Photography Challenge, Days 3 & 4

I've been consistent with posting to social media each day, but since I don't blog from my phone, this sometimes gets forgotten. I'm working on it.

For April's photography challenge,

Here are days 3 and 4.

Day 3 

Yesterday was "shapes".  I chose to rock my new Carly (Lularoe dress) which I got for free for hosting an in home party.

The geometric shape design reminds me of a mermaid, which quite frankly was a huge selling point.  Additionally, I could wear a small, which was another boost for my ego.  (On a side note, I didn't win the biggest loser contest at work, but I did lose ten pounds and am continuing with the small tweaks I've made to my diet.)

I'm also rocking my new {Younique} lipstain in speechless.  It's got an orange-nude tone and I like it!

While it gets a tad annoying to have to wash all my Lularoe items on delicate, the fabrics are incredibly soft and it's like wearing pajamas to work...except it's socially appropriate.  As the weather heats up, I'll be continuing to wear a lot of dresses to work.  Plus it was a Monday, and new clothes seem to make Mondays go a little better.

Day 4

I actually snapped tomorrow's picture today too, so don't mind the matching outfit.  Day 4 was "good together".  

I've got some awesome parents this year and it seemed like the perfect time to brag about them.  Between sending in extra supplies, making sure we're stocked for class parties, chaperoning field trips, donating to our {donors choose} projects, or sending our class post cards from their vacations, I've got some great support this year.

This post card is from one of my most supportive parents.  Her and her fiancee went on an amazing South American adventure and sent us post cards from their journey!  This one has a stamp from "the end of the world" which is pretty cool.  Not only does it help us feel connected to others, but it provided an awesome authentic moment to do a geography lesson.

But that turned into a lesson on how the hemispheres have opposite seasons due to the earth's tilt.  Which then turned into a lesson on the inner and outer planets.  Then one of my students brought up Pluto and it's declassification as a planet, so then we had that discussion.  Naturally, astronauts came up next...and that's just sometimes how learning unfolds in my classroom.

I so desperately wanted to show them this,

but realized it would be highly inappropriate.  #thestruggleisreal

Revamping Regions

As I {previously shared}, I'm in charge of social studies long range plans.

I thought I'd just be able to reuse what I made last year, but after I looked at it again with fresh eyes, I decided that I needed to just start over. 

I wanted to focus more on the landforms of each state so students could see how regions were geographically similar.  I wanted to include vocabulary that they'd hear in the FOSS Landforms Kit (which is being taught in humanities).  I wanted to be more consistent with each state including the same information (images of state flag, state quarter, state seal) and the same basic layout.

This, unfortunately, is a massive undertaking but all the fifth grade classes are not only using it, but enjoying it as well. 

Last night, many, many hours after my contract time ended, I finished the introduction and Intermountain region powerpoint.  Coming in at 119 slides, it took quite a while to upload to Dropbox and TpT.  I designed it to be a ten day unit, with the first being an overview of what defines a region and how they're created.  The next eight days focus on the eight states in the Intermountain region, with one day at the end for a test.  I zoomed in on Yellowstone National Park, so that could be a day within itself.   

You can snag it {here}.

I designed the lessons to be about 15-20 minutes per day, since that's all we seem able to squeeze into our schedules.

This weekend I'll jump into the West Region with an additional topics on volcanoes, the Northern Lights, and tectonic plates.  From there, I think the Great Plains and the Midwest will be the next two regions, followed by the South, New England, and Mid Atlantic.  After all the states are covered, we'll be working on Native American Indians, Exploration, Plymouth, Colonial Times, the American Revolution, and the foundation of our government.  The year will end with a civics and government unit.

Hopefully this year (lucky #7) will feel like the last year that I have to keep reinventing the wheel and working so hard to create curriculum for my students.  There will always be tweaks and trying new things, but I feel like a first year teacher all over again.  It's a little rough this year.  But at least it's Friday!

Back to where it Started

Years ago, while sitting in a UNLV grad class, I got the idea to teach the fifty states using post cards.  I started a blog and utilized social media to ask for post cards from around the world.

My previous PE coach was amazing enough to give me a massive velcro map of the United States to use for the year.  After he saw how great it worked in my classroom, he refused to take it back and ordered me a slightly smaller world version so I could extend their learning beyond US borders.

I used the map for two years before pausing.  My previous school made some instructional changes and social studies, sadly, was not a priority.

When I moved schools, I left the map in my garage, unsure of if it would be welcomed or deemed appropriate at my new environment.

