Christmas Books

Over the years we have built up our collection of Christmas books. We've always loved reading and reading special books during December is a favorite. I wanted to make sure we read all of our Christmas books, so mid-November I gathered them and took inventory of what we had. I counted thirty one books total. Many people wrap 24 books total to read one each day beginning December 1st through Christmas Eve. I didn't want to take away 7 books, so we are reading all 31. It worked out perfectly when we got back in town from Thanksgiving to begin reading them that night and read one per day until Christmas Eve. 

I wrapped them in this special paper so they wouldn't get mixed in with our Christmas presents. I thought this wrapping was fun and so child friendly!  

We are loving this tradition so much already! My son's favorites so far are the pop-up storybooks we were gifted years ago. Those are always fun!

What are your favorite Christmas books?

Vocabulary Basketball

A few weeks ago I had the idea to incorporate sports into a vocabulary review. Many of my students play basketball on a team and/or play at recess, so I incorporated basketball into our review. My son received this over the door basketball set for Christmas so we brought it to school one day. He told me to "make sure they don't break it, but you CAN show them how to dunk it." Although I didn't share my dunking skills, my fifth graders LOVED this!

I knew they'd notice the goal as soon as they walked in so I wrote a little message beside the board: "Are you ready for vocabulary basketball?"

It was a fun way to review vocabulary in an engaging way. We split into two teams. I had the vocabulary words written on the board and I'd call out definitions. If they told me the correct word, they earned 1 point for their team. Then, they could earn 2 points or 3 points by making a basket. I had ribbon on the floor to show what would count as 2 points vs. 3 points. They had a BLAST!

Most of our vocabulary words come from our read alouds, but most of the words in this unit were student generated. I kept a sheet of paper that students could add words to as they read independently. If they found a word they didn't know or one that they thought would be a good vocabulary word, they could write it down. 

Vocabulary review - basketball style - was a HIT! 

Our Week in Literacy

We had a great week in fifth grade. I surprised students on Monday with two new books. I ordered the graphic novel (with bonus points) with a set of books that I ordered my son and received Bearhaven for free. I shared a bit about each of them and we had a book raffle!

We learned about elements of historical fiction - my favorite genre! I displayed several texts around the room and did a book talk with Steal Away Home. Lots of students entered a book raffle for it, too. Without a doubt, book talks have been the best thing I've implemented this year. You can click here to read a post about book talks in the classroom. I had several students do a book talk in class this week, too.

We started our read aloud, Number the Stars. It's one of my favorite books. We will be studying WWII soon so it's perfect timing!

I added these fun emoji pillows to my classroom library area. The kids loved them. You would've thought they were made of gold!

We had our biggest book order of the year this week! SO many students ordered and I earned so many bonus points. I purchased several new books from Scholastic with the bonus points. Star Wars is such a hit with so many students now so I bought these chapter books with bonus points. I'll share the other books I ordered soon!

Star Wars is a HUGE hit with my son. I ordered him this set and he got comfy in my library reading them one afternoon. LOVE!



On Friday we enjoyed flashlight Friday during independent reading. It's been a while since we've done that and the kids were all spread out with their flashlights and they were so focused on their texts. I snapped this picture after the students left. Love how cozy it felt!

Wax Museum

A fifth grade project at my school is a Christian hero biography/wax museum project. Each student:

• reads a Christian hero biography
• takes notes while reading
• types notes (must have sections are: family, language, compare/contrast, timeline with 10 events, events/travels, accomplishments, obstacles, and a Bible verse)
• displays notes on a trifold board
• writes and memorizes a two minute (give or take) script 

As you can tell, it is a big project. It took a lot of time, but I am so proud of how it turned out. It was fun seeing the final product of their hard work.

We are wrapping up our Great Depression unit this coming week. I integrated a lot during this unit and the students have learned so much about this era. At the beginning of the unit, I created this little area to display books related to the Great Depression and to gain student interest.

I did a book talk about the chapter books shown below. We did a book raffle afterwards and EVERY single book was checked out! LOVE! 

One of the resources we used during the unit was this USA Studies Weekly newspaper.

I love to read picture books and this book did not disappoint! 

In Writing, we wrote about the Great Depression in our Family Message Journals. This student did SUCH a good job!

Literacy & Social Studies

Happy Sunday! I'm popping in real quick to share what we have been doing this past week in Literacy & Social Studies. 

 

In Literacy, we are working on our biggest project of the year: our wax museum. This is my first time doing it since I am new to the school, but it is going great! Each student read a Christian hero biography and took notes about their hero. Then, they typed their information, printed it, cut and pasted it onto construction, and created their trifold. Finally, every student wrote a 2 minute (give or take) script for the wax museum. It has been a LOT of work. I can't wait to see the final product. My students have worked so hard. We have dress rehearsal this Thursday and the wax museum this Friday.

 

Here is a sneak peek at two trifolds of Corrie Ten Boom.

