Historical Fiction Book Club {Freebies!}

Getting ready to start my historical fiction book clubs! I love getting students outside their comfort zone. Many students don't think they like historical fiction until they get some great books in their hands!

If you're thinking of starting your own book clubs, here are a few things that can help you get started on your own book club adventure! My teaching partner and I think that the "prep" is key. For this book club, we're focusing on the Civil Rights Movement. Since this time period deals with lots of tension, we send a letter home to the parents to let them know about what will be going on in our classroom and book clubs. We've also done a lot of work making this unit relevant to our students. We look for books that are current, well-written, and engaging!

If you're wanting to start book clubs, here's a peek at my Historical Fiction Unit.

{Click the image to snag a free copy}

During the first week of book club, we really try and focus on the time period. Getting students to become aware of the setting and the important events that took place during their time period. We keep track using different handouts and activities so that we can refer back to these as often as needed! 

How do you start a new reading unit?

Martin's Big Words Freebie!

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! I know many people are not as lucky to be off today to celebrate and I know this freebie comes a little late but I thought I'd take a minute and share a quick activity for anyone studying Martin Luther King Jr. or readings for Black History Month.

My fifth graders come with a lot of knowledge about Martin Luther King Jr. from previous grades. One of my favorite books to share with them is Martin's Big Words. This book has so many great quotes that can really open up conversation about so many social issues or social injustices. You can check the book out from the library or watch it here on You Tube!



After watching the video, I assign each student a different quote from the book. You could also let students choose a quote that speaks to them. We do a huge display as a wing out in the hallway so I try to make sure all quotes are represented.

Students spend time thinking about their quote. Researching how their quote relates to Dr. King's life or how they see his quote realized in our world today. This activity is a great 1 - 2 day activity to get students thinking and talking about social justice.We use this during our Civil Rights study during Black History Month. This is a great introduction activity to get kids to see the power of words!

Here's what the handout looks like:
{Grab it here from Google Docs or click the image}

What are your favorite MLK books or activities?

Hump Day Highlight: Freedom on the Menu

Happy Wednesday! Since it's hummmmmp day, I thought I'd link up with Mrs. Standford's Class for my first Hump Day Highlight!

With Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, I knew I needed to start gearing up for our Civil Rights Movement unit and Black History Month. Plus, I'm currently reading Maniac Magee to my class which describes segregation and discrimination although no time period is ever mentioned. I knew, I needed a resource to help pull in some of my favorite Civil Rights picture books.

One of my favorite's is Freedom on the Menu by Carole Boston Weatherford. I've been using interactive notebooks this year so I created a FREEBIE that includes interactive notebook pages or a lapbook version that aligns to the book {and of course Common Core standards}. I'll make sure to take some snapshots once my students complete their notebook pages!

Here's a preview:{Click the images for a direct link to download!}

Here's some of the 5th Grade standards covered:

If you download, please leave some feedback for this freebie! Happy Wednesday! 

How are you preparing for MLK Day and/or Black History Month?

It's {almost} Christmas in July!

I'm not Santa but I do have a treat for any teachers reading Kizzy Ann Stamps by Jeri Watts. It's my first real-deal- something to proud of- teachers pay teachers novel study! I've had a few things on TPT but nothing really special or really "stellar." But, I finally finished my Kizzy Ann Stamps novel study! Yippeee! To celebrate it's 20% off through July 25th!

I'm also working on a general historical fiction novel study as well with similar but more general handouts. {We'll see how much I can get done before school starts back!} But in the meantime,  here's a sneak peek of the Kizzy Ann bundle...

Click on the images above to visit my TPT store or search for MsAPlusTeacher.  Be sure to download the preview for a Reader's Notebook Freebie!

I don't know how so many of you create so many wonderful products. It was a labor of love but I seriously thought I'd never finish!

Merry Christmas in July!

