After Ever Disney

I saw this video on my Google Reader the other day (on a side note, how sad is it that Google Reader is retiring?!):

I LOVED it! How great would this be to show to students (it might have a few slightlyyyyy inappropriate moments for kids under 8th grade) and then have them come up with the "ever afters" for other disney/fairy tale characters.

I was trying to think of other characters they could "ever after" this is what I have so far:

Cinderella 

Snow White

Any of the Dwarfs 

Pinocchio 

Peter Pan

Dalmatians

Lion King

Timon and Pumba

Sleeping Beauty 

Bambi

Tinker Bell  

Any of the Pooh characters  (maybe they could use the image below to guide them haha)

I am trying to come up with fun activities to do after the SOL tests are over this year that are not movies, and I think this idea might be a winner!

Zombie Science

I don't know what it is about my students the last few years but they are OBSESSED with zombies!

I found this video the other day and LOVED it!

I thought it could be a neat intro for a zombie writing assignment or two. 

I found the following prompts:

1. You wake up, only to find yourself covered in dirt. You have no idea how you got here. You start to dig. It seems to be taking forever. Keep digging. Finally you reach up and a million smells hit you at once. You crawl out of the pile of dirt. Something smells weird………. Finish the story, you are the zombie.

2. The zombie apocalypse has begun. Describe your lead character and the group that follows. Let your readers know the ins and outs of their compound.

3. Heather has been crushing on the boy next door since they were in third grade. One morning she peaks between her curtains to see him standing in the window. He appears to be undead. Tell the story.

4. Your best friend has been cursed, he must spend the rest of his life looking like a zombie. Tell the tale of the curse and how two friends break it.

5. The character is digging in her garden when a familiar hand reaches up for her.

6. Your character is taking a walk in Central Park. The wind is chilly, the park, oddly silent. There is a man sitting on the bench holding a newspaper. As the character jogs past, only one headline catches attention; ZOMBIES!!!

7. Write a zombie love story. Start it with a line like – the most beautiful piece of flesh I ever saw was…

8. (Insert favorite social media here) is taken over by zombies.

9. The characters favorite doll turns into a zombie. The rest of the toys follow, one-by-one.

10. Write a poem containing these keywords – zombie, flesh, dirt, earth, blood, stink, rot

Before students turn it in they could "zombify" themselves and put it at the top of their writing prompt?

I found a few neat "Make yourself a zombie" suites:

http://makemezombie.com/
http://www.deadyourself.com/walkers

Me as a zombie! (Gross!)

Left vs Right Brain

I found this Infograph the other day and thought it was interesting. 

Via: Online College Advice

I think that it would be a nice addition to my "learning styles" lesson that I do at the start of each year.

Free Learning Styles Prezi/inventory

At the start of each year I do a learning styles inventory on the first day of school and have the kids write about how they learn best on an index card. They then post these on my bulletin board.

Each class is assigned a color so I can see if any one class has a specific learning style.

The classes this year are pretty spread out, but most of them believe themselves to be musical learners. 

(This is good since I use a lot of music in my class!)

I also have a section in my room for early finishers/extra credit that is geared towards learning styles:

Learning Styles Activities in my TPT Store 

I thought maybe I could find a way to print the left brain/right brain poster out to post in my classroom next year!

Great Opening Lines

I have a thing for Babysitters Club books. I still remember the first one I was allowed to get. It was called "Little Miss Stonybrook and Dawn!" 

I own almost every single one ever released. When I am at used book stores I still try to find the ones that I am missing to round out my collection. 

Whenever I am feeling a little down and don't feel like I can emotionally invest in an "adult" book I choose a Babysitters Club book to read. 

The other night was one of those nights and I was reading #66 "Maid Mary Anne"

The book opens with the first line from Anna Karenina. Mary Anne was thinking about great opening lines from books because her teacher had given them an assignment to write a memorable, unforgettable opening sentence for a story. 

I think that is a really great idea for me to do with my students to teach them about ATTENTION grabbing openers.

When you are writing a novel or essay you want to grab your audience's attention from the very first moment so you don't lose them before you have even really started!

What better way than to start by reading some of the greatest first lines of all time!

I found a site that has a list of great first lines of novels: 

http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0934311.html

I could have the students read through them and choose what they think are the top ten best opening lines. 

