A Peek at Our Week: Main Idea and Similes/Metaphors

Good evening, friends! It finally feels like fall here in SW Ohio. The colder temperatures made me grateful I had my favorite black bean soup cooking away in my Crockpot tonight. :)  

Last week, our focus skill was main idea.  Which can be such a hard skill for my bigger kids, especially when the main idea isn't explicitly mentioned in the first sentence or two of a paragraph/text.  

We started our week by watching BrainPop's Main Idea video.  It is one of their free videos and you can find it {here}. 

It does a great job explaining how topic and main idea are not the same.  I highly recommend using it when you teach main idea!

Our Treasures anchor text last week was A Walk in the Desert. Which can be a really long/difficult text to read.  So, we only read chunks of it and I did lots of think a louds/modeling to demonstrate how to find the main idea and supporting details of the pages we read together. 

On Tuesday, I had my students complete a formative assessment on main idea. I also had them rate themselves on their understanding of main idea. 

This is the rating scale that my partner teacher and I use.  It really helps that both of us use the same language. 

I used their formative assessment/self assessment rating to create tiered activities/groups for the next day.  

My group that had low self assessment ratings/poor performance on their formative assessments worked with me. 

We started off by constructing paragraphs using Christina's Main Idea Race.  The hands on practice was SO beneficial and really helped a lot of my students differentiate the difference between main idea sentences and detail sentences. 

Then we completed one of Tracy's Main Idea Practice Pack passages together.  My students LOVE this pack.  I love it too because of all the differentiation options it has.  

My students that rated themselves a 3 and only missed a few on their formative assessment completed Bright Concept for Teachers Main Idea Task Cards and a reading passage with a main idea web. 

This passage is from Kim Miller's Find the Main Idea With Non Fiction Texts Freebie.  

My students who rated themselves as a 4/had a perfect score on their formative assessment, completed some of Teaching With a Mountain View's Main Idea Task Cards.  

They really loved reading these passages. :) I heard lots of giggles/"I didn't know that..." while my students were working through the task cards. 

Later in the week, I introduced similes and metaphors.  We revisit this a lot throughout the year. So last week, I just focused on the differences between the two.  As the year goes on, we'll focus more on determining the meaning of the similes and metaphors we come across in our reading. 

I always play this similes and metaphor song at the beginning of our first similes and metaphor lesson. My kids always LOVE it and request it often, it also makes a great brain break!


After watching the music video, I read this book to the class to build on their knowledge of similes and metaphors. It's a fun little book and my students always enjoy it. 

You can find it on Amazon {here}. 

After the music video and read aloud, we used a flip book from my Similes and Metaphors Activity Pack to take notes/write examples of each. 

Then we played a little Simile and Metaphor Tic Tac Toe, which was a great way to practice differentiating the difference between similes and metaphors in our reading/writing. 

 Similes and Metaphor Tic Tac Toe is from my Similes and Metaphors Activity Pack too. 

We were very busy last week and we are starting the Daily Five this week!  Our first day of rotations was today and it went pretty well.  Of course we have some things to work on but overall I'm very pleased. 

Have a great week! :) 

Testing Review Stations + Shooting for CCSS Success

Since I teach upper elementary kiddos, testing is just something I have to deal with.  There are end of unit tests, SLO assessments, MAP tests, and of course of EOY state assessments.  Additionally, there are alsoDibels Assessments, Daze Assessments,end of the week assessments, etc. Testing is just something I've learned to deal with because quite honestly, it's not going away.  

One thing that I really feel helps my kiddos not be so anxious for all these tests is just reassuring them that they are ready with some type of review day before we take some of our bigger assessments.  We refer to our OAA assessments as our final performance and all our bigger assessments (unit assessments, MAP tests, etc.)  along the way are dress rehearsals that help get us ready.  Of course, before our dress rehearsals we have to have a practice, or rehearsal, to get us ready.  

Last week, my students participated in PARCC field testing in Language Arts.  All I can say is that I gave it, so please don't ask anymore. ;). They were pretty tested out, so we participated in some review "rehearsal" days the last two days before spring break to get ready for our SLO, a growth measure that districts in Ohio use to measure student progress, after spring break. 

I hung up some Hollywood themed decorations for the occasion and my kiddos went crazy! I got these at Party City and I'll have to go back for some more fun stuff for our OAA Red Carpet Week, the week right before testing. I even used a director's board to announce it was time to switch rotations.  I called out "SLO Review Take One, Two, etc." 

We moved through six rotations, three each day, due to other scheduling changes.  Normally, I think we could have done all six.  On these rehearsal days, we do not do Daily Five rotations, this is our reading work for the day. 

I put the stations in these baskets from the Dollar Tree.  In each basket was the activity itself and anything else they may need to complete it, like highlighters, anchor charts, sentence frames, etc. The students worked through the stations with their tables.  I put a station on each table and they just rotated through the tables.  They had about ten to fifteen minutes for each station and if they finished a station early, they read one of their self selected reading books that they took to each station with them.   I put all of their response pages in a packet for them as well.  

For each review/rehearsal day we do, I pull resources on standards I feel my students more work with. I prefer to do stations like this rather than whole class reviews, such as Jeopardy games, because I feel they hold each students a bit more accountable for actually reviewing.  We don't get to review every standard they will be tested on this way, but it works for us.  :)

One station was identifying informational text structures.  Something we need LOTS more work with apparently, since I had quite a few questions from my classes when they worked at this center. :)

Inside the tub were copies of Amanda's Informational Text Structure Posters and some of Rachel's Informational Text Structure Task Cards. I highlighted some key words/phrase to get them started/get their brains moving. 

