Throwback Thursday: Women's History Month FREEBIE

What is Throwback Thursday? How does it work, you might ask? Simply look through your PURR-fect Previous Posts, perhaps a particular favorite of yours, and re-post it! Purr-fectly easy and simple! Your post doesn't have to be from LOOOONNNGGG ago; it can be from last month or even earlier this week. And if you don't have a post to share, perhaps an old photo or two from WAY BACK will do! Even a favorite pin is PURR-fect! Just join in the Throwback fun!

This post first appeared on The Teacher's Desk 6 2/28/13.

March is hailed as Women's History Month. In celebration of this, I have my sixers complete a mini-research project in which they are required to locate biographical information about ten women. I call it mini-research since they only have to provide a sentence or two of information for each of the women. They also must provide the citations for the webpages from which they gathered their facts. I do review lessons about using internet search engines and the authenticity of information as well as introducing how to properly write internet citations.

When I first began this March activity, it was just a topic for Paragraph a Week. As the years have gone on, I've added additional parts to it until it became this mini-research project. In the past I have had my students expand their research into full-fledged, five paragraph or more reports. They have published the reports on a wiki and even created their own webpages. This year I am going to have them create video reports using the website Animoto. They are comfortable with Animoto, having done a book trailer earlier in the year.

I'm hoping to create some support materials to go along with the project in the future and offer the complete packet in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. Meanwhile, I'm offering the original mini-research worksheet as a FREEBIE. You can download it HERE or by clicking the link directly below the graphic.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Q14Z2f7SoAM056NlBFYms3Wnc/edit?usp=sharing

Frame graphic courtesy of The Sweet Berry Patch

Now it's your turn for a Throwback Thursday post.

An InLinkz Link-up

One TITANIC Field Trip!

You LOVE them! You HATE them! What is "them" you might ask? FIELD TRIPS! I wonder how many field trips I have been on in my 33 years of teaching! Some memorable, some quite forgettable. Today's field trip is definitely in the memorable column.



There is always so much to see and do at the Great Lakes Science Center. The hands-on science activities can't be beat. Not only are they fun, they are educational. I loved listening to my kiddos really try to figure out why something worked! 
Most of my sixers have been to the Science Center several times before. However, NONE of them had been to the special exhibit about the Titanic at which there were several hundred artifacts from the ship on display. They were SOOOOOO excited to go to this exhibition! Who didn't sleep the night before, who woke up really early? I chuckled at their comments and behavior! 
Unfortunately, we were unable to take photos within the exhibit itself. However, we all received a replica of the original boarding pass. 

On the back of the pass was a short biography of a passenger. 

I had the pass of a rather colorful character, a French model who was the paramour of the married man who was filming the ship's maiden voyage... sigh! My sixers had fun with this one all day. LOL! At the end of the exhibition, you were instructed to search the survivors' roster for your name. Alas, I did not survive the tragedy! Luckily, I survived the field trip! 
What made this trip so successful was that my sixers had read a fictional book about the tragedy and had done a LOT of research about the topic (Thanks to Jessica from Joy in the Journey for her great Titanic research unit and to Becky from Thrifty Third Grade for her book unit). We had viewed numerous video clips and had even learned a song about it! They could make considerable connections to the material they were seeing! The two docents who supervised our visit were incredulous at my kids' knowledge and excitement level. Both of them stated, unbeknownst to each other, that my class was so different than any other that they had seen in the exhibit, so into it,  and let me tell you: there have been hundreds at this exhibit in the past six months. I was VERY proud of them!
I can't wait to do a couple of follow-up items with my sixers tomorrow. We will write thank you cards to our two chaperones (who also had a terrific time) and letters to the Great Lakes Science Center recalling our experience and detailing what we liked and what we learned. We'll send our letters along with a copy of our video to the museum so they have feedback to help them do future planning.
Speaking of future planning... I am working on the next field trip for this group of sixers! They are just tooooo much fun to not take on another trip.
Happy Teaching, Angela The Teacher's Desk 6

Earth Day FREEBIE Writing Prompt

There have been MANY wonderful Earth Day ideas and activities posted for sale and offered for free on all the blogs that I frequent... and I frequent A LOT! I am astounded by the variety. From poetry to math and research to craftivity all are terrific!

Because Earth Day falls during our testing time this year, I won't be doing much with my sixers. Heck, I won't see them much except for testing that whole week!!! I will be doing some combined Science (we're studying alternate forms of energy, renewable/non-renewable energy sources) and some Persuasive Letter Writing, however. The activity is part of my Paragraph a Week program that I've blogged about previously. Of the original 100 PaW topics (approx.) I have about 30 reformatted. I'm estimating a completion date of late summer 2013... I hope! Until then I'll share a few of the topics.

