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Sunday, August 20, 2017

First Day Of School Escape Room

Hello!
I have officially been with students for three days! I can already tell I have a great group and I'm very excited for this year. 
I wanted to start the year off with a bang, but it's hard to do that when teaching procedures, rules, disclosure/syllabus stuff etc. In years past I have gone over all my rules with a powerpoint and it's  been excruciating for everyone involved.
My fabulous PLC member found an escape room on TPT and we each bought it and decided to try it out. It was SO awesome! Students were super engaged and I  have never seen them going over a syllabus so carefully in their entire lives.  
There are four tasks included in the escape room, students get a key word with each task and that is how they move on to the next task. The first one is a getting to know you game where students have to make BINGO with things they did over the summer. 
Then they do a supply scavenger hunt where they are given different riddles and they have to find places in the room where those supplies are kept. Each spot has a letter and they eventually find all the letters to come up with a word.
The third task is a syllabus close read, and the fourth task is a cryptogram with growth mindset quotes.
We had to tweak the escape room a little bit to fit our needs and then we had to come up with some rules to help students actually get the content of the different activities instead of just skipping ahead to the end where they got their key word. For example, I really made a point in telling them to be careful about their voice volume because they don't want other teams to hear their work. All this group work and it was a super quiet room! I also required that the students decode all the growth mindset quotes instead of just the underlined parts that gave them the key word, that way they would actually understand the quotes. 
It was a great activity, students understood everything that they should on disclosure day and they loved doing something different.
You can purchase this Back to School Escape Room from Nouvelle ELA! Thanks to her for all the work that went into it! 





Sunday, August 6, 2017

First Days of School


Hello!
It's been a glorious summer and I'm very excited to go back to school!
I have been evaluating my process for the first day of school since last year and I have decided to change it up entirely. It used to be all about the rules so I could keep my classroom management in check. This year, I am going to work harder at building relationships and a classroom community and I think the classroom management element will come naturally. 
Here are a few things I am implementing this year...

1. Book Talks
I'm an English teacher, so it would be only natural that I should book talk on the first day! I will be highlighting three books, two I read over the summer and one all time favorite. This will show students that I'm invested in reading from day one.
2. Start learning ASAP
This was a suggestion I saw on Instagram and it makes total sense! What better way to jumpstart those brains than by doing some real work on the first day? We will be reading My Name by Sandra Cisneros and doing some close reading. We will then tie that into Name/Nombres by Julia Alvarez, and then tie both of those works into a writing assignment about the students. 


3. Unique getting to know you activities
I am such a grump when it comes to getting to know you activities. I hate them all, usually. I think they are all contrived and a lot of times are done for the sake of doing them, not for the actual information. However, I value getting to know my students! I wanted to find some unique and fun activities that wouldn't make the students feel like we were just going through the first week motions. I found a couple ideas I am very excited about. The first one is called, "If I Ruled the World." Basically, it's a fill in the blank poem that really helps you to get to know students. This is mine..
This is a fun way to get to know students, their likes and dislikes and most importantly, how they see themselves. 

Another great activity is the "Perfect Day" activity. I found this on Pinterest and instead of doing a daily life clock, I thought it would be great to do a "perfect day" clock. I did one for myself as an example and I feel like a stranger could look at it and know exactly all the things I love to do. Sleep, craft, play with makeup, hang with my friends, etc! So much better than a boring survey. 


4. Rules
Yep, you always have to have rules in a functioning classroom. Previously, I have gone the very old school route of having students write down rules word for word. I am super embarrassed to admit it, but it was the only way I knew how to keep order. Yeah, no longer.
After I do a really brief rundown of rules and procedures, students will be making skits!
I have heard that I have a particularly silly group of kids coming in, so I think they will love this activity! They can get as creative and silly as they want, I will even have a few random costume pieces that they can throw together. I'm excited to see how this goes.
In a few other classes that this won't work for, I found this breakout game (no equipment needed) from Nouvelle ELA on TPT. It looks so fun!

5. Teamwork
I am taking on a new elective class this year, Mock Trial, and it's really important to me to get in the teamwork frame of mind. I think this could be really useful in all classes as well. Students need to learn to be collaborative and work with people even if they aren't their friends. We will be doing a lot of team activities. I have compiled a big list of short improv games that would be great for warmups. I also found this great activity using plastic easter eggs that would be a great lesson on teamwork. When I was at ISTE, I went to a presentation on a game maker lesson and my students will be starting day two with this awesome team building exercise. Basically, students get in groups and are given play doh and a paper folder and they have to make a game.


