In recent weeks, I have been reading many posts about getting students interested in reading over the summer. This is a hot topic for me because I am always pushing more reading for pleasure with students. My own children have already made two trips to the bookstore since we finished school, and we may have to go again today. My son finished reading all three books in the Land of Stories series by Colfer, and my daughter read the first Emily Windsnap by Kessler and is looking for the sequel.

I think many of us employ the same tricks to keep children reading during non-school months. Here are three suggestions I have to keep reading alive. What are ways you encourage reading during June, July, and August?

• Generate a large list to send with your students over the summer. My school has required summer reading, and each grade level has an approved list of books. The list for my grade level is multiple pages, sorted by genre, and includes a wide variety of reading levels. I also add an asterisk to my favorite books, so students have a place to start if the list seems overwhelming. Recommending specific books is often more successful than saying, "Go read something."

• If your school has required summer reading, keep any related assignments light. I ask students to keep a chart with the title and author and also complete a brief comprehension bookmark with notes while reading (pictured at the top). No big book reports. If assignments related to summer reading are too long, students treat reading like a chore rather than a treat. If you need help creating a summer reading assignment and book list for students, THIS ONE can help you get started.

• Get involved in a reading incentive program. Our local library has a summer reading challenge. Students complete a chart based on minutes read. Local businesses and organizations donate free coupons, so students can earn tickets to a minor league baseball game, free frozen yogurt, complimentary karate class at a local karate school, etc. Barnes and Noble has a similar reading program. Children complete a reading journal as they finish reading books. When the journal is complete, bring it to a local Barnes and Noble to redeem for a free book. Our librarian sent a copy of the reading journal home with each student in the final take home packet of the year.

If you are looking for summer reading ideas for upper elementary students, here are a few books on my list:

• The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer Holm
• Savvy by Ingrid Law
• The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
• Under the Egg by Laura Max Fitzgerald
• Graceful by Wendy Mass
• The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen
• Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin
• Greenglass House by Kate Milford

Happy Reading and Happy Summer!

Caitlin (TheRoomMom)

Those Last Few Weeks...

Teachers, are you trying to survive those last few weeks of school?  Do your students think that learning is 'over' because the test is done?  Are you looking for ideas to improve behavior and keep students engaged?  You've come to the right place.  Here are 4 tips for ending the year like a boss!

• Just. Keep. Teaching.—The best way to keep your students on task and out of trouble is to run your classroom like you always have.  Stick with your schedule and make sure that the lesson content is keeping your kiddos challenged.  Remember, if you’re a 4^th grade teacher, you have a room full of almost 5^th graders.  Don’t be afraid to introduce more difficult concepts.  Consider looking at next year’s standards for your subject.  When I told my students we were going to do 6^th grade science stuff so they would be ahead next year, they instantly perked up. 

•  Build Units Around Student Interests—Nothing gives students more buy-in than letting them choose what will be taught.  After our state science test we had a class discussion about what we learned in science this year and made a list of things we still wanted to learn about.  I built units around a few of those topics and my students couldn’t be happier. 

• Start Fun Friday Afternoons—Make a list of a few fun activities and post it in the room.  These can be academic or creative thinking activities.  For example, you could include a reader’s theater day, owl pellet lab, math-a-thon (online math games), gooey science lab, poetry slam, geography-a-thon (online geography games), and a Greek mythology art project.  Tell students they must earn X points as a class to earn a Fun Friday reward and give points throughout the week.  If they reach the point goal (and they will), choose an activity and enjoy!

• Teach  Essential Skills—Use these last few weeks to teach something that may have been pushed to the side earlier in the year.  For example, teach cursive, creative writing, or geography.  Oh, and math facts.  Don’t let students leave your grade without knowing their math facts!  Seriously.  You can set them up for success in the next grade if you give them time to master this before the end of the year. 

Summer is almost here.  Finish strong.  I have faith in you.  You can do it!  


--The Pensive Sloth

'Twas the Night Before Testing...Student Treat Idea

The day before the big test, I gather my students on the rug give them a pep talk.  Not a "you better do this" kind of pep talk, but an "I'm proud of you, you've worked hard, you've got this" kind of pep talk.  I don't want them stressed.  I want them confident in their abilities and relaxed.  I tell them that they have important homework tonight--to go outside and play, eat dinner, and get some rest.  At the end of our chat, I give each kiddo a treat.  This year, I placed a small plastic diamond in each of their hands and told each one to "Shine bright like a diamond."  They laughed because it's cheesy, I know, but they loved it and were so excited when they got THEIR diamond.  It was a fun, and hopefully memorable, experience letting them know that I believe in them and know they will do their best. 

NOTE:  Ring Pops work well for this, but in Texas we aren't allowed to give out candy during the school day, which is why I chose the plastic diamonds instead.  They sell the little gems at Party City as a table decoration for wedding showers.  I bought the jumbo bag that probably has 300 or so diamonds, so I'm set for the next several years!

Looking for simple ideas to help your students succeed on your state reading test?  Click HERE to read my top 11 reading test-prep tips. 

Thanks for stopping by!

--The Pensive Sloth
pensivesloth@gmail.com

Teach History with Me: 5 Ideas for Teaching the Civil War

Get your upper elementary students excited about history!  Here are five ideas for teaching your 5th through 8th grade students about the Civil War.

1.  A Nation Divided--Help students understand the causes behind the war by comparing how the north and south developed very different economies and ways of life.  I like to have students make a giant division sign in their social studies notebooks and describe northern was of life in the top bubble and southern ways of life in the bottom bubble.

