As a first grade teacher, we spend A LOT of time working on retelling skills. With lots of practice and constant retelling instruction throughout the year, I

This year will bring about a BIG change for me! I've always been in a self-contained classroom-- until now! I took up a new position this year, and it just happens to be in a departmentalized 3rd grade! There will be 3 of us: Math, Reading, and Science/Social Studies. I decided I better do some quality research-- and go right to other teachers who have been in my shoes! After asking for tips on the All About 3rd Grade Facebook group-- I've come up with a list of my favorite ideas! 1) Assign a color to each group-- and use those colors religiously. So, I will be teaching math, and I purchased a rolling cart, 3 dish buckets from Walmart, and 3 rolls of duct tape. I labeled each bucket with teacher names and used different colors: Navy, teal, and green (I was trying to stay in my classroom theme colors) Also, when I label things for the students (like interactive notebooks), I can quickly put duct tape on the spine and recognize the class color! The students will keep their math notebooks in my room (less traveling = less headache) 2) What if the rotation is super long (90 min)? Keep this in mind: "Make sure you take breaks to get the kids up and moving. We do random dancing. Sometimes we dance going to get our supplies for the following subject" (Katie Elliott) 3) Stay in touch with your teammates all day, every day. Before you begin-- be sure you've talked about the following: How will we discipline? How will we contact parents? What is everyone's routines for cleaning up or rotating? How can we track behavior? What are everyone's classroom rules? Should they be similar? How will students keep track of their materials? What materials should they bring EVERY day? What materials will stay behind? How will we track unfinished work or missing assignments? Will we give homework? 4) Students aren't always the most responsible (say what?) until we teach them to be more mindful-- and many things can be lost in the shuffle between room. Geneva Pemberton recommends, "The less they carry to each class the better it is. Try to store things in the room where they will use them." 5) But how will I know what's happening in other classrooms? I know-- as teachers we hardly get breaks to just talk to each other see how the day is going. Oftentimes I won't see a fellow teacher until the end of the day! I LOVE this idea from Shelly Parker-Finch! "We pass a clip board around with the 3 classes where we write missing homework, bathroom breaks, behavior problems, etc. That way the next teacher/homeroom teacher has an idea of what is going on with each student. Also works as a record for parents to see how many times someone had a missing assignment or behavior." I thought this was such a great idea-- I have this on my TPT page for you to use! I recommend typing student names (instead of writing them every day) and then making several copies of the finished logs for the month (copy them in your class color-- of course!) so you can be ready to go every day! I plan to copy mine on blue and put on a clipboard-- then I'll make sure my "teacher helper" carries it from class to class for me! 6) This last one is very important (in fact, I think every teacher needs to remember this) and comes from Robbie Ann, "Remember they are 'our kids', not 'yours and mine' ". If you have any advice I've missed-- please share in the comments below! I hope you have a great school year!

8 FREE online resources for finding historical primary source documents.

Using primary sources in the classroom is an incredibly powerful way to teach Social Studies concepts. Primary sources help us see and understand things that happened in the past in a way that nothing else can. This blog post explores the following: Why use primary sources How to introdu

When I was young, I LIVED for DBQs! I guess I didn’t really think about it too much at the time, but I loved that there was an answer right there in front of me; I just needed to look closely at a picture. As a VERY visual learner, being able to see history through primary sources […]

In this blog post, we’ll look at how to effectively scaffold your instruction and help students build increasingly sophisticated skills. We’ll also look at how you can help foster growth and independence through scaffolding. Scaffolding and Differentiating The methodology behind scaffolding is multi-faceted. Scaffolding can mean providing support

I'm teaming up with my good friend Jen over at Sparkling in Second to share three of my favorite first grade teacher tips.

Learn how to tell your students you are pregnant with a few fun ideas to help your students get excited for you!

ClassDojo can be used in upper elementary, too! It's a fun way to reward positive behaviors. FREE ClassDojo resources included!

As adult writers, we have a clear idea of how we each personally attack a piece of writing. For me, I know that I tend to spend a lot of time collecting information, using sticky

Teaching area and perimeter in your upper elementary math class? This blog post shares a collection of ideas for teaching area and perimeter!

Check Out This Book Spotlight "Jack the Builder" A Book About Counting On. FREE and Affordable Resources for Teachers and Parents.

How to survive your PGCE placement. Top tips to make your PGCE year go smoothly. Great for NQTs and student teachers too.