However, I quickly learned that any activity that engaged students and fit standards was more than welcomed.  Mid year, I brought in the map.  

Over the course of the second semester, my students learned state by state about our country.  Mrs. H, my work bestie, helped on a daily basis to create the ppt that would accompany the post cards.  She reached out to her network too and together, we had enough for all the states.

We had fun learning fun facts about the other states in our country.  More importantly, our students had a wonderful time and got very excited about geography, which is always a win!

Here is the completed map:

Next year, we'll start the map much earlier.  We'll do more smaller quizzes and practice labeling regions more frequently.  We'll tweak the ppt so it has a consistent format and has more imbedded formative assessments.

One of the great things about teaching is the opportunity to continually reflect and improve upon my craft.  I tried the ppt for the first time this year in conjunction with the map and it went much better.  Next year, I'll make more tweaks and it will be better still.  

However, I still need some help completing the map.  I want to emphasize colleges, so if you are able to send one from your local university or alma mater, it would be greatly appreciated!  I am also in need of a Mount Rushmore post card as well as any international ones.  

Post cards can be sent to:
Ms. Vice
Iverson Elementary
1575 S. Hollywood Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89142

Thank you for the help!

The Map Update

This week we are finishing up the West Region.  We've covered the intermountain states, California, and Washington so far.  We took a three day break to cover volcanoes, which was naturally super exciting for the munchkins.

We've been studying erosion, deposition, and weathering as well.  We're writing a guided expository essay, so it's nice that the subject areas are blending together.  

We had inclement weather last week due to rain, so we took advantage of the extra long morning to watch some Discovery Education videos on erosion and haboobs (giant dust storms that are typical in Arizona).

They loved it.  

It's so nice to see them get so excited about everything we're learning.

This week we're doing Oregon, Alaska, and Hawaii.

I just wanted to thank everyone again who has sent in post cards.  My students love looking at them!

Our next region will be New England, to tie in with colonial history.

It Returns

As I previously blogged about, my giant map from my previous blog, Project Postcard NV, will be returning to my classroom this year.

I'm really excited to use it to teach the 50 states and to use with geography, land forms, US regions, and so forth.  I'm excited to use some post cards to make literary connections to our read alouds.  One of the first post cards we'll put up is the Saint Louis arch since we're reading The Lightning Thief. 

This evening, after the arduous task of finding the map and post cards, I organized by region:

I decided this year, I want to add a little more.  I want to focus on colleges from each state to promote options to my students.  I want them to start thinking about their futures and making goals.  I want them to think outside of the box and that they have options besides UNLV.

If you are willing to send a post card from your college, it would be very much appreciated!

Ms. Vice
Iverson Elementary
1575 S. Hollywood Blvd
Las Vegas, NV  89142

Teaser Tuesday

Sometimes my insomnia is beyond frustrating, but sometimes it yields exciting new classroom ideas.  I'm thankful it's the middle of winter break and I don't really have anywhere to be until around noon tomorrow because my brain simply will not shut off.

I have a million ideas bouncing around in my head for the new year.

I have my next bulletin board picked out.  They're going to write constructed responses about the themes in their latest novel.  We're going to type these responses, thus giving extra computer practice for those who need it.  

I will then take the two novels that we've read as a class (Esperanza Rising and The Lightning Thief) to model comparing and contrasting how the authors arrive at similar themes (family, loyalty, bravery) using the characters. (CCSS/NVACS RL 5.9.  Yes, we've renamed the Common Core Standards the Nevada Academic Content Standards for well, in my humble opinion, ridiculous reasons.)  

I'm excited to start using music for transitions in my classroom, especially at the end of the day.

I'm excited to start teaching more mapping skills, geography, earth science, and most importantly, the return of the map:

Oh yes, we'll build it up again from scratch.  There was a disagreement within my grade level about how to approach maps.  I understand the idea of starting with the 13 colonies, but I also stand by my approach of teaching regions.

We're going to start with what they know: Nevada.  From there, we'll do the surrounding southwestern states.  We'll talk about things these states all have in common and I'll introduce the concept of a region.  From there, we'll explore the other states in a quasi-reverse Westward Expansion kind of way.  We can also connect the map with the settings from Esperanza Rising and The Lightning Thief, which will bring in an exciting literary aspect.

But perhaps the idea I'm most excited about shall be called Teaser Tuesday.

I'll take fifteen minutes or so after lunch to read aloud the first chapter or two of a book.  Read alouds are a pretty common thing in my fifth grade classroom, but here's the new twist: It'll be a mystery.  I'll have the book cover and title hidden.  I'll read just enough to get them interested and of course, stop at a good part.  From there, I'll have them do a written reflection on whether or not they'll want to continue that novel independently.

