Peek Into My Planbook and FREEBIE

This week during our Rocks and Minerals unit students learned through many hands on activities.  We started off the week with a KWL chart.  Students had many"W's" they wanted to learn, and by the end of the week, we have covered everyone's question.

One day, students enjoyed comparing rocks by different properties.  Rocks are always fascinating to my students each year, and this year was no different.

I also shared my pics of when I went mining in North Carolina when I was in college.  They loved seeing me in old "work" clothes with my pick, bucket, etc.

Our last day, we had the best time making our own rocks.  I got so excited with it myself...I didn't get any pictures.  :(  Why do I do that???

Anyway this is what we did.  I brought in chips of "rocks" in three different colors.

dark brown colored "rocks"

white "rocks"

and yellowish brown colored "rocks.

Yeah...they were chocolate, white chocolate, and butterscotch chips.

With putting the chips in ziploc bags, and dipping them in a bowl of hot water, we saw how the rocks melt.  Then by putting them in cold water, the rocks hardened.  When placing a layer of soft rocks of each "flavor" on top of each other, sedimentary rocks could be formed.  We saw how the rocks can crumble into smaller pieces.  They LOVED this!  Plus they got to EAT their rocks. 

SO MUCH FUN!

And here's a FREEIE for you!

So, now go over and take a peek into other teacher's planbooks for the week!

Visit HERE!

Chatterbox Blessings,

A Peek At My Week

I'm linking with Clutter-Free Classroom for a "Peek In My Planbook Week".  So here's a peek at one thing we did this week.  

We focused on "Characters" this week in reading.  Our story was A Day's Work which is a story about a little boy, Francisco, that wants to help his abuelo {grandfather}find work.  His grandfather has just arrived to this country and only speaks Spanish.  The little boy tells a lie to get his grandfather the job of as a gardener.  He tells the man that his abuelo was a gardener in Mexico.  However, since abuelo isn't really a gardener, and Francisco doesn't know anything about plants, they pull out the ice plants and keep the chickweed.  Fortunately, the little boy learns a very important lesson about lying.

Half of the class focused on Francisco and half of the class focused on Abuelo.  We brainstormed a great list of words that would describe characters toward the beginning of the week.  All week, students focused on "what their character said" and "what their character did".  Toward the end of the week, students received a graphic organizer to get their thoughts in place on their character. 

 Friday, students met in groups depending on their character.  They compared their graphic organizer, made decisions on words that really described their characters, and then chose someone to write their ideas on chart paper.  

Students then chose two reporters to report their findings and show their chart on their character.  

After each group presented their chart, as a class, we try to make connections between these two characters and any other character that we have read this year.

They really had a good time with this activity, and it was a successful activity!

Hope you had a great week.  Can't wait to see other's "peek of their week".

Enjoyed our chat,