Last Day with the 4th Graders

On March 15th 2013, it was a very bittersweet day. I was happy to be DONE with winter term. I was happy to be DONE with my work sample, completed and turned in (247 pages!) yet,  I was oh so sad that I was done being in the 4th grade classroom on a regular basis…

This group of 4th graders was an AMAZING group. Each child had a special spirit, whether it was loud or quiet, easy-going or obnoxious; I adored each one and I will remember each one. I like to think that people don’t have “favorites.” I know sometimes people joke about that parents, teachers, etc. do, in fact, have secret favorites. I still don’t agree with that. I do think, however, that there are some students/children that come to mind first depending on context and/or the situation you are thinking about. That’s how I like to think of it, at least.

Since it was a Friday, the day was short from the get-go. But, I felt the day surely zipped on by faster than I would have liked. Towards the end of the day, my cooperating teacher asked me to sit up at the front of the class on a stool. She presented me with a “teacher’s tool kit:” a lunch tote bag filled with some chocolate, wooden/mechanical pencils, sticky notes, paper clips, green ink pens, glue sticks, and hand sanitizer. Then, a student presented me with a binder filled with “letters of recommendations” from each student! They made me read one out loud, and half-way through, I just about cried.  I said I couldn’t read anymore else out loud or else they’d see Ms. Grizzle really cry. They then went around saying something nice (if they wished, no pressure!) and I was very flattered by them all. They started to sing this special Thank You song and kept wanting to say something on the microphone that was being passed around. A lot of them mentioned how I was nice, friendly, and easy to talk to. They also mentioned how I never got really mad, but gave warnings (deep down, I know I need to be more firm :P) I was all very flattered by everyone’s comments, but some that hit home to me were ones that expressed how some felt they could talk to me when they couldn’t talk to someone else, how I helped them out during some tricky frustrations with school, how I made history “fun” for those who didn’t like history, and for helping a student get through personal problems that he had on a daily basis. Really, the fact that they talked about things aside from being nice or academic content put an inspiring imprint on me. I want to continue to not only be a teacher to my students, but also a friend….a model….someone they can go to and trust.

I eventually got a chance to talk. I expressed my thanks, explained my thought of how awesome they were, how much I’d miss them, and how much I loved them. I also gave my big memo I’ve been trying to drill into them every day I’ve been there: ALWAYS give your best effort. Even when things seem tough or challenging, give your best effort. I was close to tears  here, too, as I was talking. I felt my cheeks gets red and my voice tightening. I then passed out a gift I had for them. I wrote each of my 26 students a card (This is where the dollar store becomes your best friend!) with a personalized message. I also put an an animal sticker and wrote a speech bubble with some sort of inspiring quote.  On the front of the envelope, I wrote their name along with “you’re a ‘smarty!’ ” with, of course, a smarties candy taped right next to it 😛 (I love puns, I’m telling you!) It took a very long time….but, it was worth seeing the students open them with big smiles.

I gave my cooperating teacher a note, too, and a can of plum jam that my boyfriend, friend, and I made last Summer/Fall.  It was very sad to leave her, too. We really clicked and really supported one another. Her “pearl” that she passed on to me: Be passionate! Incorporate interests into your teaching and go with it! Students will see and feel your passion and feed off of that, too :]
Today was very bittersweet and, geez, they sure tugged on my heart strings!

I’ll miss those 4th grade kiddos so much ♥

Tote bag, shells two students gave me, and the binder filled with “letters of recommendations” from the whole class :]

Chalk writing that a 4th grader did for me towards the end of school :]

Later days and peace to all ♥

Day 23; Lesson 10

Lewis and Clark  Jeopardy–February 21st 2013

Objective:  Given a KWL chart, game, and independent work, students wills demonstrate their accumulating knowledge of Lewis and Clark’s expedition by completing the rest of the KWL chart as a class, participating in a Lewis and Clark themed jeopardy game, and writing a reflection in their journals about what they’ve learned.