It's easy to be freaked out by the first days of school. I have had so many nightmares about having the meanest class ever, not having disclosures ready, not sure of what I'm teaching etc. Whatever you do, just have set rules and procedures and be kind, but also a little scary :) and you'll be fine! If that advice doesn't help, check out this really great article from The Cornerstone for Teachers about dealing with back to school anxiety.

Remember, we preach a growth mindset to our students yet don't always expect it with ourselves. If you have a rocky first day of school, just realize that any day can be the first day of school and kill it! 

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Classroom Management


Happy Sunday!
Today I am coming at you with a post I have been writing for a long time. I write a little, get ready to publish and then feel self conscious and revert it to a draft again. Today, I am getting brave and publishing with the caveat that I have so much work to do on classroom management. There is a huge gap between things I know I should be doing and things I actually do. If you come in my room for five seconds you could probably spot several things I am not doing perfectly or even at all, but I am constantly reflecting and trying to improve, and I think that is all that matters. 

I want to start with the best education advice I have ever received. "Any day can be another first day of school." Meaning do not be afraid to put on the brakes and start over. If you want to incorporate anything on this list, or even anything you find on any other site, just do it! Don't ever write off a year completely. Is it easier to do at the first of the year? Absolutely. However if you are miserable (been there) then it's worth a shot!

1. Keep your power
The worst mistake I made my first year teaching was giving the students the power in my classroom. I would say things like, "If you let me get through a thirty minute lesson, I will give you the last ten minutes of class to do what you want." This was totally giving the power to the students, making them in charge in my classroom. Their behavior is not something to be bargained with. I felt like every day I was pleading with them to learn something. I wish I would have had more of a, "this is school and we learn here" type of mentality. Have confidence that you are the adult and that they can't argue or bargain with you.

2. Have serious conversations 
You cannot be afraid to correct a student's behavior or pull them out in the hall to talk. My first year I was so scared of this very thing. I didn't want students to feel bad or embarrassed, so I would let bad behavior carry on instead of correcting it the second it happened. Last year I was much better at this, but as soon as a student was doing an incorrect behavior, I would address it right then. Sometimes that meant calling them out in front of everyone, or coming to their side and whispering, or pulling them out in the hall. Your life will vastly improve if you just buck up and have a tough conversation right when you need to. Just this week I had to pull a kid out in the hall to have a really tough chat about his behavior. Before I went back in I assured him that I loved him and I don't think he's a bad kid at all. Kids are more resilient and used to these types of conversations than we realize, so talk with them and then tell them you love them and go back in your room smiling!

3. Know procedures vs rules
A lot of the things I'm strict on in my rules are procedures, not rules. For example, having appropriate language is a rule, whereas what to do when you don't have a pencil is a procedure. After you break down your rules v procedures, you will realize you have way more procedures than rules. The good news about that is procedures are way easier to perfect than rules. If your procedures are tight, that is 90% of the battle. 

4. Review, practice, review, practice
Speaking of procedures, these need to be practiced like you are training for a marathon. The first week of school, my students and I practice everything. Even simple things like passing papers down the rows, we practice over and over. We practice coming into the room. We role play getting tissues, forgetting a pencil. We practice cleaning up for the day. We practice getting into groups. We. Practice. Everything. When we are off for a break, we come back and I review the procedures and we practice again. This takes five minutes every so often but it pays off greatly.

5. Focus on positive incentives, not negative consequences
This year was my last year of posting consequences. Next year, I will start focusing more on positive reinforcements. When a student comes in my room and gets started right away, I give them a blue raffle ticket. They put them in a big bucket and on Fridays during the first two minutes of class I play the Chariots of Fire or Eye of the Tiger song and draw ten winners for ten pieces of candy. It's silly but they love it! 
My current school has "pride cards" and my last school had "Golden Tickets" but basically these are traded in for bigger prizes. When you give these out, recognize the student in front of the whole class instead of doing it in private. I also do a student of the week board with a student for each of my classes. It's important to recognize this student with why they are student of the week so that students know what they are achieving. Positivity goes so much further than negative consequences like lunch detentions, etc. 

