GRA: Our One and Only Trading Cards!!!!!

 The past couple of weeks we have been making trading cards for the characters in the book Out of My Mind. We have been making the trading cards on some of the characters in the book. In case you don't know, Out Of My Mind is this year's Global Read Aloud book. We used an app on Mrs. Ramsay's iPad called Trading Card. Pretty basic name, but it is an awesome app. You can make trading cards on anything or on anyone. From fictional character to a real person. It is fantastic. Trading Card is one of our lit centers. We did this so, we could share what we thought about the characters. We analyzed and explained who the character was, the problem, the outcome, and the character's feelings. It really helped us feel the characters feelings. It made us realize how the characters lives and acts. Here are some of the trading cards we did in class. Blog you later!!! -SC & TD

Book Trailers: Skyping

We Skyped with people in Hueytown Middle School to talk about the book trailers we are publishing. We gave them ideas and they gave us ideas on tools, books, and management tips. They told us what books they were doing, so we did too. In some of the book trailers, people drew it, took pictures of people who acted as the characters in the book that they were doing, or they took videos too. We really enjoyed when they explained what books they were doing. Some of them we hadn't even heard of! The ones that we did, but hadn't read, sounded really good. They got good ideas from us.We cant wait to see how there book trailers are going. Skyping was a great way to learn from people who aren't in our class...and it's fun! ~MD and TB

Book Collages 2013

Here are the Book Collage projects created by 1st/2nd period. They were a lot of fun to create.

Book Trailer and Scanner Collage Book Project Rubrics

We are currently working on book projects which will have students showing evidence of mastery of multiple ELA standards. The honors classes, along with students from Hueytown Middle School, are creating a collection of Book Trailers to recommend and promote reading in both schools. The on-level, sixth grade class is creating Scanner Collage Book Projects (some examples can be seen here: Sample 1, Sample 2, Sample 3.

In our class, the students create the rubric and design the projects with Mrs. Ramsay's help.

Here is the rubric for the Book Trailer project and the Scanner Collage project.

Student Taught Great Depression Lesson

Our class is reading the book Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. This story takes place in the years of The Great Depression.  I (David) thought about doing a project on the years of The Great Depression to build our background knowledge for the book. I told Mrs.Ramsay that if we could do something that involved a whole team, it would be really great. I came up with the idea of making a illustration of a topic og causes of  The Great Depression. Each team could do a different illustration and then we could publish them on InstaCollage. I thought if we watched a Brain Pop on The Great Depression everyone could think of a cause to illustrate about.
Now, it was my turn to be the teacher. First, I started to tell everyone about my plan. After, they agreed to my plan, we watched the Brain Pop video on the casuese of the Great Depression. Once we were done watching the video, I told the class if they could think about some topics on the video. We made a list of all of the casues on teh board as a class. Then each team chose one of the casues.  Once we were done writing the topics down on the board, I had to make a drawing so each table could failrly choose a cause and make an illustration. If I didn't do the drawing that would not have been fair to the other tables. Once each table had a topic, each table had to illustrate their topic. When everyone was done with their illustration we had to make those pictures into a InstaCollage. I had some help from Luke to make the InstaCollage becasue he had some experience usig that app. Once we were done with that, we printed the collage for the ahllway and pubished it on our website. After we finished this lesson and project, we all saw the Great Depression in a different way.

Book image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud,_Not_Buddy

Innovation Day- January 2013

Some people may ask "What is Innovation Day?" To our class this isn't a foreign subject. Innovation day is a day were in the classroom the students can choose any topic they can learn about and create a project to teach their information to the other students and the teacher. We organized Innovation Day by informing the students of what Innovation Day is and how they can display their projects.

This year, the students covered many topics from Ancient Greek to Narwhals.  Some examples of the projects are how sound waves travel, and demonstrations of different styles of art. Normally the teacher teaches and the students learn,but on Innovation Day the students are the teachers. Innovation Day teaches the students learn about many different subjects at the same time that aren't even in the curriculum. Innovation Day teaches students how to learn new things while controlling their learning. After all of the students are finished with their projects they present them to their peers and teach them what they have learned.

Tweet Stories

                                                      

 Today we were given the challenge to create a story in 140 characters or less. We thought it would be easy, but we learned to be careful selecting our words to say the most important things. This challenged our thinking and creativity. Can you write Tweet Story? We challenge you to try and share your story in a  comment. We hope you enjoy our Tweet Stories.

Dancing with the Pigs

As a pig wants to be a dancing  star! He always warn heed his favorite TV show, Dancing with the Pigs and dreamed he could dance there one day. 

Dreamland

There once was a land called dreamland. Where people imagined things and they appeared. Jack lives there, and my job is defeating furious dragons.

A Prince and Princess                                                       

Once upon a time there was a princess who was very intelligent but, her parents mistreated her. She met  a prince and they ran away. 

 Spoiled Girl

One morning a witch snuck out to grab children. A spoiled little girl got caught. She pitched a fit and the witch let her go.

Haunted House

Once upon a  time  Lauren and Brooke went to a haunted house. As they creeped through a man with a chainsaw jumped out. They ran for our lives and never looked back.

Billy

Billy is a superhero. He likes to help people with problems. He loves to fight crime, and make the world a better place.

