We Trapped Him!

We had so much fun designing, building, and writing about our Gingerbread Man Traps! The students were so engaged and couldn't wait to work on them. Not a bad way to spend the last week before vacation!

Here is a look at some of our Writing!

We trapped that treat!

Check out the entire project! Gingerbread STEM


Happy New Year!
Bridget

Gingerbread Madness

We have begun to build our traps! My kids are so excited and have been fully immersed into capturing the cookie! We collected any and all recycling materials that the students brought in to build with. I did pre-warn the students that we were going to create a stock pile of materials for all of the students to use and that they may not get their particular "recyclables" back !

Here is a look at our stock pile!

I was so impressed with my kids when we started to create- there was no fighting! They were helping each other out - and just having fun!  As a teacher, it was a great moment!

We are on step 4 of The Engineering Design Process!

Gingerbread Man STEM Activity   Check out the entire project here!

Happy Holidays

Bridget

Trap that Treat!

It is that time of year again.... Time when my classroom gets taken over by the Gingerbread Man and we have to design a contraption to trap him! I love this unit... the students are so engaged, and during this time of year that says an awful lot!!

Each student colors and decorates a gingerbread man that they have to design a working trap to catch him. I let them work in pairs or small groups. We discuss the Engineering Design Process and walk the kids through it. Then let them loose and see what they can come up with!

                         *Ask    *Brainstorm     *Plan     *Build/create     *Improve

This year we are doing a few things differently...

I put together a fun resource packet for the students to use while doing this project and we added a How To writing piece with a craftivity to display on our bulletin board. 

Gingerbread Man STEM and How To writing!  

I am very excited about our How To writing piece that we added this year! I can't wait to see the finished product and how adorable they are going to look hanging up on the bulletin board!

I will keep you up to date on our progress, until then... Happy trapping!

Bridget

Small Moments

I have begun to implement Lucy Calkins Units of Study in my third grade class and was fortunate enough to go to a one day seminar with Lucy. If you have never been to her web site I highly recommend it as it has a wealth of information and resources. The Reading and Writing Project You can also check out Lucy's Units of Study site for a grade by grade description and more resources! My favorite lesson so far has been on small moments. To take a snippet of an event and stretch it out, to make time stand still and things move in slow motion.

I chose The Snow Globe Family as my mentor text and we created a list of activities and vocabulary that might be useful to the students to incorporate in their stories.

The students were instructed to pick an activity that they would want to do if they lived in a snow globe and to concentrate on just that activity. They were not to be reporters or list makers...
First the snow came down. Then I went out in the snow. I went sledding down the hill. After that I got cold so I went inside. That is how I would spend my day if I lived in  a snow globe. This type of writing was not acceptable and it was difficult for some of the students to break that habit. However, after some coaching and peer sharing their writing took an amazing turn for the better!
Here are some of their small moment writing...
Michael:
I ran downstairs to wake my baby brother and my older sister when... Shake! Shake! Shake! I managed to think, "Blizzard" before all of us were blown out of the house. My baby brother awoke with a jolt. My sister was still snoring in midair! My brother, Jake, grabbed some snow and, winking at me, hurled it at my sister. It hit her splat in the face. She got mad! (I don't know why, she did worse to us) Then she chucked a snowball at both of us. They missed. My brother and I chucked more snowballs at her. The force of them crushed her into the house wall. At the same time, the snow globe tilted one way and stopped. Our sister hurled snowballs at us. We ducked and made a giant snowball (well, not giant to the big people) but big. We rolled it down at her. Fear, anger, hate, indignation and horror mingled. For a moment she looked faceless, then the snowball ran her completely over. I was filled with happiness at getting my sister back and I am pretty sure Jake felt the same way. He jumped around, positively whooping! My sister roared and chucked two snowballs at once at us. We flung more snowballs back, throwing blasts of snow at her face. The air became filled with snowballs. The door opened and my mom came out and everything froze..... "Time for lunch, everybody!" said our confused mom. We followed her inside. It certainly had been a crazy day.

I also created a small mini unit to go along with the story, that includes literacy activities, writing ideas, and graphic organizers. Check it out here.
The Snow Globe Family

Enough about winter.... Think Spring!

Bridget

The Snow Globe Family

     Winter got you down? Kids getting antsy? I know my students are! So while scanning my favorite website... Pinterest... I came across all kinds of cute and fun snow globe activities. I decided to use The Snow Globe Family by Jane O'Connor and S. D.  Schindler as my mentor text and came up with a couple of activities that align with the Common Core to beat the winter blues.

Check it out at The Snow Globe Family

This is just one of the many activities that are included in the mini unit

Here are some of the fabulous ideas that I found on Pinterest....

I love this idea from Babbling Abby ! What a great and cute way to brainstorm ideas. She also had her students create their own snow globe.

This is from Fabulous in Fourth 

Have the students pose for a picture in their snow gear and take their picture. They can create a snow globe using a clear plastic plate as the "dome" of the globe! Display their writing and their globe together! Love it!

If you search for snow globe writing activity on Pinterest you will have so many to chose from!
Have fun and think Spring!

Bridget

Larry the Leprechaun

My class had a lot of fun creating our leprechauns!! The task to the students was to think about how they would spend the day with Larry the Leprechaun. We started by creating lists of nouns, verbs, and adjectives we wanted to include in our story. Then the students expanded their ideas on their paragraph graphic organizer and wrote their rough draft. After making some changes and making better word choices, they wrote their final draft and created their leprechauns!

Their creativity came shining through!
Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Teachers Pay Teachers

Larry the Leprechaun

Lucky Leprechaun

Happy St. Patrick's Day !! I love to read Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie DePaola to start off our mini Ireland unit.  I can't wait to try out my new writing activity with my class! They will be able to choose between a few different prompts about leprechauns and then create their own.

*You have just caught an unlucky leprechaun. Tell me about your unlucky day.

*My magical day with a leprechaun.

*If you caught a leprechaun, what would you wish for?

*What do leprechauns do all day? Tell me about how they spend the day and what kind of activities they may participate in.

Go on over to tpt and check it out !!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lucky-Leprechaun-writing-activity


Have a great day !!