Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

So, I received this email yesterday...

Woop, woop! I only had until December 24th to get my project funded and I was starting to lose hope! I'm overjoyed and overwhelmed! The best part is, most of the donors are complete strangers! It is so uplifting to know that so many people care about education. I cannot wait to redo my classroom library, so my students have easier access to books! :)

Let's see what's happening in my room...

 

We are finishing up our social studies projects this week! Oh my gosh, I am SO proud of my students! I didn't know how this whole thing was going to work out, but it has really worked well!

In case you didn't see my post about S.S...let me update you. I have 1 student textbook. Yep, 1. The teacher who taught in the room previously had the same dilemma. After a long time, I finally figured out how I could have S.S. be engaging, cooperative, and have them actually LEARN! I decided to put those leveled readers to good use! I borrowed a set from another teacher, so I could have plenty of books. I then split up my kiddos into 4 groups, only 1 topic being repeated. The students started out by filling out the K and W of their KWL.

Click to get this FREEBIE!

It took them awhile to understand this, but they caught on!

Next, they had to read their readers in their groups. The students got really creative in figuring out who would read. One group strictly did a round robin, another did rock paper scissors every time! After the read the readers and filled out their L columns, they started to plan their posters.

I had them assign jobs such as organizers, artists, writers, and researchers. I showed the researchers how to find images on Google and paste them into a word document to print; they loved it!

The students really worked together these last couple of weeks. Tomorrow, we will finish our posters. Thursday, we are going to talk about how to present our information to the class. Next Tuesday (day before break), we are going to present to the class and hopefully my principal can come in and see the kids' hard work!

I LOVE how this worked out and can't wait to see how the students' projects evolve! For this round, I grouped the kids strictly based on reading abilities, but next round I will be mixing them up quite a bit. I want to make sure each topic (advanced, on level, and below) all get presented on for each unit. It was so cool to hear one of my advanced students ask a below level student what a rural community was when they noticed it on their poster. Can you say win, win for everyone?! AWESOMEEEE! :)

Here are a couple pictures of my kiddos working with place value blocks to understand regrouping, little cuties! 

 

Lastly, I wanted to share my latest product with you!

The 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade team is going to have a Thanksgiving Hall Feast next Tuesday. It was a tradition started a few years ago, and from what I hear it is a pretty awesome thing! Imagine 200+ people in a hallway sitting on the floor, using newsprint as their table, eating a Thanksgiving meal! 

While the teachers and volunteers serve the plates, the kids sit waiting (so patiently). They've done some word searches in the past, but I thought I'd spruce things up a bit and create an activity placemat! :) It has a little bit of everything to suit everyone! 

The first 3 people to leave me their email will get it sent to them for free! :)

Click to check it out in my store!

Happy Monday!