This post includes the following reading points. Hey-ho! I just love all things literacy and specifically working with words. I want to delve deeper into phonological development, because.. well.. I just love it! I’m a bit of a nerd that way! Are you too? You know that phonological and phonemic awareness skills are important and also …
A clever classroom trick to help children learning to write inside lines
A good listener can be defined by how the listener learns to listen. This anchor charts breaks down the characteristics of a go...
I'm teaming up with my good friend Susanna from Whimsy Workshop Teaching to launch our newsletters. Susanna and I know that we want to offe...
A clever classroom trick to help children learning to write inside lines
I love the idea of having ready to go printables that will work for any list and that can be used in a number of ways. This set of pr...
Bring clarity and consistency to your lesson plans with Bloom's Verbs Posters! These bright and colorful posters with cleverly defined terms will transform your classroom into a learning powerhouse. Whether you're a teacher, student teacher, or even a homeschooling parent, these posters are an essential addition to your curriculum. This is your chance to get organized and improve learning outcomes and get the most out of your classroom! With two colored versions and a black-and-white version included, you have the flexibility to choose what best suits your class. Take your teaching to the next level with Bloom's Verbs Posters!
One of my favorite things to teach when I taught Kindergarten was reading, followed by writing. Our reading program started by the third week of school after the students were mostly settled into the
A good listener can be defined by how the listener learns to listen. This anchor charts breaks down the characteristics of a good listener. I use this in conjunction with my Back to School Memory Book for establishing how to listen. I have included the template in the Back to School Memory Book download for […]
20 ways to make teaching and learning the wonderful world of grammar fun.
Wow your students with these 21 science classroom decorating ideas. These science lab door decoration ideas are perfect for elementary science teachers!
This post includes the following reading points. Hey-ho! I just love all things literacy and specifically working with words. I want to delve deeper into phonological development, because.. well.. I just love it! I’m a bit of a nerd that way! Are you too? You know that phonological and phonemic awareness skills are important and also […]
I’m teaming up with my good friend Susanna from Whimsy Workshop Teaching to launch our newsletters. Susanna and I know that we want to offer our you awesome ideas that you can use in the classroom. We are both compassionate about literacy and have so many ideas that we want to share with you. By […]
An Anchor Chart for Introducing Angles from Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas!
This post includes the following reading points. Hey-ho! I just love all things literacy and specifically working with words. I want to delve deeper into phonological development, because.. well.. I just love it! I’m a bit of a nerd that way! Are you too? You know that phonological and phonemic awareness skills are important and also […]
This post includes the following reading points. Hey-ho! I just love all things literacy and specifically working with words. I want to delve deeper into phonological development, because.. well.. I just love it! I’m a bit of a nerd that way! Are you too? You know that phonological and phonemic awareness skills are important and also […]
These teacher hacks are brilliant ideas for your classroom that'll make your life so much easier this year. Number nine will change your life!
Secret Stories® Phonics Posters are the ideal sound wall for reading & spelling, helping kids understand the connection between sound & print.
Welcome to our book study of The Writing Strategies Book: Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Writers by Jennifer Serravallo! I am joining forces with some other fabulous teacher bloggers to discuss the writing strategies we come across in this AMAZING professional text! Because this book isn't your typical professional development book filled with individual "chapters" of narrative, each teacher blogger will be giving you a glimpse into the 10 goals that are represented in the text. Each goal area is filled with many valuable strategies that will help you to support and guide your students as they become better writers. Keep in mind, we are only highlighting a FEW strategies in each section. There are over 300 strategies in the whole book! You can find my posts for previous sections below: Goal 1: Composing With Pictures Goal 2: Engagement Goal 3: Generating and Collecting Ideas Goal 4: Focus/Meaning Goal 5: Organization and Structure Goal 6: Elaboration Goal 7: Word Choice It is important for students to learn how words are spelled so that others can comprehend what has been written. Serravallo cautions that we shouldn't assume that spelling errors mean that students are being careless, but that they are writing the way they know how. She suggested using a spelling assessment, such as the spelling inventory from Words Their Way, in order to learn more about your students' spelling understandings. When choosing this as a goal for your students to work on, you may want to consider students who: * show they are ready for this strategy based on spelling inventory. * have writing samples with a high frequency of certain types of spelling errors. Focus Strategy 1: Vowel Charts for the Middle of Words This strategy teaches the child to say a word they are having trouble spelling slowly. They should first record the beginning sound. Then they say it again listening for the middle of the word. They check a vowel chart to see which letter or letter combinations might make the sound. Here is an example of a vowel chart from The Clever Classroom. Focus Strategy 2: Use Your Resources to Spell When a student tries to spell a word (or attempts to correct the spelling of a word), they should ask themselves, "Have I seen this word written somewhere else before?" They should check resources such as books, word walls, personal dictionaries, etc. Focus Strategy 3: Use Words You Know to Spell Unknown Words This strategy asks students to think about words they know how to spell that might sound like a word they know. For example, if they were trying to spell the word "exit" they might think about the word "it" to help them spell it. This page features prompts students can use to help them spell including these strategies and several others. You might want to print it out for your students to refer to. If you would like to purchase the book mentioned above, you can find it here. This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog. All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love. Make sure to visit Katie over at Running for Literacy. She is our official hostess for this week, and she has some more strategies and great ideas for you! If you would like to link up your own blog posts about this book, feel free to do so in the linky below! Don't forget to check out the other bloggers' posts as well as they write them for even more ideas! An InLinkz Link-up
All the pieces that make up a story.
