Favorite Videos for 5th: Study Jams

As I get ready to go back to school next week, I thought I'd start sharing some of my favorite video resources for my 5th graders.  Have you heard about Study Jams by Scholastic?  They have lots of videos and interactive activities for math and science.  Click the image above or use this link: http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/index.htm

Monday Made It: Craftivities and Freebies!

It's Monday Made It time already?  How can that possibly be?

Thanks again to Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for hosting this linky party!  It's such motivation to get things done!  I catch myself trying to beat the clock to finish projects before midnight on Monday night.  :

If you haven't been there yet, her linky party is FULL of great ideas!!

This week, I had extra motivation to complete a few projects.  In addition to the Monday linky party, TPT is throwing a sale!  Everything in my store is marked down and if you use the code BTS14 you get an extra discount at checkout.  Lots of sellers are participating.  Go check your wishlist as well as all the new posts that went up this week!

I also had a deadline from my school to turn in a stack of postcards to send to my new 5th graders.  Just your luck, I put these in my TPT store for FREE!  They say 5th grade on them, but if you want a different saying, add it in the comments below.  I may be able to add a few other versions for my blog readers. :)  Yes, I REALLY want some blog comments!

I made 30 of these and delivered them to my school to be stamped and sent out this week!

The other project I finished today has been MONTHS in the making.  I have been working on this for a loooonnnnnggggggg time!  I even got my niece (6) and nephew (3) involved in helping me test them out. Check it out:

 Incentive chart Craftivities!!  No more boring incentive charts! These will have your students or children eager to show off their efforts!

1. Start with a background page. 

2. Choose what activities your students or children need to do in order earn a piece of the picture. (Read for 20 minutes, turn in their homework, do their chores, etc) 

3. When they complete the activity, they get to attach a piece to the picture. 

Pictures have no limit to the number of pieces you can attach! Put sprinkles on cupcakes, feathers on a turkey, or flowers in a vase. 

15 different incentive charts included! 
Color and blackline versions -- kids can color their own! 
All pieces included -- just print, cut, and glue!
Get extra crafty and use items like sequins, stickers, or feathers!



My niece (6) and nephew (3) had a great time making some of these craft projects with Auntie Heather!  Check out their versions!  (And the kids both wanted me to print them more!  My sister is getting a copy of the whole document so she can print as many as they want.)

I want to put one of the charts on TPT as a free sample.  Do you have a favorite?
Vote in the comments below.  The one with the most votes by next Monday will become a freebie!  :)

Vote for your favorite:  
Tree with leaves
Monster with eyeballs
Turkey with feathers
Pine tree with ornaments/lights
Snowy village with snowflakes
Cupcake with sprinkles
Cloud with rainbow stripes
Umbrella with raindrops
Vase with flowers
Picnic with ants
Dog with bones
Box with popcorn
Gumball machine with gum
Watermelon with seeds
Fishbowl with pebbles

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday Made It: Library Labels and a BONUS!!

Joining up again with 4th Grade Frolics for a "Monday Made It."

I've been busy this week getting ready for some visitors to my house.  My sister and her family are FINALLY coming to see me!!!  They haven't ever been to this house or Michigan, so I'm thrilled.  But of course that means I also have to have the whole house tidy enough to let her look in every room.  Uh oh!!

Anyway, I've been slogging through my classroom library collection this week, trying to finish labeling each book with the three levels I want to include.  I thought I'd show you how simple it is to make these.

I can't decide if I use this tool more for my crafting or my classroom.  I LOVE my Xyron machine.  It takes paper and turns it into stickers.  Or in my case, labels.  It's so simple to use!

Just stick the paper in on one side and turn the crank. 

Once it's past the edge on the other side, slide the little blade to cut it off. 

Peel the top plastic sheet away. 

(it takes away the extra adhesive from around the edges of your items) 

Easy peasy, ready to use! 

Once my books have stickers, I look up all their levels and write them on the label by hand.  

I've only got about 20 more stacks like this one left to go!  (This is a really long, tedious project!)

In case you're wondering, I just make my labels in MS Word using a table with no borders. Print, cut, roll through the Xyron, and label!

Now for my bonus feature!  :)

My friend, Dave, from Learning is the Game made this AWESOME activity for me!

It's easy set up -- print, cut, and add velcro to fly swatters.

