Five on the Fifth

I love teaching in October.  Everything is starting to {finally!} come together, and you're beginning to think just maybe you will survive this school year.  It's the fifth day of the month, which can only mean one thing on this blog.  It's time for . . .
If you're new around here, these posts show off the heart of teaching blogs-the sharing of really great ideas.  Five on the Fifth even has its very own Pinterest board.  You can follow it here.

Getting kids to move beyond "nice" and "mean" when it comes to teaching character can be challenging. I loved this idea from Teaching 3rd with Mr. G.  He got his students to thinking about characters as more than just a list of adjectives.  Which is pretty much impossible.


Mary at Fit to be Fourth will have you mad about taxation without representation once you see this activity.  I cannot imagine a child that wouldn't love this activity and have a meaningful connection to events that were 250 years ago.  Since it's probably illegal to collect money for fourth graders, she used Smarties instead.


I've been in rooms where this is a total nonissue and rooms where it has driven me crazy.  If your lamination has got a crazy glare going on, Melissa from Common Core and So Much More has a solution for you.  


I hate when I see really cute, simple activities that I never thought of myself.  You look at them and go duh-cute, simple, and kid friendly.  This happened to me at Collaboration Cuties.  I only taught weather for 8 years.  Dang it.

Kids need art.  I don't how much room your curriculum makes for it, but sneak it in anyway you can.  We are very lucky that our school district if very supportive of art programs.  Our superintendent feels that these are the types of programs that keep kids in school when they may not want to stay there.  He's kind of a smart man.  
I love this project that Kimberly from The Learning Tree shared.  Stop by her blog and see how she got her kids to not be perfectly matchy matchy and freehand something.