Rocks in His Head and A Little Problem-Solving!

Our main selection for the week was "Rocks in His Head".  This was a fast and furious kind of week, so I knew I had to throw a craftivity into the mix somehow to give a little something back to my kiddos.  We've really been focusing on the series' essential questions this year, and I do think it's made a big difference for my kiddos.  This week, I wanted to do a little reader response activity to help bring us closer to the concept question of the week.

So, after working through a few repeated readings, I broke my kiddos into groups to form discussion tables.  I lifted text from the story to correspond with questions I wanted my students to ponder.  Of course, they could always go back to the text to look it up, but I wanted to draw their attention to particular passages as they discussed their thoughts.  

I used little color-coded rock cards to randomly group my kiddos for this activity.  :)  

{Yes, that's my Coke in the corner.  I was pulling a late night at school, and I was in serious need of caffeine! Ha!}  

The kiddos worked around the butcher paper to discuss their ideas and record their answers.

Here's an example of how they turned out.  It's nothing fancy, but it got the job done! :)

To try to get to the heart of the story, we talked a lot about unique interests and how our passions can lead us down different paths in life.  I had the kiddos make text-to-self connections by thinking about their own unique interests.  We made little rock people to reflect on how our interests shape us and lead us to new opportunities.

Before starting this story, we had just wrapped up Unit 2 which is all about solving problems.  (As I mentioned before, we take about 8 days for each story.  We also skipped Unit 3 as a district to allow us to take our time and use Unit 3's stories and resources supplementally.  So, if you are wondering why this seems so wonky and out of order, it's because we aren't progressing from one story to the next in order.  Just a little nugget for my RS peeps!)  Anyway, to wrap up our unit, the kiddos had to work to create plans for inventions that would help solve problems.  They used the "Inventor's Notepad" from my Inventors: An Engineering Workshop unit.  I may not teach science anymore, but I love to incorporate it whenever I can.  :)

After planning out their inventions, the kiddos were responsible for creating advertisements and commercials, and they presented them to the class.  I think they had some really great ideas!  :)

It's still been super busy at school, and you know you've had a crazy week when you find yourself eating your lunch here... after running all over the place for the rest of your lunch period... on a Friday...

...but it's funny.  It's amazing how you can have the most hectic day, week, or month, and when it comes down to it, seeing your students grow, learn, and enjoy the process is totally worth it in the end.  

In closing, I want to leave you with a moment that caused me to giggle this week.  One of my students is in Girl Scouts, and she said she had to use a doll to represent a person for one of her badges.  She decided to create yours truly.  As you know, I've had braces for about a year and a half.  (Yay.)  Well, she is in the process of starting orthodontics herself, so I've fielded lots of questions over the past few months.  Friends, I'd like to introduce you to "Mrs. Nickerson".  I die!

Bahahahahaha!  I don't know whether to be flattered that she used Barbie or saddened that her/my braces are so noticeable!  Ha!  :)  Either way, my first thought was, "How precious!", and my second thought was, "I cannot wait to get these things off of my face!"  :)  Oh, kiddos!  They always find ways to make you laugh, right?!  

Well, it's Friday, and I am about to indulge in Chinese food.  {No cooking for this lady tonight!}  I'm about to kick up my feet, relax, and breathe.  :)  Have a great weekend, friends!