King George Character Traits

           King George

    In order to integrate 5th grade Social Studies and Language Arts I read the story, Can't You Make Them Behave, King George?    By Jean Fritz to my Social Studies class.    We had just learned about the events leading up to the Boston Tea Party and the First Continental Congress.  

          I thought this would be the perfect book as a read aloud.    The kiddos participated by saying, "God save the king!" very enthusiastically with an  "English accent".    They also chimed in with a loud, "Huzzah"  after the American colonists dumped the tea into Boston Harbor. 

       After listening to the story, I asked the students about the character traits they could think of that reminded them of King George III of England.    How did he act, speak, feel, and act towards other people?    This was my jumping off place.

         This is the worksheet that I gave to my students.   The character trait is written in the box  on the left side of each section.    I like to add some kind of graphic to my worksheets. A picture is worth a thousand words.

         Here are some samples of my students' work.

        I do hope some other teacher can use this idea in their Social Studies  or Language Arts class.    It helps the students understand that this was a real person, not just another character in a story.     King George made a huge impact on the American colonists.

 You can also find this featured on Teach Junkie.com
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      Please leave a comment if you have an extra minute.  I'd love to hear from you.  Enjoy your day!

Beti  

Adding Illustrations and Color in Notetaking

           

 Many students doodle while in class. Flowers, spaceships, airplanes, animals of all kinds, squiggles, stars, hearts, etc. We've seen it all.  Kids like to color.  But teaching your students to add little pictures and color to their notes can be very beneficial for your kiddos.  The pictures can help a person stir a memory of a piece of information during a test or sometime later in life. 
             
    My Social Studies class was making a flip chart about the Lost Colony of Roanoke.  I suggested that they add some pictures to their flip charts by telling them, " A picture is worth a thousand words".  

        This student drew an island on the Roanoke flap and a crown on the Queen Elizabeth.

        The flaps continued with a helmet and sword for Sir Walter Raleigh.

     This student took a different approach with stick figures and speech bubbles.
Sir Walter Raleigh is saying, " Go to Roanoke".  On the Captain John White flap, he wrote, You can't go back!" referring to John White leaving Roanoke to go back to England for supplies. 

    I love teaching these kids. They help me learn something new every day.  I hope I can do the same for each of my students.

   Please leave a comment if you have a spare minute.  I love to hear from my readers.

    This post is featured on Teachjunkie.com     Take a minutes to check out all the great ideas on the blog!  
    www.teachjunkie.com

I have linked up with Forever in 5th Grade for Show and Tell Tuesday.
www.foreverinfifthgrade.blogspot.com 

 

Enjoy your day!

Beti

You've earned a CONE!

CONES

          As the school year is beginning again, we all need something new in our classroom.  We all put up new boarders and use new colors to decorate our room. This year why not try a new technique to get those reluctant kiddos to contribute to the class discussions.  Several years ago I purchased three of these cones from the Dollar Tree to use in my class.
     
       I try to get reluctant students to raise their hands to contribute to the class discussion.  This was my answer.  I would give these cones out to students who had a good and thoughtful answer or comment to the class discussion.  It worked like a charm. 
    
          Every time a student gets a cone they actually don't get to keep it.  The cone gets to stay on the student's desk for the class period. At the end of the class the students return the cones so they can be distributed during the next class period. 
            
          As the years have gone by, my students have given me more as  Christmas gifts in a wide variety  of   colors.  My stack of cones has grown from three to more than two dozen. 

       The cones are well loved.  As you can  some of the lettering has worn off, and I have had to do some touch up with Sharpie marker.

     My kids love getting cones.  Some students actually have kept track of how many cones they have received during the year.  This has been a great positive reinforcement technique in my 5th Grade class. They are easliy disinfected with Clorox wipes to make your classroom a little more germ free.

 Head on over to Head Over heels for TEACHING and check out her great idea on classroom management. I have liked up with other teachers to this blog.
www.headoverheelsforteaching.blogspot.com 

   

Please leave a comment if you have a spare minute in your busy day.  I love reading your thoughts and ideas. 

