Writing From The Heart - Heart Maps

Ack! Sorry I have been MIA lately.  My internet access has been down ALL week and it has been driving me crazy. One week without internet access really showed me  how reliant I am on the world wide web. Anyway, I'm glad to be back online to post on my blog and read all the other awesome posts that I missed earlier this week.

Today, I wanted to share a wonderful pre-writing activity that I like to start the year with, but you could really do this lesson anytime.  My goal with my students in writing is that they recognize themselves as writers, that they understand writing is a tool to communicate and express themselves, and that they know that good writers and brave writers always write from the heart.

I always start by reading and discussing The Best Story Ever by Eileen Spinelli. 

 

This follow-up art/writing lesson was adapted from Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard, another amazing resource for teaching writing.

Students create a heart map.  I model my heart map first and talk about using symbols to represent important people, places, and things in my life.  I also talk about how not everything in my life is happy, but that there are sad moments, joyful moments, scary moments, etc.  All of these are important and part of who I am.  Here are some of the heart maps my students created this year.

Here is the wall of heart maps.  

 

 Some of the symbols are very obvious, but others you have to ask the kids about.  I tell them that they can be compltely honest because only they really know what each symbol means and what's really in their heart.  Here, the gray ship represents his mother who is deployed in the army.

 Students had the choice to use markers, crayons, colored pencils, etc on their project.  This little girl included a locked box on her map to represent her secrets.

 I like this one a lot because he decided to divide his heart into the happy moments and the sad moments.  Talk about an honest kid.  He has two yellow houses on the brown side to represent his parents divorce.

This little girl is an animal lover. She included a few words on her map to add to the concepts, but stuck mostly to symbols. I love her bright border.

 This kiddo had a lot of symbols.  The blue squiggle lines represent water and her love of swimming.

Students will eventually glue their heart maps into their writers notebook for inspiration throughout the year.  If they are having a hard time finding a writing topic, we go back to their heart map. I am always amazed how many kids will take on the challenge to be brave and choose to write about something sad that has happened in their lives.  As soon as the writing comes from the heart, it is the best writing I see all year.

Pay it Forward...More Blogging Awards!

A HUGE thank you to Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for bestowing the honor of...

on myself and my little blog.  That was the perfect way to end my week. Thank you! Thank you! I am so honored and will do my very best to live up to the award.  If you haven't explored all the wonderful ideas at 4th Grade Frolics, make sure you stop by her blog. She's fantastic!

Now, that I have been honored with this award, here are the next steps:

1) Link back to those that nominated you and thank them (Check!)

2) Share 7 things about yourself (Check!)

3) Pass the award on to 15 other blogs that you know and love (Check!)

Okay, here are 7 tidbits about me.

1. This is my 5th year of teaching.
2. I love to read. I mostly read children's novels with a few New York Times bestsellers sprinkled in throughout the year, but my favorite guilty pleasure reads are the Sookie Stackhouse novels.
3. I am a dog person to the very core.  So much so, that I will not read books where the dog dies. I just can't do it.
4. I was a barista for 6 years and miss it.  It was so much fun!
5. I taught group fitness classes while in college (step, spin, etc.).
6. I have a full fledged addiction to colored pens and markers.
7. I enjoy cooking but hate going to the grocery store.  This is often quite the conundrum.

Finally, here is my list of 15 blogs that I love and have inspired me:

Create●Teach●Share 

Go Fourth! With Mrs. Owens 

iDream.iPlan.iTeach 

Jasztalville: Where Inquiry and Creativity Rules 

Life in 4B... 

Life is Better Messy Anyway! 

Oh' Boy 4th Grade  

Once Upon A Teaching Blog  

One Extra Degree  

Quench Your First  

Simply 2nd Resources 

Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes  

The Third Wheel  

Third Grade Bookworm  

Third Grade Meanderings  

Gotta Keep Reading Video

Have y'all seen this? Our amazing librarian shared it with us today. I love it!

Favorite Picture Books for Teaching Comprehension

One of the first words my students learned this year was metacognition or thinking about your thinking. (I was pleased to see that some of my 3rd graders from last year remembered it!) I am a huge fan of Mosaic of Thought and Strategies that Work and use the Comprehension Toolkit frequently in my classroom to model and teach the comprehension strategies.  I always start the year by introducing all the strategies using kid friendly language (connecting, guessing, picturing, wondering, noticing, and figuring out). It's amazing how quickly they are able to jump in the conversation with these simple sentence stems.

Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor has great ideas for introducing each strategy in concrete ways. This chart comes right from the book. :)

After a quick introduction of each strategy we start reading books together and sharing our thinking.  Sometimes I have my kids write in their reading journals, sometimes they write on post-its, sometimes they use organizers from the Comprehension Toolkit, and sometimes we just listen, think, and share about the story. 

Here is the anchor chart we made last week.  We are question askers for sure!

I have found that book choice definitely matters when getting kids engaged and thinking deeply. The following books are classroom tested and approved to get your students thinking, reacting,and listening to their inner voice. They will soon be interacting with these engaging texts and thinking about their thinking!

Henry's Freedom Box

A true story of a slave who looses his family and is desperate for freedom. 