 

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This lesson was the last of my unit. To “wrap” things up…..I opened the lesson with  a Lewis and Clark rap. Yep, that’s write; a rap! A “rap” up ;] (I promptly explained to the 4th graders my ridiculous, cheesy love for puns). I found this Lewis and Clark rap on YouTube from the creator “MC LaLa” The kids LOVED it, even those who were at first skeptical to partake in it. I gave out a sheet of lyrics and played the video twice. Once just to “listen” and the second time around to rap along. I let students stand up and move around within close proximity to their seat. One student even beat-boxed! (this was something I was keeping in mind because he has a tendency to beat box randomly during class, so my cooperating teacher and I would have to tell him to stop. This time, he had full reign to do so!)

Lyrics: LC Rap Lyrics

After that fun, I split the class up into 5 teams: Team Jefferson, Team Seaman, Team Sacagawea, Team Lewis, and Team Clark. Then, we proceeded with our Jeopardy game! This was definitely a highlight that many of the students enjoyed; it was nice having a break from just “seat work.” (plus, my 4th graders lean close to a competitive side, :P)

To close the lesson, I asked my students to do a quick reflection in their journals

Here is the Jeopardy game I made (PowerPoint): LC Jeopardy

Later Days and Peace to all ♥

Day 22; Lesson 9

Lewis and Clark Letter–February 20th 2013

Objective:   Given character traits, whole class discussion, and independent work, students will be able create a persuasive letter to Thomas Jefferson by using a graphic organizer, character traits, and their recent background knowledge of Lewis and Clark’s expedition  to form reasons why they should be part of an expedition.

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As we were getting close to the end of the unit, I decided to have students think about how they could contribute to the expedition based on what they’ve learned. What qualities did they have similar to the crew? How would they overcome some of the obstacles? Why is the expedition important? Also, my cooperating teacher needed a persuasive piece by them, so I decided to have them write a letter to Thomas Jefferson in order to persuade him to pick him/her for the “next expedition.”

Students first needed to fill out a persuasive map to help organize their thoughts (PDF): Persuasive Map

 

Then, students were checked off to work on their letter :]
I had to remind some students that the map doesn’t need to be full of complete sentences/details; if they wanted to write “more,” that was great, but the organizer mainly needed to be enough detail for them to understand what they want to write.

This lesson ended up needing more time. Many students got hung up on the persuasive map that they didn’t have much time to finish or begin the letter.  A few students finished everything, but those were my “consistently focused” students. Some chose to take them home to finish, but I didn’t require it. We made time the next day for students to finish their letters during writer’s workshop.

 

Here are the slides I used for this lesson (PowerPoint): Letter

 

Later Days and Peace to all ♥

Day 21; Lesson 8

Animal Sketch–February 15th 2013

Objective:    Given a Kids Discover magazine, whole class discussion, and independent work, students will be able to understand one of Lewis and Clark’s contributions to history by reading about what Lewis and Clark documented and drawing their own animal sketch

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This lesson’s focus was to get students thinking about journaling in terms of why it is beneficial, especially in Lewis and Clark’s time.  I adapted my lesson from this site: animal encounters

I had students listen to a description of a sage grouse and asked them to try to draw the animal based off of the description. When everyone had a chance to draw, I revealed the animal’s name and picture.

Sage Grouse

 

 

 

We talked about how important journaling was back in Lewis and Clark’s time and why they did it. To keep exercising this thought, I had students pick from a list of animals the Lewis and Clark saw and recorded in their journals. Students were to pick an animal, write a short but detailed description (without giving away the name) of the animal, and share it with a partner to try and guess what animal it is.

 

 

Later Days and Peace to all ♥

Day 20; Lesson 7

Warning: Obstacles–February 14th 2013

Objective:  Given a Kids Discover Magazine, whole class discussion, and independent work, students will be able to describe the obstacles Lewis and Clark’s crew encountered by creating warning posters illustrating the potential obstacles/challenge and solutions to those obstacles.

