MaXed OuT!

There really is no substitute for the real thing. We've had several people from my team out this week and it's made quite a difference in things. Report cards went home today and I managed to get my comments and progress reports stuffed into those lovely yellow envelopes before the end of the day despite my kiddos' homeroom teacher being out again. My para educator has been out all week and let me just say, I miss her! I want her to get well but soon...and will definitely be smothering her with hugs when she returns.

In the meantime, it's been quite a hectic few days and I've been cramming as much as I can into my planning and lunch period modifying grade-level materials, making my own materials and brainstorming WAY too many other materials pushing my To Do lists to the max! Finally managing to sit down with a few minutes to myself before the Mister comes home from work...

My kiddos are starting to get into the Chris Van Allsburg author study and are really enjoying the read aloud activities. We struggled a bit with outlining the story elements  - they still have trouble identifying problem and solution as well as picking important events from the story rather than listing every little thing. We read Zathura today and 'discovered' the boys at the end of Jumanji are the main characters in this story. Tomorrow I plan to review the books with my students and attempt to compare and contrast the two books.

My Mister finished off the orange juice last night so I'm hoping to get labels and cards printed/laminated for my Jumanji-Zathura Find It! activity. I've also got an Allsburg timeline sort activity and am thinking of how to incorporate The Z Got Zapped into a center activity or project. I've only got 4 kiddos...so it'd be at least 6 alphabet letters apiece I'm thinking...

Speaking of alphabet letters...does anyone know where to find alphabet magnets for a good deal? I seem to live in an area where they no longer exist...

But for now, the bed is calling so I'll leave you with a favorite from yesterday. I borrowed this idea from One Extra Degree and her glossary skills activity as seen here. I had my kiddos look up new/higher level vocabulary from Jumanji and define it in writing and with a picture. I loved what one student came up with! Forgive the poor picture quality - all I had on me was my camera phone.

When asked to explain..."a gigantic shark that eats people and trains and destroys bridges...that's dangerous, right?"

Ju...Ju...Jumanji!!

Here I am...sitting in front of the computer when I should be tackling my always growing to-do list but instead of attempting to further modify a unit assessment...I'm much more motivated to play around in blog-land. I have a half-hour before the Mister comes home from work and we snuggle in to watch Paranormal Activity 3. Staying up late on a school night...bad form, I know.

Today was a test of teaching flexibility and adjustments. One of my regular paraeducators was out today and unfortunately, my favorite of the two since she supports me during my Reading block and is phenomenal with my kids. Since having started my Chris Van Allsburg author study, I've modified some of my literacy center activities to support this unit and unfortunately, without my regular para support...I had to tweak my centers and later ammend my afternoon lesson. 

Not being familiar with the book Jumanji, my supported-writing center soon revealed that my students were retelling and summarizing wrong/inaccurate events. I realized this was partly due in fault to my own lack of over-planning (in the event of an absence/substitute) and a indicator that my students were still struggling to comprehend the basic story elements of 'Jumanji' as well as being unable to retell the story accurately.

So...this afternoon, I quickly shuffled some things around and dived further into Jumanji and completed a Before/After Reading worksheet I created. We defined instructions and why this word is important in the context of Jumanji looking at the events that unfold when Peter and Judy play the game. I highlighted the importance of reading ALL of the directions, how the word 'and' is crucial in Judy's winning the game, and the use of all capital letters in the game isntructions indicating important details. We took this a step further and analyzed the last two paragraphs identifying what Mrs. Budwing (Danny and Walter's mother) was really saying and the implications of such. With some role-playing and overly dramatic gesturing on my behalf, we made predictions about the future of Danny and Walter. Perhaps they'll leave the jungle for outer space? ;)

I sent my kiddos home with a Story Map worksheet and encouraged them to complete it as best they could. They've been consittently struggling with identifying problem and solution and I'm hoping with repeated practice and more and more examples, they will finally be able to recognize this story element in their future reading.  I am eager to see what information they retained from today's immersion in Jumanji and what may need to be revisited before we dive into Zathura. *fingers crossed*

All things Allsburg...

This week I began a Chris Van Allsburg author study with my class. I recently discovered that the 5th grade highlights him as an author within their study of the science fiction genre. [Being a long-term sub + having just moved back to this state + no provided hands-on curriculum + modifications to meet my student's needs = lesson planning isn't as prepared as far ahead as I'd like...] Thanks to several online resources and OneExtra Degree and her awesome Allsburg author study for inspiring several activities/lessons! :)


Having a self-contained group of students allows me some liberties with my lessons and not having to adhere to the scheduling and deadlines that the 5th grade classes necessarily follow. And thus, my plans to drown *cough* immerse my students in all things Allsburg while incorporating as many of the other content areas as possible. We will be doing CVA-inspired reading, writing, science, social studies, and math...My students had some familiarity with Van Allsburg and two of his books: Two Bad Ants and the Garden of Abdul Gasazi during Read Aloud with the school librarian.

I had my students visit Chris Van Allsburg's website and complete an Author Study Info Sheet for their notes; I supplemented a completed copy of key events and books published (including publication year). Using this, they were provided an Author Study Timeline to complete -- which, much to my dismay...they struggled with. After a mini-lesson on time lines, dates and chronological order = smallest to biggest numbers, I tweaked my original Info Sheet and created a Timeline Sort which I will have my kiddos attempt during Literacy Centers.


This weekend I plan on revisiting my CVA Unit plans and making some much-needed revisions and modifications. I hope to put together some more worksheets and Allsburg-themed center activities. What's worked for you?? Suggestions???