Vocab worksheets

If you'd like to create vocab worksheets to go along with the books, literary terms, or even just using Dolch words, you can download a 30 day trial of Vocabulary Worksheet Factory from http://www.schoolhousetech.com/Products/Vocabulary/Download.aspx . You can use the word lists they have, or create your own. It's only good for 30 days, but you can probably delete it and download it again.

Survivor Man

The Science Channel has a TV show called Survivorman and they have an Alaska episode. The Monroe County Library System has this on DVD. I am going to show the students what winter in Alaska looks like and how to survive. One problem from the show is he catches a rabbit and shows skinning it. It's not bloody, but the idea is squimish. You can always fast forward that part. It's a very interesting show and my own children (6 and 5) love it too.

Carvings

To go along with Touching Spirit Bear book, we did carving yesterday. I gave the students each a bar of ivory soap and a plastic knife. Ivory Soap works the best because other brands tend to break apart(I've tried diffferent kinds). It was interesting to see what kinds of designs and patterns and symbols the kids came up with. Some even painted outlines on them. Then they had to write about why they chose to do that design. It was an intereting activity that kept them busy for the entire class period. Those students not finished could take their soap(not the knife) home and use untensils from home to finish.

Moving right along

We have just finished Chapter 16. We have had some great discussions about this book. We watched a Walk to Remember and read A Serious Habit first. We did one class essay together and I have taught some mini lessons along the way with the 6 Traits. We did a Web Quest in the Media Center and the kids had to navigate through the sites. They loved it! And all were able to do it. We learned a lot about the author and found out how he gets his ideas for books. Vocab has been done before I read on index cards and then I will have them do a matching activity. We also did I Am poems using the vocab and being one of the characters in the book. Cole was the one most of the kids used because he was the easiest to describe. But some of my kids wrote from the Spirit Bears's perspective. That was kind of cool. The kids are really enjoying the book but I am concerned about how long it is taking and the final assessment which is a research project.

How far are you?

Well, I started with Touching Spirit Bear and am on Day 15 of the lesson plan. I feel like I'm not getting very far. We've skipped a lot of the writing activities and just had discussions instead. I don't have very many grades for the students, because we're reading most of the time. Is this how it is for everyone else, too? The one thing that is definitely working for us is that I took all of the vocab words from the lesson plans and made a spreadsheet for the kids to write the definitions on. We discuss the word and look at the context to determine the meaning. Sometimes we get the dictionary out. I only have 5 students, so it works. I did the same for literary terms, because that is a portion of our general ed English exam. If you want a copy of the spreadsheets, I'd be glad to e-mail them to you, just let me know.

Beginning Touching Spirit Bear ideas

Ok, I am ready to begin the new year. I have been thinking about the theme of relationships and specifically maturity. I am going to begin the year with making a list of what makes a person mature. I am going to put the students into pairs for the following exercise. Then I am going to give the students pictures of famous people (Brittney Spears, Tom Cruise, Tiger Woods etc..) and I'm going to have the students put the pictures in two groups: Mature and Not Mature. After they make their groups, both people must agree, we will discuss how they chose which person to put in each group. These ideas I will use to begin our class list of Mature Traits. From here I will have the pairs discuss a time when they had to act mature. Then I will open the floor for all students who want to share what they discussed. After I will have some kind of writing assignment that will be used as a pre test for writing.
Any one have ideas, I would love to make this a great opening lesson so all the students will buy into it.

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