With a 4 month old in the house, some things just get pushed off a little! So here’s my Five for {Fraturday}…. Room 219 has been busy!
1. We started off the week in full swing with our Famous American research reports! Students have been researching for a week, and they are doing an amazing job!
Here’s a little info on how I do these projects:
- Students are given a week to choose a Famous American. I give them a list of about 50, and they can choose any on this list, or write 3-5 sentences to persuade me why we should learn about a Famous American of their choice. They write down their top 3 choices and give them to me. On Thursday, I give them their assigned American from their choices, and their homework is to have at least 1 book on this person by Monday.
- On Monday they are given section 1 notecards. There are 4 cards per page, and 5 total sections. I color code each section by copying them on different color card stock. So section 1 was on pink card stock, section 2 on yellow, section 3 on green, section 4 on orange, and section 5 on red **This is REALLY important for later**
- Students finish researching and taking notes on a section, cut out the cards and glue one down per page in their writing notebook. They take each card, and write them as sentences below. I have to edit/check that section before I give them the next cards.
- When they are finished with 2 sections, they type those sections in a Google Doc, then move on to sections 3-5 and do the same.
- I {PUFFY HEART LOVE} the color coding. It is such a great scaffolding for 4th graders because they know that all the same color cards make one paragraph. They just have to add a topic sentence to each colored paragraph.
- Once it’s all typed, they share their doc with a peer editing buddy. That buddy turns on “Suggesting” and makes any suggestions to edit. They accept or reject the suggestions, then share their final copy with me.
- I print off 2 copies, one to grade and one to put out at the Wax Museum (So it doesn’t have grading marks all over it.)
Here are some pictures of this process in action!
{Research cards in a student’s writing notebook}
{We do a lot of peer help for kiddos who need tech help when I am conferencing with a student!}
{These partners above are peer editing. If you look closely you can see the “suggestions” on the right side of their screens.}
{This sweetie is working on typing her last section!}
{LOVE that she has her Bibliography out to write down her sources!}
{Typing away!}
2. If students get done with their paper before the due date, they get to do the optional brochure portion of the project! About 70% of my students were able to get to the brochure this week! 🙂
{Working on her brochure in Publisher}
3. On Monday, we will be writing our speeches for our Wax Museum and practicing them all week! Our first Wax Museum is Thursday evening at Open House, then we do it for the students in our school on Friday at school! A few of my yahoos finished both their papers and brochures this week, so they got started on their speeches!
{Working on his speech!}
4. We have continued our “Writer’s Spotlight” time before lunch and at the end of the day, and students are loving it! Read more about how I’ve been working to make writing fun in my post from this week here! (There’s a little writing conference freebie, too!)
5. We took a little break from all of our Nonfiction work to do a Poetry, Prose and Drama sort. It was great review and the kiddos had fun doing it! This is in my Poetry and Figurative Language Unit on TPT
6. (I know, more than 5 but I figured we’d do a little bonus since I’m a day late!) I finished up the week playing with this sweet boy, and even getting a run in since the mountains of snow are FINALLY melting!
Hope everyone had a good week! If you’re interested in doing your own Wax Museum project, you can get all of the materials for mine in my TPT store here!
Saw this and am thinking about how I can adapt it for my 8th graders. I love the color coded notes for the writer's notebooks!! Love, love, love! I'm your newest follower 🙂
Jessica at tinybabyg.blogspot.com
Thank you so much! I am so glad you were able to get some ideas for it! 🙂 I hope you are able to adapt it.. if you have any questions or need any ideas feel free to email me! mrscap6@gmail.com 🙂
I really want to thank Dr Emu for saving my marriage. My wife really treated me badly and left home for almost 3 month this got me sick and confused. Then I told my friend about how my wife has changed towards me then she told me to contact Dr Emu that he will help me bring back my wife and change her back to a good woman. I never believed in all this but I gave it a try. Dr Emu casted a spell of return of love on her, and my wife came back home for forgiveness and today we are happy again. If you are going through any relationship stress or you want back your Ex or Divorce husband you can contact his whatsapp +2347012841542 or email emutemple@gmail.com