Mr. Wastaken but Elementary school teacher 🥺 #dream #mrwastaken #tommyinnit #purpled #ranboo #tubbo #mcytfanart
Download this free and easy-to-use positive self-talk journal for kids (and adults!) who need a boost of confidence and positivity.
Cultivate lifelong reading skills.
Cultivate lifelong reading skills.
There's more to the instrument than "Mary Had A Little Lamb.”
Get fun formative assessment examples and ideas that are perfect for elementary school teachers. Each has been teacher-tested and approved.
Free printable social scripts for kids about being a good sport
Recently I saw this infographic depicting an iceberg as a metaphor for culture- most of the culture is 'underwater' or rather, more in depth. It is a great graphic! However, at the elementary level, where young children are first being introduced to and learning about the concept of language and culture (often for the first time!) finding tangible, concrete aspects of culture to include in the classroom are key, in my opinion, and typically fall under the 'surface culture' part of the iceberg. As they gain experience and the mental ability to comprehend deeper culture as more than a fact about a group of people they have never met (such as concepts of self, attitudes, and such) these can be added into Spanish class. . One of the most tangible and authentic ways I have brought culture into my elementary classroom, which I believe hits both surface and deep culture at the same time, is the tradition of Ratoncito Pérez, the Tooth Mouse. It is a celebration of sorts, that wonderful and magical experience of losing a tooth, and a coming of age moment for little kiddos. Recognizing and celebrating it in Spanish class via an adorable mouse (not a fairy!) has always been the most remembered, understood and delightful aspects of culture my students interact with. And, because kiddos always have loose teeth or one has fallen out, Ratoncito Pérez is part of EVERY class! Talk about keeping something fresh in their minds! Here are ways I integrate Ratoncito Pérez in my classes: *Right from Kindergarten kiddos learn how to say 'Tengo un diente flojo' and 'Se me cayó un diente'... they are encouraged to share their 'tooth news' with me anytime *I have tooth chart posters featuring Ratoncito Pérez where I record each kiddo's name when he/she loses a tooth (they have to tell me in Spanish or their name doesn't go on the poster :) ) *I teach an entire theme about Ratoncito Pérez in Second Grade, where we read our book 'El diente de Javi' (see the link to our store at the end of this post) and then imagine what Ratoncito Pérez looks like (color and size) and what mode of transportation he uses to get around. After they have practiced this, they then write and illustrate three sentences describing him with this vocab. Super cute! *I hand out certificates celebrating the lost tooth *I read books I have collected over the years of various authors imagining adventures with Ratoncito Pérez-go to Amazon and type in 'Ratoncito Pérez' or 'Ratón Pérez'...a whole load of books will come up. My favorite is 'Cartas al Ratón Pérez'! (Note: most of these are in Spanish and with vocabulary far too advanced for my students to understand so I translate in my head and read it out loud in English) *I have printed out lots of illustrations from Google images over the years which I put around my classroom...he is always present! There are also two full length movies about Ratón Pérez made in Spain- if you are able to get ahold of a copy and can play it, what fun that is! And here's a great link of an article describing what el Ratoncito Pérez might "give" to children: https://www.heraldo.es/noticias/sociedad/2017/11/30/que-puede-regalar-ratoncito-perez-cuando-cae-diente-1209813-310.html If you are interested in integrating Ratoncito Pérez into your classroom and don't want to start from scratch, please check out our Activity Pack in our store on TpT! It is full of printable activities, posters, 'El diente de Javi' minibook, props for retelling the story, and more! Ratoncito Pérez Printable Minibook & Activity Pack You can also watch me introducing a comparison of the Tooth Fairy and el Ratoncito Pérez here:
Back to School is right around the corner for us and I am SUPER excited to kick of this school year with some fun, hands-on and engaging resources for The
Teamwork in the classroom is essential in order to have a high functioning and welcoming environment for students. Check out three easy ways to build teamwork with your students.
Lean Forward Lean Backward - a song with actions and activities ready-made for your music class. Great to practice music aural & music theory.
Check out how to help your kids learn to be assertive. Discover skills to teach your kids to deal with friends, siblings, and bullies.
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!
This FREE handout is a great activity for warm-ups or even early finishers. This handout was inspired by the book Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg. Here is the BLANK version. This is a good opti…
Differentiation and scaffolding can help students better understand and learn. Here are teaching ideas and tips to use in class.
Fun and engaging hand clapping game to teach your kiddos!
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Most of us teach multiple grade levels. I teach 4 year olds through 94 year olds. I skip 12 year olds through somewhere in the 60's, though. I think that probably needs explaining, right? I teach Junior Kindergarten through fourth grade and also facilitate music and drum circles at an assisted living center every 2-3 months. The youngest were probably my most difficult age to plan for starting out as a brand new teacher and I continue searching for great material to add to my "collection". We all know how it is - in a singular 30 minute lesson with the younger kiddos we might go through 10-15 activities! Interestingly, my oldest sometimes seem the same! I seek materials from various sources; blogs, bools, fellow teachers, and websites. Several years ago I found a childrens music performer named Nancy Stewart. Each month she posts a Song of the Month! You can search by category, year/month, and alphabetically, and even better - all her songs are downloadable, some have visuals to download, and most have the sheet music to download - all for FREE! YES! There are songs for Eid, Christmas, St. Patirck's Day, Diwali, Valentines, seasonal songs and everything in between. Most of the music is original and I have found some really wonderful material! One of my favorites is the Rhythm Stick Song. Nancy so kindly gave me permission to share the song with you here - the mp3 is available on her site - click the link above. Hope you enjoy it - my kiddos do! We also make up additional verses - "With my sticks I run...", walk, hop, etc. My favorite rhythm sticks are the Basic Beat Combination Sticks pictured below. I love these - perfectly sized at 8" long, no splintering, and one is smooth and the other ridged. They are about $3.00 a pair, and an awesome investment! You can get them here from West Music. Have fun with these! Happy New Year!