6. Start off strong and strict
Ah, the first month of school. What a different person I am. How much I enjoy the roll around of October when I can finally start loosening up. However, it's so worth it. I can't even describe how worth it starting strict actually is. Correct every behavior. Mean business. It's loads easier to start off strict and get more lenient than the other way around. If it isn't you natural personality (it's definitely not mine, I have to force myself!!) fake it till you make it!

7. Get parents involved
The best thing I ever did was start sending out weekly emails to my parents with news and upcoming due dates. I found this cut down on the angry emails and opened a communication portal so that if a student needed parental intervention, I have already been in contact. I also contact parents frequently to come in for meetings about their student, especially if their student has consistent behavior issues. I have several students this year who weren't doing anything completely against the rules, just being disrespectful in general. We had a great conversations every time and the behavior of the student improved. Communication is key, not a cliche for nothing!

8. Stay consistent
You cannot slack off on your rules/expectations. If you say you are going to expect something, then that has to stay as your expectation always. I don't allow soda in my room, but one time I decided not to tell a student to put away a soda. Then, a week later, I told another student to put his soda away and the time I let it slack came back to haunt me. If a student doesn't have to guess what your rules are and when you're going to enforce them, your life will be so much easier.

9. Be prepared + ready 
The more prepared you are, the better your day will run. If I greet the students at the door and then am standing at the front of the room when the bell rings, class is smoother. Even things like getting my room totally set up before the first day of school matters. I just re-arranged my room and it totally screwed up my kids, it's been a rough week and honestly I think that is why. If you're ready to tackle the day/class period, it gives students the signal that they should be too.

10. Give love
Above all, be loving to each student no matter how hard it is. Without going into too many details for privacy's sake, last year I had a student go missing for two days because of a conversation we had about him needing to work harder (it was a gifted class). I wasn't very loving in that conversation. It really made me realize that I may only have a 10 second one on one interaction with a student as they walk in the door, but that one interaction needs to be very loving and happy that they are there.

Okay, I hope those are helpful and not totally obvious and like, "well, duh!!!!" 
These are the things that have helped me the most, so I hope they help your classroom too! 

Friday, April 21, 2017

Civl War Battles Simulation

Long time no blog!
We finished Mock Trial about a month ago, which is why I wasn't blogging, and then we had spring break, state testing, etc etc etc and anyway, I'm just sitting down to blog all the fun lessons we have been working on!
We only have FOUR weeks left of school. It's pretty crazy and kind of stressful! I have a lot to cover still and not a lot of time, but we will make it work!

So, I'll be straight with you when I say that Civil War is not my favorite thing to cover, only because I feel like it's very battle heavy. I don't really focus on the battles with the American Revolution, just the ideas, themes etc. With Civil War, I feel like a lot more students are interested in the battles because they have been to battlefields or heard about Generals, so I feel more pressure to cover the battles more in depth than I normally would. 
The problem is, I have never found a way to do battles that isn't Powerpoint/lecture format, which I hate.



So I turned to my trusty TPT! I looked for battle simulations and found one that had good ratings. Only problem, it was $8. That is a lot, in my opinion.  However, it had good reviews so I took the risk! I had some precious TPT credits I had been saving and I bought the simulation.

Oh man, you guys. This was the worst TPT product I have ever purchased. It was a disorganized mess! I have never seen anything so bad. It was just several very confusing documents. The seller had a key that didn't match the student copy and it also had a lot of wrong information. I was so disappointed, but I realized I could spend a significant amount of time using the same basic idea of  a simulation and create my own.
So, here is the idea. I split my class into two, Confederacy and Union. Then within the bigger groups, I created four smaller groups with 4 students per group. Each of those smaller groups was a regiment. I gave them the description and pictures of their regiment and they had to introduce themselves to the class. So we had regiments like The Iron Brigade, the 54th, Irish Brigade, Stonewall Brigade, etc.

The idea of the game is I read what has brought students to a particular battle, then students are presented with a choice. Every choice they make has positive or negative point value.  Then I read what actually happened and show students a video, then I give them the point breakdown of what they earned based on their decision. The goal is to get the most points. Even though the Union won the war, they aren't guaranteed to win the game.

My students have had SO much fun with this game and they are so much more likely to remember why each battle/general was important. I'm so glad I finally figured out how to teach battles in a way that I love.