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To hook my students in, I showed a comic:

To continue thinking about obstacles, students worked on making “warning posters” for Lewis and Clark’s crew. Students were to pretend that these would be signs that Lewis and Clark would see on their journey. The signs would help “make things easier” for the crew. The obstacles needed to be physical obstacles, and students needed to create a draft in their journals before moving on to the final poster. Requirements included:

• Name an obstacle
• Add an illustration
• Put at least 2 descriptive words about why the obstacle is an obstacle
• Propose a solution

Here are some poster examples:

Class Set in Hallway

Bears

Rocky Mountains

Bears

Gnats

Rocky Mountains

Later Days and Peace to all ♥

Day 19; Lesson 6

Physical and Human Obstacles–February 13th 2013

Objective:  Given whole class discussion and small group work, students will be able to identify the different types of obstacles (physical and human) by sorting obstacle cards in small groups and engaging in whole class discussion to finalize placements.

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To hook my students in, I continued the clay-mation video. I let it play from 4:00-8:00 (the end) :]

When I told my students that it was the end of that video, they were quite sad; they really enjoyed watching the clips!

After the clay-mation video, I got my students continue thinking about obstacles. I brought up the idea that obstacles could be categorized into different types and that we would be exploring physical and human obstacles. We had a class discussion about what makes an obstacle physical or human. Then, students broke out into groups to sort cards into physical and human. They were to sort cards as a group and then individually write out the groups in their journals (like a T-chart). Here are the “cards” I made and later cut out for each group set (Word Doc): obstaclecards

 

After groups were done making their placements, we came back together and tried to place the cards together as a group. I pulled up my PowerPoint and moved the boxes based on students’ suggestions. When there was a disagreement from another student, we talked it out. Surprisingly, there were more disagreements than I anticipated! This developed into a great conversation and discussion about what really made an obstacle physical or human. I had a few TAG students, and this was a great moment for them to think about both sides and to go deeper into the question; a student made a great case how he saw some cards to be both and was able to really think about each case. I let the students wrestle with this idea before intervening their discussion. I was not prepared for this type of discussion to happen, but boy, was it authentic and wonderful!

Here are some slides I used for this lesson (PowerPoint): Obstacle Sort

Later Days and Peace to all ♥

Day 18; Lesson 5

Facing Challenges and Obstacles–February 11th 2013

Objective:  Given an obstacle game, whole class discussion, small group work, and a video, students will be able to identify the obstacles Lewis and Clark’s crew encountered and explain how this affected their journey by making predictions, playing an obstacle game, and viewing video clips.

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To hook my students in, I continued the clay-mation video. I let it play from 2:05 to 4:00 :]

I pulled up my PowerPoint for this lesson and had students look at a map of the U.S. in 1804. Together, we drew the route that we knew so far Lewis and Clark had taken. We labeled “St. Louis” and also “Fort Mandan.” As a class, we discussed how the “Northwest Passage” might have looked like in Jefferson’s mind and I had students make predictions about how this looked on the map and whether or not Lewis and Clark find it.

We then got into a discussion about obstacles, and I had the class think about their own personal obstacles/challenges. After a few shares, I explained how Lewis and Clark had obstacles, too. I pulled up an obstacle scenario that I found from education.national geographic. I had students only focus on the obstacle about the fork in the river; we did this as a class. After they made their individual predictions about which way Lewis and Clark should go, I informed the students that they were going to watch a video about Lewis and Clark and their various obstacles. As they watched the video, they needed to write down the obstacles they see and potential solutions to those obstacles. This video is from National Geographic called “Great Journey West.” It was an excellent video and really drew in the student’s attention as it had a good pace to the video with some simulated scenes of the expedition. I got the DVD from the library, but I noticed they have it on YouTube, too. For today’s lesson, I only played the first 25min. I left it up to my cooperating teacher to play the rest of the video when I wasn’t there (i.e. taking classes at OSU).

When the video was over, the class went back to the review the scenario and we revealed the answer. We discussed about how they came about their decisions, what would have been the consequences if Lewis and Clark went the other way, etc.

