This past week my student teacher taught her Unit. Her lesson focus was on Sequencing. She created an excellent and highly engaging lesson for the students from learning what Sequencing is all about, to reading a story and students participating in higher order thinking questions. Finally, on Thursday ending with an expository writing.

Tuesday she did a shared reading of the True Story of the Three Little Pigs and discussed the sequence of events within the story. Then students were given a bag including the events in the story in which they were to sequence in their notebooks, and then add to each strip a sequencing word. Finally, to close the lesson students were given choice to write a letter to the wolf giving him suggestions on what he should of done or writing to the governor stating why he is innocent. They did a great job on their letters, and some students even shared!

Thursday students wrote a how to essay on how to blow a bubble. Students were given a piece of gum and 3 minutes to chew their gum, and attempt to blow a bubble while thinking of all the steps to getting to blowing the bubble. Then students used a graphic organizer to write out their steps. A hook and a conclusion was given to students.

Also, on Thursday we had a special visitor. I planned for one of our local meteorologist from channel 4,Carl Arredondo, to speak to the students about his job, the weather and about maps including latitude and longitude.
We were back in the classroom last Thursday and Friday after Hurricane Isaac and I took these two days to have students share their experiences during the Hurricane. I began by reading a story titled Hurricane by David Wiesner to have students make connections with the characters in the story. They then organized their thoughts in a Flee Map, and then took their thoughts and constructed a two paragraph essay describing their experiences and feelings before, during and after the Hurricane. Friday, students published their stories on our class blog at Kidblog. Check them out!


This week we have been super busy getting back into the routine of things and continuing to practice routines and procedures. Monday I taught students how to make a quality comment on a blog post, using the following anchor chart. Then I randomly handed out student's Hurricane stories and had them practice making a comment using a sticky note. Once they made their comment they delivered the writing back to its owner. They really enjoyed learning how to make comments, as well as reading comments made by their peers. I must also thank Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Faust two teachers at my school, as well as Mrs. Howard the assistant principal and my student teacher Mrs. Ronquille for making additional comments on the student's first blog post. They were excited to know that their experience was shared with others outside of the classroom.

I am looking forward to hosting a Blog Commenting Party for my parents, where students will teach their parents how to log in their blogs and make a quality comment. The Blog Commenting Party is scheduled for Wednesday, September 26th.

Check them out making their comments! They did such an awesome job!






Our focus this week in Reading was identifying and describing the Plot in a text. I read aloud Sarah and the Freedom Quilt and created this Anchor chart with students to identify the Rising Actions, Problem, Climax, Falling Actions and Resolution.









We also practiced going to centers this week.

Here the students are going on a Louisiana Scavenger Hunt on the internet. My student teacher put together a packet for the students with links for the students to locate and use to find answers about their state such as state symbols, population, governor, and other facts.

Here is my student teacher facilitating a guided reading center. She is using the basal to review with students how to identify the plot in a story, and teaching them strategies such as re-reading when they can't determine the answer.

Students below are practicing on our state testing site LAPass. They are practicing Proofreading 1. Students were given two chances to complete the test and then recorded their best score.


Here students are utilizing Brainpop to review concepts we have learned this week such as landforms in  the US in Social Studies, Plot in Reading, and they are watching Harriet Tubman because the story Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt reminded them of Harriet Tubman.



Two other things I am super proud of this week check them out below!

Check out our class Goals. The Anchor chart in the middle is and idea I found on Pinterest and modified. I created Reading Goals for my students such as reading 40 books, reading 140 wpm, learning 150 new words and achieving 85% or higher on tests. I then passed out the color stars you see to students and had them write a goal they wanted to achieve. Some of their goals included changing their behavior, typing faster, passing their tests, making their mom and dad proud ( I loved this one!), doing all their homework, and reading for 20 minutes every night.

Finally, Check out my Super Improver Wall, which is going really well. Students began as a Fan (white star). You can see how many have already earned 10 stamps and have moved up to Rookie (orange star). These students received a free homework pass, as well as changing their star.


Looking forward to another great week!
So, I thought for sure I'd be back at work today, but due to the damage brought by Hurricane Isaac my school district has decided to keep school closed till Thursday. That means I have two more days off! We will have been out of school for a total of 8 days by Thursday. That's a lot of days to make up!

