Monday Made It {FMJ labels & Binder Organization}

Happy Monday! Two weeks from today I will be back in school. Ahhhh! It's so bittersweet. I have so much to do, but I am wanting to soak in every moment that is left of summertime. Today I am linking up with Tara at Fourth Grade Frolics for Monday Made It. 

I am excited to incorporate Family Message Journals into my Writing curriculum this year. I have blogged about them before. You can read about them HERE. I created labels this week for the outside of each students FMJ.

Yesterday I blogged about how I organized my Social Studies binders. Part of that project was redoing the binder covers.

The second part of that project was creating a sheet for the inside of each binder that outlines topics to cover within the unit. At the bottom of the sheet, I listed books that could be read aloud during the unit.

I also created "Me Bag" labels to attach to a lunch bag. This is a getting to know you activity that I like to do at the beginning of the year. Each child brings in 4-5 items that represent themselves. We all share throughout the first week of school.



Social Studies Binder Organization

Some teachers prefer binders, some prefer file folder systems, and some prefer digital storage. I am a binder girl! I love a good organized binder.

One of my popular posts is about how I organize my Social Studies binders. You can read it HERE. Since then, I've moved states and have new standards to teach next year. Luckily, I was able to keep about 80% of it and just change covers and the information inside.

Here are my NEW Social Studies binders!

You can see my units of study are:

• Immigration
• World War I
• The Roaring Twenties
• The Great Depression
• World War II
• Decades - 50's and 60's
• Decades - 70's, 80's, and 90's

Inside each binder, I have a list of topics by unit that I need to cover within that unit. This helps me make sure I cover everything needed during the unit.

I also included books that correlate, which is an ongoing project. I'll just add books to my list as I discover them.

Social Studies is my FAVORITE subject to teach. I'm so glad that I re-organized my binders for this year! 

Growing my Classroom Library

Each year I try to add more books to my classroom library. Thankfully, my new school has given me a certain amount of money to spend on new books. Last weekend I went to Books-A-Million to pick out new books.

I wanted to get a few picture books that related to topics I would teach in Social Studies. I bought these three books.

I searched through the kids fiction for quite some time and ended up getting these titles. Most of these were recommended to me by other teachers on Instagram. They are all new to me so I can't wait to read them myself.

I still have money left to spend on books. What would you recommend?

Fiction Friday {July 10th}

Happy Friday! I am linking up with Amanda at The Teaching Thief for Fiction Friday. I love reading Amanda's blog because she is an avid reader and I am always finding great books to read!

This week I read....

A Father's Promise

by: Donnalynn Hess



A twelve year old boy named Rudi lives in Wardsaw, Poland during the time of WWII. The Nazis arrive and force Rudy and father out of their apartment. They must find a new home in an old office building. Rudi's best friend, Salek, was also forced out of his home. His family was taken away to a concentration camp. Rudi's dad knows that the Germans are after him and knows he'll be taken away, too. He has a strong belief in God and feels that they will see the end of the war. He believes that the woods are a safe place fore Rudi and that God has promised them that they will make it out of this war alive. He sends Rudi out in the woods to live with a group of resistance fighters. On Rudi's way to meet Oscar, the leader of the resistance group, he sees a truck taking people to a concentration camp. He sees his father in the truck. Rudi learns how to survive in the wild from Oscar. Later, Oscar and the resistance group leave the woods to go to Warsaw to capture German soldiers. Rudi stays in the woods and finds an abandoned girl named Ingrid in a haystack. Ingrid's family was killed near the beginning of the story. Rudi takes care of Ingrid like a big brother. After six year of living in the woods, Rudi goes back to Warsaw to find his father after hearing the war is over. He finds his best friend, Salek, and his father. Salek's mother was killed during the war. At the end of the story Rudi finds his father.

WOW! This book goes on my list as a FAVORITE. It was SO, SO good. I read about 2/3 of it one night before going to bed and finished it the minute I woke up. It is written from a Christian perspective, which I love. It will be great since I'll be teaching in a Christian school. Our school uses this in 5th grade so I was able to borrow it. I can't wait to use this when I teach WWII.

Book Information:

250 pages
Age range: 9 & up

Grade level: 4th grade & above

Lexile measurement: 730

 I also read....

Wonder

by: R.J. Palacio

 August Pullman is a ten year old boy was born with a craniofacial abnormality, which causes his face to be severely deformed. August is going to a private school for the first time as a fifth grader. August has to deal with a lot more than just being the new kid at school. Does he make friends? Does he decide to stay in school? YOU should read it to find out! I promise you won't be disappointed.

I actually started this book at the end of the school year and was reading it with a fifth grader in my class. Neither of us finished before school was over so I recently picked it back up to finish it. It was a GREAT book and is definitely going to be a favorite.