They would need to write down the quote, author, book, and why they think it is a great opening line. 

They would then need to compose what they think would be a memorable, unforgettable opening sentence for a story.  

I found this really neat site that the students could upload their opening quotes to:

http://recitethis.com

We could print and display them around the classroom and vote on the best opening lines!

Here is the handout I will have the do this on:

Opening Lines by

Odd Couples

I've written a few times about how I have one class that is just AWFUL to one another this year. 

Every Friday we have to spend 36 minutes doing the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program.   

The class that I have to meet with is the class that treats each other like crap (Which I suppose is fitting for the topic at hand). I think that a lot of the "activities" provided for us are extremely dated and very juvenile for 8th graders so I try to come up with some of my own activities to fill the time slot. 

If you know anything at ALL about me by now you know I love animals so I thought I could tie the two themes together!

I found a collection of clips about animals working together or odd animal couples I thought I could show in class:

I thought I could have a discussion with the students after showing the clips about why they think these odd couplings and teamwork work. 

I could maybe tie in the idea of different colored eggs.

Even though they are different on the outside, they have a lot of the same feelings inside.

One of the clips ends with the quote,"It seems that survival in the animal kingdom hinges not only on being the fittest, but also being a friend." 

I LOVE this quote because I think a lot of my students focus on being the "Fittest" rather than being a "Friend."

If we have time after the videos and discussion I think I would like to have students write about why being the "fittest" doesn't mean not being a "friend."

***On another note I have a student who is OBSESSED with the weather and I was trying to think of a way to incorporate a bully lesson in with the weather, but I am feeling stumped.....any ideas out there? 

Book Collage Poster Art

At the end of the school year when the students are taking standardized tests I never know which kids will be testing and which kids will actually be in my class. 

Because I this there is a certain assignment that I like to do at the end of each year. 

I am sure this has a name, but I just call it book cover collages!

The concept is that you take a picture of a book cover and you dissect it into SMALL even squares. 

Each student gets a small square and re creates it onto a full sheet of copy paper. 

When you put all the large squares together it creates an abstract looking book cover collage.

Here are some examples from previous years:

They are fun to decorate the classroom with from year to year!

Here is how it is done

First, you need to determine what book cover you would like to choose. 

I usually do 4 book covers each year (one per block)

Copy and paste this image into Word and have it fill up a large portion of the screen. 

Insert a table of 4x5 and place the table on top of the image.

Play with the margins of the table so that it fits nicely over the image. 

(See example below)

Print 2 copies of the picture out in color if you want the cover to be less abstract.

Print 2 copies of the picture out in black & white and have the students choose their own colors if you want the cover to be more abstract.

Cut the squares out neatly of ONE of the copies and number the backs of the squares

Place a piece of clear tape at the top of each square and tape it to your wall or chalkboard. (I would even go so far as to suggest putting a little dot at the top of each square so the children know which way the square should be facing. This is IMPORTANT. Every year one of my kids turns the squares all topsy turvy and their square has to be re-done)

Place a copy of the original intact picture next to the squares. 

Have each student choose a square from the book cover of their choice.

Explain that they will be taking this little square and blowing the image up on a large sheet of paper. 

Make sure that their sheet of copy paper is facing up (portrait) and that their square is also facing right side up before they begin. 

When they are complete have them write their name and square number on the back of the copy paper and that they also tape their square to the back of their sheet of copy paper. 

When everyone is complete I usually have students put the pieces of the collages together and tape them up as neatly as possible!

If the laminator is working I laminate them and save them from year to year to decorate the classroom!

Here are some of the ones that I have hanging in my classroom this year and their original pictures:

J.K. Rowling (I did the square in the center, and apparently felt she should be VERY tan)

Edgar Allen Poe- I love his extra tall forehead and hairdo haha

Night by Elie Wiesel

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire (Sorry about the glare from the florescent lights!)

***Fun add on: Have each student place their name in their image in some subtle way, like signing their artwork!

typo effects

I found this site today that I thought could be interesting in the classroom in a few different ways.

The site is: www.typoeffects.com 

You can upload a picture and it will place words of your choosing to generate your picture with words!