(This is my all time favorite.)

 Wilma Unlimited

A true story of how Wilma Rudolph overcame polio and became a world famous runner.

 How Many Days to America?

A fictitious tale about a family who flees Haiti on the verge of war and goes to the United States.

Train to Somewhere

A historical fiction story of two orphans put on a train and looking for a new family.

Obviously, I like true stories or historical fiction. And, you can't go wrong with Eve Bunting.  I like stories that have some meat.  :) All of these strategies can be easily applied to these books and always interest the reader.  I encourage my students to react to the text and include that in their notes.  I think reacting to the text is the forgotten strategy...don't forget to encourage you students to respond to the text with "Oh no!" and "That's horrible!" and "What? Are you kidding me?" because then we know they are understanding and synthesizing the story. 

I'm always amazed how quietly they sit to find out what will happen to these incredible people and the challenges they have had to overcome.  Great discussion starters!

What other books have you enjoyed using to teach metacognition?  Please comment below to share your own good advice.  I will post more book recommendations for individual strategies soon.

Happy reading!!

Super Easy Mosiac Art Proejct

This is a very easy art project that I have used during the first few weeks of school in years past.  Every child in your room will be successful and they look wonderful on the wall all year long.  

Materials: black square construction paper, small square pieces of construction paper in many colors, scissors, glue

Steps:

1) Have students use a pencil to create an border on the black paper.  They will need to glue all paper squares inside the border.

2) Display a color wheel and briefly discuss how colors directly across from each other are complimentary. Click here for information on complimentary colors.

3) Students use pre-cut squares to create the first letter of their first name.  The letter should be all the same color.  Students can choose any color they want.  Kids can trim edges to create smaller shapes, but should stick to squares and rectangles. 

(Note: You do not have to pre-cut squares, I just prefer to use the large cutter in the workroom and save time.)

4) Have students choose the complimentary color for their background.  The goal is to cover the space completely.  You can overlap squares if you want to create more of a collage look or stick to a strictly mosaic look that has some black shining through.

5) Let it all dry and then make a super cute bulletin board!

That's it!  Easy peasy!

I like to tie this project into another back to school favorite - What's in a Name? I think I first discovered this activity a few years back on Scholastic and I've seen it on lots of websites since.  Nothing new here, but in case you need a copy, here ya go!  

What's in a Name? Freebie

Array Assessment for Investigations

My 4th graders are kicking the year off in math with arrays.  We use the TERK  Investigations curriculum and have just finished the first part of Unit 1. 

Below is the assessment that I created to test their knowledge and skills after the first investigation.  The questions are designed to be more like the STAAR test.  I included several problems where students had to explain their answers and the last problem is very challenging.  It is two steps and uses larger numbers.  My team found this to be very helpful, so I thought I would share with the blog world too.  Maybe someone else out there is teaching 4th Grade Investigations in Texas and needs a more rigorous assessment to prepare out students for a more rigorous test.*wink wink*

Here you go...

Investigation 1.4 Array Assessment Freebie

Problem Solving Pencils - Inspired by 'Oh Boy Fourth Grade

With the new STAAR test in Texas, we are really working on problem solving this year.  After all, 75% of the math questions will test math skills in context of word problems. (Objective 6 has taken over the test!)  We are really having to beef up our problem solving skills and increase our R-I-G-O-R in math lessons and assessments! I don't know about other schools or districts, but rigor is definitely the #1 buzz word being thrown around school these days.

So, this weekend I stumbled on the most perfect post at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade to help my students remember all the important steps of problem solving.  I love that the students use color to mark up their problems.  After reading the problem twice, students will put a red check mark next to the problem. They will underline the question in orange, and circle important information in yellow.  They will cross out any trash  or useless information with a pencil.  They will work out the problem in pencil but may go over it in green and blue marker if we plan on displaying the final product (Farley's idea there... brilliant!). Finally, they will answer the question in a complete sentence in purple. What colorful fun! The pencil strategy bookmark serves as a great reminder whenever we are doing exemplars or other meaty problems.  I can have students pull out their problem solving pencils and walk themselves through the steps. 

Everyone should go read Farley's amazing post on Pencil Strategies to find out more.  She is completely my inspiration for the pencils I made and you can buy them from her Teacher's Notebook store for a very reasonable price. The only reason I made my own was because I wanted to change some of the wording to match what I use in my classroom.  She's the genius.

I also made a big pencil poster for the wall. 

Thank you Farley for sharing your wonderful ideas.  You have improved my teaching and helped make problem solving a rainbow of fun in my classroom!

Wiggle Seats to the Rescue!

I'm so excited about my little "find" this weekend...WIGGLE SEATS! As I may have mentioned in previous posts, I have a VERY active class.  Out of the 18 wonderful kiddos in my room, I seriously believe I have 10 that struggle with impulsivity, focus, and attention. (Okay, I'm diagnosing 2 of them, but the rest are legit.)

One student last week went most of the morning unaware that he didn't have a chair. He was just standing and working. Another one is constantly balancing on the back leg (yes, singular) of his chair. Yes, he has fallen.  Yes, I remind him constantly to put his chair down. And, yes, he continues to do it.  Another one rocks in his chair.  While another one has been spotted actually draping her body over the chair.  Did I mention these are 4th graders?