If you would like the game for yourself, you can buy it from my Teachers Pay Teachers store here.


Hope you enjoy it as much as my students! If you have any questions about the details, email me at beggingborrowingstealing@gmail.com

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Intro to the Industrial Revolution


The Industrial Revolution is my favorite unit to teach! I love everything I do during this unit. Just last year I added this activity as an intro to the Industrial Revolution. I heard about it from another teacher at my school and I was intrigued so I did it last year. My students reacted just as the teacher said they would last year and again this year. It was perfect!

Students come in and I hand them a coloring sheet. I tell them we are going to relax and take a brain break and color for the first 10-15 minutes. The students who know me better are always a little skeptical..."she's tricking us into learning!!!!" haha! However I maintain my innocence and the students eventually relax.

Then I tell them we are going to play a coloring game. I split the students up into groups and assign each student one color. They are in charge of their color only on the color by number sheet. When they are done or when I say switch, they switch with someone in their group. I tell them the group with the most completed coloring sheets in the fastest time gets a piece of candy, but that never happens! :) As they start to color I start out calm and slowly tell them to switch faster and faster. I also "yell" at students to go faster and if they color outside the lines I "fire" them and rip up their coloring sheet! I also add new coloring sheets in as they are frantically trying to color.

Without fail, students absolutely freak out. They are so stressed and have no idea what is going on.

After about five minutes of the second coloring activity I stop and explain life Pre-Industrail Revolution. Most people worked on small farms making everything by hand or from a small shop. Things were really quality, but expensive and took a lot of time. People didn't have much and life wasn't great.
Then I talk about the factory system and how it changed life as we know it! It made things cheaper so people could afford more, created a middle class, etc. but it also had some drawbacks.

Students love this analogy and they love being in on "the secret" of the coloring activity until I can get through all of my classes.  

It's a great ice-breaker for the Industrial Revolution! 

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Lewis and Clark Twitter Assignment


Last year, I did a Lewis and Clark newspaper assignment. I thought I liked it and intended to do it again this year, but when I got it out to make copies I didn't think it met the goals of my unit. So I had to scrap it and come up with something FAST. 
I love social media and I haven't utilized it at all this year in any lesson. When I taught World Civ, they created instagram pages for an Egyptian God/Goddess. However since I made the switch to U.S History, I haven't. So the Lewis and Clark Twitter Assignment was born.

I brought elements together from many lessons I found online until I found something that worked for my classroom.  The main aspect of the assignment I got here, from Room115's TPT shop. It was a little expensive for what you get, which I left in the feedback. 
The next thing was to find a Twitter template. I looked high and low and couldn't find anything I liked. This was the closest from Alli Brigg's TPT shop. I ended up downloading it and students edited it on Google Slides. I deleted some parts like "Trends" and "Photos and Videos". We just didn't have time to do that part, but it could be cool to incorporate next year.
Students were able to zoom in and edit right on slides and it was fairly easy, only after I explained what Twitter was. It was pretty surprising how many of my 13 year olds didn't know what Twitter was! 
It ended up being a great project, despite the parent who told me it was an inappropriate assignment... (??) Gotta love feedback!

Here's an example of a student that got full points!


The students loved this project and kept sharing their hashtags and tweets, so there was a ton of laughter! 
Happy tweeting! 

Lewis and Clark Board Game

Hello, friends! Long time no blog! I coach Mock Trial and we are smack dab in the middle of our season, so I have had no life! It's fun and I love our team, but it sure does take over. However, I'm back and ready to share some awesome resources.
I'm compiling a blog post about being paperless in my classroom, let me know if you have questions!


We just wrapped up our Lewis and Clark unit. I was a day ahead of the rest of our history department so I needed an extra activity to slow us down. This board game was perfect! It's a free download from  Relentlessly Fun Deceptively Educational. I can't imagine the work that went into it. The few things I added were a spinner instead of dice, this made the game go a little longer and each student get more info. I also cut out small circles with my Cricut for game pieces. The last change I made was students had to write down a summary of each card in their notebooks. This helped when all students wanted to do was read the last step of each card and not get any historical information. As I say, "THIS IS SCHOOL, PEOPLE!" 
The kids love, love, LOVE when we play board games. We played an awesome one for the French and Indian War that the students still remember. I find it's a good way to wrap up a unit.


