So Thankful

I know that most people wrote their thankful post in November.  I finally had time to be reflective last week, and I decided that gratitude should not be seasonal.

I am thankful that I am employed in a district that still believes I can make choices in curriculum and teaching strategies that are appropriate for my students.

I am thankful that my job provides my family's needs and so many of our wants.

I am thankful that blogging and freelance curriculum writing provided some brand new books for my classroom this year.

I am thankful (and often amazed) that people read my writing and use it in their classroom.  (There is nothing better than starting a morning with a thank you from another teacher.)

So Happy New Year.  May you have a wonderful 2014.

Quote of the Week for December 29, 2013

"If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both." - Horace Mann

Interview a Fairy Tale Character

This activity started as an improv game I learned at Summer Theater Workshop.  When I introduced it to Drama Club this fall, I decided to add a writing component.

The idea behind this activity is to bring a fairy tale character to modern times and conduct a TV interview.  This activity fits in well when studying fractured fairy tales.

 To download a Google Doc version of the interview transcript blank, click here.  My students love this activity and perform their scripts at the end of the day after our clean up routines. 

Here are some other Drama Club posts you may have missed:

Drama Club: No Divas Allowed

What Are You Doing: A Drama Game

Tongue Twisters: A Drama Game

Rumors: A Drama Game

You can purchase all ten forms I use for creative writing assignments and bulletin boards here in my Teachers Pay Teachers store and here in my Teachers Notebook store.  I have included at least two suggestions for each form that are not here on my blog.

The Last Present by Wendy Mass

 

I read 13 Gifts by Wendy Mass first not realizing that this was a series.  I loved the characters and the town of Willow Falls so much that I had to track down the rest.  The last book in the series was released September 24, 2013.

Willow Falls is a magical town.  The characters find themselves caught up with an unusual old woman and have to right historical wrongs. 

I definitely recommend reading this series in order.  I could follow the first three books, but the last book wraps up the story lines of the other three.

 For an explanation of my rating scale, click here.

Rumors: A Drama Game

Do you remember playing "Telephone"?  All the participants are seated in a circle.  The first person whispers a message to the next person and each person whispers to the next in turn.  The last person tells the message out loud to the group and everyone giggles when the message is messed up.

Imagine a competitive game of "Telephone".  This time the players are divided up into two teams.  Each team is given a message and that message is whispered down the line.  The last person says the message out loud and the team that got the message to the end most accurately wins.

I tried this with Drama Club, but it could easily be an end of the day activity to practice speaking and listening.

Click here to download a list of five messages related to popular middle grade fiction. Students can create their own messages based on any topic you choose.

Here are other blog posts about Drama Club with activities you can include in the regular classroom.

Tongue Twisters -- A Drama Game 

What are you doing? -- A Drama Game

Drama Club -- No Divas Aloud

Quote of the Week for December 22, 2013

"In education it isn't how much you have committed to memory or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. It's knowing where to go to find out what you need to know and it's knowing how to use the information you get." --William Feather

Trapezoid Art Project

My students are struggling with identifying and classifying quadrilaterals.  I am developing stations and lessons that give them more hands-on experience with them.  I want them to learn the vocabulary by using it in different activities.  Here is a lesson I taught about a month ago.

I cut twelve 3-inch squares for each student and gave each a 9X12 background.  As you can tell from the pictures, I chose fall colors for this activity, but you could easily choose a different color scheme for a different time of year.

I had them start with one square and we divided it into two trapezoids. Then I showed them how to cut two more squares into congruent shapes so they could complete one row of the completed project.

Next we arranged the trapezoids so that they would form that first row.  We talked about where the 90-degree angles needed to be arranged so the top and bottom of the row would continue to be parallel.  This was the most difficult part for some students.

The resulting shapes are rectangles, parallelograms and Isosceles trapezoids.  Once the students could complete a row, I let them glue it to the background paper and get three more squares.  They needed to show me the second completed row before I would let them glue it and then I could tell they were ready to work on their own.

All but one of my students successfully completed this activity.  They also had a chance to use their geometry vocabulary in a hands-on activity.

This activity is a part of my Classifying Quadrilaterals unit in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.