Ideas by Jivey

Jivey shares ideas and lessons to make literacy accessible for all.

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Bright Idea: Creating Maps to Review

This time of the year, we need some serious bright ideas to finish out the year, don’t we?

I’m here to bring you an idea that my kids absolutely loved!! And the best part- it took them about two hours to do! 😉

If your social studies curriculum is anything like mine, there is a ton that can be shown on a map! Locations, events, landforms, tribes… the list goes on and on. I printed a map of the Unites States and blew it up on our poster maker at school. I split my class into groups and gave each group a poster map, then I told them we were having a contest to see who could put the most of what we learned this year on a map. (Contests always make kids work harder, don’t they?)

Social studies bright idea with Ideas by Jivey

I allowed students to use their resources to help them. My kids were so excited and worked so hard to complete their maps!

Social studies bright idea with Ideas by Jivey

Social studies bright idea with Ideas by Jivey

Of course, I could not choose a winner because they all worked so hard and did such a great job, so I rewarded them all. :o)

If you enjoyed this bright idea, please consider joining me on Facebook, Instagram, or my TPT Store for more great ideas.

For more bright ideas from other bloggers, please browse through the link-up below and choose a topic/grade level that interests you. Thanks for visiting!

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Ecosystems, Food Webs, and Owl Pellets


We have had so much fun in Science the last few weeks! My kiddos have loved learning about ecosystems and food webs. I wanted to give my kids a chance to put together food webs before creating their own, so I made this Interactive Ecosystems Unit:

Interactive ecosystems with Ideas by Jivey

Since several of my students don’t have a lot of background information about what animals eat (other than the ones that live in our ecosystem), I gave them the passages from the unit that give information about all of the ecosystems and the animals that live in them. I allowed my students to work on these in partner sets and groups, which really made them use the evidence from the passages to prove their thinking with each other. Their conversations were really awesome!

Interactive ecosystems with Ideas by Jivey
The last activity in the unit allows them to figure out how to place the organisms so that they can create a food web. 
Interactive ecosystems with Ideas by Jivey
Instead of printing the freshwater organisms page full size and giving them the large-sized construction paper, I printed two sets on one page and didn’t give them the arrows. It fit perfectly on a sheet of copy paper, and the students drew in their own arrows instead of trying to make them fit in between the animals. 
Interactive ecosystems with Ideas by Jivey

To wrap up our unit, I had the students create their own food webs!

Interactive ecosystems with Ideas by Jivey
Disecting owl pellets with Ideas by Jivey

And then, of course, we had to get our hands a little dirty! We dissected owl pellets!

My kids love doing this every year, and even the ones who act like they think it’s so gross and don’t want to touch it end up being the most excited! :o)

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Teachers Helping Teachers!

I am so lucky to have met so many friends through blogging and TPT. There are several of us that have become very close, and we call each other our BBBs-best blogging buddies! It was super hard to choose just one that I wanted to highlight for being a support system and an inspiration to me, because they are all so wonderful!! But since I was lucky enough to just recently visit Boston on a short trip and got to meet Theresa from Pinkadots Elementary, I chose to pay it forward to her!

She is one of the most positive, energetic, creative people I know! I love to see what is going on in her classroom, and get her feedback on how things are going in mine. She is a great listener and just an all around fabulous BBB! She also got me hooked on Cheryl’s cookies. If you have never heard of this company, oh my gosh. RUN. They are fabulous!

Inspired by Theresa from Pinkadots Elementary with Ideas by Jivey

She will be receiving a surprise in the mail very soon this week from Cheryl’s! :o)

If you want to celebrate a teacher that has impacted you, head over to Layla’s blog and link up! We’d love to see you pay it forward, too! :o)

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What Works: Teacher Appreciation Linky

