Mother's day

It's now less than two weeks until Mother's Day. Not only do I have to find a token of appreciation for my mom and my husband's mom, but also my godmother and for all the kids' moms too!!

What am I going to have them make? Something thoughtful. Something that includes some little part of the curriculum. Something that they'll actually want, not just box up and never see again. Something cheap.

Yeah...right.


How about poetry. That's thoughtful, cheap and desired. We could create our poems on some beautiful paper and stamp water colours on them. I think I have an idea. Now, to create a prototype!

Wish me luck!!

Novel Study

It's been a few days since my last post. I had a crazy busy weekend and I'm still recovering from the sleepless nights. But I wanted to share some things my students and I have been doing for our in-class novel study.

I'm always on the lookout for new ideas and recently I ordered a grade 6 novel study from Scholastic. They have kits for the whole class in a set called "Movin Up". The books are great and they offer some blackline masters and ideas for teaching the unit.


I adapted my own novel study format, one the kids work on for their home reading, to make it work in class. There are basically three parts: a vocabulary assignment where students keep track of words they don't know or find interesting, a reading journal assignment which encourages students to think about what they're reading and requires a written response after each given section and lastly, a final project where students create whatever they want to show me they understand the book. The whole assignment is centered around performance based achievement and being innovative.

Now here's the problem: it's still lots of paper-pencil work. The kids mostly choose the written responses! How can I get them to be more creative? I have so many ideas of how I would do the assignments, but I don't want to sway them and I really don't want to tell them what to do. But I do want them to think outside the box! Help!

The Magician's Elephant

Image taken from www.katedicamillo.com

I've started reading this book on the advice of a colleague. She absolutely loves Kate DiCamillo and this is a book that hasn't yet been made into a movie so I was very curious to read it. I've only read the first 50 pages or so, but so far I've noticed many literary gems present in her writing:

• word choice is very descriptive and powerful
• imagination is a MUST
• characters are strong and well developed
• you can jump right in and you're hooked immediately
• perfect for read aloud.

I encourage everyone to read along with me! You won't be sorry.

Mr. Men

Image taken from www.mrmen.com

Remember when you were in elementary school and your parents read you those little books by Roger Hargreaves? Mr. Messy and Little Miss Sunshine? Those little guys? Well they've become a popular cartoon on YTV as well! I've been wanting to collect the whole series of these delightful little books for some time, but the cost of buying them all at once was very daunting. Fortunately, during my most recent spree in the bookstore I decided to just buy a few. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been working on characterization with my grade 5 class. These books are PERFECT for teaching character traits! Not only does each character posess a dominant trait (messy, happy, quiet etc.) they also demonstrate many other traits as you get to know them through the very captivating words of Roger Hargreaves. Today I had my students read the books I bought (one per group) and they wrote down passages they felt showed the characters qualities, brainstormed synonyms and additional characteristics they noticed in the book and even made inferences about the characters from their interactions with other Miss. and Mr. characters!! What brilliant students, what brilliant little books! Give them a try. You'll be happy. I promise!

Characterization Assignment

I've been working with my grade 5 class on developing their stories using a story organizer. Many of them stick to it well and some have a hard time writing in only the most important parts. After reading their last writing prompt, I decided that helping them develop stronger characters would help improve their plot and help them connect to their work. I found a few resources online and created a project. The parts are as follows: Part 1: Brainstorm character traits - we opened a new wordle document and came up with as many traits as we could. I prompted them with the question: "What is your character? Is he kind or selfish? Polite or rude? These are traits." As I typed them into the wordle, they created their own in their duotangs. Part 2: Looking for a character - we all brought in magazines and newspapers and cut out a character we think we could write about. Some drew pictures of a character they had in their imagination. Along with this hunt-and-find activity, they filled in a chart to give some information about their character's appearance, behaviour, interests and what other people think about their character. Part 3: Writing about my character - this part of the activity uses dialogue to show how the character they've created interacts with another character in the story. There is no plot, no problem and no solution - yet! They are just talking. The point is to get them thinking about who their character is. What would he or she do? How does he or she talk? Walk? Dress? React to positive or negative experiences? Part 4: Creating a quilt square - in university we had to create a quilt square about our teaching style (our philosophy). We pieced together 8" square pieces of card stock, each one representing a student in our class, and hung them on a bulletin board. I thought I would apply this technique here. Students will create a quilt square, but this time, with everything we need to know about their character! They will be beautiful and we will hang them where they will be admired!

