Holy moly. What a week!!
We had parent/teacher conferences last week, and I was also sick at the beginning of the week… so needless to say, it was quite exhausting. This is why I didn’t post a Workshop Wednesday last week… or anything else, for that matter.
To get ahead a little bit, I’m going to link up with Mrs. Laffin’s Laughings and give you a peek at my week! :o)
In Social Studies, we are learning about the first two of six of the European Explorers this week: Columbus and Cabot. I’m using my Explorers Pack to teach about these two, as well as to write an opinion piece during writing time!
You know how I love to use a good mentor text and to integrate across the curriculum… I’m going to use the book, Encounter by Jane Yolen, to show the students the “other side” of what happened during European exploration.
Whether you are learning about explorers or not, this is a great book to show another point of view of an event with which most students are familiar… Columbus “discovering” new land. My students are always amazed when I tell them this was based on the events of Columbus landing in San Salvador! One of them asked last year, “Why do we have the day off for Columbus Day? He shouldn’t get a holiday!!”
I will use the wonderful pack from Cutesy Clickables/Collaboration Cuties to review inferences and main idea during reading, as well as to teach some more figurative language!
During writing time, as I mentioned earlier, the students will give their opinion of whether they believe the explorers were heroes…. this prompt is always a good one to get the kids to use voice and emotion in their piece.
In math, we are working on multiplication! I can’t wait to teach my kids “Multiplication War” from my Math Aces: Partner Games so they can play in stations. They are loving card games this year!
I am using my Zany Zebra Multiplication Pack for some of my mini-lessons and small groups next week, as well as the task cards for my stations.
I am also using some of Blair Turner’s interactive notebook activities- especially this set on multiplicative comparison.
That can be such a tricky concept for them because they have to really think through who has “the most” to know what they should be multiplying.
Oh and in between all of this fun stuff I shared with you, we also have our district assessments to administer in Reading, Math, Science, and Social Studies. EEK! But we’ll get it all in, don’t you worry. 😛
I hope you all have a fantastic week!
