I have returned!
I survived my 24th birthday (Seriously, survived. There were tornadoes involved) and spent some quality time with the family. It was a much needed break considering everything that is coming up in the next few weeks before classes end....
Today was my first day with the 5th graders and I introduced them to my Weekly News lesson plan. Excerpt from the lesson plan below, but I added some things to the lesson for today.
For instance, we mapped out a newspaper on the ELMO to help the kids learn about formatting and what kinds of messages newspapers create. They really know their stuff - headlines, text, titles, captions - I was impressed! :) And I liked having the ELMO as a visual aid for sure.
We also did a KWL in each group. The kids were really excited about the KWL activity - lots of participation and feedback on that one.
Day 1. Students will be divided into groups of five, made to resemble each day of the week (Mon-Fri).
*-- I did not divide them up into day groups yet. There was SO MUCH going on - I will save that for Wednesday's meeting.
Students need to find 20 words or headlines and clip them from newspapers.
*-- I had the kids compete in their groups to see which group could get 20 words first - the winners got some cool toy dice. Competition was a big motivator for the kids!
Speaking of motivation: classroom management was KEY with this group. Their teacher uses a concierge bell to get their attention and get them on task. That worked.. mostly. The kids were really engaged in working together to find their words and headlines so they kind of lost track of volume. It was a delicate balance of attention and noise levels... duly noted for future classes!!
I survived my 24th birthday (Seriously, survived. There were tornadoes involved) and spent some quality time with the family. It was a much needed break considering everything that is coming up in the next few weeks before classes end....
Today was my first day with the 5th graders and I introduced them to my Weekly News lesson plan. Excerpt from the lesson plan below, but I added some things to the lesson for today.For instance, we mapped out a newspaper on the ELMO to help the kids learn about formatting and what kinds of messages newspapers create. They really know their stuff - headlines, text, titles, captions - I was impressed! :) And I liked having the ELMO as a visual aid for sure.
We also did a KWL in each group. The kids were really excited about the KWL activity - lots of participation and feedback on that one.
Day 1. Students will be divided into groups of five, made to resemble each day of the week (Mon-Fri). *-- I did not divide them up into day groups yet. There was SO MUCH going on - I will save that for Wednesday's meeting.
Students need to find 20 words or headlines and clip them from newspapers.
*-- I had the kids compete in their groups to see which group could get 20 words first - the winners got some cool toy dice. Competition was a big motivator for the kids!
Speaking of motivation: classroom management was KEY with this group. Their teacher uses a concierge bell to get their attention and get them on task. That worked.. mostly. The kids were really engaged in working together to find their words and headlines so they kind of lost track of volume. It was a delicate balance of attention and noise levels... duly noted for future classes!!
· Students arranged words into new headlines and glued their headlines onto the top of their drawing paper. That was their end goal for the lesson today. Some of the results are below haha
On their KWL sheets I had them record words they weren't sure of, questions they still had, or problems they needed to solve. I collected the sheets and they will be finished on Friday as part of 'critique' and discussion. The KWL sheets became a competition of sorts: "Let's see how many things we can come up with!". Timing that activity was a big help to keeping the kids on-task. Most of them worked at a similar pace and I walked around to make sure everyone's voice was being heard.
I think the best part about this lesson plan is the open-ended results. I love being able to motivate the kids with humor, imagination, and fun. They definitely were more engaged when they were laughing about each other's headlines and found words. Some students were not paying close attention so I needed to be aware of the ones that needed more help. The classroom teacher did help to direct students a little bit, but thankfully she mostly directed confused students to ask me the answers. I was definitely, mostly, in charge! As much as you can be with alien 5th graders.
The kids were really helpful with cleaning up and putting the room back in order. Lots of them wanted to start drawing today but if I have learned anything from working with K-5 kids, it's that pacing is EVERYTHING. Wednesday we are going to start drawing and the kids have a half-day so we can finish the drawings on Friday and do group critique. I hope the next few days go as well as today went! Wednesday we will be learning about Eric Wedum's work/blog and doing drawings. I have been bugging him on Twitter lol "I totally love this idea" blahblahblah. I think the kids will have pretty impressive work, judging by their headlines!
Time to head to work - I've been gone since Thursday. Back to reality, right?
Til Wednesday,
Ms. K
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| "Are you just gonna draw a bunch of sweaty dudes?" "yeah, probably" hahah |
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| Keeping it local! |
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| BEES AND GHOSTS - COOL. TERRIFYING! |
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| "I think I would have sore teeth" |
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| Love it - this student actually did two! |
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| Ohhh, the visuals are gonna be great haha |
I think the best part about this lesson plan is the open-ended results. I love being able to motivate the kids with humor, imagination, and fun. They definitely were more engaged when they were laughing about each other's headlines and found words. Some students were not paying close attention so I needed to be aware of the ones that needed more help. The classroom teacher did help to direct students a little bit, but thankfully she mostly directed confused students to ask me the answers. I was definitely, mostly, in charge! As much as you can be with alien 5th graders.
The kids were really helpful with cleaning up and putting the room back in order. Lots of them wanted to start drawing today but if I have learned anything from working with K-5 kids, it's that pacing is EVERYTHING. Wednesday we are going to start drawing and the kids have a half-day so we can finish the drawings on Friday and do group critique. I hope the next few days go as well as today went! Wednesday we will be learning about Eric Wedum's work/blog and doing drawings. I have been bugging him on Twitter lol "I totally love this idea" blahblahblah. I think the kids will have pretty impressive work, judging by their headlines!
Time to head to work - I've been gone since Thursday. Back to reality, right?
Til Wednesday,
Ms. K
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