One Teacher's Adventures

  Looking for a great Back to School activity for middle school? This 3-day lesson asks your students to choose one word to act as their motto to drive them forward this year. Students will create a poster and a paragraph to explain why they chose their word and how they are going to use that word to help them reach their goals. Students begin by brainstorming a list of character traits that they admire in other people and answering questions such as "What have you always wanted to be able to do?" and "If you had the resources, what would you do for someone else to change their life for the better?" These questions help students to connect with their values and what is important to them. Next, they work through the writing process to draft and revise a paragraph and poster to share their word to with others. I have also used this as a back to school activity and as a New Year's Resolutions activity and I always get amazing results from the students.  To download...

  I've used this format to teach independent novels to students in grades 5-9.  Because it is so open-ended, it allows for easy differentiation of kids in the same grade, or for kids in split classes. I like this project a lot because it is very student-centred, and once I hand out the project outline, the students can work at their own pace.  Because there is so much choice involved, the quality of work is usually very high, as well. I have borrowed pieces of this from other bloggers and teacher friends.  I've also been adding to it/changing things around for a few years, and I have forgotten which pieces came from whom.  If you see one of your ideas, please know that I love it (which is why it's still in my project), and let me know in the comments so that I can credit you! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Choice Novel Project Over the next four weeks, you will complete a choice novel study p...

Teaching the 5 W's - Who, What, Where, When, and Why - has never been my favourite subject.  And because I am not too excited about it, my students don't get too excited about it, either.  For me, it's just tedious. Last year, I was teaching a Grade 4/5 class, and when we looked at informational writing, the 5 W's came up again.  I tried to find a fun and creative way to liven up this topic, and I remembered something I had seen on Pinterest , coming from a blog called Sarcasm 101 - story sticks! Ruby, the original poster, used coloured popsicle sticks as elements of a story.  One colour for character, another for conflict, etc. I decided to adapt the idea, and make each colour stick into one of the 5 W's.   I spent an hour or so coming up with a class set of sticks.  The red sticks show "WHEN," green sticks show "WHERE," yellow sticks show "WHO," and the blue sticks "WHAT."   I told my students to pretend they w...