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. 

Five for Friday ~ Spring Break Edition

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the fabulous Five for Friday linky party. Today is the Spring Break edition! 

1. As you read I am enjoying a weekend getaway with my hubby in the great Smoky Mountains. 

Photo courtesy of http://smokyphotos.com

2. Managed to do ALL the Spring cleaning by Tuesday afternoon.  Ahh..don't you just love the way a clean house feels? 

3. Had a very enjoyable lunch with some teaching friends I no longer get to see everyday. Catching up during the day and having a lunch that lasts longer than 15 minutes is so nice! 

4. I stocked up on some games and task cards this past weekend during the TpT sale, so I put the laminator to good use and got those ready for the classroom!

Question: How do you print all these amazing, cutesy things? Do you have a laser color printer (drool) or are you just selective about what you print in color? 

5. Classroom ideas have been pretty scarce on the blog this week, but I have plans to be back with some great stuff next week - if going back to school doesn't sap all the life right out of me.....

Enjoy your weekend! 

~Courtney 

Tame the Paper Monster Part 5: Student Files

In this last and final installment of my Tame the Paper Monster series we will tackle the student files. 

I don't know about you, but in my school we are required to keep a file for each child. In those files we keep notes, excuses, tardy slips, and a few signed forms from the beginning of the year. 

After a couple years of writing on labels and sticking them over the names of last year's students I decided there had to be a better way. I went in search of a solution (on proteacher.net) and found one of the best organizing ideas I've used in my classroom. Now, I don't have any record of whose idea this was, so if it belong to you I want to know so I can tell you how smart you are!

The lovely person on the message board suggested buying one of these: 

This one is around $12 on Amazon. You can click on the picture to go to the product site on Amazon.

I purchased mine at WalMart and cut the top off just so I could have easier access. Then I labeled each tab 1-21 and printed a little numbered class list and taped it onto the front of the folder. Each student's information is placed in the file that matches their number - easy peasy! 

Now, I keep this instead of an individual file for each student because this method saves a lot of time and folders! At the beginning of each year I purge my files and tape on a new class list for a fresh start. I've been using this same folder for at least 5 years and it is still going strong. 

This probably wouldn't work for you if you are required to keep folders that must be handed down at the end of the year, but maybe you could think of some other way to use this handy time saver in your room? 

April Currently

Since I'm new in bloggie land this is my first time linking up with Farley at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade!

• My sister says I could record the dog snoring and sell it as white noise for people to fall asleep to. 
• Its Tuesday evening and all the Spring Cleaning is D-O-N-E!!! I'm doing the happy dance!!! 
• Did you read Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire? The companion Walking Disaster came out today and since all the cleaning is done I think I may download it. 
• As a new blogger I'm always grateful for any advice on blogging that others are willing to give. Even something as simple as posting in this linky can be a challenge for new bloggers and required some help from Chikadee Jubilee. 

Tried it Tuesday {MobyMax}

It's Spring Break week, so I'm getting to link up extra early with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for her Tried it Tuesday linky party! Yay!

I'd been hearing a lot of buzz about MobyMax so last week I decided to give it a try.

Like others had said, it was very easy to use. Setting up my class was quick and I had my students logged in and pretesting within a matter of minutes. I even did this part without watching all of the tutorial. I know...instructions first, but sometimes you just gotta jump in and get your feet wet first.

My favorite part about the whole program? IT READS TO THE STUDENTS!!! This is huge for me since I work in a collaborative classroom and have special ed students who need to be read to. It gives the kids a sense of independence they don't often get and it free me up to monitor and help other students. 

I was able to get all of my students tested in a window of about 40 minutes. The results seem to be pretty much in line with what I see daily in the classroom. 

I like the idea that someone else is generating the vocabulary words my students study. Not that I mind coming up with words to study, but sometimes I get stuck in a rut and I think its good for my kids to see material generated from other sources. 

I like that the practice is self-guided and generated by the program, but I also have the option to assign words and lessons if I want.

I'm thinking I'd like to have my students use this program during our vocabulary station and one day a week in the computer lab. 

Now I have some questions for MobyMax veteran users out there: 

1. Have your students made improvements? Do you think this is a worthwhile use of your time? 

2. When/how did you integrate the program into your classroom and how much time do you devote to it? 

I'd love to hear anything you have to share about the program. So far I like what I've seen but its always helpful hear from others who have some experience too! 

Anticipating the Month Ahead {April}

I'm excited to be joining up with Jessica at Literacy Sparks for her first linky party! I'm always looking ahead and planning..what teacher isn't really? 

Here are the rules: 

• Share one thing you are looking forward to during the month of April.
• Share one thing you are dreading during the month of April.
• Share one thing that you hope to accomplish during the month of April.

And here is what I'm anticipating for the month of April...

Looking forward to Spring Break this week! A really nice way to start the month. 

Dreading the start of "testing season". 

Hoping to accomplish successful small group and station review session for both Social Studies and reading. 

Five for Friday

I'm joining up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for another Five for Friday linky party.

1. The work week started out with 2 snow days! I took advantage of the time to get a game plan for reviewing after we get back from Spring Break. I also spent some a lot of time cuddling with this cutie. Snow days are exhausting for him.....

2. I am officially on Spring Break!!! Even though we had two snow days this week there is just something so different (and wonderful) about knowing that I don't have school for 5 whole days! I have dreams of cleaning, reading, catching up with friends, and a fun weekend with my hubby. 

3. We made it through the last set of parent conferences for the year!

 

4. I am so looking forward to this Easter weekend. After celebrating the resurrection of my Savior at Church on Sunday morning we are going to have the family over for a food fest and egg hunt, if the weather will cooperate. 

5. After two snow days and two days of benchmark testing, we were finally back to a somewhat normal schedule. Before the kids came in this morning I hid 40 eggs around the room. I was giddy...it was so much fun just hiding the eggs! We got Friday started right with this super fun activity from Collaboration Cuties. You can check it out here. I had each kid find two eggs, read the words inside and then drop them into the correct basket. We then went through the eggs as a class and checked/discussed. My kiddos were great and we all had such a good time! Even thought Easter will be well behind us when we return from Spring Break I plan on using this activity in a center because the kids loved it!

~Courtney