2.  "Bull Run" Read-Aloud--To squeeze in a little literature, I read the novel "Bull Run" by Paul Fleischman aloud to the class.  It is written from the perspective of different characters in the north and the south, and the reader has to piece together the story as each character tells their part, all leading up to the battle at Bull Run.  I'll be honest, it's a challenging book, which is why I do it as a read-aloud.  To help students (and me) remember who the characters are, we make a chart of who's who to refer to as we read.

3.  Goober Peas Song--Exposing students to music from different eras can be lots of fun.  The son, Goober Peas, is a traditional folk song that Confederate soldiers would sing.  It gives students a glimpse of what life was like for soldiers during this time period.  Limited food supply, being away from family, boredom, and lots of sitting around waiting for battles.  Play the song, give students copies of the lyrics, and discuss what can be inferred about a soldier's life during the Civil War.  A quick Google search brings up several YouTube videos for students to enjoy. They always grumble and giggle at first, but the song has a catchy chorus and after introducing it, I hear the chorus all year long!

4.  Underground Railroad Interactive Journey--If you haven't seen Scholastic's interactive journey on the Underground Railroad, you must!  Students explore the life of slaves on plantations and travel the treacherous journey towards freedom in the north.  There are wonderful photos, descriptions, and a few audio clips to engage students along the way.  When they finish, I have them write a diary entry as a slave who escaped to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

5.  Make a Civil War Museum Exhibit PBL--I like to end the Civil War unit with a hands-on project.  Students choose a topic related to the Civil War, do some research, and construct a museum exhibit.  Then, invite students from other classrooms to come to 'The Museum" and interact.  Students love having an audience, and knowing that someone other than the teacher will be interacting with their work can be a powerful motivator.  I've included a freebie with a list of possible topics and guiding questions below.  Click the image for a PDF of this handout.

Hey upper elementary and middle school social studies teachers, looking for more ideas to make history fun?  I'm starting a blog series called Teach History with Me.  Here's the first post on World War I and the Christmas Truce.  More posts coming soon!

 --The Pensive Sloth

Warm Up and Chill Out Test Prep Blog Hop and GIVEAWAY!

Thanks for hopping through with us!  I never say good luck to my students, instead I say, "Do what you know how to do and be your very best!"  Be sure to enter to win the $50 Starbucks Gift Card AND the Test Prep Bundle.  We hope you can use these to make your life a whole lot easier over the coming weeks.  Winners will be notified on Monday morning!  Happy Hopping!

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A Time for Giving

My school means a lot to me.  Not just because that's where I work or because the kids are great (which they are).  It's the school where I went in elementary school and high school.  I had some of the same teachers who are still there now.  They have a heart for what they do.  So, as my school gets ready for its annual auction, I thought the best thing I could do was try to give a little bit back.

A group of teachers donated products to create this bundle for upper elementary teachers.  All proceeds from the sale will go directly the my school.  We don't receive any funding outside of our tuition and individual donations, so this auction is a big deal. There's about $130 worth of products bundled together for $25. Awesome deal for some awesome products!

Please check out the specifics in the link below.  And if you think this is a worthy cause, please pass along the link.

Thanks!
Martha from "The Owl Spot"

Poetry Prompts

This Friday, my fourth graders will participate in the 4th annual Poetry Slam at my school. It is actually something the music teacher and I cooked up a few years ago, so my students have an opportunity to share their favorite original poem with each other and their families. 

Before our school music teacher gets involved, my students study five different figures of speech and create five poems that demonstrate each figure of speech at least one time. Writing poetry can be intimidating for kids, so I break down different poems and types of figures of speech into simple activities to help students create their own poetry.

• Take an existing poem by a famous author and borrow the structure, repeated words, or style. While reading the novel, HATE THAT CAT, we use the poem, "Love That Boy" by Walter Dean Myers to create an "inspired by" poem.  My students keep the beginning of most of the lines and develop their own simile (so I get to teach simile at the same time). My son is actually in one of my language arts classes this year and his "inspired by" poem made me cry. He does not know I am reprinting his poem here... and sharing it on Facebook... and Tweeting it... and Google+'ing it because I thought it was so sweet.

• I try to match up adjective and adverb grammar lessons with my poetry unit. Give the students an everyday object and ask them to generate a list of adjectives that describe the object. This year, I had my students use one of their shoes as the everyday object. They used a template with blank lines and dropped the adjectives onto the lines and then designed a concrete poem.

• I have a big list of topics that I cut into little strips and put into an envelope. Each student draws a topic from the envelope. I like to choose topics from nature like a cloud, mountain, tree, flower, sunset, or ocean. The students write five sentences about the object, but each sentence must use personification. We spend some time talking about human traits, and I provide a traits list on their class activity page. The cloud could offer comfort. The mountain could glare down at you. The flower could dance. The students list the five sentences and then move the sentences around a little and edit to create a poem.

• A fun activity I used with my early finishers during our poetry study was book spine poems. You may have seen book spine images floating around on Pinterest. I have a vast classroom library, and the students stacked books to create a poem from the book titles. This year, they took a picture with our class iPads and inserted the image into a PicCollage and added an explanation of their poem. In previous years, students have used MSPublisher to publish their book spine poems.

Poetry can be fun for students and offer a creative way to express feelings students might not share otherwise. I have also started to realize how much poetry enhances all areas of language study and because poems are often short, it provides a great literature alternative when teachers run short on instructional time.

Need some new poetry resources? 

Here are links to great products by our Lesson Deli members:

TheRoomMom's Poetry Unit and Figures of Speech Game (includes activities listed above)
The Owl Spot's Robert Frost Author Study (and other author studies)
Teaching Ideas 4U's Poetry Writing Unit
JB Creations' Revolutionary War Poetry Unit

Happy Writing!
TheRoomMom