Each school year a unique mix of middle school students enter the doors of my classroom. Each with a story, each with different strengths, each with different weaknesses. I never take this responsibility lightly because what this means for me, as their teacher, is that I don't get to take the already published book off the shelf and write the same story as I did last year. Instead, we create and co-author a new story together. A story that I could never dream up or predict until it happens the way that it needs to happen. After all, doesn't every new class that enters your classroom door deserve a story of their very own? Because of this, the walls of my classroom to begin the year aside from staples I keep up each year, begin as a blank canvas. The anchor charts that fill my room happen naturally, as our story is being created, new anchor charts are being created to match the learning that is happening in the classroom. When students need to be reminded of a concept we have covered or an expectation that is expected of them, they can refer to the anchor charts on our walls and be brought back to that moment in our journey. Anchor charts help with retention of material, they help with developing student independence, and they also help to anchor routines and expectations. Below is the story of our learning so far this school year. "Before you turn in any piece of writing, ask yourself..." This anchor chart is designed to help students self-assess their writing and be that self-talk that many of them need. Teaching students to be reflective is one of the hardest yet most beneficial skills we can teach as teachers. This anchor chart is a great reminder for my students and for myself. The best thing about it? My co-teacher who teaches the same group of our students math and science is on board with holding students to these same writing expectations with this same language. During our weekly sentence stalking, students can use this anchor chart to gather ideas of different items to notice so that they're not always noticing the same types of things. These are the symbols I use when editing student writing and also the symbols I want them to use when they self-edit and edit their peers' writing. This anchor chart is a helpful, quick reminder of the editing symbols. I LOVE this anchor chart for middle school students. During the first few weeks of school, we referred to it often to self-assess how we did as a class and as an individual with following the expectations in order to make independent reading and writing time productive. If we have a rough day with following expectations, I come right back to this anchor chart and reinforce the positive behaviors students ARE exhibiting. Our current interactive read aloud is Killing Mr. Griffin, and it's written in 3rd person omniscient. Students are loving the almost spooky way the narrator of the story seems to know EVERYTHING. We had an awesome discussion about point of view through that and now students are actively identifying the point of view in their independent reading books. Reading is thinking, and one of the strategic reading actions to show that thinking is by summarizing. I like to start the year with a few minilessons on summarizing because it seems to be a building block for the other reading minilessons. These are some of the criteria we set for what summaries should include and not include. Writers use transitions for a variety of purposes. Crafting transitions smoothly into writing improves sentence fluency and help make ideas clear. This anchor chart will be a great reminder to aid students in doing this in their writing all school year.
Got a talkative class? Check out these 5 ways to quiet the chatter!
Fifteen school themed ad lib worksheets great for homework assignments, extra credit, and language arts skills practice.
The key to getting your classroom to run smoothly and minimize behavior issues is to establish procedures and routines. This takes significant work and practice in the beginning but is well worth t…
We are still working on Small Moment Stories. We talk about transition words daily as they come up in both our reading and writing. We talk about how transition words connect our thoughts and make our writing sound smoother and better. My students LOVE songs! We have songs for just about everything. If there isn't a song, then we make one up. This is our transition word song and the list of transition words that my students keep in their Writing Folders. Click on the images below for the free printables.
The action cup is one of my favorite routines… particularly when it comes to getting my Kindergarten students to transition from their seats to the carpet seamlessly! I use the action cup in so many ways! I have an “Action Cup Helper” as a job. Each time we transition from one activity to the next, or […]
teaching tips, activities, and resources for early elementary classroom, technology, reading and books, toddler activities, christian teacher
Looking for some new ways to get the attention of your class? Here are 25 Class Callbacks-Attention Grabbers ideas for you to try out!
