Connect with the outdoors.
Now that we understand the importance of R.E.S.P.E.C.T in our classroom and have heard the hopes and dreams of our classmates, it is time to begin drafting our class rules. I pose the question, “What classroom rules will help our hopes and dreams come true?”
The very best classroom helpers ideas including how to set up a system that works for you and a list of the most popular classroom jobs.
Everything you need to know to provide a fun and engaging third grade classroom transformations for your students, from set-up to clean-up.
Flip Sticks are an amazing participation tool for calling on students at random! The idea of using name sticks is nothing new. In fact, this classroom management strategy has been around for a long time. Unfortunately, what I didn’t learn until a few years into teaching, was how to keep track of which students had […]
Hey, friends! I’m teaming up with my good friend Elyse from Proud to be Primary to bring you a whole slew of classroom management tips and tricks… plus, a bunch of classroom management freebies! This
The newly crowned Miss America 2020, Camille Schrier from Virginia, did a chemistry demonstration for her talent. It was an elaborate version of the classic elephant toothpaste experiment. This was the first time a Miss America participant has ever won with a science experiment for their talent. Unfortunately, I have seen people criticize her talent […]
You’ve probably tried all the commonly recommended ways to quiet a chatty class, only to be left frustrated by the lack of results. If you’re anything like me, you’ve tried everyt…
Have you read The Wild Card by Hope and Wade King yet? If not, YOU. NEED. TO.This resource was inspired by my reading of that amazing book. In it, they talk about setting the stage to engage and making the classroom a fun and rigorous place where students want to be! I started thinking of what could...
Trying to figure out your 4th grade classroom setup? See how this teacher used the modern calm colors theme to set hers up.
There are three kinds of teacher-decorators: those who were born for Pinterest, those who can’t, and all the ones in between (such as the broke, the tired, and the I-have-no-time-to-decorate). However, making a classroom appeal to middle and high school students doesn’t HAVE to involve serious crafting or expensive, time-intensive projects. Check out these tips from me and Bonnie from Presto Plans as you prepare your classroom for the fall (or at any time of year that you want to give it a boost!) You might also like Sara's more recent blog post, Inside My Farmhouse Classroom Makeover. 1. Have a color scheme (if you can) Sara: My principal gave each teacher the paint for one accent wall, so that shade of turquoise inspired the rest of my blue decor: milk crates, bulletin board borders, etc. It helped unify the room to make it look pulled-together instead of random. I've also learned about the importance of contrast. Even a full-blown rainbow color palette can look clean and cohesive (instead of cluttered) if you pair it with black or white to balance it out. Bonnie: If you are looking for inspiration for colors that look great together, check out this Pinterest board. There are lots of combinations that will help you choose colors when you are shopping for classroom materials. 2. Stick to a few favorite fonts Sara: Just like businesses create a brand, you are creating a classroom “look” or persona that you will be known for... or, at least a mood you will create. (Friendly? Professional? Fun? Minimalist?) Try to pick a few fonts that most of your labels, signs, and other wall-hangings will consistently use. For example, I used the Google font Crushed to make and laminate labels for my whiteboard (see below), along with mint-colored painter's tape. 3. Make your classroom library a focal point Bonnie: Your class library should draw students in and works well as the focal point for any English classroom. Here are a few things you can do to make your library stand out: Give bookshelves a makeover by rolling them a new coat of paint and/or taking the shelves out and attaching wallpaper or scrapbook paper to the back. Put a few floating shelves on the walls near your library area where you can feature particular novels recommended by students. Add comfortable, flexible seating near a library to make it more welcoming. These items can be more expensive, so shop around online or scour garage sales until you find seating that may work. Use old books as decorations! When a book is unusable, find a way to repurpose it. One easy way to do this is to cut out the pages and write a reading-inspired quote in black permanent marker on top of the page. Frame the page and put it on your bookshelf! Sara: If your classroom library is small, nonexistent, or needs some attention, check out this blog post for more ideas about how to strengthen it. 4. Display student work Bonnie: Use student work as decor by making a framed gallery wall. All you have to do is pick up some inexpensive 8x10 frames (check your dollar store) and arrange them on your wall. When you get a piece of exceptional student work, add it into the frame! If you don’t want the hassle of buying and hanging frames, order a pack of mixed color picture mats and use them to frame student work on a bulletin board. Sara: Another way to get student work on display (while also practicing literary analysis!) is to have them complete this Quote Illustration and Analysis assignment; students use Canva (or any tool you wish) to make an inspirational or literary quote come to life. The results are stunning! 5. Use author-inspired decor Bonnie: Find ways to incorporate the authors you will be studying into your classroom decor. You can do this by featuring fun facts or by sharing quotes by the author. For example, I use an interactive Shakespeare Hashtag of the Week bulletin display that exposes students to one quote from a Shakespeare play each week. If you don’t want to make your own, you might even consider assigning an author to each student and having them develop a bulletin display with a biography, fun facts, and quotes that you can swap out weekly. Sara: Don't forget to interject moments of literary ALLUSION or author-inspired inside jokes as well, like my favorite light switch art... 6. Make your posters work together Sara: On at least one bulletin board or section of wall space, add some symmetry or consistency by hanging posters in a similar style (color, font, or other), or by displaying images that have a common theme. For example, check out these posters of stylized quotes to get some English class wisdom on your walls. Bonnie: If you are looking for some ideas of common themes you could use for posters, try some of these ideas that could work in any English classroom: funny grammar quotes or fails, literary terms or genres, author quotes, famous lines from literature, idiomatic expressions, or jokes using puns! To read more about my favorite bulletin board ideas for middle and high ELA, check out this blog post. "English is Weird" poster set 7. Make displays that are EASY to update Sara: Two of my favorite bulletin board spaces were ones that took VERY little effort in updating, so I didn't have the self-imposed pressure to redo the whole thing multiple times per year. For example, my Word Nerd Challenge is quick to update on a Monday morning because all I have to do is add this week's word to the list. (I made each word tile a magnet that can go on my whiteboard!) I also made low-prep Quote of the Week flipbooks of reading and writing quotes, which students often asked to flip FOR me. I used Command hooks and spiral binding to hang it on a cabinet. Do you have additional ideas? Tell us in the comments!
