really do need to cover.  So this year, when a fantastic parent of mine volunteered to help with the project, I jumped on it! She had a great idea to create little ornaments out of pinecones.  She walked her neighborhood, found pinecones, and brought in a few for each student. The kids painted them either white or green, then decorated with sparkles, sequence, or other colors of paint.  They used tempra paint, so it was something we already had at school....and they came out AWESOME! Here are a few.  We then added a little ribbon hook and a sign that said "Happy Holidays 2014" or a more specific holiday greeting if they wished.  (I don't have pictures of that...sorry!) These took abo......

It is that time of year again, when the students present their culminating project for the Native American unit that we have been entrenched in for the past few weeks.  I love when these projects come through my doors each year.  The learning they did becomes immediately obvious and it is just such a joy looking them over and learning about the tribes from the students!  I wanted to take some time to tell you about them AND show them off to you :) At the beginning of this unit, I pass out the entire report and presentation packet to my students.  They choose a tribe they would like to research (I make sure there are no overlaps, as they turn in a "decision form" to me early on) and I send them on their merry way.   During class, we are learning about the general culture groups.  At home, the kids get to be more specific.   They learn about the basic Pre-Columbian housing, crafts, clothing, geographical area, and customs of the tribe t......

Do you ever have an vision of a project that you want your students to do, but no real sample, and no real idea of what exactly it will turn out to be?  That is what the following project I am going to describe started out as.  I knew in my head what I was visualizing, but needed to figure out a way to get that mental image translated for my students. We are just beginning our studies about the 13 colonies (the time between the first English settlement and the Revolution) and I wanted to share with you the "Colony Balloons" we made to get us started into the research of everything. Now, here is a little disclaimer:  These aren't actually balloons.  I just didn't have another name to call them, so in class I called them "balloons" once, and it stuck. To begin with, the students broke into groups of 2 or 3 and were assigned one of the original 13 colonies to do some research on..  I gave them this Colony Research Organize r and set them loose on their s......

Yesterday I told you about our week long dive into the themes and messages found in some well known Dr. Seuss books (you can read about them here . )  Today, I wanted to share with you a little craft we did in class as well.  And like I said yesterday, I use the term "craft" loosely ;) I asked my students to find the "main" quote from each of the Dr. Seuss books they were reading. For example, the Horton Hears A Who! group chose "A person's a person no matter how small", while The Lorax (Classic Seuss) group choose, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, things aren't going to get better.  They're not."  The students discussed what they thought the quote meant and then wrote a small response to the quote. I took a picture of each child and printed them out.  The students then colored their pictures with identifying features for each book.  If the students had Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories , they drew ......

This week was our first week back and, boy am I tired!  My class is great though...very inquisitive and eager to learn.  They take their work seriously and are actively working most of the day.  Who could ask for more?? We did quite a few things this week, but I want to share with you one "get to know you" project we did that really came out great.  I seriously can't stop staring at it! I saw this pin on Pinterest .  I love how it looks and thought it would make a great welcome sign. Now, on the pin, the hands seemed to be just colored in.  I wanted something a bit more.  So we started with creating Circle Maps about ourselves.  What made us special?  What are some things that have shaped us?  Where did you go in your life?  etc....Most of the kids finished these Circle Maps in class on the first day of school. I then asked the students to trace their hands and arms on a piece of 11 x 17" piece of paper.  They then had......

I shared these pictures with you on my last post, but I wanted to go into a bit more detail (since I was getting a lot of emails and questions about them!)  So here we go! Years ago (my second year of teaching actually), I was a rover in a year round school.  Now, for those of you unfamiliar with what a rover is, basically I was the teacher in the triad of teachers who moved from classroom to classroom when the other tracks were off. Since I moved back and forth (every month!), I didn't have a permanent home.  No permanent home means that I really didn't have the ability to do my own bulletin boards.  I was stuck using what the off track teacher had chosen to put up in her room. Now, if you know anything about me by now it is that I *need* to make my room look my "style".  It is part of my teaching DNA.  So not having control over the bulletin boards was HORRIBLE for me....and I simply couldn't take it.  To remedy this situation, I enlisted the hel......

Thanks Tara for hosting the Linky! I have told you before that I am just not a crafty person.  It isn't that I *can't* do crafts...I can.  I just don't particularly enjoy them.  Most of the time, things just seem far too complicated for me to even fathom beginning, so I don't. HOWEVER, I do venture into the world of crafting every once in a while...when the project is easy enough for me to complete.  And a few weeks ago, I opened my email inbox to discover a little note from our friends at Michaels .  You know, the craft store.  They wanted to give me $100 to buy things to make for my classroom!  $100!!  Can you believe it?  So I quickly hightailed it out to my nearest Michaels to buy all the things I would need to make some simple crafts for my upcoming school year.  Today, I am going to share with you 3 projects that I created with the materials I got that were super easy....even the most uncrafty of us all can do them.  ;)......

This summer has been a whirlwind of new ideas flowing into my brain.  There are so many great crafts out there to make my room look awesome!  BUT I am going to let you in on a little secret...... I am not crafty. There I said it.   I have all of these grand ideas (spurred on in no small part by the HGTV channel and Pinterest .)  But somehow, they just never get done.  I mean, I can put up a bulletin board with fancy borders, but when it comes to making things....that is best left to the experts. HOWEVER, I can do simple things.  So that is what this Monday Made It with 4th Grade Frolics is.  A simple little craft that I thought would be cute in my classroom.  (and, yes, I am aware it is Tuesday...but I am on Summer time here....) Every year, we take school pictures and, every year, I get the class composite.  I have NO idea what to do with it so usually, I do nothing.  Well, not this year.  I have made a nice EASY f......

This year, I have been posting some of my more "crafty" (and I use the term loosely) ideas on Classroom DIY .  Have you visited?  It really is a great blog full of LOTS of fun do-it-yourself ideas.  Well, anyway, I wanted to bring you one of the ideas I posted over there to my blog too.  A Hardcover book!    This book can be used for SO many different things, from an end of the year memory book to a way to publish student writing, to a journal.  I love it, and so do the students!   So here is how you make it.....step by step.  Gather the following materials construction paper, 2 pieces, any color cardboard or tagboard white 8.5 x 11 paper stapler scissors glue (I prefer Elmer's® Rubber Cement )    First, using the white 8.5 x 11 paper (standard copy paper works best), create a little booklet where the student's story will be written.  You can put as many pages as you would like, however include at ......