July Book Club with Ramona Recommends

I'm linking up for Ramona Recommends' July Book Club, hosted by Lessons Learned From the Classroom and Beyond. This month the book "Wonder" by RJ Palacio was chosen and I was absolutely thrilled! I've read this book for the last 2 years with my 5th graders and it creates such great conversation!

Questions to Wonder About:

1. What did you think of this book? Did you love it as much as I did?

This book is absolutely fantastic and perfect for 5th grade! There is so much you can teach upon, especially in terms of how we treat people who are different from us in some way. Auggie, the main character, has a craniofacial deformity and is starting school for the first time. He is aware of how different he looks for others and while his whole family is nervous, they are all affected by his school experience. My favorite part of the novel is that the story is told through multiple characters' perspectives. 

A bonus chapter has just been released by RJ Palacio. It's called the Julian Chapter and I encourage you all to read it! I've always told my students that there are 2 sides to every story. In "Wonder", Julian's character is seen as the antagonist, picking on Auggie for the way he looks. But no person is 100% good or bad, we all have different experiences that make us react and behave the way we do. Palacio does a fantastic job of showing that in the "Julian Chapter". 

2. Did it make you think about things and your actions differently?

Every time I read this novel, I come away with a different perspective. It's impossible to not be affected by this story. You become attached to Auggie, Jack, Summer... and I hope that if I was a 5th grader in Auggie's class, I would have befriended him like Jack and Summer do. But it's a way to open up a conversation with my students about how we treat others. The theme "Choose Kind" is a popular one after reading this book.

3. I have provided lesson ideas below, but how might you teach this to your students? I'm thinking that Choose Kind could really be a mantra all year long for a class. What do you think?

The first year I read "Wonder" my class was so taken with the "Choose Kind" movement that we wanted to do something for our school. They decided to start the Smile Project, having each of our 700 students at the school create a picture of a smile on a 3x3 piece of paper. My class then arranged all the smiles into large posters and displayed them around the school: in the front office, near the lunch area, in our Multi-Purpose Room. It was a huge success and the whole school could benefit from seeing our whole school's spirit in choosing to be happy! I wish I had the foresight to take a picture of the finished products, but here are my students putting together designs from the smiles we collected from the rest of the school.

My 5th graders arranging the 3x3 squares we had handed out to the whole school.
This one they had spell out SMILE. It ended up in the MPR.

Another poster we put together. This one went near the lunch area.
My class decided to have it spell out FRIEND.

Our last two posters stayed in the school's office for almost
the entire school year. It was a huge success! My class
was very proud of their project.

4. I would love to know what your precept would be - I have created an editable postcard template. Please share your precept either in a blogpost or share it with me via e-mail. I would love to compile all of them and create a teacher collection of precepts. 

If you don't know already, RJ Palacio has a new book coming out on August 28th. It's called 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne's Book of Precepts... and I've already pre-ordered mine! I can't wait to use it with my students... I plan on doing it as a daily warm up writing activity. I've done this with quotes in the past, but to be able to tie it in with the book Wonder is truly exciting! I can't wait.

My own precept is the one I have in my classroom and I bring attention to it all year long. 

"We are crew, not passengers."-Kurt Hahn

I try to make sure the students in my class know that they are a crew member in their learning, not simply a passenger who gets to ride along smoothly, without putting any work into their passage. They will get as much out of school and their education as they put in to it, not simply be a passive part of their learning. It's a powerful metaphor that I have found to be a great touchstone in my classroom. 

Adventures in Guided Math

I'm joining Sarah and Courtney at Adventures in Guided Math as they host a book study of Dr. Nicki Newton's Guided Math in Action

The book study will begin on Sunday, July 13th, so I hope some of you will consider joining as well. I've been doing a lot of my own research on using math workshop and guided math with my 5th graders, so I'm excited to start this journey with fellow bloggers!

Creative Teaching Press Giveaway!

The 2014-2015 school year is my 10th year in the classroom. 10 years! I can't quite believe it. I don't feel old enough to have had 9 previous classrooms full of kids! In those previous 9 years I've taught kindergarten, second, third, and my absolute favorite... fifth!

And for my 10th year in the classroom 

I really want to overhaul my class decor.

A bit about the teaching version of me: I'm a minimalist, I like everything to have it's place, I like things to be organized... a skill I learned from my military father. He's all about having a space (most of the time properly labeled!) for things. His garage is one of the most organized places ever!

And truthfully, I'm so thankful that I grew up with that instilled in me. It's part of my personality. And it just makes teaching so much easier when I don't have to go searching for things.

So why am I talking about this now? 

I'm sure many of you have seen the awesome giveaway Creative Teaching Press is doing!  If you haven't, you should get yourself over there and ENTER...
 Inspired in Style- Designer Looks Giveaway

So in my dream world where I won one of the $200 gift cards to all their products... I'd be like a kid in a candy store with $200! Can you imagine? I'd have a giant stomach ache, after eating every candy in sight, but I'd be so happy!

And right now? I'm obsessed with their Chevron stuff. I think this is me! Chevrons are so fun, and I love their chevron name plates, the borders, everything! The blue and white is so fresh and clean. And would look great around the big windows in my classroom! Or the slate gray, which is so popular right now! New borders, new desk plates, new signs... it's time!

Currently

I'm linking up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade, and I'm so excited to be sharing my Currently again! It's so amazing how many awesome people link up each month!

1. Listening- I have to admit... I'm obsessed with country music. I listen to it all the time. And to me, there are no 2 better women in country than Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert. Their new duet, "Somethin' Bad" is awesome. I've listened to it countless times. And their music video... awesome doesn't even begin to describe it. Those girls are bad-ass. 