Book Information:

Interest level: Grades 5-7
Reading level/Grade level: 4.8

Lexile: 790L
DRA: 50
Guided Reading: U

Mentor Texts: Asking Questions

Today I want to focus on mentor texts that can be used with the strategy asking questions. I've spent lots of time researching mentor texts to use to teach various strategies. I've only purchase 4 of the texts on my original list with this strategy, but I think this strategy can be used with any book!

The books I've purchased to teach this strategy are:

Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting

Summary from Amazon: A homeless boy who lives in an airport with his father, moving from terminal to terminal trying not to be noticed, is given hope when a trapped bird finally finds its freedom.

The Wall by Eve Bunting

Summary of Amazon: A boy travels to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial with his father to seek out his grandfather's name.

I love that this book can be used to correlate with Social Studies standards. You all know how much I love to integrate Social Studies and Reading.

Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki

Summary from Amazon: Shorty and his family, along with thousands of Japanese Americans, are sent to an internment camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fighting the heat and dust of the desert, Shorty and his father decide to build a baseball diamond and form a league in order to boost the spirits of the internees. Shorty quickly learns that he is playing not only to win, but to gain dignity and self-respect as well.

I purchased this book over a year ago when a sweet blog friend, Kim, gave me a gift card to Amazon. I got it to correlate with my Social Studies standards. LOVE this book!

The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg

Summary from Amazon: The enigmatic origins of the stranger that Farmer Bailey hits with his truck and brings home to recuperate seem to have a mysterious relation to the weather. Could he be Jack Frost?

Believe it or not, I've never read this book! I just got it in the mail from Amazon so I will be reading it today.

What books do you use to teach the strategy asking questions?

Mentor Texts {Making Connections}

A few days ago I shared on Instagram (@4theloveofteaching) that I just ordered 25 mentor texts on Amazon to add to my collection. A few people were interested in what titles I ordered for which strategies so that gave me the idea to blog about each strategy and each mentor text.

Note: I have not read all of these books. I spent a lot of time researching books to use as mentor texts and came up with a list. Some are new to me while others I've used/read. I only ordered a few texts for each strategy to begin with. I would LOVE if y'all would share mentor texts with me, too! I am always on the lookout for good books.

The first strategy we will look at is making connections. I've always felt like this is an easy strategy to teach and an easy strategy for students to grasp. Here are some mentor texts that I will use for this strategy.

Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco

Summary from Amazon: When Trisha starts school, she can't wait to learn how to read, but the letters just get jumbled up. She hates being different, and begins to believe her classmates when they call her a dummy. Then, in fifth grade, Mr. Falker changes everything. He sees through her sadness to the gifted artist she really is. And when he discovers that she can't read, he helps her prove to herself that she can - and will!

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Summary from Amazon: Alexander knew it was going to be a terrible day when he woke up with gum in this hair.
And it got worse....His best friend deserted him. There was no dessert in his lunch bag. And, on top of all that, there were lima beans for dinner and kissing on TV!

Fig Pudding by Ralph Fletcher

Summary from Curled Up Kids: Fifth-grader Cliff Abernathy has come to realize that being the oldest of six children is not just fun and games. The position comes with responsibilities. His parents expect him to help monitor the behavior of his little brothers and younger sister, and he is often in trouble for falling down on the job. He definitely enjoys the perks of being the oldest, but sometimes he wonders if they are really a good trade-off for the extra work his parents expect of him.

I also LOVE to have students make connections across content areas. My favorite thing to integrate is Reading and Social Studies. Two years ago, I taught and planned for a full integration of Social Studies and Reading. In South Carolina, students in 5th grade learned about history from Reconstruction to present day. Between teaching 4th and 5th grade in SC and learning GA standards (I haven't taught SS here in GA yet), I've taught everything from Native Americans to present day history. We read most of these during Reading (some in SS) and we made SO many wonderful connections! I am sure I'm leaving a few out, but here is a list to get started if you want to integrate and have student make connections.

American Revolution:

• The Secret Soldier

Civil War:

• Steal Away Home
• Follow the Drinking Gourd
• Henry's Freedom Box
• Freedom Crossing
• Pink and Say
• The Story of Ruby Bridges

Reconstruction:

• Forty Acres & Maybe a Mule

Immigration:

• Coming to America
• Dreaming of America,

Industrial Revolution:

• A River Ran Wild
• Lyddie

1920's - 1930's:

• Bud, Not Buddy
• The Mighty Miss Malone

WWI - WWII:

• Christmas in the Trenches
• Number the Stars
• Journey Home
• Journey to Topaz
• So Far From the Sea
• Baseball Saved Us
• Star of Fear, Star of Hope

Others:

• Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot (Berlin Airlift)
• The Sign of the Beaver (18th century - Native Americans)

What books (picture books or chapter books) do you use for teaching the strategy making connections?

