4-Day Basketball Unit

At the end of the year, it was fun to do lots of PE. My students loved it, and so did I!
A typical PE lesson would consist of 3 days of skill work, and 1 day of games.

On the skill days, we would typically play different games, that focused on skills the students needed to learn in order to be better at the game we were playing.

Our basketball unit:
Day 1: 30-45 mins
1) I had the students do a short lap around the track we have at our school to warm up (this gave me time to get the basketballs out and ready to use).
2) Then we did a short stretch.
3) Then we played a dribbling game.
    *To play the dribbling game: About 5-8 kids have balls. They are dribbling in a court. The other students are trying to steal the ball away from the students. When they do, they are now the dribbler. It's a pretty simple game, but gets the students' heart rates up like crazy! And they practice dribbling!
4) After the dribbling game, I line the students up and we practice two types of passing, the bounce pass first, and the chest pass second. I emphasize to the students in the bounce pass to pass with their thumbs down, and to aim about half way between yourself and the person. For the chest pass, I have the student catching the ball put their hands at their chests, so the tosser has something to aim for. And I emphasize passing through the finger tips.
5) We then played monkey in the middle, but by using different passes.

Day 2: 30-45 mins.
1) Repeat steps 1-4
2) After the dribbling day we practiced shooting. Before we even get to the baskets, I show them how to shoot the ball properly. We first practice using one hand, flick the wrist, and use the fingers to point where you want the ball to go (follow through). Once they master that, I show them how to balance the ball with their other hand, and we continue to practice small shots (without the basket still). Then we progress to getting the ball higher and higher. Once they seem to master that, I assign them a hoop to shoot at, and they practice on their own.

Day 3: 30-45 mins.
1) Repeat steps 1-4 on day 1, and step 2 on day 2, but before you assign them baskets, show them how to shoot free-throws, and what that means (if they are fouled during the game). Then let them practice free-throws as well as other shots.
**You could also teach them lay-ups if you have advanced basketball players. I went around to hoops individually and taught them if they were ready.

Day 4: 30-45 mins. (including explaining the game inside)
GAME DAY
1) Explain how the game (Basketball) works before you go outside. It is a lot easier to explain the rules BEFORE you go outside, and have to yell.
2) I also like to make two different games, competitive and non-competitive. I have found that some kids like to be rough, and others just don't. Also, the competitive students will only pass to each other, and the non-competitive kids just stop and don't get the work out they really need. For some reason, this worked, and the kids seemed fine with it. Plus, some kids like other sports more than others, and will surprise you by jumping into the competitive group when they are confident. Also, DO THIS BEFORE YOU GO OUTSIDE Too!
3) Walk outside, Repeat steps 1-2 from day 1, then let them start their game!

It was a fun unit!

Easter Baskets for Babies

My Mom and Dad got Natalie an amazing Easter basket, and Caleb and I got her one as well. We bought her a two stuffed animals from Target, a book, a pacifier, a sippy cup and an Easter bib. We kept it simple since we knew it was more for pictures, then for her. However, she loved playing with her new toys and books.

My mom got her a book, three stuffed animals, and a hat!




The bib came in handy too when she ate later that day, as did the pacifier during nap time! She still plays with her toys too. It is good we got her all those fun toys.

Giving her the baskets was very fun! She is quite adorable, and such a fun baby.

Surprise Saturday!

Our neighbors are incredible. We are very lucky to live where we live. We decided to start a new tradition. It is called Surprise Saturday. All of us decide on a dish and side dish to bring, without talking to each other, and the Surprise is whether all the dishes work together!

Our first Surprise Saturday actually worked really well! Some how they all meshed very well. We brought tacos, our across the street neighbors brought an applesauce pork, and guacamole, and our next door neighbors made a polenta shrimp. Oddly, it worked! And we had tons of left overs for the week - which was incredible. It was a fun experiment, that we will recreate!

Just Because

My daughter is quite the explorer. She also loves dogs! And just because I love this photo and find it hilarious, I wanted to share it.

I call it: What is Daddy doing in the Kitchen? 

Our Experiment in Compost Gardening

My husband is amazing. He bought a com-poster last year. We had an amazing garden the year prior by using seeds. This year we wanted to experiment. We put our plants at the end of the season in the com-poster as well as the seeds from our food, and food that could compost well.

We would stir the compost every month or so. Then in early spring, with a shovel, and wheel barrow we moved the compost to our garden area, and spread it out. along the garden area we used last year. 

After a week or so, we had plants budding! It was very exciting. We called it our Mystery Garden. Since we had no idea what would grow. We put a lot of seeds into the compost! 

Then, a few weeks later we had plants growing every where! It was crazy! My husband has thinned it out now, and it looks like we have a three different types of squash plants, and two tomato plants. We are quite proud of our Mystery Garden, and can't wait to eat our left over food! 

Explorers Project, 4th Grade

This was a group project that my students composed last year while I taught fourth grade. It was a fun project that they completed after CST's, and kept the students learning, while having fun!

The students were broken up into groups of 6 for the project, and they each had specific tasks.

Map Expert: This person drew the map for where the explorer sailed.

Timeline Expert: This person made the timeline of the person's life.

Early Life Expert: This person researched the early life of the person, and wrote the paragraph as well.

The Contributions Expert: This person researched and found information on what the explorers did, and where they explored. Then wrote the paragraph about it.

Later Life Expert: This person researched what they did after they were an explorer.

If there was a odd person out, they would write the final draft of the essay, and be the assistant to the researchers.

The students were allowed to research on the computers in the room, or use their social studies book.

The students researched: Vitus Bering, Sebastian Vizcaino, Juan Cabrillo, Gaspar De Portola, Sir Francis Drake, and Hernando Cortez.

After their projects were complete (what is pictured above). The students did a presentation on the person. Each person had to present on a different part of the person's life, so they had to learn from their experts. We invited another class to come watch the presentations, and it was a huge success! The absolutely loved showing off all their hard work!

Transition to the Common Core

Our district is slowly piloting the common core standard by standard. My first focus was this, Reading Standard for literature 5.1: 1. Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.


Something I have already created for my students as a tool to take notes is a playbook. The playbook consists of sentence frames, vocabulary notes, grammar notes, vocabulary/decoding/word work skills. It usually gives room for the students to write while we read our stories. 

What I have pictured to the right is a page from my playbook, that focuses on the comprehension strategy of questioning. The students I had worked in partner groups. After reading a page they were to write a question that could be answered from the story. Then, they would switch pages. They would then answer their partners question, but the catch was that they had to quote accurately the information from the story. 

The frame I gave them to start with was this: ________(answer the question)______, and I know this because on page _____ it says "____(where the answer is in the story)___." 

Now we are starting incorporate the quote into the answer to sound more sophisticated. It is tough at first, but once the students saw a few good examples they did a better answering questions. Now, they are truly getting it down, and we can quote accurately doing any comprehension strategy!

Also, my favorite part about this, is that I had students start doing this with a non-fiction science text automatically, which is the Reading Strategy Informational Text 5.1. And, these were EL students! It was cool to give them this power!