Workshop Wednesday {Fractions}

Jivey's Workshop Wednesday topic of fractions has reminded me how much I miss teaching math this year!  If you read my blog often, you may remember that math is REALLY my favorite subject but, now that we are departmentalized, I am teaching all ELA.  I love ELA too and can't imagine not teaching reading and writing either but math is the subject that has always been closest to my heart.  

In 4th grade, fractions are the largest unit during the year and is probably the most difficult concept for students to comprehend.  When I taught 4th grade math last year and implemented the CCSS (see the standards for fractions here), my team made five "fraction booklets" using resources from various texts to use throughout the year.  We had "Fraction Friday" every week and continuously studied fractions throughout the year.
Our booklets focused on the following topics: 

Basic Fractions, Mixed Numbers and Improper Fractions, Adding and Subtracting Fractions, Multiplying with Fractions, and Decimals and Fractions.  

In addition to the focused fraction packets, I always incorporated fraction math centers as choices throughout the year for morning work time.  Here are a few of the resources that I used for fractions in my math centers.  Students truly benefited from this extra practice by engaging in these fun activities.

This is a freebie Fraction Dominoes game by Ideas by Jivey.

Here is a set of four winter themed monster fraction centers that I created last year.

The students below are playing a memory game for equivalent fractions from the monster set.

 This is a line plot with fractions center that I also created last year.
It is a top seller in my TpT store.

One last set of centers I created last year was for 4.NF.4 (multiplying fractions by whole numbers).

I try not to promote my own products on my blog too often but these are probably my favorite products that I have created to use with my students.  Please accept my apologies for the self promotion. :)  I created the centers originally because it was difficult to find fraction centers for the upper elementary.  In honor of Workshop Wednesday fraction week, these centers will be on sale at 20% off until midnight Saturday EST!  Thanks for reading and good luck with those fractions. ;)  I DO miss them!

Tried It Tuesday {Close Reading}

I can barely believe that it is already November!  Wow!!  As I know you can all relate, life has been so busy lately and I have been struggling to stay afloat with school, family, blogging, and sleep!  I am finally getting past my cold/sinus infection (although I still can't belt out notes in the car to my favorite songs!). It hung on for over a month and this past week my body told me to get more than my normal 4-5 hours of sleep a night.  Halloween week is always tiring with school and my own kids.  To top it off, the hubbie was out of town last week for three days for a work conference!  It is amazing how much a difference that makes with even just taking care of the day to day chores, two kids, and two dogs.  Whew!  

My Tried It:

Close Reading

Last year, close reading was starting to become the "buzz word" in my neck of the woods.  I am not sure if other areas had been using this strategy specifically called "close reading" longer, but I didn't explore it until last year.  To be honest, I was skeptical at first.  Some of the materials and lessons about close reading seemed SO dry and it seemed like I was beating a text to death!  This summer, I spent more time researching close reading and came across this website:
Teaching the Core blog post Part 3: Close Reading
I have tweaked close reading to fit my teaching style and took many pointers from the website above.  Here are some of the highlights from the post that really helped me:

So what is close reading?

If you came into our classes and asked our students what close reading is, what they’d probably describe is something that can be boiled down to this: the careful interpretation of a text wherein which readers pay close attention to the way ideas unfold as they read. Often, this involves annotating texts for the sake of slowing ourselves down and recording our thinking so that we can do cool stuff with what you read.

• close reading slows us down and allows us to interpret difficult passages;
• it keeps us focused on our purpose for reading (e.g., finding a claim to argue with);
• it leaves us “bread crumbs” with which we can find our way back to our thinking later on, like when we’ve got to write a paper or prepare for a discussion.

For any close reading, it is helpful to consider the following components:

• Introduce complex vocabulary
• Establish a purpose
• Model higher-order reading/thinking
• Partner practice
• Check for understanding
• Independent practice

Check out the post for a lot more information and links to a variety of sources.

We have been reading Love That Dog in my three ELA classes and working on a poetry unit.  The students really love this unit!  If you are not familiar with this book, my BBB, Jivey, at Ideas by Jivey blogged about it for the mentor text linkup on Sunday here.

This is my copy of the book and each student has their own copy to use while we read the book.  We have a great multi-copies library to borrow from.  The sticky note marks the section in the back of the book where there are the poems that Miss Stretchberry refers to in class.

One of the poems is "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost.

 We did a close reading of the poem in small groups.

The reading specialist took a group of 3-4 students and I took a group of 3-4 students while the rest of the students were at word work or work on writing.  Then, we switched and finished the remainder of the class.  I liked having a small group for the close reading because it really gave each student a chance to participate and we found out so much more about their thinking.  I had two students in completely different groups tell me that the poem was about Jack Frost (they were stuck on the author's name, Robert Frost and the fact that the poem had snow in it).  Another student was convinced it was about Santa Claus because the harness bells rang and he "had promises to keep".  This provided a great teaching moment where we could discuss what clues tell us that the poem is not about Jack Frost or Santa Claus (horse, not reindeer; Santa usually travels in his sleigh in the air; no mention or suggestion of magical elements in the poem).  