Thanksgiving Must Read: "Bugs for Dinner"

So, I know I'm a little bit late to link up with Amanda and Stacia from Collaboration Cuties, but I have a great must read Thanksgiving Mentor Text that is also very historically accurate! This is one of my favorite lessons to do right before Thanksgiving. We're actually making time for the lesson tomorrow even though it's our end of trimester party day!

My favorite text to use the day before Thanksgiving break is called Eating the Plates by Lucille Recht Penner. This book has multiple chapters but I only read the first chapter to my students entitled "Bugs for Dinner." This isn't your typical "yummy" Thanksgiving story!

I print out the entire first chapter so the students can follow along. We discuss some aspects of narrative nonfiction and then we get started. {It is a few pages to print out but I use the same copies year after year.} The chapter "Bugs for Dinner" talks about the hardships on the Mayflower including lice, no showers, sea sickness, and of course the lovely meals on the ship. My students always do a moan and groan after we read this chapter together. I love to do a dramatic read as we go through the Pilgrims pre-Thanksgiving meals on the ship.

Here's a glimpse at the first page...You can also preview the entire chapter on Google Books.

My favorite page discusses the Pilgrims' meals of ship biscuits and squishy turnips! Doesn't it sound delightful? Mmmm....

Then after we finish, we complete a simple visualizing activity! I promise I do more than visualizing activities but this activity is really great because the author does add LOTS of imagery and details. So much so, that my students are usually moaning and groaning about all the "gross" things the Pilgrims had to endure on their journey. We also watch a short video about the size of the ship and realize that no one has any personal space to boot!

Here's my visualizing worksheet. Click on the image to get a free copy.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! I'm extremely thankful that we only have a two day week this week! The kids and I both are need of a break!

Hope your Thanksgiving doesn't include "ship biscuits" or weevils!

Motivating Students to Pay it Forward

 

Just wanted to share my excited for the weekend and our Pay it Forward project! Last night, our team received our first email message via Facebook that some of students had already started working on their Pay it Forward Projects because they were so motivated and inspired after yesterday's visit from the Dragon Fly Foundation! So this was the perfect opportunity to link up with Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching for Spark Student Motivation Saturdays because our team is really motivated to get out there and help the community!

Currently, in my classroom we're reading the novel Rules by Cynthia Lord. Fantastic fifth grade read and perfect for a workshop mentor text!  However, one of my favorite pieces of this whole unit focused on building character because in Rules, Catherine's character has to make some difficult decisions in regards to family and friendships. In Rules, Catherine helps her parents take care of her little brother with Autism. She also makes friends with Jason, a boy unable to speak or walk. At times these relationships cause obstacles in Catherine's life but she is able to help out both Jason and her brother without expecting anything in return. The 30 Day Pay it Forward Challenge is based on idea that if our students are able to help out just two or three people in some way - big or small, the world would be a better place to live or at least someone's life would be a little better for a day. Then, hopefully, those people would be willing to help out someone else so that world would be a little kinder place. The concept is simple and the project is not graded nor does it need to be tied into a particular novel. Thanks Chelsea and Abby for all your hard work on this project!

 First, ATP & I  get our students motivated by showing them a clip from the movie Pay it Forward to explain the concept:


Then, we went over some ideas and examples from last year's students. We also had our students brainstorm ways they could Pay it Forward. They could choose to do one big thing or many little small things.

Students filled out a brainstorming sheet to help them narrow down their focus and start "creating" ideas for their projects. Students did a great job with this! Allowing them to work with a friend and offering to run a 5K with them as a team was also a huge motivator this year (Kudos to Mrs. Wirtz!). 

