Angry Birds Have Arrived In My Classroom!

My students are super excited about this project! Awhile back, I came across an Angry Bird Project from Smart Chick Teacher's Blog. I altered the project a bit to fit my student's needs. I began the project by using it as morning work when they arrived each morning. They were given different prompts to plan and journal about their Angry Bird they were creating.

I truly was going to leave it at that, but as the students shared their entries I realized how excited they were about their birds that I decided to take it one step further. I asked them to write about their bird's adaptation and how this has help their survival in their habitat. We explored natural selection earlier in the year, so this was a great review for them. The students made their birds out of toilet paper rolls and I created the game board. Oh, and I also created the pigs. It wouldn't authentic without them, right? I honestly have only played the game a few times, so a few students helped me plan the display.

The final touch was the students warning sign that explain the bird's adaptation, what has made them successful, and what the citizens of the community should do to protect themselves. Each poster is connected to the specific bird with black string so viewers know which bird belongs to each sign. I have to say that I usually don't put a lot of effort into hallway displays, however this one has really gotten my creative juices going and I look forward to my next one now!

       

     

And They're Off Blogging!

Today my students got their 1,000 Words in 10 Days Challenge. You should have seen their faces, some turned white as a ghost. My 6th graders did this challenge last year and quickly reassured the 5th graders that 1,000 words isn't really as much as it sounds. One of the great aspects of a multi-age classroom, the support they give each other. A quick description of the challenge can be found here.

 I began blogging last year with my students, however I was very new to it and was still learning how to use it myself. I gave my students a few assignments and I feel it was a good start. This year I have gotten a late start, but better late then never right? I have an account with Edublogs. This site allows you to open a free account and set up to 50 student accounts. You can manage these accounts and monitor the use of them. I have a pro-account which is about $40 for the year. This gives me a few more features and allows me to turn off the advertising on our accounts. I am the administrator of my students accounts, so I have to approve any comments that come through for each student blog. This prevents anyone from posting spam or disrespectful comments. There are many other benefits to Edublogs and they have made it really easy to allow students to incorporate 21st century skills into the classroom in a safe way. My goal is to have the students post on their blog once a week. I think this will be manageable for me and everything that I have going on in my classroom at the moment.

My students have already emailed me their plans for their blog posts and explained how they will gather information to make their readers interested in what they have to say. I have one student that is going to post a picture and describe it in as many words as she can. The title will be "A Picture Speaks a 1000 Words". Sounds like a writing lesson I would do in my classroom! I am looking forward to their creativity and seeing how I can push them to post their best writing.

To assess the posts, I am going to use a blogging rubric I found at http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/. The rubric can be found here. What I loved about this rubric is that it is based off of Bloom's Taxonomy. If you scroll down there are examples of each rating as well. This allowed my students to understand what my expectations are when they publish their posts.

Hope this was somewhat helpful to you. Does anyone else manage student blogs in their classroom? I would love to learn what others do and how they are utilized.

Also, sorry there aren't any visuals of my documents in this post. I am trying to figure out how to create a "button" of the file and then link the file to that button. That would be much more exciting then my click here method. Having trouble finding a good site that explains this easily. If anyone has a good reference it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Meeting the Trait Lady

Today I went to a professional development day with Ruth Culham, the pioneering researcher of the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing model. I have been using this program for years, but it was great to finally meet the person who developed this writing model. Now I know that one-day workshops are the least effective way for us to really learn how to implement something into our classrooms, however since I already know how to use the system I was able to clarify and enhance what I already do. My school has been working hard to align our writing curriculum with the Common Core State Standards. Ruth shared a link that has the standards alignment with the trait writing program. This is an alignment for the the Scholastic Trait Program, but something is better than nothing and I thought it was a good resource. Currently only K-5 is completed, but she did say that 6-8 will be out in March.

A fantastic mentor text she shared for the trait of voice was Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude by Kevin O'Malley.

This is a hilarious book about a boy and a girl who had to tell a fairy tale to their class, but they couldn't agree on the story. There are two distinct voices in this book. The girl wants the story to be gentle and sweet, while he wants it to be adventurous and daring. I think this would be an awesome partner project for students to publish together. So I immediately stopped at the library after the workshop and check this book out. I am thinking that a digital story would be fun, however I have never done one before with my students so it will be a learning experience. Not sure how to really do it, but google is awesome and I am sure I will figure something out. This would make another great blog post! I also use www.writingfix.com  as a resource frequently and they have created a teacher guide for this book that has graphic organizers and lesson resources.

I ended the day renewed and excited to teach writing again. Something that is always needed since our jobs are so draining and sometimes we can get into a rut. This profession always needs inspiration!

Oh...and the last thing I did before I left the workshop

was get my book signed. I know, such a nerd.

Lastly, Lindsey from My Life as a Fifth Grade Teacher is having a giveaway! She is the one who really got me   to decide to do this blog. She now has over 200 followers and to celebrate she is giving away a $20 Target gift card. Head over to her blog to enter.