Happy Poetry Month!

As most of you fellow teacher-istas are aware, April is nationally known as the month to recognize poetry. I've been looking forward to this unit for quite some time; my kids are top notch when it comes to thinking creatively, so I was anxious for their final products! In this unit: all three of my grades learned about different types of poem: Alliteration, Acrostic, Color, Cinquan, Haiku & the 5 W's. With my 3rd grade class, we learned about one style & constructed an example of one type of poem a day. 4th and 5th graders were more fast paced and learned about the different styles within 2 days, and then begin working on their Poetry Projects.

 In years past, Poetry Projects have always been books that published students' poetry into actual books. Its a very cute idea, and makes for a good keepsake, but not ideal for this 1st year's teacher budget at the time. That's when I decided to incorporate my technology skills, and have students make a PhotoStory with their poetry. Similar to the format of the content slide I made for ECT 510; students first typed their poems on PowerPoint, selected a design/theme and then saved them as individual photos. We then worked together to import the photos into PhotoStory, add voice narration, and I think their FAVORITE part was mixing the tunes for background music (who knew they were DJs, too?). To ensure parents still received their "keepsake" of this project, I burned each presentation onto a CD-Rom that they can play on a computer. 10 cents a CD is WAY more affordable than $3 a book! Here is a sample of one of my 5th grade student's presentation:

Only 4 weeks left of school, can you believe it? Its officailly down to the survival of the fittest!

Storybook

Even though testing week has come and gone; it still had major impact on my students. Before testing, to try to "relieve their stress" I had them help me with a Storybook project for my grad school class. Originally, we planned on using a Dr. Seuss character (we had just wrapped up that unit) in a new, original story. Unfortunately, the planning of that story line had my 4th graders way too stressed out; which actually served as motivation for Plan B...

...Students then decided instead of creating an original story, we would do a nonfiction story which is just facts. During that time in my class we were going over test-taking strategies and one of my Einsteins had the bright idea to make a "How To..." kind of book that's relevant to test taking strategies. She even came up with the idea to share this with other 4th grade classes to help them; how genius is that? I really do have the cream of the crop! We didn't waste any time in constructing the project. I had students divided into groups to summarize what to do before, during and after testing. They collaboratively put their information on PowerPoint slides; which I then saved as individual JPEGs and inserted into PhotoStory3. We then took photographs (since that is a trait of nonfiction) to support their ideas.

Then, the Friday before the week of testing, we were able to go to each 4th grade class to give them a pep talk and show this video. The kids loved the whole project from start to finish, and I was SO proud of their leadership skills; as well as confidence in test-taking strategies!

Review for the LEAP & Testing Week

Hello all! I hope you all survived the past few weeks of tedious test reviews and especially this week of testing! I know it drove me BANANAS having to sit still in an isolated space for SO many hours. I can only imagine how the kiddos feel, but I must say I am proud of their determination and confidence they showed up with every day. I posted a picture below of their testing incentives they received each morning to show my motivation method. I have to admit that it was relief, as well as a confidence booster, to hear them say "Oh, that way easy!" or "I remember that!". Now to keep my fingers crossed that their positive thinking will earn positive results!

Before testing, we had two weeks of solid review divided by spring break. Two of the main skills that Common Core really emphasised all year (ironically enough the two skills students had the most problem with) were writing compositions with evidence from a passage, and identifying the main idea with supporting details. To help review the "main concept" of the main idea I constructed a Content Podcast via PhotoStory3; which I posted below for you to review & use! :)

I also noticed that my Prezi link from last post was having problems showing up once you clicked the link. I might have uploaded the presentation wrong, so here is my 2nd attempt for all of you to see the Prezi Author Study: Kevin Henkes; which contains my book review via YouTube over Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse.

I hope you & your students all survived testing week and are ready to start the "creative" part of the school year where the fancy & fun projects finally get to replace the curriculum! ;) Be sure to get some R &R this weekend, you teacher-istas deserve it!