Quote of the Week -- May 10, 2015

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.

Author Unknown

Happy Mother's Day

How Can You Encourage Someone Today?

(Click here to download the Encouragement Poster from my Google Drive.)

Last year in March I created some slips for my students to give to each other called Endurance and Encouragement slips.

A few weeks later, I created a bulletin board in the shape of a racetrack to post their slips.

This week I am adding the poster, I created to go along with the slips and the bulletin board.  (Click here to download the Encouragement Poster from my Google Drive.)

Doesn't everyone need a little bit of encouragement this time of year?

Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur

Elise has lived with her aunt and uncle ever since her parents died when she was little.  Her father wrote letters for her before he died and the last one arrives on her twelfth birthday with a hint of upcoming surprises.  Just after this, she receives a key that unlocks one of eight locked doors in the barn.  As she opens each room, she learns more about her parents, her friendships, and herself.

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Teacher Appreciation: You Know You're a Teacher When...

 
 
 

 

A little more than three years ago, a group of teacher bloggers posted their ideas for the meme "You Know You're a Teacher When...."  For teacher appreciation week, I decided to add some more to the list.  Feel free to share your own in the comments.

 

To read more about my obsession with school supplies, click here.

Here is a post about my texting obsession.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week,

Quote of the Week -- May 3, 2015

If you hear a voice within you say, "You cannot paint," then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.

Vincent Van Gogh

Have a good week,

Currently May 2015

Hello, it's May and Oh Boy Fourth Grade posted Currently May late last night.  Join her for the blog party.


 

I'm excited to have my stepdaughter move home today.  I feel like I have such a long to do list this weekend.  We have six and a half weeks left of school.  (It's been one of those years, so I'm ready to be done.)

 

Here are my summer plans, hopes and dreams.  I definitely plan to attend my family reunion this summer.  I missed last summer, so I'm itching to catch up with everyone.

I need to get creative with some summer income.  College tuition is expensive.  It would be great if I could write something amazing that resonated with others.

 

And now to join the party...see you there.

 

Explorer Report Questions

Update: February 2017
This year my teaching partner and I had the students display their information on cubes.  We used similar questions, but required the addition of a portrait and a map of the explorer's route.

Original post (May 2015)
This school year, I changed how I teach explorers and the culminating assignment for the unit.  I created notebooks and the forms shown below.  Students read articles and text books and answered the questions in their notebooks.

To download the Explorer Report questions, click here.

I taught them about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Wants and we used that to look at the reasons explorers travelled.  

Finally, I used my five paragraph essay forms -- available here -- to write about what they had learned.  The introduction and conclusion paragraphs were about how explorers generally met needs and wants.  The three detail paragraphs were about specific explorers.

This was a successful fourth grade research project.