TGI Freebie Friday and some ramblings

All week we have been gearing up to take our state mandated standardized test by reviewing, reviewing, reviewing. There is only one more week until Spring Break and even more scary, two and a half more weeks until testing begins. EKK! My fifth grade kiddos are in full blown grammar boot camp mode. We have been reviewing every grammar tidbit that could possibly appear on the test. First, we started reviewing nouns (again). I had them complete a little St. Patrick's Day writing prompt and we tied that into common and proper nouns. I then had my kids create four leaf clovers and write four nouns that represent why they feel lucky. It was so, so sweet. They only mentioned family, friends, and pets. Not video games or clothes, but people (and animals)!

Speaking of animals...
I just had to share this picture of my baby. She is in DESPERATE need of a haircut! Does she not look like an Ewok right now?

Oh dear! She is so going to the groomers tomorrow.

My fifth graders have also worked hard on persuasive writing this past nine weeks. They decided to write a persuasive paper on whether students should wear uniforms to school or not. You can imagine the position they took... NOT! They wrote their final copies on t-shirt shaped paper and I hung them outside the classroom from clothes hangers.

Now for the freebie...
I created a Spring ABC Order Word Sort. You can find it at my Teachers Notebook store.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Oh and did I mention that Spring Break is in one week!! Thought I might just say that again!

My First Mini Unit

I just posted my first math mini unit to my Teachers Notebook store. This math mini unit is all about volume and capacity. I've been using this with my fifth graders to introduce and reinforce measurement concepts. To grab your copy head on over to my Teachers Notebook store.

Here are a couple of pictures of what comes in my mini unit...

What we've been up to

I wanted to share a couple of activities that my students have been working on lately...

My Language Arts kiddos have been working on a creative "Angry Birds" writing project that I had found through SmartChickTeacher. They absolutely loved it and were engaged throughout the entire writing process. Through this project, I was able to incorporate narrative fantasy, expository, and persuasive writing skills. I told my students that their purpose for writing was to inform, persuade, and entertain. We were also able to incorporate descriptive and figurative language mini lessons into this unit.

Here are a couple of Angry Bird warning notices that my kids created...

Each one of these were so, so cute and creative. I love how the red Angry Bird looks so much like the real Angry Bird from the game!

My math students have been hard at work learning all about finding the area and circumference of a circle. I had them make this visual to reinforce these concepts. I also attached a copy of "The Pi Song" from Super Teacher Worksheets to the back of these circles. The song is sang to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus and is a super fun way to help students memorize the formulas for finding the area and circumference of a circle.

If you haven't checked out Super Teacher Worksheets, you should. It is a great go to resource!

Happy Wednesday! We are halfway through the week teacher friends!

Today was all kinds of cah-razy at school. We were on an early release schedule, but did not have an early release day. Huh? I know, right! Well... today we kicked off our super big fundraising event that we hold every year at my school. The kids had a blast at the pep rally and hopefully are now pumped up about raising some money for a good cause!