Steal Away Home

So today I am at home with a sick child - my son has strep throat, but thankfully, he is his regular happy and playful self. While I have a minute, I thought I'd share about what we are doing in Reading.

I love to incorporate Social Studies into Reading. Last year at my previous school, we were able to order any and all class sets of novels we wanted and we had GREAT units mapped out that matched the sequence of our Social Studies units. It went together beautifully.

We didn't have any of those novel studies at my new school, but they did have a class set of novels that I had never heard of. The novel is "Steal Away Home" by Lois Ruby. It is a GREAT book to use in correlation to the Underground Railroad & slavery era.

We are about halfway through the novel and the students seem to LOVE it. We typically read aloud one chapter per day and focus on a mini lesson skill from the CAFE menu. During Read to Self, students choose their own book on their level.

 

Some books that we have incorporated with our novel study is the picture book "Follow the Drinking Gourd" by Jeanette Winter. It was another new book to me, but it went along so well with one of the chapters in "Steal Away Home".

Another read aloud that would go well with "Steal Away Home" is "Henry's Freedom Box". In the story, Miss Lizbet Charles tells the story of Henry Brown (which is "Henry's Freedom Box").

Even though I am not the Social Studies teacher, I love incorporating Social Studies into Reading.



Five for Friday{December 6th}

I'm joining Doodle Bug's Five for Friday weekly linky party. It really is the best way to share and summarize our week.  Speaking of weeks, I have have two left until I leave my school. TWO. My goodness, I'm going to miss my school, my teacher friends, and my students so very much. 

1) We made foldables for our Science lessons this week. Our focus has been on how waves, tides, currents, and storms affect barrier island, beaches, inlets, and estuaries. My partner teacher plans all of Science and does a fabulous job with it!

  

2) One of my favorite things is doing novel studies in ELA that correlate to our Social Studies standards. I LOVE our 5th grade Social Studies standards. This week we began our unit on Lyddie, which is the story of a young girl who goes to Lowell, Massachusetts to work in a factory, trying to pay off debts on their family farm.  We have some very special activities planned for the end of this unit, which just so happens to be my last day.

We are writing chapter summaries in a booklet we made.

3) Y'all know my love for 5th grade Social Studies. This week, we've learned all about WWI. We've taken notes in our notebooks and looked at lots of pictures.  We've really studied life in the trenches.  It's hard to imagine what those soldiers lived through.

4) After we assess the WWI unit next week, we begin a unit that I have been waiting all year for....the Roaring Twenties!! I personally find this part of history SO interesting and cannot wait to study/teach it next week! 1920's fashion, entertainment, etc... I cannot wait!!!

  

  

  5) Just a quick update on our moving situation...

We are officially moving out of our house within days.  I have SUCH mixed feelings. I'm so excited about our new house, which we hope to move into just days before Christmas. At the same time, it just saddens me to move out of the house we've called home for 6 years and especially because it's the house we brought our son home to.  For the next two weeks, we'll be living in a hotel (you can imagine my excitement....[enter sarcasm]).  I have 10 days left to teach my 5th graders and 3 of those will be with the new teacher, who is Australian, by the way. The kids met her and loved her. Again, so bittersweet! I want them to love her and I'm so glad they are so intrigued by her. I'll be honest, it was really hard to let her "take over" when she came to visit and just kind of sit back...it's going to be hard to let go of those reins, so to speak.  Overall, just be thinking about us and keep us in your prayers over the next month as we begin our new journey. Bittersweet is the only word I can use to accurately describe what I'm feeling (as I type this with tears in my eyes). What a roller coaster of emotions I am on!

A River Ran Wild

During a recent Common Core meeting (which we have every other Tuesday after school), I was introduced to the text "A River Ran Wild" by Lynne Cherry. I know many of you may already know about it, but since it was new to me, I definitely wanted to blog about it.  

Information on the book: This book centers upon these significant themes: human effects on the environment, pollution, and being a responsible citizen. Human effects on the environment are a significant concept. A River Ran Wild provides both text and illustrations that show the changes of pollutions throughout history and how people in each period affected the Nashua river. Beginning with the Natives and through today, this text supports the theme of human pollution.

It worked out great because we just finished our study of the Industrial Revolution. Our main focus with this text was to work on Cause and Effect.  My anchor charts are completely done in class with students so they are not very pretty....just a little disclosure!

There's lots of vocabulary in the text that may be difficult for students so the first time we read it, students jotted down words that they weren't sure of it and we kept a list of those words on another anchor chart. Students defined the words so that the next time we read the text, we would be able to better understand what we were reading. When we came to an unfamiliar word, we referred back to our chart and sometimes had to use context clues to figure out which meaning was being used in the text. 

The kids LOVED this text and I did, too! I can definitely see using this book in the future. Here are some pages from the text. What I couldn't find was the pages that had text, but those pages have pictures of inventions from that time period around the edges. This is a great text with wonderful illustrations!