In Social Studies we began our unit on the Great Depression. We have learned all about the stock market crash of 1929 and how it affected people during that time period. My students seem to really enjoy history and I love that.

 

 

To review for the test, I created a review game on Kahoot. I know the kids will love playing it! The only negative to Kahoot is that you have a limited number of words/spaces you can use for the questions and answers.

 

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a wonderful week! 

Scholastic

I'm popping in today to share some of our new books that we recently received. I am a big fan of Scholastic and have sent book orders home regularly for years now.

Just in this book order alone, we earned 20 FREE books! Of course, I build up the excitement. Just seeing the BOOK BOX is excitement alone! We look at every book together, label it with a genre sticker, and read the summary. I usually have students scouring the library to see if they've been added yet. Sometimes I'll do a book raffle if there is a lot of interest in one title.

I hope to be back to blogging more regularly soon! This time of year seems to be so busy and I am just enjoying pre-Christmas fun with my little family! Happy Sunday!

Sunday Smorgasboard

Happy Sunday! Today's post is an assortment of random things I thought I'd share. I hope to be sharing more regularly soon. Sometimes life just gets busy and other things are more important. :)

My students love the graphic novels that I've added to our classroom library. All of the graphic novels were free with bonus points from our September book order! I loved The Babysitter's Club growing up. The graphic novel has been a hit so far. I've tried really hard to love the Amulet series. I'm not quite there yet, but my students LOVE it!

We really celebrated Pop Open a Good Book day and that was a lot of fun. Pajamas, popcorn, read aloud's, extra reading time, what's not to love? I shared my favorite book as a young child, Wake Up, Sun. Clearly, it's been well loved.

In Social Studies, we are about halfway through our Roaring Twenties unit. I love teaching history and have enjoyed all of our units so far. 

We just wrapped up our unit on figurative language. I always enjoy teaching it. I used these two read aloud's when teachings similes and metaphors. 

I had to leave early on Veteran's Day with my son not feeling well, but my substitute read one of my favorite books, America's White Table. LOVE that book.

On a personal note, I've enjoyed a less stressful school year and the beautiful scenery around me lately.



Book Review: Christmas in America

I was recently contacted to do a book review of the picture book Christmas in America by Callista Gingrich, illustrated by Susan Arciero.



I really liked Christmas in America. In the story, Ellis the elephant travels back in time page by page and learns about Christmas in America at various stages of American history. It touches on:

• settler in Jamestown
• the colonists in Williamsburg, Virginia
• American Revolution - crossing the Delaware River
• George and Martha Washington at Mount Vernon
• Lewis and Clark expedition
• Andrew Jackson at the White House
• Civil War soldiers on the battlefield
• pioneers traveling along the frontier
• Teddy Roosevelt and his wide, Edith, at the White House
• World War I troops overseas
• Calvin Coolidge as he lights the first national Christmas tree
• 1920's, Great Depression
• World War II
• Apollo 8 astronauts as they orbit the moon

Being a Literacy and Social Studies teacher, I LOVE the integration this book provides. When I taught 4th grade in South Carolina, I taught everything from early colonists to Civil War. Now that I am teaching 5th grade, I teach the latter events. This book will be GREAT to use in the classroom this Christmas. It'll be great to review previously learned topics and a good sneak peek for future units.

I also love that this book talks about God in a few places throughout the text. On the page about the pioneers it states, "They spoke of an infant, so tender and mild, born in a manger, the holy Christ child." I love being able to share my faith with my students and I love that the author chose to put that in the book.

Here are some photos of several of the pages throughout the book.

 I would definitely recommend Christmas in America.

Vocabulary Fun

Good morning, friends! This Saturday morning is one of those that I love...cool, crisp air, laundry is going, candles are lit, the lamps are on, ahhhh!

I wanted to pop in today and share a vocabulary game I use in my classroom to review our words. It's an easy game to use and the kids love it. I draw student names (from old fashioned popsicle sticks!) and if they want, they come up to the front of the room. I place the vocabulary crown on their head and then attach a vocabulary word to the crown. They are not able to see what word I put on the crown.

On the board, I have a list of all vocabulary words. We have 10 in each unit. They call on their classmates to give them the definition, hints, and examples of the word.  

Those students who don't want to come up and be "crowned" can still participate by giving out definitions, examples, etc.

What fun games do you use to review vocabulary?

Week in review

We had a wonderful week of school last week. I just LOVE my new school!

If you didn't see my post about generating student excitement, click HERE to go to that post. Students came back to this CAUTION sign! 

Last week was our first Scholastic book order and I was SO excited at the amount of books my students ordered. We still have two more boxes coming! WOW!

Last week we focused on making connections and the types of connections readers make.

I recently introduced our reading graffiti wall to students and I love to see quotes begin to appear on it! LOVE this!

In Social Studies we learned all about immigration and used our USA Studies Weekly newspapers as an additional resource. I love teaching history!

I'll be back in a few days to share some amazing books I've read lately!