Beti
   

Colonists Protest Taxes

 Colonists Protest Taxes

        Today I linked up with Forever in 5th Grade for SHOW and TELL Tuesday.  Head on over to the link.
www.foreverinfifthgrade.blogspot.com 

          Leading up to the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution, my students learned why the colonists protested the taxes levied by the British Parliament. We read about and discussed the Quartering Act. Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, and the Tea Act. I needed a hands on activity to help my students understand the frustration that the colonists felt during these years.

             A colonists holding a protest sign! Yes, that's the ticket!   I drew two figures, one man and one woman, two represent the Sons and Daughters of Liberty. 

             You might ask, "Why are these people headless?"  There is a very lightly drawn outline of a head which may be difficult to see.  I wanted my students to have the chance to draw their own head, hair, and possibly a hat on the colonist.

             The students know what the type of clothing the colonists wore because they will be coming to school in colonial outfits for their Boston Tea Party SKYPE.  So the kids got right to work designing colonial clothing and tax protest signs.

       I like how this woman looks like she is taking or shouting her views on taxation.

                               I love the expressions on the faces of these protesters.

             I was very pleased with the work these awesome 5th graders accomplished and their understanding of the colonists frustration about taxation. 

         At the end of school 2nd graders were waiting in line to get on the bus. They were reading all the protest signs.  I asked if they knew what it meant. Of course they said, "No."  Their teacher and I proceeded to ask the children how they would feel if they had to pay five cents every time they wanted to play four square.  As you can imagine, these second graders said they would not like that. We continued to tell them that the colonists did not want to pay extra money for tea, stamps, or sugar. We got the point across in our mini lesson in the hallway minutes before the end of school. 

  I guess learning does  take place when you least expect it.
 
         Hopefully some other 5th grade class can use this idea as part of a Social Studies lesson on Taxation without Representation. 

        Please leave a comment, I'd love to read your note.

      Looking forward to Spring! 

 Beti

Popsicle Stick Ornaments

          I love when my 5th grade students make things with little help from me.  I give a few ideas and they run with the project. Many times they want or think they need the approval that their work is "GOOD".  Some students have little confidence in doing or making something they have never done before.  My feeling is that "work has to evolve".  I constantly tell my kiddos that I learn something new every day, and they will too.
        Last year I saw some popsicle stick ornaments to make with kids on Pinterest. So I thought I would give it a try.  You can see my blog post, "Popsicle stick and felt ornaments".  My students enjoyed it so much last year, I tried in again yeaterday, which was our last day of school.
        So I showed my kids a few examples. Santa, a penguin, a reindeer, a North Pole sign were a few.  Out came my felt scraps, googly eyes, markers,  pipe cleaners, glue, and tacky glue. Don't forget to have a piece of waxed paper on the work surface for every student.  This will make the gluing process less frustrating.  In order to make felt adhere to the popsicle sticks you MUST use tacky glue.

    Here is a selection of my students' Christmas ornaments.

 

 






 








 

     
     I just LOVE all the different expressions on their little faces.  They make me want to smile.

Kids, if you can spot your popsicle stick creation, leave a comment.

Enjoy your children and this wonderful Christmas.

Here is a link to Teach Junkie

www.teachjunkie.com/holidays/popsicle-stick-ornaments/

Beti

Teach Junkie

                   Leslie from Teach Junkie has featured some of my ideas on her blog.  This week I changed the name and URL of my blog.  All my posts were linking back to my old blog.  I sent Leslie an email to see if there was any way she cold help.  Needless to say, Leslie came to my rescue and changed all the links so readers could get to my blog.
                  Leslie is the best!
   So head on over to www.teachjunkie.com and check out all the great teaching ideas that feature our fellow teachers. 
Here is the link...
 www.teachjunkie.com

 Thank you again, Leslie!

Have a great summer!
 Beti