Making Inferences, New Bag, and the Monster Mash

Happy Friday! It's time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to get y'all caught up on what's been happing in my polka dotted world this week! 

1. We've been working on making inferences. We started out with an Interactive Notebook lesson. I used the blank template from this lesson by Erin at I'm Lovin' Lit to create the foldable for this page. 

I scored some major points with the kiddos on this one because they thought the puzzle was just the coolest foldable they'd ever seen! 

2. We read The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg. The kids were so anxious to get to the end of the book and see who the stranger was. They loved, I loved it, all was well! 

3. We created this anchor chart. I am really getting into using post-its for my anchor charts since I teach 3 different ELA groups. Thanks, Christina at Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge for the fabulous idea!! 

I also used a Pinterest tutorial to learn how to print on post-its, so that made the chart making that much quicker! 

4. My name is Courtney and I'm addicted to bags. There, I said it. Now, I can show you the new bag I got!! I'd been eyeing this one from Vera Bradley all Spring/Summer, but just couldn't do it until it went on sale last week! 

It was everything I'd hoped for and more..haha!! I love those two pockets on the outside, the handles are long enough to go over my shoulder, and my camera case fits inside with plenty of room to spare. I have smaller camera case that I'll swap out with this one, so it'll be just right for a few folders, some papers, and my planner. It's also deep enough to throw my lunch in on top. 

Have I mentioned that my dream job would be selling bags on QVC? LOL

5. I'm helping out with the Monster Mash dance at school this evening. I've heard my job will be judging the costume contest, so I'm pretty excited. I've been singing the Monster Mash all week, so I had to share!! It is one of my favorites during this time of the year!! 

Have a great weekend!! 

Inferences, Prefixes and Suffixes, and a Dollar Store Find {Five for Friday}

We made it! It is finally Friday and time for Five for Friday at Doodle Bugs Teaching.

1. Have you ever had one of those weeks where you are just thankful to have made it to Friday all in one piece? I didn't even need to look up to know that there was a full moon this week! W-O-W did we have a week....not following directions, way too talkative, and some very smart mouths. I am glad it is over and also glad that Monday will bring us a fresh start. 

2. We worked on inferencing this week and took some time to create these fun foldables from A Teacher's Treasure. 

3. We also did this great prefix/suffix sort from Mrs. Lesser's Classroom.

4. I found this great tub at the Dollar General for $5 and plan on using some vinyl to turn it into a clipboard tote. I'll post more pictures when I get it all finished! The DG has some very fun, bright things out right now for Spring and Summer! 

5. We are celebrating three birthdays this weekend, so I'm looking forward to some much needed family time and relaxing. 

I hope you enjoy your weekend! 

A Train to Somewhere - Making Inferences {Mentor Text}

I'm linking up with Amanda & Stacia at Collaboration Cuties for their mentor text linky. This week the theme is Language Arts.

Train to Somewhere by Eve Bunting is based on the true story of the orphan trains that carried children to the midwest in hopes of finding families to adopt them. It is a heartbreaking book, but also a great way to talk about perseverance and how our dreams can change. 

I used this book as an assessment for making inferences this year, but it could just as easily be used to introduce the concept or for more practice with the skill. 

This story happens to be included in our reading series (this is the only story I use from that book), so it was nice that every child had a copy of the book to read along with. I created a chart for students to use as their assessment. The chart had three columns and they were labeled "What the Author Tells Me", "What I Know", and "My Inference".  As we read I stopped at predetermined places and had them write their inference. My students were really successful with this activity. 

A few years back my teaching partner even assigned each student the name of a real child from the orphan train and then had her students research what happened to the child after they were adopted. The students loved it and it was great motivation for doing research! 

How do you use this book in your classroom? I'd love to get some new ideas for next year!

Click over to Collaboration Cuties to read about other great mentor texts and link up with your own.