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! As a teacher, I know how under-appreciated we often are… so I was SO excited to be able to be a part of this fabulous link up to help spread the love! Over fifty teachers are sharing with you “what works” in their classroom in hopes we can make your life easier! I am sharing how I use mentor texts and mentor sentences to save precious time in my classroom, as well as help my students become awesome authors! 
If you are like most teachers, you LOVE to read to your class! There are so many great lessons you can do with so many fabulous books- but if you read a book before every lesson, you wouldn’t have time for half of what you’d need to get done, right? Mentor texts are books that can be used for several lessons, and often in several subjects. You read it one time, then refer back to parts, only re-reading what you need to for your lesson that day. Luckily, these books are usually your favorite books that you already read! I like to find books that have a theme or topic that I’m teaching in science, social studies, and even math and then turn on my “language arts brain” to see how I could integrate it into other areas of my day. Take the book, Henry’s Freedom Box, for example!
What works with Ideas by Jivey
This book is wonderful if you are studying about the Underground Railroad, so I read it during social studies time… but it is also fabulous for several reading skills like vocabulary, interpreting meaning, theme, and using evidence! I love to use Head Over Heels For Teaching’s awesome unit for this book during my Reading Workshop!
What works with Ideas by Jivey
This way, I am covering some social studies content WHILE we are practicing our reading skills!
But wait… I’m not done with this book yet! Check out the next secret…
Students need to SEE good writing to become good writers. It only makes sense, right? So why do so many programs only show them sentences filled with mistakes?? For the last six years, I have been using mentor sentences in my classroom, and I’ve never looked back at DOL and DGP! With mentor sentences, students are seeing an awesome sentence from the mentor text you are also using in your other subjects. Over the course of the week, they really dig into this ONE sentence. They figure out what makes it awesome, and they also see how the parts of speech (grammar) work together to make it such a great sentence. They revise the sentence to try to make it better than it already is. (Yes, even a published sentence could be better! This helps them see that they are NEVER done when they are writing their own stories…) Then, they imitate the sentence – they keep the structure the same. This DOES carry over into their own writing! My students become such brilliant authors every year, and they learn to LOVE writing! 
What works with Ideas by Jivey
If you’d like to read even more about mentor sentences in upper elementary grades, you can read here!
Oh, but wait! First, second, and even third grade teachers, I can’t leave you out! Mentor sentences work in ALL grades! You can do all of those same skills the upper grades teachers are doing to help your students learn how to write good complete sentences and spice up their writing, too!
What works with Ideas by Jivey
Marissa from Inspired Owl’s Corner uses mentor sentences in her class and agrees that the more the students are exposed to good sentences, the more will “stick” with them and transfer to their own writing! Check out these awesome imitations!
What works with Ideas by Jivey
If you’d like to read more about how to use mentor sentences in lower grades, click here to read!
You won’t want to miss out on all the other great secrets being shared by successful teachers! Be sure to check out all the other great posts below.

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Five For Friday: Oregon Trail With a {Giveaway!}

Linking up for another fabulous Five For Friday to share about our learning of the Oregon Trail! And today, I’m bringing you an awesome giveaway with products from The Sweetest Thing and of course, me! :o)

We started off our study of the Oregon Trail using passages from Westward Expansion Paired Texts about The Oregon Trail and Covered Wagons! We annotated the passages, and the students practiced responding to a constructed response question.
Oregon Trail with Ideas by Jivey
Oregon Trail with Ideas by Jivey
I was so excited when Lauren from The Sweetest Thing shared her Oregon Trail Reader’s Theater with me! It was such a unique story, and one I knew my kids would love!
Oregon Trail Reader's Theater with Ideas by Jivey
I put my kids into groups to read together. They really got into it- they started changing their accents and tone of their voice- one of my boys even turned into a deep-voiced Daddy who was not messing around! LOL!
Oregon Trail Reader's Theater with Ideas by Jivey
Once they finished reading the Reader’s Theater, Lauren included some awesome activities to complete, including storyboards where they had to retell the story through pictures:
Retelling the story through Pictures by Ideas with Jivey
Retelling the story through Pictures by Ideas with Jivey
They did such a great job showing the main parts of the play!
One of the projects my students complete during our Westward Expansion Unit is an ABC Book. Here are two of my kiddos’ entries for Covered Wagons, Oregon Trail, and Pioneers:
Westward Expansion Unit ABC Book with Ideas by Jivey
I had to show you this one because the illustration was just too funny. 
The driver is saying, “OMG! You guys are so slow!” 
And the ox says, “He-he!”
Westward Expansion Unit ABC Book with Ideas by Jivey
If you want to see and read more about these ABC Books–and snag some freebies–check out my post TOMORROW over on our NEW Collaborative Blog, The Primary Peach! And while you’re there, make sure to enter our HUGE Launch Giveaway!

Lastly, here are some of my FAVORITE books that I have been reading during our Westward Expansion Unit:

Favorite books in Westward Expansion Unit:with Ideas by Jivey

I love them SO much, in fact, that I’ve decided to make a Westward Expansion Mentor Sentence Mini-Unit with them! (Similar to the American Revolution Mentor Sentence Mini-Unit I already have in my store…) It will be finished by the time the giveaway is over, so you will be the FIRST to get it if you win!

So, without further ado, check out this awesome giveaway! Two products from me, and two products from The Sweetest Thing- all four will have you SET to teach about Westward Expansion! The more entries you complete, the more chances you have to win! Good luck! It ends Monday night at midnight! (Or is that Tuesday morning??) 😛
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Ideas By Jivey

1 day ago

Ideas By Jivey
When do YOU teach grammar? 🤓📓If you're using the mentor sentence routine, I suggest beginning your writing time with it! You want grammar and language to be directly connected to their writing.This also helps get students into a writing frame of mind, and often gives them a purpose for writing that day! ✏️Read more about the mentor sentences routine here: www.ideasbyjivey.com/routine ... See MoreSee Less

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Ideas By Jivey

4 days ago

Ideas By Jivey
🔍Research has proven that vocabulary words must be presented in context for proper comprehension.📖That means... throw out the word lists for kids to look up in a dictionary and memorize the definition!!!📚Picture books are vital – yes, even in the upper grades – to allow students to use the images to help with context and infer the meaning of words. One way to present vocabulary words effectively is to teach through texts you are already using for other lessons!😍You can find over 150 weeks' worth of contextual vocabulary activities just like these in the All-Access Mentor Text Membership: members.ideasbyjivey.com/all-access ... See MoreSee Less

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