Head over to the Deceptively Educational blog to download Westward Bound for your class!
Thanks to my three student aides who cut everything out and laminated all of it! They were champs.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Bill of Rights Children's Book
















I was trying to think of a fun way to teach the Bill of Rights, together my PLC came up with students making a children's book that explained each amendment! The students loved this activity as they love everything creative and it helped them cement the amendments in their brain a little more. The instructions were simply to make a children's book that included each amendment in the Bill of Rights with elementary student friendly language explaining what each amendment means as well as a picture. They all turned out really well! We took twenty minutes to have "story time" where everyone had a chance to read their book to their group. They had a blast.

Although this activity was fun, I have plans for next year involving a Bill of Rights board game that students would create....stay tuned. :) 

Friday, January 13, 2017

Graphic Organizer-Improve Student's Writing!



Often, my best ideas come to me when I'm mid-lesson. 
I think of the idea and switch gears completely. 
It doesn't happen often, but the few times it has, amazing results come to pass.

One day, I was teaching a lesson about writing to my gifted students, preparing for the state mandated test that was looming. I was getting so frustrated with them because their body paragraphs were unorganized and just generally a mess. They were writing to find their idea and it made the paragraphs not as powerful.

I started drawing on the board how they should flow their thinking before they start writing an essay, and I ended up coming up with what my students call, "The Chicken Feet Chart" and it has 100% changed my student's writing. It has made their whole essay organized perfectly. 
I'm excited to share it with you today! 

The chart itself is just laminated paper and students use skinny expo markers on it. Also, don't run them through the dishwasher. #LessonLearned.


The first line on the side, number 1, is their claim. I found this prezi about claims and have used it ever since. Students understand it because it's very formulaic.  So on line one they write their subject and what they think (without using first person, of course). Then their three reasons go on line 2, 10 and 18. 
So, if I'm writing a paper about the negative effects of the Industrial Revolution, my chart would look like this...


Then comes the most important part of this chart, the sub reasons, lines 3, 6, 11, 14, 19, and 22. It is important because it focuses each paragraph. Each main reason has two sub reasons, also known as chicken toes that focus the topic. Your main reasons should be more broad so that your sub-reasons can be focused. Here is what that looks like for my chart....


Next comes evidence. I require students to have two pieces of evidence (IN QUOTES) per paragraph. So they have one piece of evidence to match their sub-reason. On their chart, there isn't enough room to write their quote, so I have them put the page number if it's a book, or just the first few words of their quote so they can go find it later. This is what it would look like...


After evidence comes commentary/explanation/elaboration, lines 5, 8, 13, 16, 21 and 24. Commentary/explanation/elaboration is such a hard thing for my students to understand for some reason. They understood it a little more when I told them this is where they do the thinking for their reader. Their reader wants to think critically about a topic but their reader is lazy and doesn't want to think for themselves, so you have to give it to them completely. We're still not quite there yet though. I made them the following sentence stems to help them, and it has made a difference.
On their chart, they just need to write their sentence stem and they know to elaborate on their commentary later on. 

Then, they have their transition line which I call their shoelace transition. This is lines 9,17, and 25. This is where they take their subject from paragraph one, their subject for paragraph two, and tie them together in a bow, aka one nice sentence. So for my paragraph one and paragraph two, I would transition like this....
"Children not only had bad conditions at work, but they also had them at home." 
My transition from second paragraph to third is, "The problems in the cities were of little concern to those profiting off the factories that were causing these problems."
Students really understand this concept because of the metaphor to tying your shoes.


Lastly, the bottom line is for the counterclaim. We obviously don't use this when we write informative essays, but when we write argument it is super useful.
This is how I have it set up...


After students fill out the chart, they are ready to type. I let them choose if they want to type it straight into a google doc, or if they want to use this document. This document basically says, "type line ten here, type line twenty six here, etc."
It helps my students that don't get how to go from the chart to the essay.


Then they just add their intro and conclusion, which we have explicit lessons about and review ad-nauseam.

This chart, though my students don't enjoy it all the time, helps their writing. It helps them understand how to visually represent their thinking and again, very formulaic which helps my students who struggle with writing.

Try it in your classroom and see if the student's writing improves! I'm sure it will. My students chant the motto, "BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF THE CHICKEN FEET CHART!" because their scores improve when they use the chart. I love seeing the look on their faces when they realize how their writing has improved since using this graphic organizer.