The kids slap a fly, state the simplified fraction (in the example above, 2/18 would be 1/9) and then flip it over to check.  If they're right, they keep the fly for a point.  

Check out Dave's blog post or his TPT store for more details.

Hope you're having a great Monday!

Fun Friday: Eat Like an Astronaut

My class needed some motivation last year to make sure they had all their work done and behaved well during the week.  After a schedule change in March, we had a 30 minute block at the end of the day on Friday that was too short for a lesson, but too long to not do something productive.  We called it “Finish Up Friday.” Students with everything finished were rewarded with a fun project related to our 5^th grade standards.  Click on the tag “Fun Fridays” to see other ideas you might want to try.

 Eat Like an Astronaut

This was one of the favorite "Fun Friday" activities for us.  We have a Space unit in our Science standards and we had a set of stories in our Reading curriculum about astronauts. One of the stories was an interview with an astronaut about what it was like to be in space -- how do they eat, sleep, etc.  I thought it would be fun to experience a little taste of it ourselves!

Of course we had to have the freeze-dried ice cream.  I only got one package and we broke it into little pieces.   Each student got one small piece.

Astronauts ate dried fruit, too, so I brought in a bag of banana chips.  These are so yummy.  If you've never had them, they're worth a try!

Astronauts could also eat fruit leather. We used the kid-friendly version.  :)

We HAD to drink some Tang!  I couldn't believe they still make this stuff!  I drank so much Tang as a kid.  Apparently it was made popular by John Glen and other astronauts who drank it on their missions.  

Food in space has come a long way since the first manned missions. Our Reading curriculum story talked about how astronauts used to eat meals from a tube, but now they can eat foods packaged in a variety of methods.  I wanted my students to get to try eating a meal from a tube, so baby food aisle it was!  

Each student got a spoon and I squeezed a "taste" of the baby food onto it for them.  I had this Creamy Vegetables with Chicken, one with Red Beans and Rice, and one with Garden Vegetables and Turkey.  They got to choose which one to try.  This was hilarious as the baby food was not terribly appetizing to look at.  

(No one in my classroom ever HAS to eat anything.  It is their choice to try or not try.  We are also very careful about allergies as well.  Please make sure to check any food you serve for potential dangers prior to sharing with students!)

This was a GREAT activity that I will be repeating this year.  So much fun and so motivating for my students to get all their work done!

Got any other great ideas for Astronaut food that's available to the general public? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments section! 

Student Self-Monitoring and Reflection

Part way through the year, I got tired of hearing my 5th graders saying they didn't care about the score they got on an assessment.  They didn't really understand how their assessments added up to a final grade on the report card and they didn't see the "big picture" when they scored well on a single assessment but not well on many others.  

I knew I needed the kids to "buy in" to their own grades.  So I tried several things in my classroom and they seemed to pay off.  I thought I'd share some ideas with you in hopes that these might help in your classroom, too!

1st:  Data Wall:

<-- When students scored 100% on an assessment, they got to put a sticker on our data wall chart.  I wish I'd been doing this all year!  I started to hear kids mumbling about how they "really wanted a blue sticker" when they had gotten a few wrong.  

Each time I passed back an assessment, I called the kids with 100% to the front of the room. While those students were putting stickers on the chart, the rest of the class was recording their scores in their STAR folder (I'll explain those next).

This fall I plan to have a different chart for each subject area.  It was hard to see improvements when everything was lumped together like this. 

2nd:  STAR Folders

 <-- I made a set of folders with this cover for each student.  Each time I handed out assessments, we also quickly handed out these folders to each student.  Inside, students kept records of their assessment scores on a chart with a bar graph.

 Some of the charts had our school's scoring scale on it.  -->

Our school uses a 1.0-3.0 scale with a 3.0 meaning they've mastered the objective.  

<-- We used a separate chart for our weekly spelling tests because they always had 10 words on them.  This way, students could easily see how they were doing over time specifically on their spelling tests.  I wish I had done separate charts for each subject last year.  I will definitely do that this year!  

Want to use these STAR materials in your own classroom?  I just posted this STAR bundle in my TPT store.  You can check it out here, at a discounted price for at least the next 2 weeks! 