This Hawaii Classroom Transformation is great for elementary students to practic all math standards while feeling like they're on vacation.
The packet (13 pages) is full of engaging worksheets of picture subtraction activities (up to 10). It is perfect for kindergarten math centers, homework and distance learning. The packet includes: Fruit Subtraction within 5 School Supplies Subtraction Birthday Gift Subtraction within 5 Candy Subtraction within 10 Pet Subtraction within 5 Snack Subtraction within 10 Animal Subtraction within 10 Fish Subtraction Finger Subtraction within 5 Balloon Subtraction
Teaching social skills with Interrupting Chicken Activities can be so much fun! How many times have we as teachers said: “Raise your hand….please” “Don’t blurt out!” “Wait your turn!”. Hey, some of us might be a millionaire if we got paid a dollar every time it happened. What I love about the story Interrupting ... Read More about Interrupting Chicken Activities
This Circus Classroom Transformation lets elementary students learn math skills and have fun at the same time.
Subitizing activities support the development of number sense. Come learn 5 ways to integrate subitizing activities into your every day classroom routines.
Need a great read aloud for back to school? Use The Recess Queen activities and book to tackle important topics & work on reading skills too!
These Spanish call-and-response attention grabbers for quieting a noisy classroom are simple rhymes and actions to get your students' attention quickly and easily. Great for bilingual or dual-language classes and also for foreign language classes trying to stay in the target language! Please downloa...
By mid to late July every year, I can't wait to go back to school to get my classroom setup. I miss grading papers. I dream about school. And I can’t help but work on
Relay Races are a great way to get kids up and moving to review ANY musical subject. I do relay races to review rhythms, solfege, vocabulary, lines and spaces on the staff and more. Not only do gets get up and moving in a relay race, but it is a great way to secretly individually assess students while they are having fun. For ANY type of relay race it is always fun to have the students race in different ways- Mine love to bear crawl, crab walk, tip toe, skip and more. Here are some of the relay races I have done recently: Staff Relay Races: Students use cups (or plates) to spell words on our large floor staff. If you do not have a large floor staff, just make on with tape! I say a word and the first person on the relay team places the cup on the first letter of the word, then races back to their team and second person moves the cup to the second letter and so on. My 6th graders had so much fun with this! Rhythm (or solfege) Relay Races: These can be done in a few ways- Have rhythm cards at the end of the room across from each team. Teacher reads a card, and then the students race to find the correct card then back to their team. Then the teacher reads another. 2nd level of this version would be teacher reads a succession of cards and the 1st student in line finds the first card, 2nd in line finds the 2nd card, etc. Don't want to make all the rhythm cards? Check out this set from Lindsay's Kodaly Inspired Classroom on TPT: Wild Rhythm Races Bundled Set She has other sets for various seasons too- so fun! She has her students use scooters to race to the rhythms and back! In the picture below you can see my kids ready to ride, and in the corner is one groups rhythm cards all mixed up. I said a rhythm and they had to race down and find it. You could also have students race to a sight-reading page and have to read examples from the page. The first group to complete the page wins. In addition to the racing, sometimes it is fun to have the students complete another task before they can race back to their team for the next person to go. I saw on facebook last week that a teacher had her class do bottle flipping relays. Once they got the bottle to stand up they raced to a sight-reading page and read an example then raced back to their team. This idea is so great because so many students get in trouble for bottle flipping anyways- we might as well turn it into something productive. :) Also- while it is not really a relay race persay, My students love Rhythm Football. A student from each team races to get the rhythm (or solfa) card called to their endzone first. Check out more about this game HERE and you can get the rhythm card sets HERE. Side note: If you aren't in the Elementary Music Teachers group on facebook- you should be. Other great groups are Kodaly Educators, and I'm a General Music Teacher. Check them out! Vocab Relay Races: For Vocab relay races in my room students have to build a 3-tier vocab tower. Word, Symbol, and Definition. I give a word or show a symbol and then they have to find the correct tower pieces in a pile at the other end of the room. The towers to not have to be built in any specific order, so the first student can pull ANY of the 3 pieces from their pile, the 2nd only has two left and the 3rd student has the hardest job of figuring out what piece of the tower is missing. For these I use my Vocab Stacking Sets on TPT. There is a Spring Set which I will be using soon as well as a snowman set, a jack-o-lantern set, a heart set and a back-2-school set. Check them all out HERE Fly Swatter Game: Each of these games also has the symbols printed on LARGE pieces so you can play the fly swatter game with your classes. For the fly-swatter game, you post one set of pictures on the board and then students in different teams race to swat the correct word or symbol first. Sometimes I say the word, sometimes I say the definition, and they have to swat the symbol. SO FUN! There are also instruments of the orchestra versions of all of these games in my TPT store- the same races would work really well! Check those out HERE Have you done relay races in your room?