Worksheets are a normal and expected part of any teacher's instruction. However, they are arguably not very engaging and one of the least valuable teaching tools available. In this blog post, I share 15 alternative ideas for more engaging and authentic teaching tools that you can use instead of worksheets. Check out the list here, and leave a comment if you have another idea to provide!

Observations have been a part of my teaching career since the beginning. In my district, you were observed a few times of year (some were announced, some unannounced) until you reached tenure on the first

Prefixes and suffixes are used in writing, reading, and conversations to shape the meaning of words. This blog shows ways teach & keep your class engaged.

Any child with special education services has Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings. At least one per calendar year. In most cases, the child doesn't attend or have a say in the meeting until transition services come in to play. Until now. Student Led IEP Meetings. Learn more today!

After a long, hot, and buggy summer here in Nashville, we welcome the fall season with open arms!

We all know and love Kahoot, right? If you do not know about Kahoot then we have a few blog posts with tips and ideas to get you up to sp...

Guest Blogger James Robinson

I have often thought that one of the reasons why there are so many viruses in a school, is because teachers go to work sick. Not just sniffling and sneezing kind of sick - but full on "I feel like death warmed over" kind of sick. Why do they do this? It's because teachers hate to prepare for subs. Most find it easier to go to school sick, than prepare for sub. (Click on picture for link.) (Click on picture for the link.) Prepare before you get sick is the best advice I can give you. The last thing you feel like doing is trying to think of all the details to tell a sub when you been up and down all night with a sick child or your own sickness. So, when you go back to school in August to prepare your room for a new year, add sub plans to your "to do" list. You will be glad you did! I asked teachers who follow my Facebook page for sub tips. Here are a few and you can read the rest of them by looking for the graphic at the top of this post on my Facebook page. Do you have any sub tips to share? Looking for Back to School ideas? Click on the pictures below: An InLinkz Link-up

This blog posts looks at how students can prove multiplication strategies through Project Based Learning! Students can use their creativity and their new knowledge to develop a Multiplication Mall Store based on any theme they can imagine! And, there's a language arts tie in too! Read all about it!

If you had to ask me what my favourite resource that I’ve created is, I would probably have to say the Math Problem of the Day or “Le problème du jour”. Made in an interactive notebook style, it is always a popular time in my classroom! Why use “Le problème du jour” in your […]

I made this Subject & Predicate Writing Game from craft sticks as a fun way to show the students that every sentence need a subjects and a predicate. I made the sentence options very simple,

Teaching area is engaging and authentic with this hands-on applied math activity! Students arrange furniture to find the area and perimeter of their house.

Hey everyone! It's Deanna here from A Primary Owl! Today, I am talking formative assessments....this has been a huge push in my school this year. We have been focusing on Formative Instructional Practices like posting clear learning targets for students, making sure students know their learning targets and regular formative assessments to drive your instruction. So, I want to share with you 5 quick ways you can check for understanding during or after your lesson. You probably already use these strategies, but do you view at them as formative assessments?? Exit tickets are an excellent way to check for understanding. But you don't just have to wait until the students are "exiting".....you can have students write what they remember from the lesson the previous day. During the lesson, stop and have students jot down their ideas. I love using index cards for this! I have tons of them and they are super cheap. It takes just few minutes to pass them out and it is easy for students to write on the lines. Exit ticket charts or "What Stuck With You Today?" charts are great for this too. I love using my "Think and Respond" Chart. This is just another easy way to check in with students: I love white boards. We use them constantly in my room during our lessons. I recently felt like I won the lottery when I was in my local Dollar Tree store....they had these dry erase boards with handles only $1.00 each!!! I literally felt like doing a happy dance right there in the aisle! We have used them tons during math and also when we are reviewing multiple choice items for quizzes. I have them write their answers on their white boards and show me. I can quickly tell who didn't get the correct answer and who needs to look around for help before answering. I can pull those friends into a small group later for reteaching. Seems simple but we do a quick check on our fingers all the time. I say, "Give me a thumbs up if you understand, thumbs down if you are still having trouble, thumbs in the middle if you still need more time." Another way I use this is when we watch a BrainPop video, we do the little quizzes together and I have my students show one finger for answer A, two for answer B, etc. Easy and no prep or papers to print! Another scale that we use besides our fingers is a rating scale. While some students might find it hard to show their fingers because they might embarrassed to admit they don't understand a concept. Using a personal rating scale is less public. I made these, laminated them and my students keep them in their pencil boxes. Students can privately show me how they are doing. You can get your free template by clicking the picture: Finally, my favorite way to check student's learning is using technology. Here we are playing Quizlet Live, our new favorite obsession! These are just a few of my favorite tech tools for keeping students engaged and evaluating their learning during the unit we are working on. Thank for stopping by today! Pin for later:

Teaching patterns and patterning is not something for only young students. Patterns are a part of algebraic thinking and problem solving instruction.

