I'm alive and well, and ready for the LAST DAYS OF SCHOOL!

My break from my blog was somewhat planned, but certainly not for so long!  I came back from spring break ready to attack my final units, but I was tired.  We had a great end of the year, but I took a break from my voracious reading and my blog.  What was planned as just a couple of weeks off now leads me to today, when I have only 3 days left of school.  :)  I am excited to catch up this summer.  I already have some ideas for next year. 

Anyway, I am back.  Here are some quick things we did in April/May.

We ended the year with our space unit.  The unit first begins with information on  our sky, and above is our culmination of that learning.  On the sky, students wrote information that they learned in their research about the moons, sun, and stars.  The yellow papers are accompanied by a picture of a starry sky where the students created a constellation, named it, and told of its meaning.

During our targeted instruction time each day, I teach 35-40 3rd graders who exceed in reading.  We did a variety of things during this time (Greek mythology, Shakespeare, Holocaust), but this is the final part of our reading/discussion of discrimination/civil rights.  We read a bunch of books like The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson, Jackie's Bat by Marybeth Lorbiecki, A Sweet Smell of Roses by Angela Johnson, When Marian Sang by Pam Munoz Ryan, and Sister Anne's Hands by Marybeth Lorbiecki.  The collages were inspired by Sister Anne's Hands.  We brainstormed words, and then the students created the images.

We studied the economy in April and May.  As a final project, students brought in items to "sell" to classmates.  Some brought food, others brought used stuffed animals, bookmarks they had made...They had a great time doing this!  After the simulation, students wrote a report for me about the experience using the vocabulary of the unit..producer, consumer, supply, demand, human resources, raw materials, profit. 

Finally...

Every year, I give my students a list with all of their classmates names on it.  They then use a brainstormed list to write one word to describe each classmate.  I then compile the words and present each student with the list of words that their classmates said about them.  This year, I am taking the compiled list and turning it into a Wordle for each child.  With Wordle, the words that are used the most often will be the largest showing the student what words their classmates most think about them.

Thanks for coming back.  I'll post some more end of year activities in the next week or two.