Here is a student example with their essay they wrote about Animal Farm...

Feel free to borrow or steal my idea, no need to beg! :) 

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Women of the American Revolution Activity


This was a new activity that I came up with this year. That's right! No begging, borrowing, or stealing. It just came from I just get really sad that we don't get to teach WW2 in our school. That is saved for the high schools. So I have gotten clever about how to weave it in. In this lesson, I start talking about Rosie the Riveter and do a little mini lesson about her and her role in WW2. You can see the slideshow I used here.

So we talk about Rosie the Riveter and what she did.  Then students do a gallery walk with bios from different women from the Revolutionary war. These women are Deborah Sampson, Nancy Hart, Mary Katherine Goddard, Esther Reed, Lydia Darran, Sybil Ludington, and Margaret Cochran Corbin.  They have to write down the women's names and what they did for the war.

The last task they have is to draw a poster demonstrating what their chosen woman did in the war. They have to "show the action" and create some sort of catchphrase to convince other women to also join the war effort.

This was a great activity and the students loved all of it from start to finish. They eat anything about WW2 up since they don't get it very often. They loved getting out of their seats for the gallery walk and drawing/art always engages the students I can't reach. The best part is that this fits perfectly in an hour long block!


Go women!

Monday, January 9, 2017

Women's Suffrage Graphic Novel


I tend to be a little vocal about my feminism in my classroom. My students see my "Women Belong in the House and the Senate" shirt very often. So it's no surprise to them that one of my favorite lessons of the entire year is about women's suffrage. I love to teach them about Susan B Anthony, Seneca Falls, the hunger strike in jail, all of it! My favorite video of the year is this really well made video to the tune of Bad Romance, a Lady Gaga song.

I found this lesson on Teachers Pay Teachers and it is one of my favorite finds from that website. It is a lesson that "History with Mr. E" created and it's amazing, worth $5.00 and then some!
It starts with a great primary source activity that introduces key concepts from the struggle for suffrage. I put students in groups and they analyze the source using questions that are provided in the lesson. Afterwards we discuss the sources as a class and I give background. The students are usually so entranced that I don't make them take notes. We watch a few videos, one from the clip above, another from the Suffragette movie that recently came out. Then they are give the second part of the lesson, the graphic novel.
Students are required to create a graphic novel that tells the story of how women came to get the vote through the major events that were discussed in the primary sources. Students LOVE this activity because it allows them to be creative. One student did the whole story with bees being the women "Susan BEE Anthony" and ants being the men. It was amazing. It really makes the whole journey solidify in their minds.
I would highly recommend this engaging lesson using primary sources to educate your students about women and the right to vote! Thanks to Mr. E for letting me steal this lesson. You can purchase it here.





Sunday, January 8, 2017

Body Biography Activity

Don't you love when you find an activity that actually went swimmingly the first time around? Good enough that you can use it again the next year? This honestly hardly ever happens to me! However, I found this activity last year when I was desperate for an activity to go with the novel A Light in the Forest. I read this with my American Studies students (gifted class, combined English and History). I love teaching this novel but there are absolutely no good activities online for this great book! It's a bummer for a begger/borrower/stealer like me! :) I've had to get creative and honestly, I don't always have time to do that. So I was stoked when I found this activity on TPT. Best part?? It's totally free. Go download it NOW. Find it HERE. Major props to Danielle Knight for creating such a great resource.





 This activity deals a lot with symbolism, which is a great way to teach them what that means. After reading the novel, students had to think about certain things to place on the poster. For example, the heart represents what the character loves most. The hands should be holding what the character seeks to control. The eyes should represent how the character appraise to others on the outside. There are about 10 things that the student needs to include, including outside sources and quotes from the book. The students have fun with this every single year. They think tracing their bodies are so funny! It also gets super chaotic in my room trying to fit 12-15 of these huge posters on the floor but the kids love it and have great discussions with their groups as to what to include on the poster. It's a great wrap up activity because they have to go searching all through the book to find information for their poster. 

I would highly recommend this activity. I love seeing what the students come up with!

Isn't this poster amazing? This was from a student who never does anything for me. I wanted to laminate it but it was too big for our laminator! It also had 2/10 things it needed to have on it...*sigh*. 

Thanks so much to Danielle Knight for letting me steal this activity! I'm a huge fan.