One station was working with shades of meaning/synonyms.  I left dictionaries out at this table for my kiddos to use, as some cards were tricky! 

I used Rachel's synonyms task cards for grades 4-6 for this station.  Obviously, I love her task cards. :) Who doesn't love repeated exposure to standards? I know I sure do, and it really has made a difference with my kiddos' test scores!

One station was all about theme.  I printed two of Rachel's theme task cards and had students justify the theme they chose on their recording sheet. It was a great way to get some additional extended response practice in.  

With each of these stations, I only used a small fraction of these resources.  This means I still have plenty of resources to use for future review and kept the amount of work my students were expected to do in ten to fifteen minutes extremely manageable. 

One station had my kiddos review primary/secondary sources.  I got the review activity from this website.  To save on copies, I just included the recording sheet in their packets and copied the firsthand and secondhand accounts on card stock to all students to use. 

The next station came from one of my FAVORITE packs, Tracy's Find Us Forever Homes.  Inferring with text based evidence is huge in fourth grade and this pack is PERFECT for inferring with non fiction.

We've done a few doggie adoptions already and they were so excited to do another one.  :)  I loved reading their responses as to why the family they chose was the perfect family for the dog they were helping.  

Finally, we did some work with main idea and detail.  I haven't done as much work with main idea and detail this year, so I provided a lot of support at this station.  This also let me know that I needed to do some more lessons/activities with this standard. :)

For this station, I used Tracy's Animal Main Idea Practice Pack.  I love this pack because of the differentiation it provides and the passages are really engaging for my kiddos. :)

When we return from spring break, we'll be doing a few weeks of book clubs.  Which my kiddos are super excited about. However, as a teacher I'm freaking out a bit.  The OAA is right around the corner, and I want to make sure we touch upon some of the standards we've struggled with a few more times.  

So yesterday, I worked hard a packet I plan to use as a little warm up before book clubs. 

My kiddos love basketball, so I took that theme and ran with it.  I created five printables to review multiple meaning words, point of view, suffixes, text structure, and inferencing.  I plan on using one of them each day next week as a little reading warm up before book clubs. 

Although I am using them for daily spiral review as a warm up before book clubs, they certainly have many more uses. :) You can use them for morning work, for remediation/enrichment, homework, and much more.  

I'm already drawing out plans for the next pack to use the following week.  I'm hoping a new theme each week will keep my kiddos a little more excited and engaged. :)  If you are interested in this product, you can check it out here or click on any of its pictures. :)  

I have also added an environmental themed review packet to my little store as well.  We had such a great week of review with our basketball printables, that I knew I had to make another set!

You can check this pack out by clicking on any of the pictures above or by clicking {here}. 

I'm about to hit publish and get out and enjoy the rest of the weekend! Have a great one! 

Fluency Intervention Tub Update

Hi friends! I hope everyone is having a great day! I'm loving the warmer temperatures and am so excited to take my sweet babies on a walk later. :)

Before I start tackling my Saturday to do list, I wanted to share how fluency tubs are working in my classroom this year.  I originally blogged about them {here}. 

Fluency tubs is a time of the day that my kiddos really enjoy.  It's full of games and fun stuff like reading in fun point of view voices and I LOVE being able to let them play games in language arts. Playing games is something I really miss about teaching math.  My OTES, our evaluation system in Ohio, goal was to have each of my kiddos grow about 30 words in the oral reading fluency by the end of the year, a gain of a little under a word a week. I am proud to say that 98% of my kids are well on their way to surpassing that this year.   Which I fully attribute that to fluency tubs and lots of independent reading during Read to Self. 

My fluency tubs consist of five tubs/rotations.  My students rotate through each rotation/tub with their tables.  My students visit one rotation/tub a day and each rotation/tub lasts about ten minutes. 

One rotation is working with me.  We work mainly on context clues during this time.  We mainly use these cloze passage to practice or various materials I purchase on TpT.  :) A few times a month, I also do ORF checks/data points with my kiddos.  

You can check out this resource {here}.

Another rotation is fry phrase fluency games.  I several sets in my store {here} and even though my kids are bigger, they LOVE getting a new game every month. 

I alway try to keep my eyes peeled for a fun bag/container at Target/Party City each month.  It just adds a little bit of extra fun. :)

This month, we are using my Pot of Gold Fluency Game. 

Another rotation is some type of poetry reading.  Last year I used these poems.  This year, my kiddos weren't exactly loving them.  So now I just search online for free seasonal poems, or use ones I've collected throughout the years.  For some reason, they like these a lot better. I still do add some of the partner poems for building fluency, just not every week.

Since the element of choice is very motivating for my kiddos, I love including several poems on a page and allowing them to pick.  My students take turns reading the poems with their shoulder partner and using the awesome Point of View Cards from my sweet friend Amanda. 

Another rotation is repeated readings of decodable passages using our weekly spelling patterns.  This is a new addition this year and something I just recently discovered came with our reading program.  This isn't their favorite but it's AWESOME fluency practice.  

The last rotation is another type of game.  Right now, it's Fry Phrase Tic Tac Toe. 

This activity is from one of my newest resources. 

Tic Tac Toe has been a recent addition to our rotations, and we have been loving it. :)  I have a fourth grade edition, fourth one hundred phrases, and a third grade edition, third one hundred phrases.  First and second grade fry phrase tic tac toe boards are coming soon! 

Third Grade Edition

I keep all my fluency tubs on a book shelf that stores all my word work centers.  We keep the lids off this year, for easy recognition.  

I hope you've enjoyed learning about how our fluency tubs are working this year.  This ten minute time in my room is fun, purposeful, and makes such a difference. :) 

Have a great weekend! 
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