October Learning

October was a whirlwind. There was so much learning to do, and it was all a lot of fun. Here is a quick summary of some of the activities we did.

Pumpkin Unit
I used a combination of ideas form different units (Pumpkin Patch Palooza-Deanna Jump & Pumpkin Unit-Nicole Ricca) and ideas I found on Pinterest. My kiddos really had a lot of fun and their interactive notebooks--stapled together paper--really helped to cement the information into their schema.

 Some books we read. Big Pumpkin was their absolute favorite-Mine too!

As part of the reading, we planted our own seeds. They were so convinced that they would not sprout, if we didn't first put them in soil.

 

 Tada! As soon as we observed the root, students transferred them to a cup with soil in it. We are now making observations for growth of our baby seed. This might take a couple weeks.

These are some charts we did. 

Some Student Notebook Pages

       

Students had the opportunity to use their five senses once the pumpkins were cut open. They wrote about their learning in their journal.

   

After we carved out the pumpkin to see the insides, I placed it in a small container to have them observe the rotting process. They were able to see how little by little the pumpkin gets moldy, mushy, smelly, black, watery, gooey...and they will never forget the word "Decomposition"!

Halloween Activities
 We did a pumpkin glyph. It was very interesting to find out that many of my students had never carved a pumpkin.

We read, acted out, and retold the story of There was an Old lady Who Swallowed a Bat.

 

I was really able to see who could retell the story by having them do a picture retell in their reader's notebook. They first labeled on their own (great assessment on phonetic spelling) and then matched the word cards provided. 

My kiddos got to do their own old lady and practice retelling with the picture cards. Click here or the picture above for your FREE templates.

One of our tasks during writing workshop was reading and responding to the book My First Ghost.

 

  It is a very cute story about what friendship truly is. What discussed the qualities of a good friend. They created their own ghost friend and then wrote a creative piece about the things they like to do with their ghost friend. I was so impressed. I got a variety of settings and activities....lots and lots of details. The progress I have seen from the beginning of the year is truly impressive. I know it is due to writer's workshop, great literature, and practice, practice, practice.

My favorite activity was their pumpkin project. They decorated a pumpkin as the character from their favorite book, and then wrote an opinion piece about why that was their favorite character.  They were just too cute! One of the pumpkins eyes even lighted up. Here are a few of my kiddos.

   

    

 Like I said before, it was a busy month. 

Thick and Thin Questions

Throughout the year I have been really trying to stress, model, expect, provide examples, etc., of higher order thinking questions...ugh! I went over to It can be like talking to the wall. I can pull my hair out sometimes. That's when I headed over to Hello Literacy (I love this site). You can read more about my post here.

Critical Thinking Sentence Frames Classroom Posters (FREEBIE)

   Revised Bloom's Taxonomy Classroom Posters

I have those posters posted front and center in my classroom. They are fabulous! I still needed a chart that they could reference at all times, even at home. I went searching on the Internet for an anchor chart that I could also display permanently and continuously add to for reference. I found one on Pinterest (it says from Misskillion.blogspot.com, but I'm unable to link to it to credit properly).

The chart is simple, straight forward, and easy to manage. We discussed the importance of getting those gears spinning in our brains to really dig deep and create lasting learning experiences. Some of my students immediately made reference to our order thinking posters.(Yippee!) I don't know about your kiddos, but food always seems to make lasting learning in my class. Therefore, I made them think about a meal that they have had and that was very memorable or made an impression in their minds. We talked about the why's of such an event. I then showed them a picture of a "thin" hamburger and if any of them wanted one--of course all the hands go up. I then showed them a picture of a "thick" and juicy looking hamburger and asked who would prefer that one--all the hands went up with a roar.

This led to a "deep"--5th grade level conversation about how questions have the same impact on our brains, and how our brains NEED the "thick" hamburgers to really learn things and make them have lasting impressions at a deeper level. Lastly, and most importantly for my kiddos, I had them copy the chart in their Language Arts notebook. Now when they have to come up with questions of their own at home and in class they have a point of reference along with our other posters. In class, I always ask them if the question is "thin" or "thick", and they quickly modify if necessary. I know it is difficult to believe that a simple chart and posters have made such a difference, but they have. (Even my principal was impressed at their level of questioning one day as she made her rounds :))