At the beginning of the year I was getting the above question about a million times a day. I had explained to my students that they always had the option of reading, finishing morning work or practicing their spelling words. Well, those options worked for a while but then the question came back and I knew something needed to change. I took to good ol' Pinterest to get some ideas on brain breaks or activities for fast finishers. After I found a few great things, I used a combination of those ideas and came up with my own system. Introducing the "Sticks Center" Now, when my students are finished and are sitting there with nothing to do, they have the option to read, finish their morning work or "do the sticks." Simple system that works like this. 1. Draw a stick 2. Do what it says Simple right? :) Here is a closer look at the sticks in the can: These are all of their options. The rule I have is they can't look when they draw a stick and whatever they get, they have to do or they go back to their seat and read.("If you're gonna do the sticks, you do 'em right" I say that a lot) If they draw the same stick in a day they don't have to do it twice, they can redraw. Been doing this for about four months and it has been great so far, they enjoy it and are great at completing the activities. Very little work on my part and they don't ask me the dreaded question anymore! Here are short explanations of each stick. Flash Cards: There are two sets of multiplication flashcards (about 20 cards each) they take them back to their seat and go through the cards twice. Word Problems: The students gets to be the teacher and they write me two word problems. I have to solve it by the end of the day. The only rule is, they have to know the answer to the problem! Sometimes I solve it wrong to see if they can catch my mistake... they have no idea and get so proud of themselves when they catch my mistake! Spelling ABC Order: Write that week's spelling words in alphabetical order. Wrap-Ups: Subtraction and multiplication manipulatives. Buy here. Spin Multiplication: Fun interactive multiplication flashcards. Thanks to the teacher who had my room before me! Random Worksheet: This folder is full of random challenging worksheets. They have to draw a random one without looking. There are all kinds of things in there like crosswords, riddles, math challenges, word searches. Book Report: Students get a piece of notebook paper and write a short summary of a book they read recently. Just for Fun Book: I have a tub full of lower-level children's books. I still think those are fun to read so why wouldn't fourth graders? Spelling Story: Students write a story containing all of their spelling words. Rhyming Words: Students pick a word and write as many words that rhyme with it as possible. Write a Short Story: Students write a story no longer that a page about anything they want! Math Challenge Number: I created a worksheet with a different number at the top. They pick one and each worksheet has them adding 15 to the number, subtracting 25, writing the number with words, dividing by 3, and multiplying by 13. Really makes them think! Write Cursive Letters: I don't make my students write in cursive very often but they still need to practice. For this stick they simply have to write their cursive alphabet. Spelling Pictures: Students draw a picture to go along with each spelling word. Spelling 2x Whiteboard: Students grab a whiteboard and write their spelling words two times each. Dictionary Hunt: I love this one! Students use a dictionary to find 3 words they don't know. They write the word, the definition and draw a picture to go with it. Write 20 Verbs: Pretty self explanatory. Write 20 adjectives: Ditto! Alphabet List: Students write their alphabet, then try to come up with a word for each letter. Bonus if they use past vocab or spelling words. Boggle: My kids are OBSESSED with this one right now. I printed out some pre-made boggle lists with 20 letters. They are all trying to beat each other for who can come up with the most words. One of my students has a list of 112 going right now.. she won't quit! I LOVE it! ABC Order Challenge: In one of the trays I have multiple worksheets that have lists of words that start with the same letter and need to be put in alphabetical order. They are tricky and my kiddos like the challenge. Addition Challenge has been replaced with Division Challenge: A large sheet of division problems with remainders. My kids love to do these and see if they can get them all right in one try! This truly has been great for my classroom! It makes my kiddos use their brains all day long, no sitting doing nothing and a lot less getting into trouble in between activities! Try it, you'll like it!
