rule breaker

I don't know about you but I have trouble following the reading series straight through. I mean sometimes there are stories in Journeys that I could use at different times because they go well with science and/or social studies. Of course I want to try and plan cross-curricularly as much as possible, so I am kind of skipping around in Journeys.

Not drastically... just skipping a story here or there. I can always go back to those stories, and we will for sure cover the skills, but we just swap the stories up. No harm done!

So, this week (after a little shifting) we are reading a realistic fiction and a biography. We started working on biographies the past week and a half with Helen Keller. It seems like perfect timing with MLK now, next we will jump right into Black History Month early.

The story we are reading this week is Luke Goes to Bat with a companion story about Jackie Robinson. I am trying include a close reading component at least once a week to practice finding information in the text. So, I used the companion story (Jackie Robinson) and made up a little directed close read for it. Copy it front and back and use it small group, whole group, or let students do it by themselves.

Click the picture above to download the freebie. 

We are learning about MLK this week, and we started our mini-unit with a little activity I like to call:

Drink and Draw

You may have been to something called Sips n' Strokes- which is basically like a painting class with wine (can't go wrong there!). Well, I changed the name and threw in a juice box and now we have Drink and Draw. We use a directed drawing (like this one) and have a good ol' time.

It is really fun!

Off to bed... ready for the 4 day week! :)