If you're interested in the Earth Day prompt, it can be downloaded HERE or by clicking the link below the graphic.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Q14Z2f7SoAcE9hMF9rbF9rVGM/edit?usp=sharing

http://www.classroomfreebies.com/2013/04/welcome-to-manic-monday-at-classroom_15.html

Happy Earth Day,

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6

I Found Something Else...

while cleaning out my desk on Saturday! Another forgotten idea! This one was actually lost. I've moved buildings four times in all the years that I've been teaching. Each move has caused me to stream-line the materials that I take with me. This last time especially caused a huge down-sizing as my newest room as NO storage space. I've tons of things packed in boxes all over my house. This activity is packed in a box with many of my learning center items.

But I diverge! What I found, or remembered,  was one of my favorite activities of all time: Peanutty Fun!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Peanutty-Fun-Writing-Activities

Peanutty Fun is a packet of 12 writing activities for the intermediate aged student. It can be utilized as a writing center or a whole group activity. The individual topics include a wide variety of activities: writing scripts for plays, developing dialog, brainstorming lists, asking questions, and doing research.


Grab a clean coffee can, some scissors and glue, obtain this packet and you've got a great writing center for your intermediate classroom. BTW, I reworked the original activities so that they align with the Common Core State Standards, Anchor Standards for Writing: W.CCR.3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10.


Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6
teachersdesk@yahoo.com

Givin' It a Try... Manic Monday

I've been a fan of Classroom Freebies and Classroom Freebies Too for quite some time. In fact, it was these two blogs that encouraged me to turn from a traditional website to a blog myself. I've followed Manic Monday nearly every week, checking out what's available, who the bloggers are, and downloading MANY wonderful products. Now that The Teacher's Desk 6 blog is up and running, it's time for me to be an active participant in Manic Monday. I'm offering a St. Patrick's Day Take Three. This is a simple activity that is easily adapted to nearly any grade. I'll be using this with my fifth and sixth graders this week, and our fourth grade teacher is using it with her students. My kiddos will be doing some quick internet research, writing sentences and paragraphs, and doing some spontaneous speeches about the material. It's a great filler activity, homework assignment, cooperative group project, etc. I hope you can find some use for it. You can download it HERE, or by clicking on the link below the graphic.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Q14Z2f7SoAMWpwZzRfLWZXZXc/edit?usp=sharing

Enjoy all the wonderful items available for this Manic Monday! Just click on the button and off you go!

Happy Teaching, Angela The Teacher's Desk 6 teachersdesk@yahoo.com

Vatican Fever or Pope 101

Because I teach in a Catholic School, one of the courses that I teach is Religion. My students are certainly excited about the resignation of Pope Benedict the XVI and the election of a new pope. This week we are having a mini-lesson each day about how one becomes a pope, how the pope is elected, the papal flag, etc. In other words our Religion Class has become POPE 101.

Today we watched a wonderful little video on YouTube about how one becomes a pope. We had a terrific discussion about the hierarchy of the church while introducing two major conceptual vocabulary words: cardinal (and yes, one child did think a cardinal is named that because of the color of the office's garments looking like a cardinal) and conclave.

Next we will visit http://www.catholic-pages.com/pope/election.asp to read the article "How is the Pope elected?" First we will read it together from the projection TV, discussing the key points, then my sixers will need to read it independently while they answer the questions on this worksheet from Teacherweb. I modified it a bit, cleaning up the spacing and directions. You can download it HERE to use if you like.

We will also investigate the papal flag. I created a worksheet of the flag along with some questions about it. My sixers will need to do a bit of research in order to complete it correctly. I supplied them with a web address for a wikipedia article, but I will encourage them to range further for better material. This has been an ongoing lesson in research all year. If you're interested in the papal flag sheet, you can download it for FREE HERE, or by clicking on the link below the pic.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Q14Z2f7SoAR1N3SWVGYXhQOXc/edit?usp=sharing

Depending how long the conclave lasts, we'll also do some investigating of the Sistine Chapel and the history of a few of the more notable popes.

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6

teachersdesk@yahoo.com

Women's History Month

March is hailed as Women's History Month. In celebration of this, I have my sixers complete a mini-research project in which they are required to locate biographical information about ten women. I call it mini-research since they only have to provide a sentence or two of information for each of the women. They also must provide the citations for the webpages from which they gathered their facts. I do review lessons about using internet search engines and the authenticity of information as well as introducing how to properly write internet citations.

When I first began this March activity, it was just this mini-research. As the years have gone on, I've added additional parts to it. In the past I have had my students expand their research into full-fledged, five paragraph or more reports. They have published the reports on a wiki and even created their own webpages. This year I am going to have them create video reports using the website Animoto. They are comfortable with Animoto, having done a book trailer earlier in the year.

I'll be creating some support materials to go along with the project during the next week and offer the complete packet in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. Meanwhile, I'm offering the original mini-research worksheet as a FREEBIE. You can download it HERE or by clicking the link directly below the graphic.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Q14Z2f7SoAM056NlBFYms3Wnc/edit?usp=sharing

Frame graphic courtesy of The Sweet Berry Patch

Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6
teachersdesk@yahoo.com