Five for Friday

Holy moly (my new term now), how did I even manage to get through this week???

At least the good thing is....IT'S FINALLY SPRING BREAK!!!

Well, I don't feel like I'm officially on break yet since I still have some other things to do and get ready for. But come next Tuesday, I will be on a plane to Vegas with the boyfriend and Spring Break will officially begin! Can't wait! :D

By the way, I am exhausted. (Surprised I even have the energy to write this post!) 

No long explanations this time. Just a sentence and pictures. 

Practicing reading time with a scoot activity!

Drawing illustrations for our Cinderella stories. 

(Read more about this in a previous post.)

Some of our mealworms are turning into pupas so it was time draw a diagram in our observation books.

Started our Native American unit this week and brought in some dreamcatchers to hang in the classroom.

Glazing the clay coil pot/bowls we made two weeks ago!

Thanks for visiting!

Come back tomorrow learn more about the story planning we did for our Cinderella unit. But make sure to read about the research we did first!

Cinderella Unit - The Research

So it's time for a non-Five for Friday post! Woohoo! I also have a feeling this is going to be divided into two parts since it is quite long... [edit: actually, three now!]

We are in the midst of wrapping up our Cinderella Unit, which started at the beginning of March. This was my first time tackling Cinderella, and I'm actually quite proud of myself for what was accomplished!

Did you know that there are like a bajillion (yes, that is a number in my world!) versions of the Cinderella story out there??? I had no idea!! I had also read somewhere that there is no original version of Cinderella. The Cinderella stories from each culture were not spin-offs or revisions of a particular version, they were actually created by that culture itself! (Hope that made sense.) Not sure if that's really true or not but still pretty cool! The fractured versions don't count, of course.

Anyways, I gathered around 18 versions of Cinderella, including some fractured versions. I put some of the books on display for free reading and kept 13 of them to use in our rotation. 

I told the kids that they were going to "travel the world" and read different Cinderella stories from different cultures and countries. But they weren't just reading for fun. They are actually researching these stories because when they are done, the will be writing their own version!

I created a workbook using a combination of the following two resources from TpT:

    

The kids worked in pairs (with their desk partners) on their "research". Every day they would get one Cinderella story to read. While they were reading they would fill out the story elements page for their story.

They would also fill out the corresponding passport and note down some cultural differences. I printed out a sheet with all the flags on it and put it on display using our document camera so that the kids had access to the flags.

When they were done reading the book, they worked together to complete the compare and contrast chart at the back of their workbook. 

This activity took around 2.5 weeks since we had 13 books to go through, but the students were all very engaged!

After our research was done, it was time to start thinking about our own Cinderella stories! Click here to read part two, story planning!

Five for Friday

I feel like the closer we get to the end of the school year, the more and more tired I am getting as each day progresses. Haha. Whats wrong with me??? Thank goodness Spring Break is coming in a week!

Now, off to Five for Friday...

We started a new unit in Math this week....TIME! I'm actually sort of excited to teach this to the kiddos. Had to do some review of first grade stuff first...

The students have been working really hard these last two weeks writing their own version of the Cinderella story. A more in-depth post about this will be coming soon. 

A production artist from the SF Opera came to visit our school to talk about set and prop design. She helped the kids brainstorm ideas for the set of our mini-opera. 

On her next visit after Spring Break we are going to be making the set! The kids are most definitely excited.

We had a field trip today to the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens. It started off with some light rain, so the Gardens was kind enough to give everyone a poncho. The kids were broken into smaller groups and then off on the docent-led tour they went! 

The kids got to see carnivorous plants, try some cacao beans and milk chocolate, and taste agave syrup! They all had a blast. :)

The field trip was only half a day (we got back at lunch). We had learned about telling time to five minutes the day before. It only made sense to just do a fun activity that reinforces a concept taught after a field trip rather than a brand new lesson. Thank goodness for TpT because I found the PERFECT freebie to use as the fun activity!

The clocks were very easy to make. The product also comes with worksheets to go along with the clock. Perfect scaffolding! The kids really enjoyed this activity. I told them to take the clocks home to keep practicing at home. 

Warning: Mini-Rant

I haven't been in the teaching field for very long so aren't too familiar with the old math standards...but is anyone else finding some holes in the Common Core Math Standards? Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with the standards as a whole. I'm just finding the non-algebraic standards to be missing some sort of continuity across grade levels. For example...time is only a standard in first and second grade. In first, you learn about hour and half hour. In second, you are supposed to learn to tell time to the nearest five minute. In third grade, the time standard is gone. So...when are the kids supposed to learn to read a clock to the minute???? Maybe this is just a California Common Core thing? I have no idea. Anyone else seeing this too? (I also see this same issue with money. We only teach the kids up to one dollar? What about the dollar coin, five dollar bill, and twenty dollar bill??)

End Mini-Rant

EDIT:

So I don't know if it was just me or something, but I searched online for the Common Core standards (I have been using my phone app all this time), and time to the nearest minute has suddenly appeared in the third grade standard! I'm sure it didn't suddenly appear of course, but I swear it wasn't on my phone app when I checked. My colleague swears the same thing since we were both talking about this and looking at the standards only like a week or two ago. So interesting...

Well, that's the end of this entry! Time to go eat dinner! :D

April Currently

I love the first day of every month because I get to fill out a Currently from Farley! :)

Listening - Ha, I am ONLY watching this because of our Cinderella unit right now. It happens to be playing on tv so I thought I'd check it out. 

Loving - Everyone in the blogging world has been raving about Go Noodle. And they totally should be because I have to rave about it too! Seriously, if you haven't tried it out yet, you definitely HAVE too! My kids really love it and are all super engaged. The best part is that after the dancing is over, everyone is focused and ready to go! It's free so go check it out! :)

Thinking - First day of April brings some lovely showers. It poured like no other today. 

Wanting - So jealous of all the people who had their breaks already or are on break. We still have two weeks until mine! I can't wait because...

...the boyfriend and I are going to Vegas for Spring Break!!! :D

Needing - Most of the itinerary has been planned. We made a reservation with Gordon Ramsey Steak to try out his beef wellington (all those seasons of Hell's Kitchen makes me want to try one!). We also bought tickets to watch KA. Still more things to book and buy tickets for. Can't wait!

Hours and Last Day - Kid hours are 8:40am - 3:00pm. I know, I look like an overachiever. But really now, it's only because I live by myself and basically have nothing to go home to so I can stay at school as long as I want (or until the custodian kicks me out).