Thanks to everyone who left a comment or sent a note about yesterday's post. My dad is doing great and he's even got enough spunk to subject the cute young nurses to his horrible jokes! Thanks also for the amazing ideas for my name wall. I've gone from having no inspiring ideas to having way too many! I'm heading into school tomorrow for the first time this summer, so I'm going to visualize my options and ponder when I get there. I think I'm leaning towards jeeps or sailboats but I'll keep you posted. I'm really psyched to go into school tomorrow. Each year, a few weeks before school starts, we host a little summer program for the incoming kindergartners. It's called S.A.I.L. (Summer Adventures in Literacy) and it's an hour a day for three mornings in a row. We do read-alouds and crafts and it's a great way to meet the kids and let them get a little acclimated to their new "big kid" school and make some new friends. It sure makes the first day of school a little less scary for the kids (and the moms). I have my class list handy so I can scope out who I'll be spending the next 10 months with. I can't wait! I have a whole bunch of stuff to bring with me to laminate since the work room should be pretty deserted. One thing that's ready to go is a new set of mini-posters illustrating the age-old "Give Me Five" behavior management trick. When making visual reminders like this, I think that for them to be effective, it's important to have graphics that really show he kids what the expectations are. I couldn't find any clipart that matched the "Give Me Five" actions, so I tried my hand at making my own. They're not that fancy, but I think they'll get the job done. Whatta ya think? Leave a comment and let me know! You can grab a set if you think you can use them in your classroom this year. Enjoy! Grab your freebie here.
Rien de tel que l'écriture et le dessin afin de visualiser et conscientiser! Avez-vous une notion réelle de l'usage que vous faites de votre temps? Je vous propose de faire un ...
A day in the life of an adult transition program catering to students with moderate to severe learning disabilities. Our main focus is life skills, social skills, job skills, and community awareness.
Brain breaks are fun with Mimic Me movement cards! This is a fun, interactive, movement activity or brain break, that students can play when they need a chance to get up out of their seats. This classroom management you activity can be played silently, or you can let the giggle fly! To play Mimic Me...
Here we go again: Some of you were glad I dropped the idea of “gimbos” – the concept of gothic bimbos, because you felt […]
I am so excited to begin school tomorrow!!!!!!!! I decided to have this showing as students walked in the door to get them excited for wha...
Now, this is a concept that is new to me. I found out last week that a colleague of mine uses this method with her class of special ed kids. I had a OMG moment, "why hadn't I thought of this?"!. I looked online and couldn't find much, so I made some worksheets to start the year. Not only will this make life so much easier for my kids who STRUGGLE with the concept of change, but hopefully it will minimize the chance of them being ripped off someday. Now, I know this will require a lot of one dollar bills, but I am hopeful that after a while of working with the basics, we will be able to move up to dollar change. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dollar-Up-Method
Split class? Combination class? Multi-age class? Whatever you call it, this year I welcomed a new challenge! Transitioning from a 1st grade classroom to a K/1 classroom 5 weeks into the school year…
We have prepared a list of worksheets with the key based on Punctuation for 2nd grade. It contains 5 pages. You can download the PDF below, Download: Punctuation Worksheets for 2nd Grade
One of our activities this week included talking about some of our favorite things. We then made these super, cute people to go with our wri...
As you can probably tell from some of my previous posts, I absolutely love cooking with my kids! We don't get to do in near as often as I would like since we have to finance it with our own money and it can get quite pricey. We still are trying to do it at least once or twice a month, and my aide are great about helping out with ingredients! Every time we get ready to try a new recipe I like to have a visual to go with it. This way we can go over the recipe step by step before we head into the kitchen to do the actual cooking. We always send a copy home (in hopes that their folks let them try to make it there) and we put one in their binders that they take home when they graduate. As you can see they go from pretty basic recipes to a little more challenging as to try to find things that all my kids will be able to make independently. You can find the recipe book here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Follow-Along-Recipes-989267
knife skills lesson for culinary arts and family and consumer science teachers. Lesson Plans for high school.
Reading labels worksheets with questions are a valuable learning tool for students who are in the process of building their reading skills. These worksheets provide an engaging way for students to practice reading and comprehending information on different types of labels, including food labels, product labels, and more. By answering questions about the labels, students develop their ability to understand and interpret important details, such as ingredients, nutritional facts, and warning labels. With these worksheets, educators can easily integrate real-world examples into their lessons, helping students become more knowledgeable and informed consumers.
Pass them on to your first grade teacher friends!
