Are you looking for a fun and QUICK little response to literature that your students are sure to enjoy?  Look no further!  This post is actually a long time coming.  I have done this for years, ever since the Zoom days of distance learning, and I just never wrote about it here on the blog...until now!  So here we go. I read the students the book The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be by Joanna Gaines .  It is a relatively new book (published right as the world shut down) and it is just the perfect way to get the kids thinking about their own talents and things they contribute to our classroom society.  I had them create a circle map listing all of the traits that they saw in themselves:  their insides (personality), outsides (physical), talents, and interests.  Then, using that list, they wrote an acrostic poem about themselves.  I specifically asked them to use longer sentences with many describing traits versus just one word. I wanted mor......

If you are anything like me, you probably spent the few days before Earth Day trying to find a quick and easy lesson (or set of lessons) you could do with your class that would be meaningful but not too time consuming.  I mean, with THE TEST only a week away, I wanted to acknowledge the day but still have some worthwhile rigor thrown in there.  So here is what we did to make sure that is exactly what happened. We started the day watching the Earth Day BrainPop .  It was free on April 22, which was perfect for my needs.  It gives a little history and insight into how the day came to be.  Then we watched the BrainPop Jr video about reducing, reusing, and recycling.  (this one is also free to access without an account.)  That helped my kids to see ways that they personally could reduce their waste.  We made a list of all of the different things we heard and ways we could reduce, reuse, and recycle.  Next, I read the kids The Earth Book by Todd......