Here is the poem as written in the back of the book.

After completing all the close reads, I read the poem as a book with illustrations to the class.

Here is a link to a free close reading printable poster on TPT.

Here are some resources that I have picked up recently on TPT for close reading:

Close Reading Figurative Language Stories by I'm Lovin' Lit (I have blogged about her interactive notebooks recently here and here!).

Interactive Notebook for Close Reads of Informational Text by 2 Brainy Apples

Common Core Close Reading Passages by Teaching to Inspire in 5th

I would love to hear how you use close reading in your classrooms!  

Tried It Tuesday {Interactive Notebooks}

It's time for another edition of Tried It Tuesday!  I love all the ideas of things "tried" that teachers share each week!  Posts can be about things tried in the classroom or at home!  

My Tried It:

Interactive Notebooks
This year I have completely changed how my students organize their writing journals.  After spending a lot of time reading posts this summer about interactive journals, I purchased some amazing products (during the TPT back to school sale of course!) for transforming my students' journals in ELA this year.  Here are some of the most helpful resources for interactive notebooks that I purchased.

Just look at the amazing Table of Contents for this Interactive Reading Notebook by I'm Lovin Lit!  It aligns to the Common Core for grades 4-8.  I love that this resource has above and beyond what I will need for teaching 4th grade.  

On Saturday, I wrote a post about using her figurative language student pages for similes here.

I love how this product also has editable templates for the interactive lessons!  I edited this template in Powerpoint to include the six types of figurative language that I want my 4th graders to learn.  It was so easy to customize it for my class.  Under each strip, we are recording the definition.  Then, each example of figurative language has its own separate page in the notebook with a further example and song lyrics that incorporate the figurative language.

Students color coded each strip to match the figurative language posters that I purchased from I'm Lovin Lit to display in my room.  This poster set actually included 57 posters on various topics!

I also invested in the Interactive Writing Notebooks but am still exploring this huge resource!

Another set of interactive resources I purchased was the 4th grade Interactive Reading Notebook and 4th Grade Interactive Language Notebook by Nicole Shelby.

 This is the table of contents for the reading notebook:

 I forgot to take pictures of the activities we have used from the reading notebook, but will add some later.  I haven't used the language notebook resources yet.

One more resource that I have tried is the Interactive Language Arts Notebook companion to mentor sentences.  See a detailed post here about how I have incorporated mentor sentences in my classroom.  I also show how I have divided my students' journals into two sections.  The front of the journal is for reading/writing notes and written responses to reading and on demand writing prompts.  The back of the journal is for grammar notes and mentor sentences.  The students use the beginning of the journals for two separate Table of Contents, one for the front and one for the back.

Here are some pictures of the foldable for singular and plural possessives from my students' notebooks.

What is my favorite part of using interactive journals this year?  Students are really taking ownership of their journals and using them as a resource!  They take them out to look up information at random times.  I love that!  The interactive piece really seems to stick with them.  

What is something that I wish I could change?  Time!  The time it takes to cut and glue is getting BETTER but it takes f.o.r.e.v.e.r. those first couple weeks!  It has only been seven weeks and there has been such an improvement.  Following directions is also getting better but I still often have that one student in each class who will not listen to directions and cut the paper wrong, therefore, having to start over.  The time is definitely worth it when I see students using their notebooks though!  If you are trying it for the first time, persevere.  

Spark Student Motivation {Figurative Language}

I am all bundled up this Saturday afternoon and the furnace has been running.  We are sure feeling the change of seasons here in New York.  Thursday was a white knuckled drive to work with the roads completely covered with wet, slushy snow.  My van did not have snow tires yet and I had to "creep" all the way.  My three year old said, "It's bumpy, Mommy."  That is because the van was not stopping and I had to pump the brakes and everything was shaking!  The snow tires went on Friday. :)

On Wednesday, I wrote about the introduction to poetry in my classroom and today I added some pictures to that post from my students' journals.  They wrote down their "thoughts about poetry".
While I was taking pictures of that page in a few journals, I also snapped some pictures of an activity we did this week to begin figurative language.

I am linking up with the amazing, Joanne, at Head Over Heels for Teaching to share this strategy for motivating students when learning figurative language.

This year I purchased several interactive reading and language notebook resources on TpT, including this Interactive Reading Literature Notebook for the Common Core by I'm Lovin' Lit.

This resource is jam packed with 160 pages of tools for teaching literary elements!!  I absolutely LOVE the pages for the lessons on figurative language.  The lesson incorporates song lyrics for each type of figurative language.  Music is such a wonderful motivator!  Here are a couple pics of the  journal page for simile using song lyrics to "Mean" by Taylor Swift.

