Well, 10 days away from Christmas Break {note…I initially wrote this last week and I never finished it…yikes!} and I feel like I have finally hit my reading-teacher groove. After months of training and trying, we have finally ‘fit’ it ALL into our 50 minute class period: flashback, mini-lesson, guided practice/Kagan structure, exit slip, AND...
Reader's theater is the perfect tool to add to your middle school ELA toolbox for so many reasons: it is interactive, highly engaging, enhances student
Whether you're new to teaching or a veteran, this list has you covered for 4th grade.
Do your kids like engineering and science? We’re not surprised: its super cool to make stuff that actually “does stuff!” Here are 35 fun DIY engineering projects just for kids that you and your family will enjoy. Notice that some are perfect for tiny tots and other projects are terrific for older kids and teens. Use your best judgement and provide adult supervision and guidance when needed. One of the great things about doing these DIY projects is that kids actually learn how things work – from gravity, physics and other science concepts. It’s not just about creating the DIY
Phonics instruction can be tricky for older students. When I taught first grade it was a natural part of our guided reading time. The lower level text allowed for more opportunities to incorporate phonics instruction. My third grade students desperatly NEED phonics instruction. They need to work on the same skills my firsties did, but at a higher level. As a result of this need, Phonics for BIG KIDS was born. There are four components to our phonics routine: Assessment, Word Work Lesson, Interactive Notebook & Game. Below you will find a short blurb about each component of instruction. Assessment Prior to beginning instruction, I give each student in my group a quick assessment. It is a list of 30 words that focus on the specific skill that we will be focusing on. This gives me a baseline to track their progress. At the end of the week I give them the assessment again to track progress. Word Work Lesson At the beginning of the word work lesson I give each student their laminated “Working with Words” mat and the word parts needed. I laminate this mat to use it as a dry erase board. I follow the script, “Find the word parts to create the word ________.” After they create the word, they then match it to the picture and write the word with a dry erase marker on their mat. I do that for all eight words. I also put students in small groups where they each take a turn pretending to be the “teacher”. Interactive Notebook I love incorporating interactive notebooks into my instruction. It is a great way to reinforce what we just practiced. There are three interactive notebook activities included for each skill. Games The demonstration cards are used to provide an example for each word included in the lesson. You could also use these cards for sorting, playing memory, Go Fish, etc. I use them for many more things that just demonstrating, depending on the level of students that I am working with. I would LOVE to see how you do phonics with your big kids. Tag me on Instagram @thecrazyschoolteacher with the hashtag #phonicsforBIGKIDS.
Whether you're new to teaching or a veteran, this list has you covered for 4th grade.
Students are expected to come to every art class with a PENCIL & ERASER. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OUR ART PROGRAM Even though we do not have an art studio this claymation…
Try these easy sound experiments -- Elementary & Middle School kids will LOVE testing the science of sound with this fun wave experiment to create a 'gong' and explore how sound waves travel!
When I changed grade levels from second grade to 4th/5th, one of the things I really thought I would miss was all of my amazing picture books. I used to love to read and re-read them to the kids, to look at their beautiful illustrations, and to use them to get kids excited about the […]
POEMS? That 5-letter word will send shivers down the spines of middle school students. Add in the suggestion of "poetry analysis," and the moans and groans can be heard throughout the hallways! If all this sounds familiar, I have a few teacher tips to help you boost engagement with poems that middle schoolers actually enjoy!
Are you looking for ways to encourage the love of reading in your secondary ELA classroom? Consider trying literature circles for big kids. Click through to get my blueprint for how to use literature circles in middle and high school ELA classes.
Want to know what your kids are really thinking? These Conversation Starters for Kids will help you find out.
