Teaching Theme in the Upper Grades and a FREEBIE! The weekend is here! I don't know about you guys, but this teacher has been BUSY! Last week we finished our state writing assessment and now we are preparing for our 2nd Constructed Response Assessment. We finished up a week long unit on theme, and for the first time ever, it went fabulous! This is my 3rd time teaching theme of a text, and I have always struggled to find materials to help my students understand this tricky concept. We started off with a couple of anchor charts. As we added more themes, I still had a few students confusing it with a summary, so we made a quick IS and IS NOT chart on the bottom of this anchor chart.
So, what did we use as text to discover theme? She has provided a few options for how to use these cards in the classroom, but here is how we used them:First, I LOVED them so much that I made a class set of the entire set....yes a class set! After reading groups were over, we shared out possible themes for the texts. Don't you just love foldables? Prime and Composite Numbers Game. Fifth Grade Flock. Thepolkadotowl.blogspot.com. Bell Work. How does your day begin? Do your students come in quiet and orderly? Beginning of the day procedure is an area that I've experimented with since I began teaching. I've tried some of the things you've probably tried, too.
Put your backpacks away, turn in homework, and begin D.E.A.R. time. Here's my latest idea to "take for a spin"! I just finished my first "Bell Work" packet. Room 121. The Resource(ful) Room!: Monday Made It #2!! I love summer Mondays!! I start planning right away for what I will make and share the next week!! Thanks to Tara for hosting this wonderful linky party, It really is a highlight of my week (I know I am such a dork)! Anyway here's what I've "made" this week!! For the past few years I have been using Zazzle to design my teacher binder, and I love them!!
Here is this years design...... I can't wait to use it!!! I was so excited when my box from Vistaprint arrived this week!! Notecards, a notebook, sticky notes all to match the binder!! Now for my home made it - this was so fun!!! My husband and son worked together to make the boards! My daughter and I made the bean bags (she refused to be in the pictures with me ) and we all had a great time playing the game when we were finished!!! That's all for this week, but I've already got a couple of projects planned for next week so don't miss it :) And don't forget to head over to Tara's blog and check out what everyone else is making!!