When I present patients and reach the “body habitus” part of the presentation, I always become a little awkward. I’m acutely aware of body-image issues and I never want to be the …
Despite the joys of our profession (and there are so many!), there are also so many things which can drain our energies and motivations in the classroom. One
Cultivate lifelong reading skills.
What happens when a frog's car breaks down? It gets toad away. If you're like me and laughed at this joke more than you probably should have, you know that words are fun. Bruce Worden, the man behind a blog called Homophones, Weakly, also shares this opinion. Like you might have already guessed, he's into homophones (each of two or more words having the same pronunciation but different meanings, origins, or spelling). In fact, Bruce likes them so much, he's even visualizing them!
This post includes the following reading points. Hey-ho! I just love all things literacy and specifically working with words. I want to delve deeper into phonological development, because.. well.. I just love it! I’m a bit of a nerd that way! Are you too? You know that phonological and phonemic awareness skills are important and also […]
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." ― Dalai Lama
What happens when a frog's car breaks down? It gets toad away. If you're like me and laughed at this joke more than you probably should have, you know that words are fun. Bruce Worden, the man behind a blog called Homophones, Weakly, also shares this opinion. Like you might have already guessed, he's into homophones (each of two or more words having the same pronunciation but different meanings, origins, or spelling). In fact, Bruce likes them so much, he's even visualizing them!
All the pieces that make up a story.
What can run but can't walk? Reveal the answer to this clever riddle by cracking the number code in this Riddles and Codes worksheet.
My oldest daughter is in 3rd grade and is working on mastering her times tables. She has a great understanding of the concept of multiplic...
Happy Wednesday! We've been working on verbs a lot the past week...and I REALLY wish I had taken more pictures of what we have done...but...fail! We have sung songs {from YouTube} about verbs, acted verbs out, made sentences with verbs and sorted them. I just wanted to share really quick with you guys this little interactive page that I had my kids put in their interactive notebooks today! I made this easy-peasy for my kids...today was a half day and we were already a little short on time so we added the definition to our notebooks and illustrated {and labeled what we could} 2 different verbs. Click on the pictures to snag this little freebie up! After the thought...I decided that it would be fun to add a little bit to the interactive page and brainstorm verbs that we can do in different places at school so I added the second page. Hopefully I can get around to it with my kids! To use it, Your students will fold on the dotted line and glue the little strip to their notebook. Then, they will draw underneath the flap (much like a sticky note). I hope you enjoy! I love to hear from you if you snagged it up!
Every English language arts teacher needs a variety of successful, student led discussion strategies that will provide opportunities for student learning.