2. Loving- A few months ago I chopped off quite a bit of my hair into a shoulder length bob. And today, I shortened it a little more, and went even lighter blonde for summer. And I love it! So excited! A new haircut can totally change your day!

3. Thinking- I'm joining the children's book club hosted by Ramona Recommends and I can't wait to find out what book we're going to be reading this month! 

4. Wanting- If you haven't read the first two books in the All Souls trilogy, I highly recommend them. The first book is A Discovery of Witches and the second is Shadow of Night. They are by Deborah Harkness, and they effortlessly weave magic, science, history, romance... The final book in the series, The Book of Life comes out on July 15th. I just reread the first two books in anticipation. I'm more excited than ever to finish this trilogy.

5. Needing- I have several in progress TPT projects going... I really need to finish them up!

6. 4th of July Plans- We haven't totally solidified what we're doing... but it will be something with my family. We'll definitely be watching fireworks, since our town is bringing them back at our county fair after several years without them. It'll be nice to watch them from my parents house instead of having to drive to see them (or watching them on TV).

Monday Made-It

I'm linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for her weekly Monday Made-It! This is my first one, I'm so glad to have a few things to share!

I was inspired by something Patrick Allen said in my training last week. He talked about what do we really know about our students as learners. What do we learn about their learning styles and personality as we teach them? And in return, what do we share with them, that they could learn about us? Do we share our learning style with them? What do we really share with them about ourselves?

In particular, he talked about sharing the 5 books that changed our lives. I was really struck by that, as we all share aspects of ourselves, but what do our students really know about how you learn. And could they really identify what they know about you as a learner?

I've created a couple of color options for myself, and I plan on printing one page for each student. Once I discover something about them as a learner, I'm going to add it. I'm also going to print one for each student to record things they learn about me. I think it would be a great way to better know each other.

And my second Made It is actually a current work in progress. One of the things I wanted to accomplish this summer was to put all my necessary Back to School Night paperwork, forms, information into digital form. My hope is that I could ultimately get rid of these horribly full folders I've been holding on to, while creating something a little prettier than what I've currently accumulated.

This is my current pile of folders and work. A lot of my copies are things I've kept that other teachers have used in the past, and I definitely use them every year but they lack a certain pizzazz. I mean, in all honestly, they're ugly. And I'm hoping I can make them less ugly. 

Five For Friday (a day late...)

It's my first time linking up for Doodle Bugs Weekly Linky Party! I'm excited to get back in the swing of blogging, and linking up to other blogs. Here's what's been going on this week!

I posted about this earlier, but I spent Monday and Tuesday learning about the workshop model from Patrick Allen. It was amazing, and only the first in a 3 year process my district is implementing. To say I'm inspired is putting it mildly!

Binge-watching Netflix is one of my favorite things about the summer... all those shows I didn't have a chance to watch because of a busy school year can now be on my tv screen. Right now, I'm finishing up Sons of Anarchy, which is my background noise as I blog this. 

I find it interesting because it's such a foreign lifestyle, and yet the show talks about towns near me in Northern California. Oakland and Stockton are regular spots on the show. It's fun to hear local spots. But I may have to cover my eyes sometimes... Bikers settle things violently.

Is there anything better than being able to go out for a leisurely lunch with friends for the summer? Yesterday I had lunch with a fellow teacher, and it was great to sit outside, talk, and not feel the pressure of time...

Reading! There's finally time to sit and read a good book! I'm currently re-reading the first two books in the All Souls trilogy (A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night) before the final book comes out in July. 

It's such a good series, but each book is lengthy and has a lot of historical events within it. You have to pay attention! I'm excited to just be able to sit and get lost in a story, without feeling guilty that I should be doing something else.

Today I'm looking forward to going to my church. We're starting a new service time at 4pm, which I'm serving with our elementary kids. After that, I'll be worshipping during the 6pm service. It's nice that there will finally be two Saturday night services, because I do love sleeping in, and it was always hard for me to wake up early for a Sunday morning service. My church just started a new series called Favored. Last week was Abraham. 

One of my favorite things about my church, and my pastor, is he infuses history into his sermons. And if you know me at all, you know that I love history. It was my major in college. I almost thought about teaching high school history. It's still one of my favorite things to teach in 5th grade! And learning about biblical history is fascinating to me.

Brain Breaks & Indoor Recess Ideas

I don't know about you, but some of the hardest days in the classroom are those rainy days when the kids can't go outside. They get restless, loud... and overall crazy! I don't blame them, I get stir crazy too!

This year, we had several indoor recess days due to weather, sometimes because it was too hot outside or the air quality was poor. My 5th graders were tired of playing the same old board games or cards, and even the boys who normally built with K'nex were not into it.

Enter... Go Noodle! 

All you have to do is sign your class up. As a class, you get to choose a monster that your class will help grow as they participate. My 5th graders absolutely loved the funny names of the monsters...

Ultimately, my kiddos picked Squatchy Berger.




From there, you can choose the types of activities you do. There is yoga, breath training, stretching for your more mellow activities...

There is also dancing, zumba, sing-alongs, track & field (featuring Team USA olympic athletes), and my class's personal favorite "Let It Go" music video and "Happy" featuring the Despicable Me minions.

Every 15 minutes of  "Play Time" results in your monster ready to grow. Once your monster is fully grown, your class can earn a certificate for the classroom.

I found it extremely interactive, and my students were often begging me if we could play it for a couple of minutes. Even my more shy kids were participating, often huddling around the front of the classroom to get a better view.

I hope you'll try it, and if you do, please let me know what you think. I've found Go Noodle to help build classroom inclusion and morale.

Do you have anything that you've found to be effective to give your kids a little break? How about any indoor recess ideas? 

I'd love to hear other ideas!