Higher Order Thinking?

Happy New Year! I don't know about everyone else, but my school is pushing Rigor, with higher order thinking questioning.

This is what we were doing last year at this time. I thought my students were doing great. They were reading, writing, and finally could color! Got to have color.

Now I am rethinking what my students should be doing at this time of the year. They are mostly still 5 and 6 years old. They love school and learning - but am I pushing them to the higher level of learning. I am looking at the questions that go along with the Bloom's Task Wheel that everyone in my school has. 

I need to get to the top of the wheel (pyramid) more, but with little Ks who are just now beginning to APPLY the knowledge they have learned, it might be more difficult than someone looking in might think.

How do you get your Ks to climb to the top of the Bloom's chart? I would love some feedback on this.

Do you still do centers in your Kindergarten classroom?

I still call them Centers. I guess it is just stuck in my head. I know a lot of teachers call them rotations or stations. Some like them, some don't. I love centers! Centers keep my students moving and they are practicing what they have been taught. Centers free me up to work one on one or with small groups.

Centers also let students choose how they are going to complete their work. This is from a Daily Five, read to self rotation. I like the way he found a spot that he felt comfortable in. 

Sometimes an entire table is working on one center. This may not be their table, but I put the graphing on the RED table. I like the pencil boxes because all the tools students need for each center is in that box. (Please just overlook my messy room!)

This is from my American Symbols Unit on TPT. I have updated and added our new president, President Donald Trump!

This is from my American Symbols unit on TPT. We learn a lot about the USA and important symbols and why they are important.

Finally my Freebie! This is the 'at' family part of my CVC Word Work Collection. This freebie contains all the pages that have to do with the 'at' family. In the complete unit I have 27 Word Families represented and a little over 105 picture cards (I put some new ones up.) 

There are several reasons I like to make units like this... one is that they keep my students engaged and learning what I want them to learn. They are not boring. The main reason is selfish, I will not have to keep on telling my students what to do. I take the time with the first family to explain everything, and I help them fold and go over and over what to do. The next family I might have to go over a tad, but it is familiar to them. After that they are good to go and can do this all by themselves. What teacher doesn't like that!

Here are some videos that explain how to make the products included in this Unit. 

This video shows how to assemble the little 'hotdog' book.

This video shows how to make the Scrambled Letters book.

This video shows how students use the four square activity. My dear co-worker explains things so nicely! Her blog is Sugar~Spice & Everything Nice! Jodie's research projects are great. I use them all the time and I feel my students are learning more than just information about bears and all. They are using their brains to think! Try some of her freebies (you will be glad you did!)

THANKS! Hope these videos help! Pam

4th Grade Common Core Workbook

Common Core is beginning to be 'common' language to my students. In my classroom we talk about the Common Core way of learning and my students are starting to really like learning this way.

Why? Mostly because Common Core is activity or project based. I like to use the term, Craftivity. My students get excited when they know that there is a craftivity involved with their learning. They know that they can cut and paste, and glue, research and write, and color. While they are doing all of this, they are learning and processing information. I am giving them more challenging assignments, but with Craftivity • technology and the ARTS combined, they are ready to learn.

I have been wanting a new book that is now available. The Fourth Grade Common Core Workbook. 

This book is packed with Common Core Craftivities, lessons, and more .... all for 4th grade! This is the information from their website: 

This Fourth Grade Common Core Workbook is the largest collection of resources for teaching the Common Core State Standards. This workbook includes over 850 pages of Worksheets, Activity Centers, and Posters that teach all the Fourth Grade English Language Arts Common Core Standards.   

Common Core Craftivities, lessons, and more .... all for 4th grade! Go to the website linked above and look around.

I will be so excited to get this book. I'll be sure to take pictures of how my class is using this book, so please stay tuned for more!  Update! My good bloggin' buddy, Joanne at Third Grade Is The Place To Be,  sent me a note (see comment below), letting me know she had the 3rd grade preview and it is amazing! She also said there is a code to save 15% off your purchase. Had to add this! 15% off of anything nowadays is a great savings. 

As always, thanks for dropping by!

Bloggy Olympics!

Get Ready for Bloggy Olympics!

Join The 3AM Teacher, the Reading Olympians, and over 80 SUPREME education bloggers as we take you through a tour of the Reading Olympians Root Study Program!!
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My sweet class has already completed their Greek Myths  Unit. I wish we could have spent more time on this. Here are some pictures of student work that didn't get taken home!

They made Greek Myth Trading Cards. They wrote DETAILS on the back of the cards.

More Trading Cards. We did this towards the end of the unit.

We read LOTS of Greek Myths. 

My students love to color. I wrote a grant for large boxes of Crayola Crayons!

Compare and Contrast.

Story Maps.

Story Maps. I don't know if you can tell, but these are still hanging up in the hall.

More Story Maps

My class enjoyed Greek Myths. We are still working on our Greek and Latin Affixes. This will be a year long project.
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Discover the program IN ACTION in more K-6th grade classrooms as you Pass the Torch! Get ideas, discover the progression of the program, and enter the Raffle for a chance to win ONE of the three prizes listed below!!

