Heart Art

I was shy as a kid. As a child I remember one thing, art always brought me out of my shell, which is why I find it to be so important in the classroom. I see it when my students are doing a craft or an art project. They begin to have conversations with one another that only happen during art. The kids that rarely talk begin to let loose and show everyone they have a voice.

This past Valentine's week my students used their knowledge of blending colors from dark to light to create their own masterpiece! Their hearts were just beautiful. I wanted to keep them and hang them up, but they really wanted to take them home. And so they did. I  just hope they didn't end up crushed in their backpacks.

To make the hearts I drew a heart template with small boxes throughout and copied onto white construction paper. Using their oil pastels the students chose three colors at a time and put them in order from dark to light. They chose one box and began coloring with the darkest shade. Next the students colored using the middle shade. Finally the students used the lightest shade to complete the box.

It's amazing what kids can do when you let them try.

Valentine Freebie

January is almost over and now to the month of love, Mondays off, and a freebie!

This Valentine ELA Freebie has fun independent activities. . . compound words, nouns, verbs, shades of meaning, and alphabetical order.  I hope you find it useful!

Happy Friday!

Notebooks, Notebooks, and More Notebooks

I recently introduced another interactive notebook to my class. We use the writing notebook, the math notebook, the grammar notebook, and now. . .the reading literature notebook. I thought my kids would moan because that's what kids do when something is repetitive. Even something I would think they enjoy. They just get sick of the same thing over and over again. Sometimes I think they moan just for the sake of moaning. Have you ever had your kids copy something from the board and you have them erase a word and change it? They moan. You would think you had them throw away their papers, start over, and rewrite a ten page essay. Really all you've done is have them change a to the. 

We just used a simple school journal.

So, like I said, I told my students we would start a new notebook and they cheered! Whew! This handy-dandy notebook has been pretty handy. The Common Core standards can look pretty complex, but the kids are handling them very well. 

At the moment we are working on comparing and contrasting two versions of the same story. 

Two versions of the same story. Armadilly Chili is one of my favorites. The illustrations are beautiful.

With our notebooks, we are comparing and contrasting the characters, setting, plot, and central message. 

Here the students completed a notebook page for both The Little Red Hen and Armadilly Chili. Using that information, they completed a Venn diagram.

My favorite part is the Central Message cake. This notebook page includes common central messages. After reading a story, the kids take out their notebooks and look through the candles to find the central message of the story. I'm going to be honest, I had trouble determining the central message of a story as an adult. When I hear kids discussing this, I'm amazed.

Central Message cake

 So the kids are happy because they think we're doing crafts and I am happy because they sound like high schoolers. Interactive notebooks have to be the best thing since sliced bread. 

Grammar Freebie

I'm linking up with Teaching Blog Addict to give you this Proper Noun Freebie. I hope you find it useful!