Usually when I make an anchor chart, it's for students. This one, however, is for a special group of educators I'm presenting for at an upcoming convention. I thought the resources were too good not to share!
A collection of lesser-known facts about the great composers, from the sublime to the ridiculous
Creative Writing Worksheet – Expressing Emotions (PDF) Emotions dictate our actions more than we would like to admit, and for the writer, they’re an integral part of creating character motivation. Of course, they’re also very important for hooking the reader, and while you can certainly play it by ear, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised…
This guide should get you started arranging music for your a cappella group if you have musical ideas but don’t know how to put them down on paper. It’s no substitute for really learnin…
Setting up for small group in 2nd grade can be challenging! This post outlines one teacher's simple center rotation schedule.
Strand: Geometry and Spatial Sense Grade: 1 Key Concept /Big Idea – Identify common two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional fi…
15 exit ticket ideas for any subject or grade level!
Song Index
This introduction to poetry gives teachers ideas on teaching poetry minlessons that make a difference in how your students think about poems.
Dig deep to really get to know the characters.
I love to read in my class. It is just something that brings so much joy to so many, that I feel like it needs a place of honor in my room. And while we do read our fair share of nonfiction, where I find myself (and my students) drawn to is the fiction stories. They are just so full of awesomeness that I can't help myself. With those great reads comes great lessons. Books (in general) have a beginning, middle, and end. They start with introductions, take the reader through many different actions which lead to the climax, that point we have been waiting for, and then solve the problems with a nice, neat ending. (OK, OK...I know not every.single.book does that, but I am talking in general!) So this past week, I wanted to focus on that story structure we call PLOT and bring it to the attention of my students. One thing that I have been doing, and have written a bit about in the past few weeks, is take a large reading topic (character, setting, plot) and teach it to my students over the course of the week. I break the idea into smaller, 20 minute chunks, and teach from there. It is working so very well! This week's chunk lessons all dealt with the idea of plot and how everything we read follows the same basic "formula". We started with an anchor chart describing each part of the plot diagram. What is exposition? Why is rising action the longest part? What does climax do for the story? Falling action and resolution are different? Then, we discussed how There's A Boy in the Girls' Bathroom by Louis Sachar follows this plot structure. I asked them to think-pair-share with a partner to see if they could come up with examples that fall into each of the categories. Then, after a group debrief on their T-P-S, I sent them back to their seats, with a plot diagram I had made and asked them to write down their thoughts. You can grab this diagram here. Day Two and Three had us looking at a story (written by my husband!) and trying to dissect it for plot elements. We read the story aloud, and then color coded the story using our crayons to represent different elements of plot. Deciphering between the exposition and rising action, and then falling action and resolution proved to be quite challenging! Our discussion kept us moving along though and the students were able to do this quite well. On these days, I wanted them to create a little drawing/writing project that would keep them interested in the story and also serve to get their ideas from the oral discussion to a more written, concrete form. So I asked the students to take the color-coded writing and draw a picture for each of the five elements. What picture would represent the exposition? What about the climax? How would the resolution be drawn? For Day Three I asked them to do the same thing, but instead of drawing it, I wanted written EVIDENCE FROM THE TEXT (ahhh....getting some of that testing jargon in there!!) Everything seems to go back to that test, doesn't it? That then lead us into the writing portion of this for the week. I wanted the students to be able to write a clear, coherent paragraph on the subject of plot so for Day Four and Five, I had them choose a picture book that they were familiar with. I guided them towards books that I knew had a clear beginning, middle, and end (ie: Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans or Stellaluna by Janel Cannon ) and gave them an organizer to fill in outlining the plot details of the story. Then, using a paragraph organizer, I asked them to construct a complete paragraph plot summary. This was to tell what happened in the story, from exposition to resolution, without giving everything way. It was to be barebones and focus on the main ideas in the text. Using the organizer really helped the kids to do this. They were forced to only pick a few of the details, and really helped them to be sure they had parts from each plot element. I wish I had a completed one, but I forgot to take pictures of it! So sorry about that!! So that is what we did for our study of Plot in 5 Days. If you would like to have the full lesson plans, standards addressed, organizers, and all, I have complied them for you in my TpT store. I really, really love how these lessons turned out and kept my kids focused. It was great hearing them talk about Plot even out of context of language arts (ie: in theatre or when discussing a movie they had seen.) I also love that I was able to do this, and produce some bulletin board worthy products, in 5 days! Win-win for all! What are some things you do to teach your students about plot?
Are your students disinterested and tired of the traditional ways of learning characterization? Have you been searching for a really fun, student-centered, interactive way to eliminate their boredom? Well, look no further! I present to you a wonderful student-collaboration activity that will get your students involved and excited for a character analysis for any novel, […]