I have so much to share with you about writing interventions, but first things first: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW BLOG DESIGN?!?!? Please share your thoughts! Every year, I meet lots of middle schoolers who struggle with writing. And every year, I play around with lots of different interventions to meet their needs. Last year, I made establishing sound writing interventions one of my big goals. I spent lots of time (and money!!) on resources that I could use, and by about March, I had something that I thought I was pretty happy with. This year, I'm starting off with those interventions that worked so well last year and I couldn't be happier with the results! In fact, I'm so pleased with how they are working, I feel confident enough to share my practice with my blog readers. I can say that these are definitely KID TESTED, TEACHER APPROVED!! Creating a Time and Space for Intervention within your Classroom I teach by myself. There are no aides, special ed teachers, BSI teachers... just little, ol' me! So, when I want to create and manage small groups, I'm on my own. This is hard. It would be so much easier if there was another adult in the room to help, but there is not, so I just have to deal! It's work, but it absolutely can be done! A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Power of Bell-Ringers. Establishing a quiet and smooth transition into writing class is a great way to get started, but it also provides me with a window of time where I can pull a small group! By mid-October, my bell-ringer time gets extended to 15 minutes. The kids get started immediately and are clear on the expectations during this time. Now the environment for working with small groups is set: the room is quiet and engaged, allowing me to focus my time on the handful of kids in my group. I pull my kids to a table that I have set up in front of our classroom library. I have a "teacher station" at one end where I do my instruction. I usually stream some jazz or piano music during this time so my group doesn't distract the rest of the class. Establishing Interventions In my district, by middle school, there are no longer district-mandated interventions in place. There are no clear resources for teachers to use or personnel to help. So, when we have a struggling reader or writer in 7th or 8th grade, it's the job of the classroom teacher to meet their needs. In my tenure of working with middle schoolers, I've found that there are two types of students who need more support than my writing curriculum provides (and please remember... I am not a researcher/specialist/writer of books/etc. I'm just a teacher, like you, who loves my job, tries to do the best by my kids, and is compulsively reflective about what I see happening... to me, teachers are the best EXPERTS, but I know that we are hesitant these days to trust a "lowly" teacher and rather find ourselves relying on big publishers and educational researchers to show us best practices... I don't have lots of "data" to support what I'm sharing with you... just my actual observations I've made while working with real, live kids in an average classroom setting!!). Type One: Students Who Struggle with Structure The first type of students who need intervention are those who struggle with structure. These are the kids that can't organize their thoughts in a way a reader could follow. They simply write whatever their brain thinks at the time. They can generally stick with a broad topic, but because they are just writing whatever pops into their head at the time, there are lots of places where their writing veers off track and becomes confusing. Here is an example written by a former student struggling with structure: My dog Henry is my most special treasure. He is always there for me whenever I need him in sad times and happy. In many ways, he's my best friend. He has brown fur and a white chest. He is such a good dog to have around when you are sad because he always knows just how to cheer you up. His eyes are brown, like a Hersey bar. His favorite toy is a yellow tennis ball. Once he almost got hit by a car chasing the ball down the street. I have loved him ever since he was a puppy and we first got him. I was only 4-years old when that little ball of fluff was brought home by my parents to be best friends. His soft fur is always so smooth and warm when you pet him while watching TV on a cold night. He is my best friend and that is why he is my special treasure [sic]. This student is clear about his topic - his dog, Henry - but he cannot organize his thoughts. He is thinking about his dog and writes down everything he knows about his buddy exactly as it comes to his mind. Clearly, he has mechanical and conventional skills, and you can see evidence of where he is practicing what we learned in our mini-lessons and from studying our mentor pieces. But, because there is no organization, it is too difficult to follow and all of the skills he has are lost to the untrained, teacher-eye. Kids who write like this need an intervention that focuses on structure and organization. Typically, I LOATHE teaching step-by-step process writing, but in cases like this, I'm left with little choice. The lessons that I put together for kids in need of this intervention consist of learning how to write a well-organized paragraph. Together, we will work on writing topic sentences, creating strong and clear supporting sentences, and finish up with writing a closing that sticks with our reader. My favorite plans for this type of writing come from Michael Friermood. His Fact-Based Opinion Writing products are geared toward teaching elementary students (grades 3-5) how to write a good opinion paragraph, and they are PERFECT for my struggling 7th graders. They also lack a lot of the "cutesy" images that you find with products for this age group, so my big kids don't feel like I'm making them do "baby stuff." (I do not use the stationary he provides for the final writing piece... it's adorable, but it would be pushing in with my kids! So, we just do our paragraph writing in our intervention notebooks!) My plan is to pull the intervention group for one week (at 15 minutes a pop, this comes to 1 1/4 hours of learning). Long before I ever pull a group, I work hard to make sure that my lesson is broken down into five succinct 15-minute increments. Since time is so precious, you need to make sure not one minute is wasted! I can say that it takes me much longer to plan for a small-group lesson