October 2014 | Crafting Connections
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Differing Perspectives Anchor Chart

Monday, October 27, 2014
Last week I told you which concept I dreaded teaching each year. This week, however, I am switching to one of my favorite concepts... teaching how different people can have perspectives!  I think this is fun because there are so many fun books to read when you introduce this topic to your students.

If I had to choose just one to read aloud to my class, I would probably choose The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies.  It is actually a series of books (The Lemonade Crime, The Bell Bandit, The Magic Trap, and The Candy Smash are the other books in this series) and I love to get students hooked on a new series! Whenever I have read The Lemonade War to or with students, there have always been always several students who are eager to read the other books in the series!

In terms of my anchor chart, this is the one that starts our discussion of perspective.  It looks like this at the beginning of class:
The sunglasses are a FREEBIE by Ashley Hughes.
Students really seem to enjoy brainstorming the differing perspectives of Jake and Mom concerning the soccer cleats!

I also created the following craftivity to accompany this concept.



~Deb

Tracking Character Traits and Theme through Read Aloud {GIVEAWAY!}

Saturday, October 11, 2014
One of the great things about having a child in fourth grade is that I get to see many new books for these upper elementary students.  For instance, this past summer I took her to the library and she asked the librarian if Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea was available.  It was up for the Iowa Children's Choice Award last year, and Kayla never got to read it because it was constantly checked out.  It was available this time, though, so Kayla happily checked it out and brought it home.  She agreed to let me read it with her, and we both LOVED it!  It's the type of book that sticks with you long after the last page has been read.  Just last week (four months after reading it), we made another connection to this book!  It is also one of those books that, as a teacher, you find yourself planning all of the ways that it could be used as a teaching tool in a classroom!  As most of you know, I don't have my own classroom right now, but I plan to return to the classroom, so I am writing a plan out for how I will use this book in a fourth or fifth grade classroom now, and then it will be available for easy reference when the time comes!

Because of Mr. Terupt

The author alternates which character is telling his/her story throughout the book.
I love this teaching-perspective opportunity!
I would read this book aloud to my students either in January (as you can see from the cover, the part of the book set in the winter is important) or when we begin to study the concept of perspective.  The author tells this story by alternating between seven main characters:  Jessica, the new girl; Alexia, the bully; Anna, the outcast; Danielle, the timid student; Peter, the class clown; Luke, the brain; and Jeffrey, the kid with the bad attitude.  The daily occurrences in Mr. Terupts's fifth grade classroom are often told from different students' perspectives, which makes this book extremely compelling, as it challenges the reader to consider how a single action can be interpreted in so many different ways.

With so many unique characters each having their own storyline, this book is perfectly suited for tracking character traits and themes throughout the story.  I recently came across a blog post by Kristine Nanini from Young Teacher Love (click HERE to read this wonderful blog post!) in which she assigned students different characters of a book, and then posted chart paper with character names in boxes, and had students track character traits.  The photos Kristine posted of students adding sticky notes to the boxes looked so engaging that I think I would like to try that sort of tracking activity with this book, too!
Students write character traits on sticky notes.   They can change them or add to them throughout the book.

The overall theme of this book is FRIENDSHIP.  However, I believe that each character has a "mini-theme" that can be attributed to him or her, as well.  For example, through reading Danielle's story, we learn that we can't judge people based on their past mistakes.  Through Peter's story we learn that one poor decision can have huge, life-changing consequences.

Would you like your own personal copy of this book?  Enter the giveaway below!  I will buy a copy from Amazon and have it shipped to the lucky winner!  Good luck!


Contractions (not just for early elementary!) Two FREE games!

Monday, October 6, 2014

Contractions... this is one of those skills that shocked me when I became a teacher. I started my career teaching second grade, and I had no idea that some students found contractions to be so challenging.  They had always made total sense to me. When I took my ESL endorsement classes, I learned that ELLs often struggle with contractions because English is one of the few languages that use contractions. I was surprised again when I moved into teaching positions involving the upper elementary grades and found that some students still did not understand basic contractions.  Furthermore, several students did not understand that some contractions can mean multiple things!  ("They'd" can represent "they would" or "they had".)

A week ago, a past third grade teacher colleague of mine emailed me and asked, "What do you have for teaching contractions that's fun?" I knew that I didn't have any resources for contractions, but I had an idea within a minute! Would the image of a child kicking a board apart in taekwondo help students better understand the concept of contractions? I truly thought it would, so I decided to create some contraction printables that I could send to my colleague. One of the things I created was a Concentration game freebie (see below)!

Obviously contractions have been on my mind this past week, so of course I created an anchor chart to share with you!
Contractions Anchor Chart (not just for early elementary!) This blog post contains TWO FREE games! by Crafting Connections!


Have you ever finished an anchor chart and realized that you didn't like the way you worded something? That happened to me this time. I do not like that "Remember" sentence. I wish I would have written "Some contractions can represent multiple things. Read the entire sentence to identify the meaning."

I created some advanced FREE contraction concentration game cards that address this very skill.  Please download them if you think your students will benefit from them.

Contraction Concentration- a FREE game! This advanced version of the game was designed for upper elementary students.


I know those are way too hard for some students, so I also created this easier, more basic FREE contraction concentration game for those of you who work with younger students.

Contraction Concentration- a FREE game!


If you are looking for additional materials to use with your students, check out my TpT store!



Contractions Craftivity- includes two versions for multiple grade levels!
Students love this craftivity!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Deb

Halloween Point of View freebie

Thursday, October 2, 2014
I am linking up with my good friend, Angela from The Teacher's Desk 6, who is hosting this fun Halloween Link-up Party!  



After writing my Point of View blog post for Upper Elementary Snapshots (read it here- it contains another freebie!), I was inspired to create one more Point of View free resource for my readers.  If it's something you can use in your classroom, please download it and use this 2-page resource!
FREE Halloween Point of View worksheet! Includes first person, second person, third person limited, and 3rd person omniscient.

Have a great day, everyone! 
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