Howdy, friends. I am getting more preparation done for my classroom as I know you are too (if are lucky enough and have not started school yet!) I presented some staff development workshops this summer and was able to share my classroom with other teachers in my district. Just for the record, these teachers are the inspiration behind "Kindergarten Down River." They helped me realize the full potential of my vocation. Thank you, Texas friends. During these workshops, a specific format is used. It goes something like this: I model and share a piece of a lesson and then the teachers share the instructional strategies they saw present. This really holds me accountable for the correct modeling of these strategies. Finally, the teachers apply the strategies that I shared during the workshop by modeling their own mini-lesson with a small collaborative groups. I am a "newer" teacher in comparison to many of the teachers whom I meet at these workshops, but they are truly so excited to learn "new tricks" (as one sweet teacher shared with me in an email today.) In college, this newer generation of teachers has been taught more about building a classroom community of learners, rather than being taught content knowledge (I have a real problem with this--but that is not the topic of this post!) Many of the cooperative learning strategies that can be utilized in the classroom are much newer to a large group of these teachers. I must say, my school district has put a lot of emphasis on the structure of the classroom and I have yet to see a classroom, at the schools I have worked at, with individual desks separated into "the grid." Here are a few tricks that you would see if you walked into Kindergarten Down River: Students are grouped in teams of three or four. All students are separated into teams of three or four. Smaller groups allow (force) students to communicate. Any group larger than four usually is more problematic as far as behavior is concerned. Each student chooses a number in the group (1, 2, 3, or 4--depending on group size). Students have the choice to pick the number so they have ownership of it. Each student is required to know the response to my question because they do not know who is will be called on in their group. (I tell them after they have time to discuss! This way every student is "on the hook" or accountable!) Each group is assigned a different color. I place $1.00 small metal buckets in the middle of the tables that are the color of the team. (Target sells these in the party aisle. Hobby Lobby has some in seasonal and party sections.) When I dismiss groups to join me at the rug or line-up for lunch, I use their group color. There are other variations to this: You can use shapes, numbers, or academic vocabulary words that change but meet a specific unit. I have lots of great ideas on how to do this, but I stick to colors as it is just easier for me to remember. Once you get in a habit, it is hard to break it! I have a small metal bucket with spoons in it. Yes, I said, "Spoons!" Cups or Buckets to Label Table Group/Spoons to Call on Students Each spoon has a number on it. The number written on the spoon represents the student in the group is that number for their group (See Step 2 if you forgot already!) I just bought these new Crayola plastic cups the last time I was in San Antonio at H-E-B for 66 cents. I only used standard white plastic spoons for this with Sharpie marker written numbers. My friend, who I often collaborate with, gave me a great idea this summer. Have you been to a frozen yogurt shop lately? Does your favorite shop stick a funky spoon in your yogurt when you pay? Mine does! Take a break, grab some "fro-yo" (I think that is what the youngsters call it), and SAVE YOUR SPOON. The future of the Earth depends on it. Think about your carbon footprint. You can save the planet! Here the routine I use to implore this strategy now that you have all the key pieces: Tell the students that, "In just a minute you will be responsible for discussing a question with your team. It is important that all team members have a turn to speak. When each member has a turn to speak, you need to work together to come up with a response for your team. You will not know who I will be calling in, so it is important that everyone is ready to share." Ask ALL of the students a question. Have all the students repeat the question. (This helps build language skills which is very important in a classroom with a high ratio of English learners.) Then, tell the students something to note that they need to begin. I say, "Heads together," and use a visual cue. The visual cue I use for this command is I put both of my fists together which represents the word, together. I allow enough time for students to process the information, being mindful that some students need additional time. Then, I call all of the students "back together." I say, "Back together." All of the students who are finished put their eyes on me. Anyone that is in the middle of their conversations, finish up quickly and then put their eyes on me. (This is a routine I teach that values all students and their processing times.) I grab my metal bucket with spoons in it and I mix them up. As I am mixing them up, the students all stare at me because they are very curious as to what number I will pull out of the bucket. (This is why I emphasize that each student should be prepared.) I pull a spoon out of the bucket and reveal the number to the students. Typically, they all shout out the number on the spoon. This is one less job for me and helps them read their numerals which supports our mathematics standards! I say, "Everyone listen, as number 1 from the purple table shares." Everyone listens. I usually thank that student for sharing. Then, I say, "Everyone listen, as number 1 from the blue team shares.." and so on. I KEEP THE SAME NUMBER FOR THIS ROUND OF REPORTING OUT. There is no need to switch them each time, or it lets students "off the hook." It is important that each team reports out and you hold them accountable. Use this cooperative learning strategy in all subject areas, no matter what grade level you are in and you will see your students' language skills greatly improve. Happy Communicating! Laura
First of all, this post isn’t really about teaching. It’s about the culture of the online teacher community and how blogging and Pinterest has changed the way teachers around the world collaborate. Years ago, I wrote a blog post about reading comprehension and posted a picture of one of my first anchor charts. The image … Copycats to Collaborators Read More »
Learn why teachers should learn to embrace and use ChatGPT in the classroom.
Past, present, and future.
Give students some crayons and they're happy! Add some color to nouns with this color-coding activity for concrete and abstract nouns. Thi8s is a one page activity with an answer key. Enjoy!
LibriVox recording of The Montessori Method by Maria Montessori. Translated by Anne E. George. Read by Librivox volunteers. In the early 1900's Dr. Maria...
The activities below are available for free download, and are to be used in educational and/or private settings. They may not be used elsewhere or for other purposes (such as for profit) unless exp…
Some new ideas for making classroom jobs meaningful and easier to manage! Elevate your class jobs today by switching to TEAM jobs!