Task cards are a great learning tool but finding ways to keep them organized is a pain! Here are my top task card storage ideas plus a few that aren't worth your time.

Teaching patterns and patterning is not something for only young students. Patterns are a part of algebraic thinking and problem solving instruction.

Teachers know all too well how much fun it is to pick out fonts for a lesson you are creating… yet how difficult it is to find one that students can independently read and understand. Special education teachers? We know more of the latter… When the “h” looks so much like an “n” that your […]

A blog post sharing information about why Contraction Surgery is a success in classrooms! Hands-on information is shared. #ContractionSurgery

If you were a fly on the wall in any teachers' lounge, one of the common frustrations you will hear discussed is missing work. How do you get your students to do all of their work? Through my years of teaching, my missing work philosophy changed. When I first began teaching, it was a black and white issue. The assignment was expected on the day it was due. I only accepted missing work from students that were absent. If parents questioned my policy, I always gave them the standard party line, "I am preparing your child for life." One day I had a parent question this a little further. You know there are parents that can question things the right way and others who question things the wrong way. This parent was one of the right way parents. He pointed out that in real life, mortgage companies have a grace period. You can pay your mortgage payment a few days late without a late fee. Some utilities companies also work this way. But, the electric company won't keep your electricity on forever. If you go a few months without paying your electric bill, your electricity will be turned off. Could I make my late work policy more like the real world? It made sense to me. I readjusted to policy to make it more like real life. I set the date of two weeks before the end of the grading period as my "electricity turn off" date. After this date, late work would be marked a zero. I thought it would be too complicated to set a specific number of days for a grace period. Instead, I set the last Friday of every month as my "catch up" day. All work assigned that month could be turned in without a penalty. Because it was a set day of every month, students and parents were aware of the day and it became part of our routine. Work turned in the following month would be marked down 15%. I think my students and parents were more engaged with my late work policy because they saw that it was like real life. In the meantime, there are things you can do to help your students improve their work habits. Write the class work and homework in the same section of your white board or chalkboard every day. You want to train your students to look there. The visual support is very important with students who have trouble turning in their work. Do your students write their assignments on a calendar or chart of some type? Train them to highlight the assignments AFTER they turn it in. This way when they are packing up at the end of the day, they can easily see which assignments AREN'T highlighted. Those are the assignments that they need to take home. Pair up your students at the end of the day. These are pack-up pals. Pack-up pals will double check to make sure assignments were written down correctly on their calendar or work chart PLUS make sure they take home the needed books and materials to complete their homework. Put your students in groups of three. These groups are study buddies. Study buddies will exchange phone numbers. If a study buddy has a question about a homework assignment, he or she can call one of his or her study buddies. If your school uses an electronic communication system, utilize it consistently. Consistency is the key! Do you have any strategies that have helped your students turn in their work on time?

All about how to assess the BC core competencies in your primary classroom. You can use kid-friendly language and cute pictures to help your students understand what the BC core competencies are and be able to complete self-assessments. What are the BC Core Competencies Were you thrown off a

This blog post describes how to teach different comma rules to elementary students. It includes activities and ideas for teaching commas.

Check out the best children's books about problem solving for your elementary aged students. Picture books on problem solving and more!

Check out these 5 ESL Speaking Activities that can be adapted for different grade and proficiency levels to get your English learners talking

In an era of high stakes testing, art is sometimes the first thing to go but we as teachers need to find ways to continue providing art experiences for our students. Not only is art just plain fun, and let's face it, kids do need fun, but it's much more than that. Art is beneficial in so many ways! Find out ways to incorporate art in this post by The Teacher Next Door.

How you set up and manage your classroom can greatly affect how your students behave. I've seen many classrooms where the teacher acts as a "rescue ranger,"

We know reading and writing are linked, right? Many of our struggling readers need help with writing, too. Unfortunately, time is tight,...

My top 5 management systems and the pros and cons of each one.

Ensuring students know the value and power of their courage is crucial for upper elementary students’ social-emotional learning and growth. Get easy-to-implement ideas, courage activities, suggested titles for books on bravery, and courage lesson plans to help you create a classroom community where

ClassDojo can be used in upper elementary, too! It's a fun way to reward positive behaviors. FREE ClassDojo resources included!