Gingerbread Celebration

During the weeks leading up to the winter holiday break, my class worked on putting together gingerbread themed reader's theaters. I presented mini-lessons on reading accuracy, expression, rate, and volume. We practiced our plays together through partner reads, group reads, and independent reads.

We invited other classes to watch our plays. During intermission, we handed out gingerbread cookies and gave students the opportunity to vote on our gingerbread houses.

Third grade had been working on multiplication and money in math class. To tie these concepts into our gingerbread celebration, we worked on compiling a list of items we could use to make a gingerbread house and what each item would cost. We worked on a "cost sheet" that listed all of the items by price. The students worked together to multiply the cost by the number of items that they would purchase. Below is an example of the activity. *** YOU CAN FIND THIS ITEM FOR FREE IN MY TPT STORE  <--- click here ***

The students used this list and a fake budget of $10.00 to order the items they wanted to use to make a gingerbread house. They were challenged to spend as close to $10.00 as they could without going over. During morning homeroom, students were able to purchase the items for their house. They used play money to buy the items and had to figure out the correct amount of change that they would get back in return. I was lucky enough to have brave adult volunteers to join us for the gingerbread house building session!

We displayed our gingerbread village in the main lobby for all to appreciate. During our plays, classes were invited to vote for their favorite gingerbread house.

The students seemed to really enjoy themselves and were able to stay focused during all of the excitement that the holiday season brings! :D

*This is not my original idea. This was an activity found and used by my colleagues*
Many of the originals and ideas can be found on the links below...
Ginger Village Panic
The Gingerbread Baby
The Runaway Gingerbread People

Unlocking the MAIN IDEA with KEY DETAILS

In preparation for my future gig as a DII coach in my district, I have been using my students as guinea pigs while I deliver lessons in strict DII fashion. I must say...it has never gone better! I have never had more skill mastery in any given year than I have now!!!

DII stands for Direct Interactive Instruction. Do not mistake it for the drill and kill of regular direct instruction. DII is anything but that. There is nothing groundbreaking or brand new about it. The easiest way I can explain it is that it takes every best practice we know about teaching and fits it into four quadrants that we should utilize during our allocated teaching time. As a teacher using DII, you are ensuring that you are giving all students what they need to meet the objective successfully. Below you will see some visuals used in determining MAIN IDEA and KEY DETAILS in Room 5. 

The first time I ever introduced this standard/objective, I placed the check next to step 2. I gave students the main idea using small text passages at first. They learned how to "unlock" the main idea by locating 2 key details that supported the main idea. The poster on the right side shows what I used to intro the lesson. Students helped me determine what key detail would fit the main idea "Dogs are wonderful pets".

The second time I reviewed this skill, I completed step 3 for students. They were able to use the key details to determine what the main idea of the informational passages was. They worked in partners to complete step 4. This is how I was able to make further plans for the future and was an informal observation I was able to use to measure my students' mastery of the skill.

As we made our way through the lesson, we continuously referred back to our lesson objective. I moved the objective down the poster as we transitioned into new expectations. At the conclusion of the lesson, I filled in a bar on the standard. This showed students that we weren't done talking about and practicing determining main idea and key details. The visual also seemed to help them feel less overwhelmed knowing that we would be going over it more in the future. 

Before expecting my students to be able to determine main idea and details all at once in long passages, I used shorter informational passages to practice the skill with them. I have made these passages available in my TPT store. For the first lesson, I already had the main idea box filled in. Students went through the passage, underlining the details. During the second attempt, I had the detail boxes filled in while they determined the main idea. 

With the additional passages I have, I will be creating a differentiated literacy center for my students to work in during our guided reading time. I plan on setting it up similar to the picture below. I will place the passages in a page protector sleeve. Students can use dry erase markers to locate information within the passage. After reading, they will have a graphic organizer to fill out (which I have also provided a picture of below). 

I can differentiate for students by giving them certain information already filled in, I can ask them for fewer or more details as I see fit, and I can partner students up to read the passages together in the center. 

I hope that you find this post helpful! Please check back for more goodies, tips, and freebies!

~Mary 

"Give it Two Weeks..."

What the heck does this have to do with teaching? Read on my friends...(too small to read? Click on the picture!)

In a classroom full of children, it is easy to forget that each child comes to the classroom with their own "Tank" kind of story. They may have just lost a loved one, fought with a best friend, found out that they are moving, happen to be new in the school, etc...While we all stress about test scores, student performance, and getting through all of the year's material - we must always remember that in order to reach our kids, we must first take the time to truly know them. In doing this, we may finally get that "3rd tennis ball moment" from them all! :D Happy teaching, colleagues!