Five For Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! It has been a super busy week for me, and I'm sure for you as well! School ends {technically} on June 24th, however Ramadan begins at the beginning of June, so we cannot count on the students showing up after that! We are busy preparing for the possible end of the year! I can't believe how fast this year has gone!

I am conducting an independent study about reading as I work on my Reading Specialization in Canada. I am working on a series of 5 blog posts to share what I learn over the course of my inquiry. To begin, I would LOVE your feedback and to hear your experiences teaching ELL (or ESL) students. Please click the picture, and leave your comments at the bottom!

On Thursday we had our International Day! Our class chose to celebrate Italy, so we had been learning about it for a few weeks. We had an awesome day and the kids were able to visit a few other countries as well!

Italian Soda

Italy Cake

 One of the students was so excited for her mom to make us a cake! She loves to bake and always sends special cakes for our celebrations. This one features the Rialto bridge and a gondola in V
enice!

Classroom Door

 Our classroom door feature a map with some important cities and information the students found and put together. We painted our hands like the flag and put our whole class' hand prints around the edge as a border!

Italy coloured nails!

Making masks for the Venice Carnival! 

SOMEHOW I forgot to take a picture of the amazing spread of food we had.. I was too busy eating it! Pizza, Pasta, Tiramisu.. yum! :)

Some of us still have a few more weeks (or in our case a month and a half!!!) left of school. If you're counting down and need something to wrap up the end of the year and let the students show what they know, here are two fun options for you! My kids have loved them both. They are both no-prep and ready to print! Less work for you!!

We are beginning another comic strip next week!!

 

We've been working on poetry recently and I am so proud of the kids!! They are doing really well. At the beginning of the poetry unit all I heard was "Miss I cannot write poems!"... Now when I ask them to write a poem, all I hear is "Yaaay"! We are putting together our poetry booklets so each student can have a collection of their favourite poems they have written!

Last weekend we had a long weekend, so we spent the weekend on a dreamy beach in Goa, India! We left Wednesday night and returned late Saturday night, just in time to get back to work! There were about 10 of us that went for my roommate's 30th birthday! It was so relaxing, and affordable! All we did was sit, eat, read, play in the waves and play some competitive beach volleyball!

I bought two of these mugs. They were too cute not to!

I hope you all enjoy your weekend!

Game Board Culminating Activity

You're a teacher. The end of the year is coming. You're tired, and your mind is quickly moving into "summer mode".  How are you going to tie it all together? Let me tell you! With a fun [no prep for you] board game where students can show what they know!
It is completely ready to print, differentiated and all! Students will create questions about anything they have learned in the past term, and you can choose what subjects to include. Click any of the pictures below for a closer look!

The student explanation sheet has blank spaces for you to modify the project to fit the needs of your class. You can decide how many question cards are needed and what subjects the students will write questions about. Also included are three different rubrics - one marked using points and two marked used 4 levels. One leveled rubric includes a self and peer assessment, while the other doesn't.

Students will be required to complete a planning sheet where they will decide on a theme, and also complete a rules sheet. The good copy can be included in the final game package so others will know how to play! There are explicit teacher instructions included in the download.

These little ones decided on a transportation theme. They made their game board into a road, and their game pieces were modes of transportation: a car, bus, train, plane and helicopter. They made their question cards in the shapes of cars. You could even stop at Starbucks on your way around the track. :)

Very colourful! They loved decorating the game boards.

Reading each other questions to move ahead on the board. They loved to play each others games afterwards! This was a true test to see if their instructions were clear enough for another group to understand.

So excited they are crawling on the desks!

I hope you and your class enjoy this activity as much as we did! It will be something I will keep using for a long time to come, and I hope you will too!

Two Writing Activities and an April Freebie!

Welcome Spring! Not that we really have spring here in the UAE.. it pretty much goes from kinda hot to really hot, in a hurry! Either way, I am feeling quite springy! That's why I created this awesome resource for my students - a Spring Reading Challenge. Spring Break ends this week for the students (although we have been back since Sunday!!! - blog post coming soon about my holiday), so I was looking for a way to get them excited about reading again as the end of the year comes closer! I decided to make this to do just that :). This allows them to keep track of their books using a fun coloring page. Also included are two different types of tracking sheets for the books the students have read, as well as two different versions of a goal setting sheet. The best part? There are three differentiated reading response menus (or choice boards) where the students can choose what activity they want to do! I will be using this during their independent reading time in our reading workshops and during our centers. The other best part? NO PREP! Ready to go and easy to use.  You can decide as a class what their reward will be if they reach their personal goals, or you can decide for them. You could also set goals for each reading group. You can use it however you choose! I hope your students can enjoy it as much as I know mine will! I will add some pictures of my students using this once they return back to school.

Spring Reading Challenge - Get your students excited about reading again!

The other new product I am excited about is my Comic Strip packet. Earlier I posted a comic strip pack that was related to the American Revolution, which my students LOVED! They did a really great job on their comic strips. It had me thinking that comic strips can be used for pretty much anything, and the kids really enjoy it. So, here is an easy, NO PREP, fun way to have your students show what they know! There are options for 4, 5, 6 or 8 frames - brainstorming sheets, planning sheets and good copies. There are also 3 options of rubrics as well. If you needed an alternative to the three provided, I would also be happy to alter one for you. You could use this for many years to come!!! Check it out:

No prep Comic Strip Packet! Planning sheets, templates and rubrics!

 And here is the moment you've been waiting for.. your April freebie! Sorry for it being late, with Spring Break and the lack of internet while on a cruise I had a few technical difficulties. Better late than never!!!

Maybe you are a KG teacher or primary teacher and your students are working on your writing, or maybe you're like me and your middle school students need some extra handwriting practice!! This is just a simple handwriting booklet where students can work on all the letters and write sentences to practice the letters in context. Click the photo for the free download! Please remember to leave feedback. :)

 

 Thanks for stopping by!