I like this site rather than others that I have seen a lot on Pinterest because it still retains the colors of the picture AND it is easier to read the words/see the original picture. 

I thought that it could be used at the start of the year for students to introduce themselves to the class (Instead of using tagxedo)   

I only used three words for this picture, but I was just playing around with the program. 

-or-

Students could use it with book covers or characters and write words associated with them

Harry Potter

-or-

Perhaps I could have students choose an image and write words associated with that image and then write on the following prompt:

 People say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Do you believe them? Why or why not?

Tagxedo

I stumbled upon www.tagxedo.com a few year ago and I absolutely love it! 

Instead of making standard word clouds like in Wordle you can make word clouds in the form of almost any shape. 

There are so many uses for it in the classroom!

To Show Symbolism

• Choose a symbol (shape) and put words commonly associated with the symbol inside of it
• Once completed write a paragraph about why you chose this symbol/these words and what it symbolizes

To Compare and Contrast 

Students can paste in text from documents (they will need to make two separate tagxedos) and then click "Word/Layout Options" -->Advanced-->Slide the Deja Vu scale up. 

The words used the most in a piece of text will be larger. 

I pasted in the inaugural addresses of both Bush and Obama below:

Bush 2005

Obama 2013

Students could compare and contrast these by discussing the differences in the most commonly used words in both!

Example:

They both discuss the nation quite a bit

Bush discussed the government more than Obama

Students could then make inferences to why these differences and similarities exist!

To Introduce

If you have access to a computer lab at the start of the year students could input words that represent them or items that they like. If they like something MORE they should repeat that word several times (when the tagxedo is created that word will show larger) 

Synonyms

There is a neat option where you can make the shape a word!

Click "Shape" -->"Add Words"

Students can input a boring word as the shape and then fill it with more interesting synonyms for that word!

Inference

You could input quotes from novels you have read or words associated with a specific topic you are studying and have students infer what novel/topic it relates to and explain why!

I used quotes from Harry Potter for the image below!

Improving your writing
I found this idea at: http://blog.tagxedo.com/101-ways-to-use-tagxedo-completed

How could you use Tagxedo in the classroom?

Inference Lesson: Stories Told in Pictures

I wrote a post the other day about turning words into pictures and a picture being worth 1,000 words.

This lead to me to find stories that are told using only pictures. 

This could be a great inference lesson.

The first "Story" I found was:

Love Story in 22 Pictures

My little mentee brought this one to my attention:

The Whale Hunt

I saw this on Pinterest the other day and thought it was sweet also:

Baby Will's Birthy Story

I thought I could show these to my students and have them create captions for the pictures inferring what is occurring in the photos and then write a story based only on the photos and their inferences. 

But wait there's more!

I thought that after doing this assignment, perhaps I could have kids create a photo story of their own. I could split them into groups and they could plan, storyboard, and direct photo shoots of their own devising. 

I could limit the stories to a certain number of pictures and have them printed at Wal Mart for 4 cents a piece and have the groups create a storyboard

-or-

 I could have them create a slideshow of the images themselves. 

Then each group would be assigned another group's photo slideshow and infer/write the story they think they were trying to tell! 

If you are interested in any of my inference lessons:

CLICK HERE

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Inference Pin Board

I started to create an "Inference" pin board on Pinterest recently when I came across a board by

     Rachel Lynette

I repined her pins and started adding others to the collection as well!

I couldn't figure out how I could use these pins  in my classroom since Pinterest is blocked in my school. (Is it just me or do schools block everything that could be potentially useful besides the boring educational websites?)

Then I realized that I could turn my pin board into a PDF file and show it on my promethean board or print a class set and have students make their inferences on separate sheets of paper!

In case you do not know how to do this, here are some easy steps!

Step one: Pull up your pin board and scroll to the bottom to make sure all the pins have loaded

Step two: Click "File" and "Print" in your browser window 

Step three: When the dialogue box comes up select "PDF" and "Save as a PDF"

Step four: Name it something and save it on your computer somewhere safe!

Step Five: Locate and open your PDF and feel a sense of accomplishment.

The only downside is that sometimes the captions run off on to the next page and I am unsure of how to fix this issue!

If you want to check out my Inference Pinterest Board please do!

If you are interested in any of my inference lessons:

CLICK HERE