Clay Art Project: I am poetry

Okay, so I know I called in sick today, but I'm trying to get my mind off the potentially paralyzing pain going on in my mouth (root canal at 11:00 today). Last week I started an art project with my class. It started with the inspiration of spring. What other way to honour this season of change than with poetry? Using my favourite research tool, the vast knowings of the internet, I searched for the type that would be perfect for spring. I came accross a type of poetry called "I am" poetry. Basically it encourages students to think about what they are, metaphorically, and describe it in a poem. It doesn't have to rhyme, there's no specific length and you can say whatever you like. Everyone came up with a poem. And not ONCE did I hear moaning or groaning over poetry! Yippee! I paired the poem with an art project, one using clay. Based on Barbara Reid's beautiful artwork, we created a clay likeness of our poetry. We used CD cases to hold our artwork, creating a practical, inexpensive frame (not to mention it restricts how much clay students use as the case needs to close). This picture is the butterfly that I created out of plasticine. The students created a background for theirs as well.

I am a Butterfly by Megan Aspenes

I am a butterfly

Although I started plain and simple

Patient I waited for my debut

I tried new things

I worked hard

I became my best

A new beauty, inside and out

Now, off to the dentist. Wish me luck!

Out Sick

So every once in awhile it happens - you can't make it in to school. Well today is one of those days. Wracked with guilt I created sub plans and posted the job online. I cannot decide if technology has made this easier on my conscience or tougher. Traditionally one would call his or her supervisor or boss, or in this case principal, but with technology to support us in even the most mundane tasks we find ourselves emailing or texting or using an online database to create our absense and fill it in no less than a minute or two. I think that hearing the voice on the other end telling you, "Feel better! We'll look after everything here and we'll see you tomorrow." is a thing of the past. As I am typing this I've received an email saying those exact words! Funny, isn't it? The universe is a powerful force, giving me exactly what I need the moment I need it.

Squiggles

Go to: http://randomline.com/Home.aspx

Have you heard of this game? I bought it at Scholars Choice. It's a doodle game where you are given a squiggle and you create something new from it. If you want to see what I'm talking about, click here. So, I LOVED the premise of the game. It encourages children to be creative and try something new. But, it's not really Language Arts...sadly enough :( How can you make anything LA? WRITE ABOUT IT!! So that's exactly what I asked from my students. I gave them each a Squiggle and they drew a picture from it. I made sure I told them before they started that they would have to write at least 4 sentences about their drawing so they could draw something that they felt comfortable writing about. They had so much fun and I got some very interesting stories about witches, sharks, camping and more! No one had the same. Talk about F-U-N!!

Who are you most like? Writing Assignment

Okay, so I have the laptops booked today and I thought I'd try something new. I pulled up a picture of snow white and the seven dwarves (I heard an idea at teacher's convention similar to this) and as a class we talked a bit about each of the dwarves' personalities. Happy is outgoing, friendly and likes to help others. Grumpy alienates others, is not trusting and is generally, well, grumpy, etc. The prompt definitely had an appeal to the kids. The thing about the 7 dwarves is that we all have characteristics from at least a few, so I asked them to choose the one they were most like. Since we had the laptops I had them write out their responses in a word processor. I gave them 20 minutes and gave them the expectation of having at least 200 words when the time was up. They were so focused! And I was definitely impressed with their writing! Some responses I got were "Sleeping in church is not a cool thing to do because all the kids will laugh at you and tease you." and "Being happy makes me happy and others happy, when I smile people will think that I am a gleeful person." Ah! So proud ;)

Welcome!

Hello everyone! My name is Megan Aspenes and I am a third grade teachers. I graduated from Concordia University in Edmonton, Alberta in 2008. I've taught Kindergarten, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5 and Grade 6. My educational philosophy focuses on making learning part of every day life and learning from our experiences. Look for the curriculum connections and you will find them! Currently I am on maternity leave after giving birth to a very premature baby girl. She's growing every and and is very healthy. I love spending time with her and being at home to watch her grow. In my spare time (naptime mostly!) I have been re-designing and updating some classic creations and uploading them to my Teachers Pay Teachers page Megan's Creative Classroom. I have many free items because who doesn't like free stuff?!  and many very reasonably priced items as well. I'm adding new stuff as often as I can so check it out regularly. Follow me for updates on new items!!