November Currently and DBQs!!

What a week!  I was home Monday with a sick daughter, Tuesday we had no school due to Sandy (some lost power and downed trees but no real damage, thank you Lord!), Wednesday was a crazy, rainy Halloween, Thursday was busy preparing for a substitute before a workshop all day Friday!  I'm telling you...I really do need that retail therapy next weekend and today to get my thoughts in order.  Here is the November Currently from the A.MA.ZING! Farley at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade:

I spent most of my free time yesterday updating my DBQs (Document Based Questions) that I created years ago for ancient civilizations when I taught sixth grade.  They just looked so "blah" on TPT so I jazzed them up some:)  It took a long time but I am happy how they turned out (and I LOVE the screenshot tool on my Mac).  Here is a sampler of the Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome DBQs.

The Common Core is really stressing the reading of informational text and drawing from primary and secondary sources.  When I updated these to include the CCSS, I was amazed at how well they aligned.  If you teach ancient civilizations, I have six DBQs (Egypt, Jerusalem, China, Greece, Rome, Middle Ages) for sale here at my TPT or here on TN.  Our state has the drafts out for our "modules" for ELA and math.  They are like units to guide your yearlong instruction to align with the Common Core.  All the modules are social studies content except one science module.  Does your state have modules (units) for the CCSS as well and are they mostly social studies or science content?

I love to have my students listen to music during free time.  They love popular songs that they can sing to and it is great to see this happy, free side of them.  We have dance parties all the time and sometimes the students who you thought would never dance are the best dancers!!  

I will leave you with one pic of my little loves on Halloween:)  Charlie is a fire chief of course (with a rescue truck in hand).  Can anyone guess what Lilly is supposed to be?  The first person to tell me who she is dressed as can have one DBQ of their choice for free!  If you don't teach ancient civilizations, share with a colleague:)