It was so neat to have my students zero right in on those lyrics and pick out the similes.  We highlighted the similes in the lyrics and then wrote what two things the simile is comparing in the margin.  These directions are stated clearly in this product download and there are pictures included for teachers too!

We listened to this verse of the song a couple times (the whole song once as well) and the students just loved it!  I can't wait for next week when we discuss other types of figurative language and use more pages from this interactive journal.  I know the students will be so excited each time they get new set of lyrics.  

I have some more ideas to share with you about activities I have tried for the first time this year using interactive journals.  Check back on Tuesday to see some more ideas I have tried with interactive journals! :)  It's a work in progress but I plan on sharing what I have learned about interactive journals in blog posts throughout the year.  

Have a great weekend everyone!  Stay warm!! :)

Workshop Wednesday {Reading Tricks and Treats!}

I am linking up on this hump day with my BBB, Jivey, at Ideas by Jivey for Workshop Wednesday!  This week's topic is Reading Workshop Tricks and Treats.

We recently started working on our poetry unit.

My ELA classes are reading Love That Dog by Sharon Creech.

Before we begin reading the novel, I have the students write some quick thoughts in their journal about poetry.  They can write anything that comes to mind when they hear the word "poetry".  I wish I had taken pictures of what they wrote because some were hysterical!  I will try to add pictures of this to my post tomorrow.  Here are some pictures of their thoughts:

Overall, they knew very little about poetry just like the main character in the novel, Jack (although they hadn't read about Jack yet).

Since fourth graders have such little background knowledge about poetry, I try to expose them to as much "fun" poetry as possible.  I spread out many poetry books on my back table and read from them as well as have students borrow the books to explore themselves.  Today, my students had to choose a couple of poetry books to read when they were at "read to self" or "read to someone" center time.  We only got through one center today and I have four stations, so tomorrow the other two groups who were at "work on writing" and "word work" will do read to self and read to someone.  

Here is a picture of some of the books at the end of the day today after they had been sifted through many times:

I gave each student a mini post-it note and had them stick it on a page of a poem that they like (name written on post-it).  I will photocopy that poem for them and they will try to memorize it to recite to the class.  We will recite our poems for a fun activity on Halloween.  It will be a "trial run" and students will be allowed to use their copy if they need to when reciting (most students will actually memorize it!).  After this "trial run", students will choose another poem and then be given about a week to memorize it.  We will have another poem reciting day.  See the post-it notes sticking out of the books in the picture below?

When I first started this years ago, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Could the students really memorize the poem?  If they can memorize words to songs so easily, why not poems?  I found out that they ABSOLUTELY CAN memorize poems and they love it!  They are so proud to choose a poem and then be able to show off how they have memorized it.  We practice using the right expression, volume, and tone.  It is so much fun that the students slowly start changing their attitudes about poetry.  

It is my hope that when my students see poems, they will think that this is something they CAN read and understand.  Actually "liking" poetry is half the battle and if I can get my students comfortable with different styles, it may just allow their minds to work more freely instead of "shutting down".  

I think I can...I think I can...goes a long way!!

Be sure to check out more Reading Tricks and Treats at Ideas by Jivey!

Tried It Tuesday {VocabularySpelling City}

Wow!!  Time is just flying by!  Before I know it, Tuesday is here again each week.  I only blogged one other time since last Tuesday:(.  Sometimes I feel like I am just drowning in work (I know you can relate!).  I am still fighting sickness and my voice is STILL not back completely.  Not being able to sing along to my favorite songs is sure getting old!  Haha!!  

My Tried It:

Vocabulary Spelling City.com
I know that Spelling City has been around awhile (2008) but I finally got around to trying it out!  I downloaded the app (free trial version) on my four classroom iPads to use as an option at word work time.  The students have just LOVED it, however, they are not allowed to use the app each word work time (believe me, they would if they could!).

The "free version" has PLENTY for the students to do!  They were truly engaged the entire time at the center.  It was also super easy to set up an account and add my own spelling lists.

This is an overview of what free members can access:

The part that I was most impressed with once I started looking around the site more was the Vocabulary components that they have added.  In 2011, the site became VocabularySpellingCity to reflect the addition of significant vocabulary capabilities.  In 2011-2012, the site added writing practice activities as well (premium members only)!  There are so many options for free members as well though.  This screenshot shows how I can import different vocabulary lists for content areas.  There are vocabulary lists for math (grouped by standards), science, social studies, and more.

There are also these links to Language Arts lessons with free printables like these links for figurative language.  

I clicked on "figurative language" and then "enrichment lessons" and there are lesson activities with resources like this one:

 When I click on "Sample Word Lists", I can import word lists for figurative language into my Spelling City account too (free version!).  I never realized how much this website had to offer!

I would love for you to comment about how you use VocabularySpellingCity!

Also, do you have any app suggestions for my iPads and ELA center time?  I have four iPads and would also love suggestions for group projects if one comes to mind that you have tried.  

Thanks, friends!