Then the students have 30 days to put their plan into action! This is not required so some students do absolutely nothing. That's completely fine, it's not required. As a team this year, we're collecting supplies for the Dragon Fly Foundation's hospitality bags so all students will be participating in collecting and making bags for Children's Hospital. These bags help make the families stay at Cincinnati's Children Hospital a little more comfortable during long stays. At the end of the 30 day challenge, we stop and reflect on the great things we all did to help Pay it Forward. We may read the MI Pay it Forward Blog or share some projects the students put together. Last year, I had some iMovies, PowerPoint presentations, and photo journals of all the great deeds my students had been tackling around town

Students also have time to personally reflect on how it made them feel to participate or in some rare cases not participate in the Pay it Forward Challenge. Each student has time in class to fill out a Pay it Forward Reflection sheet.  I usually collect these reflections and write each student a personalized "Thank You" message supporting their efforts and hopefully encouraging them to keep up their community service and pride! I can't wait to share their projects with you in 30 days!


How do you spark motivation to get your students involved in the community or character building activities?

Reading Workshop Rules & Last Chance for Giveaway!

It's Wednesday! But oh my, it feels like it should be Friday! Since it is Wednesday, I'm linking up with Workshop Wednesday sponsored by Ideas by Jivey. Today, I'm going to sharing some Reading Workshop ideas that I've been using during my character unit. Since I have to teach LOTS of different things in a short amount of time (reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and social studies - I know right?!) my teaching partner and I have found that it works best if we do our read aloud every day but only teach one new lesson every other day. This way, we keep up with our read aloud but students then get more time to do independent book club work during class and then the second day they model the strategy lesson we are teaching on their own. Fridays are usually our "open wall" days because yes our walls literally open up and *poof* two language arts classes are combined! On these days students get to interact in their book clubs during the independent work time of workshop. They LOVE the fact they are acting like a "real" book club and getting to read the same books as their friends (as long as they have a similar reading level).

Here's the teaching point from Tuesday that I projected on the SMARTboard:

We only read chapter two in Rules on Tuesday, so we did a simple lesson on noticing "pieces" of Catherine's character (hence the puzzle pieces). Today, in book clubs students did the same lesson with the same teaching point but they applied it to their novels.

Click the handout to grab a free copy! I know in workshop you're supposed to do it all in one day but with limited time we've found this to be a great way to get everything in! Plus, day two allows the teacher time for reading conferences etc. while students independently work at the lesson. Day one is always the day they need more help getting started or understanding. We usually try and have pages side by side so students can always look to Rules (or whatever novel we're reading) for help!

Another useful tip is to always have to teach point posted, we want our students to know what we are trying to teach them. We make this a point in both reading and writing workshop and our students come to expect it later on in the year. It's a good system to have even with our "I Cans" up on the board because students then hopefully start to understand why they are performing a certain task during workshop. It's also great because it helps with genre units or units like a character unit that is more detailed than a Common Core "I Can" statement.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway! Just a few hours last to claim $10 to Target and few favorite things.... You have a great chance at winning! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Maniac Monday: Reading Workshop Bookmark Freebie!

It's definitely Monday! My precious furkid, Iggy has already redecorated my house since being home. He really loves the LaTrash the living room look.  Now, that I've put the trash back in the trash can, played with him outside, eaten dinner, and and hid my teacher bag of papers I didn't finish grading this weekend... I can finally sit down for a brief second to share a quick a freebie with everyone!

We start our book clubs tomorrow during reading workshop! Yay! Finally! To go along with my Book Club Etiquette Smartfile I blogged about in a previous post (you can read about it here) I created Book Club Etiquette Bookmarks. Feel free to use them! They are a forever FREEBIE!!!

 

The bookmarks come in two colors and go along with my "Six Worst things that Happen During Reader's Workshop" lesson. Hope these help you out in your classroom. I know my students are always begging for bookmarks! We don't have colored printers so black and white on neon paper will have to do ;) Don't forget to check out all the Amazing freebies over a Classroom Freebies!

You also still have two more days to enter my giveaway! $10 Target gift card and a "favorite" things prize pack to celebrate my 100 Bloglovin' followers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Happy Reading!