A Peek at my Week - {1/26/14}

   I am super excited for this coming week.  Mainly because I have it all planned out and even most of my copies made for the week.  Since I'm planned out, I decided to link up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for A Peek at my Week.  Stop by her blog to see what other teachers have planned for this coming week!

    I'm also starting a new unit in social studies which is my favorite, Ancient Greece. For language arts I am finishing up non-fiction with both of my classes.  Here is a look at my lesson plan template.

I made this template to go with exactly what I teach.  I teach language arts and social studies but to two completely different leveled classes so often the lessons are very different.

Language Arts this week

     This week I will be wrapping up my nonfiction unit.  One thing that I'm super excited about is using Newsela. If you haven't visited this site yet, then you should definitely check it out. He has passages available with their Lexile Levels and quizzes to go with them.  I'm having my students pick out an article of their choice to read and respond to.

    I'm also using readworks.org to print passages for my students to go along with what lesson we are discussing.  They have passages to go with topics like point of view, main idea, author's voice, etc.  I have been doing mini-lessons and then putting students in group by reading level to work on practicing that skill.

Social Studies This Week

    I love teaching ancient Greece for many reasons but this year the biggest reason is because I have the unit organized.  I put together a binder of all the resources I have. It has sections for each major topic with the passages or activity behind them.  For example, behind geography there is a map of Greece to color code, a few articles on geography, and a cause and effect activity. Once I had the binder put together it was so much easier to plan for the unit. 

   I am doing a lot of stations with Greece and interactive activities.  This week they will be starting a folder with information they learn about Greece so that they can later use it to write a story about their own character from ancient Greece. 

There was nothing exciting about seeing the binder I'm using but I thought Jack made it more interesting! He has been wore out this week from getting to spend extra time playing with his mommy. 

Five for Friday Linky Party

   I just saw a new linky party called Five for Friday that I thought I'd join in on.

 My class has been very busy this week.  We began reading "Where the Red Fern Grows,"  started studying Ancient Rome and are trying to finish up the parts of speech.

   1.   I taped baskets that I got from dollar tree to the wall so that my students could play "grammar ball."  This is where I called a student up and gave them a word.  They had to decide if the word was an adjective or adverb and throw the ball in the correct basket.  My students are always asking to play now!

2. One of my students made this diorama of Ancient Greece for extra credit.    We will all miss studying Greece.  It has been a class favorite so far.

3. Yes, that is a snake around my neck.  We had "snake man" come this week to teach us all about snakes.  He helped students learn which snakes are venomous.  The students absolutely loved this and I had a great time myself.

4. This is a picture of the notes my students took on the first chapter of "Where the Red Fern Grows." Instead of buying a pre-made unit I decided to just review concepts that go along with each chapter.    Each chapter I give notes on a big idea and then have the students look for something while they are reading.  It has been working great and my students love reading this novel so far.

5.    It seems like all the sixth graders at our school have been pretty rambunctious lately and seem to be caring less and less about their grades.  Next week my teammate and I are breaking out the rules again and starting stricter consequences.  I'm hoping that something will change because I'm tired of repeating

  How are things going with your class this time of year?

Snow Day Planning

    Today was supposed to be a required teacher workday but instead it is a snow day.  Silly me didn't believe the weather and didn't bring home any work to do.  In attempt to get something done I've been working on my Ancient Greece unit.  For each country I teach I usually go into the geography, daily life, religion and then go into more specifics from there.  I've noticed my students struggle with seeing how these different topics relate to each other.  For example, my students understand geography and how it impacts a country but how geography impacts daily life or religion is harder for them to see.
   For Ancient Greece I am planning on having my students tell a story about a person living in Ancient Greece.  To start out the unit they will be creating paper dolls that I found online and naming their character.  I am also giving them a brainstorming sheet to fill in throughout the unit that will help them later tell their story.  I am going to grade the story as a means of summative assessment instead of giving an open note test like I usually door.  I'm hoping this assignment will help my students think more critically and see the connection between each area they learn about.
   To find the paper dolls I'm using click here. If you'd like to see the story map I made to use click here.   What strategies do you use to help students think critically in the content areas?