I've already brainstormed using the following novels:

Tuck Everlasting
The Giver
Number the Stars
Hatchet
Al Capone Shines My Shoes
The Bad Beginning
Steal Away Home
The Red Pyramid

Any other ideas fellow teachers? Must read novels that are super interesting to ten year olds within the first few pages or chapters?

Movin' Mountains

In science we are just finishing up learning about types of maps before we move on to how landforms change over time with stream tables.

We talked about cartographers and surveyors (since I'm dating one, I've got lots of background knowledge!).  They made a map of the playground and I modeled making one of our classroom:

They collaboratively sketched out the features of the room and then their homework was to make an aerial map of their bedroom or favorite room.  Not all the students completed the task but the ones who did were so excited to share with their neighbors the next day.

I showed them my map of my bedroom and they were fascinated.  It was kind of adorable, considering all that was on my map was a bed and dresser.  They're just super observant and curious little ones, which is a wonderful thing.  (Sometimes they remind me of Littlest One in Lois Lowry's Gossamer but only a few of them get the literary reference).

From there, we moved into making topographic maps by tracing the different layers of a foam mountain:

This is investigation 4 in the FOSS Landforms kit, but I teach the kit out of order (such a rebel!).  

Tuesday we'll talk about contour lines, contour intervals and elevation when they make their keys.  I just love how excited they get about geography and landforms.  It's important to be excited about this great planet of ours!

Post Card Fun!

In my former blog Project Postcard, I asked for post cards from around the world so my students could study geography.  I'm pretty well set for the United States, but if you're abroad and in a cool place, send me one!  (Also, if you're near Mount Rushmore, I would like one for that monument so I can discuss human-enviornment interaction, which is one of the five themes of geography).

Today we had ten minutes left after our vocabulary review and since it was Friday, I couldn't set up the next activity because air would dry out our clay/sand models that we'll use for stream tables next week.  

So we went on a photo safari instead.

I passed out groups of post cards to each table team and had them talk about the landforms they saw.

They did a great job with coming up with questions without even being asked, which of course is wonderful!

Yes, they got a little too loud but it was nice to walk around and hear them getting so excited about mountains.

Here are some snap shots of my young scientists:

Zacatecas, Mexico

Northern Lights, San Fransisco and Alscase, France

St. Louis and the Atlantic Ocean

Yellowstone, Michigan and Big Bear Lake (CA)

Yellowstone

Meteor Crater (AZ) 

Great Wall of China and Hawaii

Atlantic Ocean and Alcase, France

A beautiful mountain (I couldn't see the back of the post card, they weren't very eager to share with me)

Thank you for all the post card donations!  

I love when my students get so excited about science and geography.  We made some great connections with the 5 themes of geography.  You can download my TpT freebie about geography here!  If you like it, please rate it and give feedback :)  If it didn't quite meet your expectations for a free product, I'd like to hear that constructive feedback as well!

Snap Shots

As stated in a few prior posts, I don't have anything in my TpT store that I wouldn't and haven't used in my own classroom.  Everything I make is for my students, then shared.

I guess I'm taking advantage of this magical "free time" before I start a family to create these timeless, rigorous activities for and with my students.  

I'm only in 2 college classes and my boyfriend has an odd work schedule, so it works out in my students' favor.  I'm not very good at relaxing.  I'm great at watching Netflix, don't get me wrong, but I feel like I need to be doing something else too.  Good thing I can type without looking at the keys!

My students used 2 of our centers this week.

The first is our new Tiger Rising center:

They were quizzing each other on the characters in the novel based on descriptions from the text.  It's a great way to compare and contrast characters!

The second is our map sort center:

We used this as a small group review before we took our science test today on types of maps.  Technically, this is a science & social studies hybrid assessment (geography) but students had to create topographic maps, so it ties in with landforms as well! 

(Yes, it's pink.  That's normal for my classroom :)  )

Just some snap shots of our collaborative learning this week!

KWL charts

In science, we are doing a mini-unit on volcanoes.

One of my favorite strategies to activate students' background knowledge is with a K-W-L chart, like mine on volcanoes:

The K is for what students think they already know about the topic.

The W is for what students want to know about the topic.

The L is for what they learn about the topic (either in class or while researching).

We are going over the structure of volcanoes, classifying them and then going to one of my favorite free online tools, Discovery Kid's volcano builder!