3rd: Racing to a Goal

My students take the NWEA 3 times each year.  After their 2nd test, I put up this racetrack to show them the progress they had made (or didn't make!).  My school determines a goal for each student after their fall test.  The winter test provides them with feedback toward their end of the year goal.  Some of my students performed worse in the winter than they did in the fall and didn't seem to care about it.  This racetrack set made a HUGE difference!  In case you can't see the words, they say "START," "Personal GOAL," "College Readiness." Some of my "high" kids had not made any progress toward their goal after 4 months of school.  Some of my "low kids" blew right past their personal goal.  The cars on the track gave us a chance to discuss habits and study skills for everyone, rather than high or low scores.  I loved this!

My students also got a new set of name tags on their desks. Each name tag had a space to write their goal.  We put their end-of-the year goals right on their desks so they could see it every day.  If you're interested, I've got the desk tags for sale at TPT, too.  




So, really long post, but three HUGE ideas for helping students develop self-monitoring skills and motivation.  Hope this helps!  Got any more good ideas for me?  Please share in the comments section! 

Monday Made It: Mini Chart Stand with PVC pipes

A little late in the evening to get this post up, but better late than never, right? :)

Thanks 4th Grade Frolics for the chance to show off my new PVC skills!

So, I saw this on Pinterest and thought it would be perfect for independent stations and anchor charts this year. I thought I'd follow the link and see how hard it would be to make one.  I'm crafty, but not handy.  My husband isn't handy either.  Neither of us has ever worked with PVC before.  I was thinking "I'll never be able to do this...  I bet I don't have the tools and that they cost a lot... I'll probably glue a pipe to my forehead or something..."  

Thanks to Falling Into First for sharing this great idea!  She's got great directions on her site for how to make this.  Of course, once I saw the low cost, easy-to-make chart stand, I started wondering about what other PVC items I could make for my classroom.  Is it going to be worth it to get a lot of PVC or am I just going to make a couple chart stands?

I dare you to type "PVC classroom" into the search engine of Pinterest.  I found some GREAT ideas.  Ok -- I'm willing to take the plunge.  I decided to start with the chart stand and see if it's as easy as they say it is...

Voila! My chart stand!

                                             

After viewing several projects, I saw this tool on someone's directions.  They said it would only cost about $10.  I got mine at Home Depot for $11.98.

(And am I the only one who looks at that picture and sees a bird?)

The tool makes cutting the PVC pipes so easy!  It's just like a scissors with a ratchet feature, so there wasn't much pressure needed to make it cut.  It really is that easy, folks!

Here's the basic process I went through:

Measure carefully

cut with this PVC tool

put the pieces together

Add decorative tape (lengthwise was easiest)


And it's done!



And interchangeable for landscape charts with just one more short pipe covered with tape:

Total cost:
Tool = $11.98
Pipe = $1.38
(and I have enough left to make another)
elbow connectors = $0.50 for two
"adapters" = $0.74 for two
corner "side outlet elbows" = $3.72 for 2

So, now that I own the tool, it will cost me $6.34 for any more chart stands that I make.  (Or less because I'll have leftover pipe.)

I'm not sure it's sturdy enough for me.  I might try a few other methods of making a more stable base.  I'll let you know if I find something better!  It actually took me longer to apply the tape than make the stand.  It's taking me longer to write this post than the entire process of building the project.

Anybody have any good PVC projects they've made?  Any great pins you've found?  Any suggestions for a better base?  I'd love to hear your comments in the space below!

Fun Friday: Corner bookmarks

My class needed some motivation last year to make sure they had all their work done and behaved well during the week.  After a schedule change in March, we had a 30 minute block at the end of the day on Friday that was too short for a lesson, but too long to not do something productive.  We called it “Finish Up Friday.” Students with everything finished were rewarded with a fun project related to our 5^th grade standards.  Click on the tag “Fun Fridays” to see other ideas you might want to try.

Corner Bookmarks 

We made some corner bookmarks as gifts to give our Kindergarten Reading Buddies.  My class had so much fun making them!  Students who had finished all their work were allowed to make extra bookmarks for themselves or to give to others as end-of-the-year gifts.  

Check out these links for design ideas:

Best Youtube video for DIY Corner Bookmarks

(watch out for some of the other ones -- I found several with inappropriate language!)

Check out Tally's Treasury for a tutorial on these cute little monsters

Or go to my Pinterest board for Crafts and Indoor Recess ideas:

Follow Clever Endeavors's board crafts and indoor recess activities on Pinterest.