A River Ran Wild

During a recent Common Core meeting (which we have every other Tuesday after school), I was introduced to the text "A River Ran Wild" by Lynne Cherry. I know many of you may already know about it, but since it was new to me, I definitely wanted to blog about it.  

Information on the book: This book centers upon these significant themes: human effects on the environment, pollution, and being a responsible citizen. Human effects on the environment are a significant concept. A River Ran Wild provides both text and illustrations that show the changes of pollutions throughout history and how people in each period affected the Nashua river. Beginning with the Natives and through today, this text supports the theme of human pollution.
It worked out great because we just finished our study of the Industrial Revolution. Our main focus with this text was to work on Cause and Effect.  My anchor charts are completely done in class with students so they are not very pretty....just a little disclosure!
There's lots of vocabulary in the text that may be difficult for students so the first time we read it, students jotted down words that they weren't sure of it and we kept a list of those words on another anchor chart. Students defined the words so that the next time we read the text, we would be able to better understand what we were reading. When we came to an unfamiliar word, we referred back to our chart and sometimes had to use context clues to figure out which meaning was being used in the text. 
The kids LOVED this text and I did, too! I can definitely see using this book in the future. Here are some pages from the text. What I couldn't find was the pages that had text, but those pages have pictures of inventions from that time period around the edges. This is a great text with wonderful illustrations!



Packing up...

I don't know when I'll ever get caught up with our fun 5th grade happenings...I've been so busy with everything that I haven't taken any photos. Booo!  Hoping to catch up on taking pictures this week. We have a short week - we go Monday & Tuesday.  

Since we are getting packed up and moving in a few weeks, I knew I wanted to pack up my classroom because I want all of my school stuff to be packed and moved with my house stuff. So, off to school we went on Saturday morning. We weren't able to get all of it...I still need to bring home some large items, but we got 95% of it.
It's hard to believe how much you accumulate and the thought of having to start all over...eeekkk.
Part of me would love to have the chance of teaching younger elementary grades next time!! We will just have to see what God has in store for me in Georgia!  

This weekend I stopped by the Dollar Tree and found these fun spy glasses! I don't know what in the world I'll ever do with them, but if I ever teach younger elementary, these would be SO FUN!  So, I bought a couple just in case!
Off to enjoy a short week at school and then lots of family time...it has been TOO long since I went home this summer. I miss my family tons and cannot wait to see them!!


My Truth Monday

I am loving this new series, My Truth Monday, by Sunny Days in Second Grade.
This week is all about our path in becoming a teacher! I enjoyed writing this little snippet about my journey into the best career path I could've chosen for me!

A Peek at my Week

Today I am linking up to Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for a peek at my week!

{ELA}
This week we will wrap up a unit in ELA on the communication revolution, which goes along with our study of the Industrial Revolution. Students will also turn in their inventor posters Friday. I can't wait to see final results!
{Math}
This week we will continue with our fraction unit, adding and subtracting fractions.
{Social Studies}
We will continue our study of the Industrial Revolution, with a focus on Ellis Island.


{Science}
We are beginning our study of landforms and oceans. This week our focus will be on the geologic structures of the ocean floor. 
Here's to a good week!

Quick Check-In

Hey y'all...I wanted to share with y'all this morning! Before I do, I have AWESOME news! If you read my November Currently post yesterday, you read that 1) We sold our house and we close mid-December {Yay!!} and 2) We were waiting to hear back from a house that we put a final offer on to see if we got it (investors already had a contract and they had the choice to back out or price match us)....AND....We got the house!  We are so excited!  It's just beautiful! Now, we've got to get through home inspections and appraisals for both houses. The investors had 48 hours to decide and took almost every bit of that time. We kept praying that if this is where you want us, God, help us get it worked out. But, we worried and had doubts. Not 10 minutes after we heard that we got the house, it started raining which I thought was odd because it was sunny outside. I looked outside, saw this beautiful rainbow, and within minutes it quit raining and never rained again the rest of the day. Y'all, God is sooooo good! It's like he was saying, "I've got this...I've taken care of it, you just have to trust me." What a beautiful sign and just what I needed.
Now, onto school related stuff!! I cannot tell you how excited I am to be able to spend several months at home with my little one. He just loves doing "school" stuff and I have lots of fun activities planned for us!  Yesterday we lined up letters of the alphabet. Then, he got animal cards out and placed by the letters. Fun!
This week in 5th grade we began our fraction unit. I LOVE these fraction tiles! Our school ordered these for us and the kids love using them!
We started off our unit by reviewing the term "unit fraction" and "equivalent fractions". We used the fraction tiles to identify equivalent fractions.

Fifth grade Social Studies standards in South Carolina are the best! I LOVE the history I teach. We are in the middle of our unit on the Industrial Revolution. The kids are enjoying it as well and I inherited (and will pass on) lots of awesome books that go along with our standards. We've read this book each afternoon before leaving.
This week my principal and I interviewed a candidate who applied for my position. This move is starting to get VERY real! Eeekkk.

November Currently

Life has been SO crazy this week! With our house on the market and being shown, looking for houses and putting offers in, to being a wife, mom, and teacher....this girl is exhausted! I promise to update you soon. 
Listening: My little one is enjoying playing and watching some of his favorite shows!

Loving: My house is sold...fingers crossed! We signed the final contract, but still have to go through the bank's appraisal and home inspection but we except it to go just fine. If all goes well, we close mid December...around the week before Christmas. Not so sure about that timing... :/ 

Thinking: Need to do laundry...blah!

Wanting: We put an offer in on a house and we are hoping it works out. We've had bad luck with other houses and really hope this one works out. Stinks that it's totally out of our hands.

Needing: To work on my to-do list...so much to do be done today!

A yummy pin:  Oriental Salad recipe from Busy Mom Recipes.  It is SO good! 


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