Keep Calm and Write/Research ON!

 We finished our personal narratives up last week....we actually finished them in one week and that includes having 2 individual writing conferences! Technically, this is our second full personal narrative. We will start our third one after spring break so look for something big headed this way...fingers crossed!

I PUT THEM IN A BOX...I  CRUSHED their creativity....yep! I did.

I made them all write about a time when they got hurt...an ouch story! My other two teamates let them pick what to write about for this one but I have used these story starters for the last 3 years just because they are so dang cute and what student doesn't have an ouch story! This year my sweet fifth grade babies wrote 4-5 pages worth for their 5 paragraph personal narratives! I loved seeing how some of them didn't think it was even possible to write that much about a time they got hurt but with some really good hooks, some dialogue action, and details...voila! They were impressive! Oh and don't you just love my band-aid cut outs...courtesy of  Irma Pro at G-Iron. She never ceases to amaze me with her oh so many talents! I told her I wanted band-aid clip art yesterday at 1:00 and that night by 9:00 I had some! Need something made and in a hurry?! Send her a message!

 Oh and if you like the printable be sure to check out the creator herself! Click on pic below for many many more! She has a lot of great schtuff and ideas!

We're concluding our chapter studies on WWII. I have one more week to add emphasis on it! It's definitely been the best part of our History curriculum. We read Lois Lowry's Number the Stars. This was their summer reading assignment but since it is all so relevant now and half of them didn't do it during the summer, I read it aloud!  It has definitely become a class favorite! I literally read it in a couple of hours and couldn't put it down! It's a must read for upper el ed especially if you at all talk about WWII!!!

We have also been rigorously working on our RESEARCH paper! First comes note taking, then comes outlining, then comes drafting with lots of revising! Anybody ever heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer?! He was a German spy and theologian that worked with the resistance to try and rid Germany of Hitler. Whelp, he's our research paper topic....I hadn't heard of him before either....ah...Keep Calm and Do research. This book wasn't my favorite and was really hard reading for them!

We start achievement tests tomorrow. I plan to use this area each day for testing encouragement! I think I'll post a different quote each day  inside of a frame and have our snacks under it in a basket! I plan to get some little cups and have a water station! Let's get 'dis over with and move on to spring break!

Last Friday, we had our 3rd quarter Carnival. I posted about my carnivals here. You can learn about how they and my behavior management system work. 2 of my sweet students weren't able to attend. I think it was wayyy harder on me than it was on them...especially given that I have such a well behaved group this year!
We had the usual carnival foods...corndogs, apples, popcorn...this one was really thrown together but the best part about it was the cupcakes! One of the sweetest teen girls ever made these Funnel Cake cupcakes for me!

Aren't they adorable!? And they were delicious...I had 3 in one day! Don't judge me!

Last but not least...I bought this expensive baby yesterday afternoon at Frys...one of the most overwhelming and largest electronic stores! I need to spend the next couple of nights backing up all the schtuff on my 2005 dell laptop...she's going through some serious therapy right now and the doctors don't expect her to recover :( This is a big deal for me...she's been such a faithful and trustworthy friend all these years! We looked at replacements while at Frys but just the idea of a new one fried my brain!

Here goes some back up action! Happy Monday!