Putting Together a Read and Respond Notebok

I have been using a form of Read and Respond since I started teaching. Every year it evolves and improves. It's still not perfect, but I'm happy with its evolution. Read and Respond is a great way to encourage and hold students accountable for daily reading. I want my 5th graders to spend the bulk
of their homework time engrossed in books, so the response part I try to make as quick and painless as possible, while still being meaningful. This summer I updated the entire thing just in time for a new school year! I thought I'd put together a little video showing how easy it is to set up.

If you've already purchased my Read and Respond product I've included the updated version for download. The older version is still available if you prefer that one. 

I'd love to giveaway my Read and Respond to three people! Enter the Rafflecopter through Monday, July 13. 

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Lunar Cycle T-shirts

Don't you hate it when you find something amazing, usually on Pinterest, and it's too late for that school year...and you have to wait a whole year to do it? That's what happened with these amazing Lunary Cycle T-shirts from ScienceWear.net. I first saw them last year and knew we had to use these as part of our study of the Phases of the Moon. These t-shirts are only $5 each and come blank, ready for students to color in the phases with glow-in-the-dark fabric paint and add their own style to the rest.

So, this year I was ready! 4th quarter is my favorite because we study my two favorite topics in science (space) and social studies (the American Revolution). To learn about the Moon Phases we created Phases of the Moon Wheels that we put in our interactive science notebooks, stuck our heads through our moon board model, listened to the Phases of the Moon songs from Songs of Higher Learning, and some watched some Bill Nye the Science Guy. 

Then it was time to get crafty! The students colored in a rough draft and then we clipped our shirts to white boards, used sharpies to shade and label the phases, and then got creative with the fabric paints. 

Last week we took the entire 5th grade to the Science Center and Planetarium and we all wore our amazing pieces of science art! Our kids had a great time exploring the different areas of the science center and we were treated to a Tour of the Solar System in the Planetarium.

We got a lot of great photos of my kids in action, but unfortunately the photos didn't really show off their shirts.

I didn't have a chance to finish my Lunar Cycle shirt, but wanted another occasion to wear my "Back in my day, we had NINE planets" shirt that I picked up from SnorgTees that I had ordered just for our study of space. 

I'm still smiling - and this is after the field trip - maybe because I survived!

And...here is a bonus video of one of my girls being hilarious on the bus ride back to school.