Once inside, we get to review layers of the earth:

Tectonic plates and the ring of fire:

Go inside a volcano:

We go through the scientific method with the students, only changing one variable at a time.  For volcanoes, the variables are the viscosity and gas levels within the volcano.

Enjoy!

Land Forms

We've been studying land forms for a few weeks now in science.  We've learned all about different types of maps, made several different versions and observed how elevation can change a stream table.  

Next week, we are going to conduct more stream table experiments, this time with flash floods. (One time with no elevation, one time with elevation to see the difference).  From there, we'll discuss more vocabulary, look at Google Earth for land forms and learn about layers of the earth.  Then, after we co-construct our anchor charts, we'll learn about the ring of fire and tectonic plates.

I saw this idea on pinterest and I think it's a perfect Friday science activity:

I'm totally game for combining food and science, it's hands-on, edible learning at its finest!

Trying to be positive

As mentioned in my rattled post, I've received some negative feedback on TpT.  I didn't take it well.  I received another piece of feedback on the same product but this one was less malicious and did cause me to be self-reflective.  Perhaps I need to look outside of my school district for professional development in terms of the Common Core.  I know Nevada is frequently at the bottom of educational rankings, but that's due to a plethora of factors, many of which we as teachers can't control.  Maybe I should look into other school districts (since there's really only one in my state) and how they're "ramping up the rigor" for the Common Core.

But at the same time, I don't think I'm unqualified.  If I was, I wouldn't be sharing my materials.  I've written assessments for my school and district for a few years and was on the unwrapping task force for both math and social studies when CCSD adopted the Common Core.  I've been CASL trained and I know what makes rigorous, valid assessments.  All of my materials have been field tested in my own classroom and tweaked as necessary.  I am a DENstar with Discovery and one of our district's DENambassadors (Discovery Education).  I attended DENSI last summer in Vermont and was the sole representative of my state.  Yes, state.  The summer before that, I attended both the Mickelson Exxon-Mobil Teacher's Academy and the Mount Vernon Teacher's  Institute, again being the sole representative of my state.  My list of qualifications goes on and on, so I think I'm a knowledgable teacher.  Of course, I'm never done learning and developing as a teacher, as evident with my current task of working toward masters +32 (so close!) then working on National Board Certification.  Yup, I'm a type-A teacher and I embrace it.  I know I work hard and my students learn.

I don't think rigor comes from worksheets.  I think rigor comes from discussions and analysis of the text.  Rigor comes from close reading, re-reading, deep discussions and interaction with the text.  I can offer those deeper level questions, which I do, in my discussion guides but it is up to the teacher to drive the discussion and challenge students to think deeper.  As with any teacher guide, you have to make it your own and implement it in the classroom.  

I stand by my products and I am trying not to let two bad reviews ruin my outlook on selling products online.  Last time I checked, 79 people had purchased a product with several hundred more downloading my free ones.  If out of that, two had an issue, I'd say that's pretty acceptable.  I do feel bad that my product didn't meet their expectations but it did meet mine.  For those of you that know me personally, you know my standards are meticulously high.  I don't like wasting time and I wouldn't feel comfortable wasting other people's time.

However, I'll let you judge for yourself.  I have three products for free on TpT: a novel quote preview for Tuck Everlasting, a chronological order sort for Harry Potter and a 5 themes of geography ppt.  Download them here.  If you like them, please rate me accordingly.  If you don't, I'd love feedback either here or on the site about how I can improve them.  Please don't tell me it was a waste of money (since it's free!) or a waste of time.  Offer concrete examples of how you'd like it improved.  I'm always open to constructive feedback, especially if it improves my instruction and benefits my students :)

Thank you,
Ms. Vice

TpT freebie: 5 themes of Geography PPT

I posted a free copy of one of my power points on TPT.

It covers the 5 themes of geography.

Hope you enjoy :)

(Feel free to download other products while you're there!)

Resources for maps

I love teaching about maps and science/social studies.  Here are some great resources I stumbled upon while researching this summer.

This gem from national geographic is interactive and very student friendly.

 I didn't complete the whole game but it definitely scaffolds instruction for the students.  It also nicely lends itself for a cross curricular lesson with coordinate planes and graphing in the first quadrant.

The second site is unfortunately loaded with ads, but still has a lot of good vocabulary for students.

I would use this with caution due to the ads, but this could definitely be adapted by taking the relevant information and putting it into a word document for student notes.  That way, you can practice highlighting skills and note taking in addition to the science content.

This anchor chart does a great job at providing picture examples to go along with the vocabulary words.

 This anchor chart goes great with the land forms kit I teach and is wonderful for ELL (English Language Learners) students.