Some Projects...

Do you ever have those projects that you expect to be quick, easy, fun and done in no time...and they end up taking so much longer than expected, involving way more depth than you thought and then you have more than one of those and they all culminate at the EXACT same time causing chaos?!  Maybe it is just because I am still learning or maybe its just normal!  So a few blogs ago, when I was talking about week 4 and starting a literary element unit and a plant unit, I never thought that on week 8 we would be finishing them up and FINALLY moving on on week 9!  I only have about 90 minutes a week of teaching time for Science and Social Studies and then a 2.5 hour block on Friday's where a sub is with my kids...which makes getting in what I want to observe for learning tough!  Regardless, we moved s.l.o.w.l.y through our plant unit!  Luckily, when we finally dove into the final project from an amazing unit created by Linda Kamp, the kids blew me away with their writing skills and knowledge on plants, plant parts, chlorophyl, photosynthesis, jobs of the plant parts, and so much more!!  Check out the unit here on TPT! The kids really showed me just how smart they were =)

As far as our literary element unit - we read and discussed the literary elements in so many books I think my kids are experts!  They are noticing literary elements like I never imagined!  We worked collaboratively as a class the first few books, students did a Sylvester and the Magic Pebble book study with literary elements from Reagan Tunstall, and finally got to brainstorm and write their own story using literary elements!  The story writing took awhile as we also have a limited amount of Writer's Workshop time in a day, and we eventually just took some time off from our Daily 5 and dove into finishing our Literary Element Story final copy!  Occasionally, I let the kids type their stories and this one they really wanted to type - so I caved..and added MORE time onto our project - but it was so worth it to see their final copies because they rocked =)

We also read some Robert Munsch Alligator Baby and completed a great craftivity relating to that!  Check out the unit here on TPT and see how great my kiddos did!  We really love Robert Munsch!

Moving on - my Mom will be arriving in St Kitts to visit me in 23 days and I CANNOT WAIT!!  I took a Monday/Tuesday off and we will get 4 days together to chill and relax then she is coming to work with me for a couple days before leaving me again!  While I HATE saying goodbye at the end of these visits, I am SO ecstatic for her to be here again and have it be JUST her and I!!  This girl really loves her Mom and has learned to appreciate and value her even more since moving to another country!

Happy March! =)