Here are some slides I used for this lesson (PowerPoint): Obstacles

Later Days and Peace to all ♥

Day 17; Lesson 4

Who’s Who?–February 8th 2013

Objective: Given a Kids Discover magazine, whole-class discussion, and independent work, students will be able to identify various character traits and skills of different member on Lewis and Clark’s expedition by reading and sorting information using an organizer.

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To hook my students in, I found another video about Lewis and Clark. This video is about 6 minutes long, so I spread it out over a few days. For this lesson, I stopped it around 2:05. It’s a clay-mation video, and the students enjoyed watching it very much! Again, entertaining yet informative :]

Together, we read as a class a part of an article in the Kids Discover magazine dedicated to specific people on the expedition. We created an organizer in our journals to help keep track of information about Jefferson, Lewis, Clark, Sacagawea, York, and Seaman (hey, this dog was an important member, too :] ). I printed out sets of “portraits” so that students could glue the pictures in their journals for their organizer.

Later, students were numbered off to form groups. Within their groups, they were to take turns reading the rest of the article and filling out their ogranizer. I wanted to make sure my groups were split up/heterogeneous (students tend to cluster toward the same people if allowed to choose their own groups all the time).  The groups ended up working very well, and it helped that I was rotating around the room constantly to make sure everyone was on track. My cooperating teacher also noticed how some groups started to fall into their own roles (i.e. student encouraging other members to speak up; taking turns; asking “Who’s next?”). For those who finished earlier than others, I had students pick out character traits that really stuck out to them about each member and had them write out sentences about that. When everyone was done with the organizer, the class reconvened and shared what they had. I used the SmartBoard to write in some ideas onto my organizer example from PowerPoint. I later realized the time we spent on this probably didn’t need to be as long as it was; everyone spent a lot of time looking at the traits and my cooperating teacher suggested the idea that a different kind of closure might have been more productive. I agree with this; closures seem to be the thing I really need to pay more focus toward as it is one of the more challenging aspects of a “lesson plan” for me.  I want my students to have a good sense of “aha!” and/ or “I wonder…” about the topic. I hope to leave a more resonating impact after a lesson topic.

Here are some slides I used for this lesson (PowerPoint): Who’s Who?

Later Days and Peace to all ♥

Day 16; Lesson 3

Getting Ready–February 7th 2013

Objective: Given a Kids Discover magazine, whole-class discussion, a short video, and independent work, students will be able to explain the various steps Lewis and Clark took to prepare and survive for their journey by focusing on a specific technique and writing about it.

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I started off with a short YouTube video called “The Louisiana Purchase in a Nutshell.” It’s short and entertaining as students receive a recap about what the Louisiana Purchase is with fun, silly images.

The 4th graders very much enjoyed it and it definitely grabbed their attention!

Today, we explored the different tools and techniques that Lewis and Clark used on their expedition. We first read a section in the Lewis and Clark Kids Discover magazine, and then I played a 20min video called “Lewis and Clark: Tools of Survival.” (Video Info)

The 4th graders were told beforehand to keep an eye on a specific technique that the video talks about. They will later write about this technique in their journals. I gave them a list of potential techniques to look for before the video, too. That way, they would have an idea of what they might want to pay attention to.

We had some discussion afterwards, though not a lengthy one. I wanted the students to have time to write. Still, I would have preferred having more discussion/interaction as opposed to simply watching a video and responding. Honestly, this day was an “off day” for me as I was feeling  a bit sick, so I admit that I used it as a crutch to take things “easy.”  It’s realistic to accept that I won’t be 100% every day, but I definitely reflected afterwards that I would hope to at least still give my best despite how I am feeling; I need to leave my “problems’ outside the school and be my absolute best for my students; they deserve that!

Here are some slides I used for this lesson: Writing Prompt

Later days and peace to all ♥

Quick Apology

I apologize to those who have been reading my blog, and I apologize  to me for not being as consistent with posting….days have been more hectic than I’ve perceived as it it filled with writing lessons and trying to assemble my work sample on the go while also doing projects, readings, and other assignment for my two additional classes.

I promise to update soon! ALL of the days missed :]

Thanks!

Later days and peace to all ♥