Gross 

An alien named Bob came to planet E. He thought humans were the grossest thing he'd ever seen. Bob threw up all day long and flew away quickly.

Dancing Al 

There was an elephant named Al. He dreamed of cheering for Alabama. He kicked the old mascot of the stage and cheered his heart out.

Fighting for the Right to Dribble

Julie lives in 1974. She is a bright girl. She finds out at school that no girls can play basketball. Julie protested and now they have a girls team.    

Bad Luck? 

Once there was a brown dog and a black cat.The brown dog was jumpy because he thought the black cat was bad luck. It wasn't true. They met and became friends.

World Record for... 

One time a monkey wanted to get into the world record book. He wanted to break the banana eating record. He did by eating 248 bananas. 

Polly Want a Win          A parrot wanted to win a phrase saying contest. He practiced for 26 days. He won by saying 469   phrases.  

A Dog with a Blog 

One day Mya and her family found the most adorable dog and took him home. When they turned around to get him food, he disappeared. He was blogging on their computer. 

A Surprising End 

A frog wanted to kiss a princess, but the princess thought he was disgusting. She finally agreed. When they kissed, she turned into a frog. 

 Suzzy's Dream

A panda named Suzzy wanted to work at a circus. Suzzy had a ungue talent. She can pogo stick and eat ice cream. A circus man discovered Suzzy and she worked at the circus. 
Lost Dog

There was a dog that loved to play. While playing, he found a path. It took him to another world. He was scared and returned home. 

Fame and Learning 

There is a famous person named Mrs. Ramsay. She became famous by giving her students tools to learn. She gave them tech; they Skype too. 

Cheer 

There was a girl named Chelsea. She wanted to cheer at ACE. Her dad said no. So she cried all day, and she gave her dad the silent  treatment. 

Goners 

We went to an old house. Inside, a witch told us to stay and offered candy. She put us in a hot tub. We knew that we were goners. 

Zombies? 
There was a boy named Josh who didn't believe in zombies. One day walking home, he took a shortcut and found a family of zombies. 

Ecosystems Poetry

In science, we have been learning about ecosystems. We studying the different biomes. Some of the biomes that we have been studying are the desert, tropical rainforest, grasslands, tundra, taiga, temperate forest ,marine,and freshwater.We even did a diamante poem which is in the shape of a diamond. We had to choose two different biomes like taiga and the tropical rainforest and contrast them through our poetry writing. It was really fun and we all learned a lot about the different ecosystems! ~AP and JM

Global Read Aloud- Character Trading Cards

While reading The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, we feel like we've made new friends with the characters. Ms. Applegate is such a  good example of how to write characters. We wanted to share our thoughts about these characters from their point of view. We hope you enjoy them.

Ivan

My name is Ivan. I am a gorilla. I live in a domain at the Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. I used to be in the wild, but now I am not. I have been in my domain for nine thousand eight hundred and fifty-five days. I draw art work because I am an artist and my art work cost $20 in the mall's gift shop or $25 with the frame. I have a friend named Julia who is an artist too. Today, I drew a beetle and Mack said it looked like a big blob of nothing. Julia saw it an knew my art was of a beetle.

Stella

I'm an elephant named Stella,who remembers everything and loves to tell stories. I have scars on two of my feet from being chained when I was young. I live in the Big Top Mall with Ivan the gorilla. Ivan is one of my best  friends. He lives in the domain next to me. He is a 400 pound gorilla. I like to take care of the other elephant, named Ruby, in my domain.

Bob

Hi my name is Bob. I am of questionable heritage, which means I'm a stray. I live at the Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. I am nut colored and used to have many brothers and sisters. Now I'm on my own. Julia gave me my name. I don't let humans touch me because their scent upsets my digestion. I only let Julia touch me. I love TV. I prefer to watch professional bowling and cat-food commercials. Ivan and I enjoy western movies and romance movies.I am speedy and not tactful, but Ivan lets me sleep on his belly. He's a good friend.

Ruby

I am Ruby. I am a baby elephant. I make many noises like the trumpets they sell at the gift shop. I am shorter than Ivan who is a gorilla. I used to live in Africa. I am here because humans captured me. Humans killed my family and I was alone. I lived at a traveling circus for a month where they didn't feed me enough.Then Mack bought me and moved me to the Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. I've met Stella, Ivan, Bob, and Julia.

Julia

Hi, I am Julia. I have black hair, a half-moon smile, and old clothes. I'm ten years old. My dad is George. He works at the Exit 8 Mall and Arcade to clean Ivan, the gorilla's cage, and all of the other areas in the mall.When I am at the mall and arcade center, I sit by Ivan's domain while doing homework and also while drawing. I like Ivan because he is smart and he likes to draw just like me.

Mack

Hi, my name is Mack. I work at the Exit Eight Mall. I am the boss so I answer the phone all day. I also feed a gorilla named Ivan because I don't have enough money to hire a gorilla babysitter. I do shows where I dress up like a clown and ride on a really tiny bike too. After that show, our elephant Stella does a show with Snickers, our dog. Stella stands on her hind legs and Snickers jumps on her back.If she doesn't do her trick, I have to swing the claw stick. I love my job at the mall.