What the Teacher Wants!

Wax Museum!

Every year all of our 5th graders participate in our school's Wax Museum program. It is seriously one of the highlights of the entire school year!

Here's a run down of how things work:

-Students choose a biography on a famous American.

-They read the book and complete the American Hero book report.

-They design a poster, create a costume, and memorize information about their hero.

-For the Wax Museum, the students bring all their stuff and set up in the gym.

-We invite our school, parents, community members, etc. to come see our program.

-Our students become wax figures and when someone pushes their button they come to life and give information about their hero.

Here are some pictures from this year's museum:

Aren't these kids absolutely adorable in their costumes?!

(I normally don't post pictures of my students on here, but luckily I'm friends with both of their moms and they gave me permission to post their cute faces.)

And I think these two posters turned out AMAZING!!

If you are interested, I have uploaded (and revamped) all of my resources and put them for sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I have included everything you might need to get started and to implement this project in your own school. I'd love for you to check it out!

Does your school do a Wax Museum?

freezing weather, snow, and bears...oh my!

Guess what? We had snow. I know, right? The day after Halloween, we HAD SNOW and it was only about this much. but I pouted like a 4 year old. It happens every year at this time and yet I'm always completely baffled when it does! Which brings me to my next point. WINTER. YIKES!!!! This year is flying by and it means a LOT OF INSIDE RECESS. {insert dramatic music}

I looooove teaching my kiddos about all those fun winter topics....penguins, snowflakes, icebergs, and bears. I usually teach my bear unit in January, but some teachers might like it as a good transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Which now brings me to my next point..... A BEAR UNIT! This unit was actually supposed to be a mini-unit, but I went overboard and after over 100 pages, I think I'm done.

Here's what is included:
*Facts book
*Anchor charts
*Graphic organizers
*Counting bear game
*Place value bear game
*Bear food taste test activity
*Number, picture, word match {with color or black/white}
*Gummy bear graph
*Addition bear sort {with color or black/white}
*Bear word problems
*Bears in a cave {missing addend game} {with color or black/white}
*Bear fact and opinion sort {with color or black/white}
*Opinion writing about favorite type of bear
*Antonym sort and match {with color or black/white}
*Polar bear craft with informational writing
*Paper plate bear craft with informational writing
*Polar bear poem with vocabulary cards
*Teddy bear day!!!!!
-Parent note
-Compare and contract
-Teddy bear measurements
-Teddy bear questionnaire
-Teddy bear writing
-Corduroy reading response
-Corduroy craft

Here is a sneak peek of a few things:

You can grab yourself a freebie right now! Here's the antonym bear match with the recording sheet. :)

{Click the picture to snag that}

And so, this bear unit is on sale right now to Sunday!

{click the picture below}

You can win this unit {or any unit from my TpT store} just by following my TpT store and leaving a comment on this blog post, telling me your favorite {or yours students' favorite} thing to do during inside recess! Then, using random.org, I'll randomly pick 3 winners and I'll let you pick an item from my TpT store.
Don't forget your email address!

Contest ends Saturday {November 5th} at 11:59pm {EST}

Rubric (Halloween Writing Booklet)

Thank you so much to everyone who purchased my Halloween Writing Booklet from TpT. I've gotten a lot of nice comments - and I appreciate each and every one!

My students' stories turned out unbelievably cute and creative! I loved seeing all of their different monsters, reading all their different stories, and seeing their cute personalities come alive through writing!

As I began collecting the booklets, I realized that I needed a quick and easy way to grade them all. (We spent the whole month of October working on these booklets, so I feel that it should reflect a large portion of their writing grade.) So, I've been working on a rubric to help me grade all of their stories.

Here it is:

I know this might not work for all grade levels/classes, but hope it will be useful to some of you out there!

I am working on a Christmas/Holiday type writing activity booklet, like this one. I'll be sure to let you know when it's ready!!

HOW TO COOK A TURKEY

Some of you might remember this post from last November. I've updated it and added a free download. :)

November means fall leaves, football, cranberry sauce, pilgrims, Native Americans, pumpkin pie and TURKEY! In my first grade classroom we make a bulletin board for Thanksgiving. I have a parent helper take each student one by one and ask them how they would cook a turkey if they had to make it for their family for Thanksgiving. The parent types EVERYTHING that the student says. The parent also has a list of prompts if the student cannot think of what to say (how long do you cook it, where do you cook it, do you put anything inside of it, how much do you need to make, etc- I give the parent helper a checklist of things just in case).
I then print them off and the students get to read it to the class (with my help). Afterward, they decorate their border and we post them on the bulletin board:

They are HILARIOUS! Here is an example:

"First you go to Smith's down the street and buy a big turkey. Take it home and rip off the plastic and pull all that yucky stuff out of the middle of it. I think you are supposed to put something inside of the turkey, but I'm not sure what it's called. Turn the oven on to hot. It's 100 degrees hot. Make sure you check the oven a lot because my mom burned one last year. When it's done it will be brown and you can take it out to eat. Put salt and pepper on it. I do like turkey on Thanksgiving Day, but I like chocolate pie better."

For the bulletin board I made a turkey out of butcher paper, the serving dish out of tin foil, and the garnishments are fake ivy leaves.