than a 50-minute whole-class lesson because efficiency is so crucial. The first few times you plan a small-group lesson, don't be surprised if your timing is mess. It definitely takes practice to be an effective small-group instructor! After their week is up, then I send them back to completing the bell-ringer at the start of class. I will watch them closely and conference with them lots to make sure that I am seeing a transfer of skills. If I don't, then it is likely that I will put them back in an intervention group in a few weeks to practice again. This intervention model will continue all year. Right now, I have 8 intervention students in one writing class, and 6 in another. By the end of the year, those number should reduce to 3-4 and 2-3. Never in all my years of working with small groups, have I had 100% of my intervention students "graduate" from small group. Don't be frustrated if this is the case! If you can improve 50-60% of those kids, then consider that a huge success!! Type Two: Students Who Struggle with Motivation The next group of kids that I work with are those who struggle with motivation. These are the students who complain a lot about not having anything to write about, spend more time doodling or coloring in their notebook than writing, and who will write the absolute bare minimum for any writing assignment. Many times, these kids produce too little for me to gauge whether or not they also need help with structure. But typically, once I can get them writing, they will likely find themselves in a small group for structure work :) Come October, after we've spent lots of lots of time list writing, the kids who are still struggling to get their pencils moving find themselves using a very special Interactive Writer's Notebook called "Musings from a Middle Schooler." This product contains loads of interactive writing pages that will motivate even the most reluctant writers. The pages can be printed out and glued into a marble notebook. (Most often, I'll have the kids create their own... I don't always have them use all the pages, rather I let them pick and choose the ones they like!). Cover Table of Contents page Table of Contents cont. and an "All About Me" page "My Life Story in Two Pages" My Favorite Thing Comics I created this project just last school year and it's been an absolute smash! The kids (especially my boys!) LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! In absolutely no time, they are writing like crazy. And once I can get their pencils moving it doesn't take me long to get them producing some actual pieces. I don't necessarily pull these kids and work with them in a small group. The first few days, we will assemble our books all together at the back table, but then they go right back to the big group. Rather than do the bell-ringer with the rest of the class at the start of the period, they will work in their "Musings" notebooks. Fifteen minutes of that is usually enough to get them into writing mode for the rest of class. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * So, that's how I make writing intervention work in my classroom. Phew!! That was long, folks!! I apologize for my wordiness and I am grateful if you stuck it out until the end! Also, I'm sure that I've left out some crucial details of my practice, so please do not hesitate to ask me any questions you still have! Do you have any good intervention tips or strategies that work for you? I'd love to hear about them. Drop me a comment and share! Happy Teaching!!
This printable poster presents a 5 step calm down plan to help children learn to manage big emotions in socially acceptable ways.
As Amy Bohnert, a psychologist who researches child development at Loyola University, said, there are a lot of different ways to raise kids, and there's no magic formula that works for every one of them. There are, however, general guidelines that can help moms and dads to cover the basics. And people can find them on Big Life Journal's social media.
Use this free CBT poster to help students and clients challenge automatic negative thoughts. If you are looking for other Cognitive Behavioral Therapy tools, you may also enjoy: THE CBT CARD GAME!
Every Day is a new day. Important things to note January Jan. 9 - 31 F& P Benchmarking Jan. 16 No School - MLK, Jr. Holiday Jan. 17 2nd...
“Emotional Freedom Technique” (or EFT) is a clinically proven form of “emotional acupuncture without needles”. Used by therapists, psychologists and millions worldwide to ease emotional distress and clear negative emotions, beliefs, and memories, it’s setting a new tone for how we manage stress in the modern world.
This oh-so-cool DIY smart phone projector will inspire little engineers to turn recyclables into inventions. There’s no stopping.
Looking back to the “good old days” can be great. So use our conversation starters to find out what your kids are thinking about their own lives.
Tons of Primary Chorister ideas for teaching music to children in Primary. Singing time for junior and senior primary and even nursery. For teaching in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Use these 25 research-based, immediately implementable strategies to start boosting the confidence of your children or students today.
Fancy a cup of tea or fish and chips as we learn about England for Kids? Learn about Windsor Castle & Big Ben with these England Printables.
Write for the NAfME Blog SEARCH & FILTER Search Category Subscribe to NAfME Notes Subscribe to NAfME Notes, our biweekly e-newsletter, to receive highlights from the blog and other NAfME news in your inbox. Subscribe Now Write for the NAfME Blog Interested in sharing your experience with the music education…
Check out these France crafts for kids on the occasion of France's France Fete de la Federation. Make sure to learn some French along the way!
In addition to our fabulous summer bucket list and activity list, we have a Bored Jar that I made last summer and that Cass has updated using lolly sticks. ...
The kids and I have been talking about words with ing added on the end. My youngest has just started coming across these words in his reading and his big sister was showing him how to break the wo…
Surprises for kids don't have to be huge. It's important to teach them to learn how to appreciate sweet gestures and small things in life.
This list was made by an old person.
Wagon Trails Unstoppable Together
Whether you're new to teaching or a veteran, this list has you covered for 4th grade.
