Elf on the Shelf, Classroom edition

Perhaps I'm a little behind on the times, but this was the first year I heard of the "Elf on the Shelf" phenomena.

I don't have children of my own yet, so I didn't see the point in purchasing one for myself.

However, after browsing pinterest, I kept seeing lots of ideas for a classroom adaptation.  Granted, there are blog posts like this that discourage the Elf, so you might need to treat it cautiously.  I'd set up the elf as a winter visitor without religious ties and send a note home to parents & families before hand to cover my self.

Fellow teachers at my school used it this year and said it was very helpful with management!

Here are some of my favorites:

I'd need my sign to say Winter Break, not Christmas break but still a cute idea

I could easily hide him/her in my bookshelves...

In this case, it'd need to say "I will be a good listener"

The elf could totally hang out with our school supplies...

Or take a nap with a tissue blanket!

Perhaps the elf could use technology to leave us  messages...

Creepy...but in a fun way.

I can definitely see the elf blogging!

This would be easy to duplicate!

We already have jenga boards that have been upcycled to be character questions or multiplication problems...

He/she could be reading our grade level read aloud...

Or be mischievious!

I'm a fan of these simple (no mess ones) as opposed to these ideas:

My classroom is messy enough. I don't need to create additional messy areas.

I think I may need to pick up my own elf for next year!  Of course, I'll wait until after Christmas when it's on sale :)

I'm still debating between the "traditional" elf (which apparently can be dressed up!) and this version:

We'll see what's on sale!  Good thing I've got a year to think about it!

Reading notebooks so far

Week 4, Day 2

We have most of the kinks worked out with our notebooks.

Our reading one has our table of contents:

We've recorded a lot of our thoughts in our notebooks.

Here is a poem we analyzed and worked on recording our thinking:

We've been reading aloud Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, which my students are absolutely loving!

We practiced making predictions based on the front and back covers as well as the table of contents.  We discussed the importance of noticing illustrations and making predictions about the story.  They did a really great job with this lesson.

Here we have been keeping track of characters in our novels:

We will compare and contrast them, but it's important for students to keep track of characters as they grow over the novel.

We also have used this FCRR think sheet

to analyze Percy :)

Here we have our reference sheet for context clues (from the previously mentioned amazing CORE source book)

We used the context clues lesson when we re-read parts of the Lightning Thief to focus on unknown words.  They are working on determining meaning based on context clues:

Here we tried a new strategy called brain mapping:

We cut apart a thinking map and added our own thoughts.  It took WAY longer than anticipated and I'm not sure we'll be doing it again any time soon, but it was nice to show students a new way to record their notes.

We are working on figurative language in our intervention block as well as in whole group reading.  We are applying these terms to analyzing poems.

Here is the poem we are working on:

We read it today to look for figurative language.  Tomorrow we will re-read the passage with the intention of looking for theme.

Our poem is slightly too long for our notebooks, 

so we problem solved by folding it in half and only gluing in part :)

Here is our thinking sheet about comparing and contrasting settings that was made by my awesome colleague:

We will be using it when we analyze different settings in The Lightning Thief.

Here is our phrasing lesson and a half sheet reference for Greek gods (to help with the Lightning Thief)

We've done a lot in the first few weeks of school!

New TpT products: Gossamer and Holes Novel Units

With the start of the school year fast approaching in Nevada, I'm trying to put my teacher guides on TpT quickly to save you the work :)

My teacher guides include vocabulary and spelling word suggestions, comprehension questions with answers, pre and post reading discussion questions and extension project activities.  They are aligned to RL 5.1 and 5.3 in the Common Core.  There are responses to literature for each chapter, which require students to go back into the text to find textual support.

I just posted two new novel units: Holes and Gossamer

 

Holes was one of my favorite novels growing up and I love doing it with my students every year in small groups.  It lends itself quite well to inferences and most students have seen the movie version.  They are shocked that the book contains more detail (I'm not sure why that is still surprising), but that lends itself to discussing the differences between text and film (RL 5.7).

Gossamer I read for the first time a few years ago, but love Lois Lowry and once again, she doesn't disappoint.  This novel is wonderful for examining parallel story lines and character development.

Hope you enjoy!  You can download yours here.

Happy reading!

Beginning of the Year Activity Pack

In preparation for the upcoming school year, I made a bundle pack of 6 different back to school activities and ice breakers that are appropriate for elementary and middle school.  

All you need to do is print and go!  This fifteen pager is a must have!

Grab yours here!