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Second Place Winner: Silver Medal

   Prizes: $25.00 Amazon Gift Card

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Pass the Torch!
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The Most Amazing Dodecahedron Book Report Project Ever!

Right before Christmas, I went looking for a book report project on Teachers Pay Teachers. I wanted something that would look really awesome to my students. I had bought each one of my 4th and 5th graders,  Mudshark by Gary Paulsen  for a present, but wanted a project to go with it. I found the most amazing book report project ever!

This is what I found: Dodecahedrons!

 In the beginning I have to confess I couldn't even remember how to pronounce the name. So being a K-2 teacher for years, I wrote the phonetic spelling on the board and my students learned faster than I did. Twelve pentagons are put together to make this great shape. They are huge. Mr. Hughes makes each one fun to color and also give them a focus for each slide.

I had my students read the book over Winter break and answer some questions on an index card that went along with Mr. Hughes' project. When they came back from break, I gave each of them, all 31 of them, a copy of each shape and a detailed Student Direction Sheet which is included in this very thorough project. The packet contained 13 sheets in all.  They had to write their book report first, then color, and then cut out. I checked each step before they could go any further.

Some students did extraordinary work. My ESL students especially enjoyed this because the directions were all written out and they did not have to guess what to do through out the project. They worked independently, but spent a lot of time discussing the book while they were writing and then coloring. We used color pencils and crayons, with a few using markers.

I had protractors handy to help with the folding of the tabs. We folded our tabs outward since I found it was easier for 4th and 5th graders to put together. I had the color in each of the tabs so they would add more color to the project. We used lots of glue sticks and paper clips to keep everything together while the glue was drying. I did not help any of my students with the folding or gluing. 

This entire project took about 6 to 7 days. I didn't let them work on the book report part at home, because I didn't want the pages to get messed up in a book bag or lost. Letting part of the Dodecahedron dry over night really helped.

They were all so proud of their work!

We tried hanging them outside our room on some yarn, but they set off the alarm that evening. :(

We ended up putting some of them in the media center for all to enjoy. Then I decided to hang the rest from my Word Wall curtain. I still have them up. I love the way they look and they still let in lots of sunlight.

I smile every time I look out the window. I told my students they could take them home when they made another one. Mr. Hughes also has other Dodecahedron Projects which I am going to try out.

This was the best book report project I have ever given my students. They did not even fuss once about having to do a book report. 

Mr. Hughes can be found on Teachers Pay Teachers at this link.  I was the first person to leave him feedback on this project, so if you buy this please leave feedback! He has lots now, but everyone, even teachers :), want feedback! 

The project includes Materials List, Teacher Directions :), Step By Step Instructions for writing the book report, Step by Step Instructions for Assembly (with pictures and in color,) Tips for Displaying, and of course the 12 student pages.

Or click the cover of the Dodecahedron Book Report Project to get your copy.

Mr. Hughes has a great blog, An Educator's Life. Give yourself a lot of time to browse through his past posts.

Hope you enjoyed this post. I still have lots more to come so please follow me by email and join my blog! Oh, one last picture... one of my students during silent reading time. He never even knew I took the picture until later that day when I showed it to him.

Thanks for the visit!

NCAGT's 39th Annual Conference - Teaching Digital With Bloom's

I had a GREAT time at the NCAGT's Conference in Winston-Salem. The theme this year was "Gifted Education: Kick it UP a Notch!'
Guess what the logo was... Good ole Texas Pete.

Cute isn't it! We even received a small bottle with our conference bags.

There is a lot to share. Today though I will just share the workshops I attended. I went through the program guide and picked my favorites, mostly Digital Learning. Many of my teaching buds will not be surprised by that! 

I have an online class on Edmodo that is going great. My students are clamoring for more work. This work is very detailed and involves a lot of writing, and they are still wanting more! Mainly because it is digital. Something they relate to and can make a connection to immediately. More on that later!

This pyramid says it all when wanting to use digital media with your lessons. See how many you are already doing in your classroom.

The digital classes I selected were all centered around the Common Core Curriculum and using social media. I am going to start Monday with a lesson I picked up for older students, but will use 4th and 5th grade level books. Digital Retelling and 21st Century Skills by Danielle Sullivan, Union County Public Schools. (I don't have her email, but she did say she would be happy to talk with anyone about what she was doing with digital retelling.) The class was amazing! She used The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe to have small groups interact with a story and produce a digital retelling. I can't use the ppt. she used to explain how she did this, but I will show the one I plan to use for my students as soon as it is finished. 

I have some other anchor type charts from ZaidLearn: A Juicy Collection of Digital Posters.

This one shows some of the Apps that you can use for each of the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy Levels.

This is great to show different websites with learning games and videos.

This is a short post but... I will be back soon with my version of the Digital Retelling and Narratives. If you follow by email, my posts will pop up in your email! The next post will have some digital content from my students! It is easy to do and all levels of learners will be engaged in learning!