This is one of my favorite tips to use in the classroom. As a teacher, I can always work on my classroom management! I feel like I get a little better every year but who knows..I do try at least. In our schedule, I teach 4th and 5th science and the 5th grade teacher teaches my 4th graders math. I really like this set up for multiple reasons: 1. I'm selfish - and I get to see my old kiddos for one hour of the day! I'm almost squealing writing this because I always miss them. and some days since they know my expectations - it saves my sanity :) 2. I get to know the curriculum- I know what is expected the next year and can prepare them and I see the sequence of our science curriculum, making it so much easier on me as a teacher. 3. I LOVE SCIENCE! So this is the first year that my students get to switch classes and with that comes a whole lot more responsibility - they have to remember supplies (biggest obstacle) and keep up with 2 teachers and still have it all together. We are next door neighbors so we pack and line up at first bell and switch at second bell. That leaves about 2-3 min while others are still packing to stand and wait. I remember seeing this idea somewhere...I'm sure on Pinterest but I don't have an original pin to give the link to - (if you know then help me out!) This board sits right next to my door and all of my students can see it while waiting in line to switch (or go out to recess.....lunch... special...bathroom...whatever!) I write an answer the in the blank. I usually use a term/person/vocab/concept and most often from science and social studies but it doesn't have to be. Students have to come up with a question that would have that as an answer. I love the BACKWARD thinking this makes the students do. I give Dojo points for correct questions after giving students time to think. They only get a point for a question that makes sense and is correct and has not been said. You will be so surprised with what they come up with! They surprise me so frequently. I love just how easy it is to change - just wipe and go. Ideally, it would get changed each day but in my room it's usually 2-3 days and I change it just right when we walk to line so they aren't trying to come up with questions all day I really like how this fits with upper elementary! I can quickly change for both classes. This can easily be used as an exit slip and to check knowledge in those few moments! I use a dry erase board but you could easily use a paper and a picture frame and write on with a dry erase marker.
Here is a list of my most favorite ESL teaching resources: books, websites and simply products that make my life as an ESL teacher easier!
Buenas noches, tardes o dias. Lo que sea que sea donde vivan amix. Dije que en este Stream les contestaria preguntas asi que hagamoslo. Tengo 19 casi 20. Mi cumpleaños es el 6 de Noviembre. Soy Escorpio, no me baneen plisss.. Amm que mas? Ah Vivo con dos de mis mejores amigas. Sᴍᴀʟʟᴄᴏʀɴ ᴅᴏɴᴏ 20 "Esᴛᴜᴅɪᴀs? Sᴜᴇɴᴀs ᴍᴜʏ ɪɴᴛᴇʟɪɢᴇɴᴛɪᴏsᴀ" Ammm haha si, estoy estudiando Traduccion de idiomas, se hablar ingles y frances hasta el momento, pero aparte de eso no les vengo manejando ni quimica ni matematicas, me duermo con eso. Qᴜᴀᴄᴋᴛʏ ᴅᴏɴᴏ 10 "Cᴏɴᴛᴇsᴛᴀ ᴍɪs ʟʟᴀᴍᴀᴅᴀs Dᴜᴍʙᴀss" Vete a dormir mejor, enfadoso.
State testing and April Fool’s day… Yeah… those two words should NEVER go together, but for some strange reason this is the second year in a row I am discussing the two in the same post because they’re happening at the same time, again! Let’s first start with our state testing…This year here in sunny […]
I LOVE my class this year. Diverse. Capable. Sweet. Unique. Enthusiastic. Energetic. Hard-working. Funny. Lovable. These are some of the words that come to mind when I think of my first graders. But one more word that also comes to mind is...chatty. Very chatty. We are a 'work in progress' with this. And thank goodness, we are continuing to improve each week. :-) Now, don't get me wrong, I believe a classroom should be FULL of rich, collaborative dialogue. Student discussion is vital, and our little guys need frequent opportunities to engage with peers and share their thoughts. I pride myself on having a dynamic, student-centered classroom that encourages this. To foster this kind of a climate, however, students also need to learn how to be effective listeners and independent workers. There are appropriate and inappropriate times for talking, and to get students to adhere to these boundaries, clear expectations must be set. Here are 12 ideas/strategies to try when working with a chatty class.
A collection of short riddles i have gathered over the years. I'm sure u know most but it's nice to be reminded of a few. Useful as warmers/ creating classroom discussion etc. answers provided.big kiss - ESL worksheets
Need youth group games? We have 50 of them, and they are all no prep youth group games! Perfect for groups as little as 3 and as big as 100. Check out these 50 no prep youth group games that are not dodgeball!