So...wiggle seats  to the rescue! 

The texture is different on each side, so the kid can choose what is more comfortable to them.

Here's a close up. It may look a bit strange, but I've tried them out and they are surprisingly comfortable.

I have seen these work in other classrooms, but I have never tried them myself.  Typically they are reserved for special education students, so my "special" ones don't technically qualify.  Basically, the wiggle cushions are full of air and allow the students to shift and rock.  It's almost like being on a water bed (remember those?).  The cushion naturally allows for students to move, and gives their motor cortex something to focus on and helps satisfy that need to fidget and move.  It is basically like a stability ball, but I like these a bit better because they go on the student's chair and are less of a distraction.  Plus, I don't have to worry about storing the stability balls at the end of the day for the custodians. 

Amazon.com sells these little beauties for $13 each.  You order through Amazon from a company called Isokinetics. They come in all different colors and have good reviews.  I ordered three blue ones and I can't wait for them to arrive.  If they work for a few kids I will consider it success!!

Currently, I am...

Oh' Boy 4th Grade is hosting another wonderful CURRENTLY  linky party.  These are so much fun to read.  Hop on over to her wonderful blog to link up and see her spectacular ideas. (I particularly recommend her most recent post on Pencil Strategies!)

My Top 10 Awards

I'm so honored to have been nominated for a Top 10 Teaching Blog award by two fellow outstanding bloggers:  Rebecca from Create-Teach-Share, Victoria from Jasztalville, and Amanda from The Kindergarten Chick. Please click on the buttons below to check out their terrific, amazing, and inspiring blogs.

 Thank you ladies for supporting my blog!
Now, to celebrate a few more amazing teaching blogs out there. Just click the link to find out why I stalk these people so closely.  :)  Teach-A-Roo

Habit 1 - Being Proactive (with freebie)

This is my school's first year working with Stephen Covey's 7 Habits/Leader in Me program.  We are learning the language and living the habits as a staff this year with a full launch of teaching the habits to our students next year. 

Well, I've always been one to jump right in and I was so excited about the habits and the possibilities it opened for my students, that I started teaching them in my classroom right away.  (So many other teachers in my building are on board too! It's awesome!) So far, we have only covered the first two habits, but more are on the way. 

We started with Habit 1: Being Proactive.  I loved watching their faces as they realized they were 100% in charge of their choices.  We spent a lot of time talking about being proactive...taking responsibility for your actions, not blaming others, having a positive "can do" attitude, and never giving up.  Then, we talked about being reactive.  We are a bit of a reactive bunch, so they really got into the discussion about being reactive. They could relate.

To kick off habit 1, we read a story from 7 Habits of Happy Kids.

I used the discussion questions at the end of the story to help guide our classroom conversation.  The following day we revisited the idea of being proactive and began talking about being reactive.  I told them a story of when I was very reactive and got mad at someone for a bad choice that I had made.  You see, I forgot to set my alarm and overslept.  While driving to work, I got behind a very slow car and got angry that they were making me late for work.  The kids were quick to point out that it wasn't the other car's fault that I was late.  I was late because I had not set my alarm and I had overslept.   We connected back to the idea of being in charge of yourself and your choices.  As I told the story, I shook up a can of soda.  I explained that when I got made at the other car, I was being reactive.  I essentially was exploding my soda all over that person.  It wasn't their fault, but I was taking my frustration out on them.  Then I showed them a water bottle.  I shook the water bottle vigorously and asked the class what would happen if I opened it?  Naturally, nothing would happen.  The water bottle stays calm.  That is like being proactive.  Proactive people stop and think before they act.  We then discussed all the proactive things I could have done to be sure I wasn't late for work anymore.  :)  All and all, it was a really good discussion.  The kids could all think of a time they were reactive and a time someone was reactive with them.  We talked about how that made us feel, and what we could do to be proactive people to keep from exploding soda all over others.

My class finished our discussion on Habit 1 with the following sort.  Students worked in groups to figure out which of the following situations showed proactive behavior and which situations showed reactive behavior.  It was fun to watch them sort and explain their thinking. We wrapped it all by discussing the situaitons as a class and brainstorming proactive approaches to those troublesome reactive behaviors.

Proactive vs Reactive

Now, my class is still working on these concepts a lot.  But, I love the language it has introduced.  I can tell kids when they are being very proactive (Hooray and go clip up!) or when they are being very reactive.  

The best part of the week was when we were doing an interactive read aloud from the Comprehension Toolkit (Stephanie Harvey) and we were tracking our thinking, one student wrote on his post-it, "Those thieves are being very reactive."  Ha! I love it!

You Can Grow Your Intelligence

Thank you to everyone for checking out my post on building a math community at Blog Hoppin! I had several people ask me about the article I share with my class about growing their intelligence, so I thought I would post that here.

You Can Grow Your Intelligence

If you missed my original post "Kicking off the Year in Math" please click here! I'd love to hear your comments either on Blog Hoppin' or here!