March Madness!!!

I love to learn.  I love to follow other teachers on Instagram, Facebook, and read their blogs.  There are so many great things going on around the country.  Teachers are notorious for borrowing and sharing ideas.  That is why we post what we are doing online.  If it is a success in our classroom and someone else wants to try it, we are happy to share.

This is exactly what happened when I read a blog post from The Brown Bag Teacher.  She used a basketball theme to promote reading in her class.  (If your kids haven't told you, I'm a basketball fan.  It is one of the few sports I can watch and understand what is going on...LOL)  I loved her idea of "Book Madness."  I immediately texted my partner in crime (Mrs. L) and sent her the link.  We thought that maybe...just maybe...it would encourage kids to get excited about reading.  We got together and looked at the most popular books among our classes.  We then chose the top 16 books and passed the list out to the kids.  The rules are simple...if you have read the books, you can vote to choose the best book of the year.  Most students have read MOST of the books.  For those who haven't read a particular title, we gave them 2 1/2 to 3 weeks to read them.

I was so excited to see kids scouring my classroom library for some of the titles.  When they couldn't find it in my room, they wanted to ask Mrs. Berry to help them in the school library.

My plan was working!!




 I hope that when we return on Monday, I can send out TONS of links for the first round of voting.  It will be interesting to see which book comes out as the 2016 Book of the Year.  Here are a few pics of our bracket.  I'll keep the blog updated as the voting progresses.

Now on to Genius Hour.  

Our first Genius Hour project is TENTATIVELY due on April 6.  That date is subject to change depending on the needs of the kids.  Because of our Double Entry Journals, Genius Hour had to be put on hold for a couple of weeks.  I do plan to give the kids a couple of days when we return from Spring Break to make up for those lost Wednesdays.  I am excited to see what the kids have come up with in their research and what products the have created.  I can't wait to post pictures and share them on this blog!

Parent/Teacher conferences will be Tuesday and Thursday (March 29 & 31).  Just FYI for those of you who want to come out and touch base with us about your child.  I hope you had a restful spring break.  I know I did (it just went toooooooo fast!).

 We are definitely on the down hill slide now!  ONLY ONE NINE WEEKS LEFT!!!!!    Whew!  These will be a lot going on in the next few weeks with projects, field trips, kickball tournaments, award assemblies, etc.  Please check the blog each week so that I can keep you up to date on what is happening in 5th!  Until then....
Happy reading-
Mrs. Tipton