I am saving our Unit on Plot for next week, and I am going to spend Thursday and Friday discussing, writing and describing our experiences through Hurricane Isaac. My goal for Thursday and Friday is for students to complete a well-written essay describing what they did to prepare, what they did during the storm, and what they did after the storm. I am also going to build on how the setting impacted our feelings and motivations and also have them choose a few character traits to describe their feelings throughout the last two weeks. These are previous skills we've done during the first two weeks of school.



I plan to begin the lesson Thursday by having students watch a video I created on Animoto and then discuss how the video has a beginning, middle, and an end.

   

 Students will then draw a "Flee Map" listing out what they did to prepare for the storm, what they did during the storm, and how they have recovered from the storm. We will also discuss how this made them feel and how their feelings and their families feelings changed with the setting and add this to our Flee Maps, as well. We will also add a simple question hook such as (Do you want to  know why I've been off of school for 8 days? or Do you want to know what happened in southern Louisiana?), and a conclusion such as (Now you can see why.......). I will show students my essay written out on chart paper first showing them how I took my information from the Flee Map and transferred it into an essay format.Then students will begin writing their rough drafts putting their thoughts together into a two-paragraph essay.

Friday, I plan for students to begin publishing their stories via Kidblog and would also love to share some of our experiences with you and your students through Google Hangout. Please leave me your email address in the comment sections below if you are interested!

On my day off today, I experienced Google Hangout for the first time thanks to my good friend Ms. Naugle. She introduced me to Google Hangout and some really neat effects and tools that can be utilized during a hangout. I really enjoyed the hangout today and the opportunity to meet some other educators in the states.

Here's a pic from the hangout this morning. That's me and my oldest son. You can see he is wearing a Dr. Seuss hat, one of the effects you can utilize with Google Hangout. You can also see Ms. Naugle below with the dog mask.


Don't forget to comment below if you are interested in learning a little about Hurricanes and hearing a couple of our personal experiences through Hurricane Isaac.

Hope you're having a wonderful Tuesday!

This coming Tuesday should be the 4th week of school, however, it will be the third due to Hurricane Isaac's appearance. I am looking forward to getting back to work and into the routine of things on Tuesday. I can't wait to hear students tell their stories about their experiences and will definitely have them do a writing describing their experience through Hurricane Isaac to share with all of my followers. Eventually we will post them on Kidblog. So, stay tuned for some wonderful stories!

Everyone here in southern Louisiana is beginning to get power back after 5+ days without electricity, but there are a lot still without power and the temperature here is extremely hot. My parents are one of the many without power and are staying with us at night.

We had very little damage due to the Hurricane unlike many whose homes flooded in southern Louisiana. We lost a few shingles on the roof, our fence is missing a few boards and leaning, and the trampoline and play set has been destroyed. Not too bad for 75+ miles per hour winds.







As I said before, I am really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. This coming week, students will identify and describe the Plot in the story. I will use the short film "Oktapodi" to introduce and model how to identify and describe the Plot. I am planning to re-create an anchor chart found on Pinterest when modeling. Wednesday and Thursday, I will do a read-aloud using the text Sarah and the Freedom Quilt a historical fiction selection to review and guide students through discussion on identifying and describing the plot. Independently students will read one of the leveled readers from the basal and they will identify and describe the Plot making a foldable I found on Pinterest. I will post pictures next week from this activity.

In Social Studies, students will identify and describe features on a physical map. I found some really great apps that I plan to use with students in collaborative groups. After modeling the different types of features found in the US I plan for students to use the app Educreations.  Educreations turns your iPad into a recordable whiteboard. Students will use the web to locate a physical map of the US and then take turns using the app to identify the features and their locations to teach the other members of their group. They will select one member's presentation to send to me via email.

We will also discuss how Louisiana is the only state in the US with parishes and how it consists of 64 political parishes. Students will also create a foldable showing their street, city, parish, state, country and continent and discuss and record the population of each. Love this foldable I found from Pinterest from Clutter Free Classroom.

Also, love this one from Sunny Days in Second Grade! Love how the students are holding up the world.

Here are a few more Social Studies apps I am planning on students exploring next week.
Check this one out for a fun way to learn the names of the continents and oceans!


This app is a great way to get students familiar with the US states.


This app is great to use to help with identifying and describing the features of the US. 


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