Warm and inviting decor matters beyond elementary school!
4 paperless classroom ideas to make going paperless a breeze! No more papers to take home or copies to make!
These fun back to school activities for kindergarten are a great way start the school year and get your students excited for a year of learning!
In an effort to create happy memories & crafts that make both parent & child happy to look at, we make easy kid-friendly silhouette portraits. Here's how!
Engage your students with some this wonderful book study to correlate with the cute book We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins.
These five original songs are intended to help teachers encourage their students to begin and end class enthusiastically and manage transitions successfully. For music teachers, each song includes elements (form, pitch, rhythm) that can be isolated and adapted into a lesson. Song 1: "Welcome to our Classroom" - a song for beginning the day Song 2: "The Circle Song" - help students create a circle shape (for sharing, reading, games, etc) Song 3: "Check It Out" - remind students about the importance of keeping their own personal space when sitting on the carpet or in the circle Song 4: "A Little Bit of Line-Up" - review line-up procedures with this fun song Song 5: "It's Time To Go" - end your students' day on a positive "note" This download includes two versions of each song - one that can be projected for students to read and one what includes the sheet-music and movement instructions/notes for teachers. Recordings of the song are not included, but are available upon request.
Aloha friends! How is your summer going? I am all over the place with creating, reading, cooking, cleaning etc... But I am loving every minute of it. Today I am linking up with Tara for one of my favorite linky parties during the summer to show you how I created my own seat sacks. I have always wanted to get seat sacks for my classroom, but they are pretty pricey and I don't like the colors that are available commercially. I borrowed a seat sack from a colleague to see how difficult it would be to make. This is what it looked like and I wanted them to fit my 12" chairs that I have in my classroom. Simple enough. Pocket in front and pocket in back to hang. (These are available on Amazon, just click the picture) So I headed out to the ONE fabric store we have on island hoping to find some Duck Cloth. Score!!! I found all of the colors I wanted and bought a yard of each. The pink, yellow and green were a poly/cotton blend and only cost $6 a yard. The blue and purple were duck cloth and cost $9 a yard. The cloth was 58" across so I was able to cut out 4 pieces from a yard - 14"x36". I sewed up the edges on opposite sides. Then I measured 6" for the pocket that connects to the chair. (That was what the seat sack I borrowed measured) I pinned it and then I pinned the book pocket up to meet it on the opposite side, but I did not overlap them. Then I sewed right up both sides. Turn it inside out and you are done! I had a workshop at school so I took one with me to see how it would fit on my chairs. They look awesome!! I was able to make 4 from one yard of material. That comes out to $2.25 a sack for the duck cloth! The others were only $1.50 each. I'm calling this a win :) I can't wait to see how they all look when I head back to the classroom. (Well I think I can wait, I'm not quite ready to go back yet!) What crafty things have you been up to? Head over and link up with Tara or just check out the other awesome craftiness.
Teaching American literature: An outline of units of study and engaging activities for a high school American literature course
Click HERE to download Apple Exploration FREEBIE Click READ MORE to Preview
Read on to get some great ideas for project-based learning in your middle school classroom!
Classroom Management: Callbacks in the Classroom No comments attention getters, callbacks, Classroom Management, freebie Callbacks, also known as attention getters, are nothing new, but they are one of those classroom management strategies that just work. What makes callbacks successful is that they are fun. Students love responding to them and you rarely need to repeat yourself. Sometimes, when I call out "class" and wait for the "yes" response, I just get crickets. Truthfully, I think the students get tired of the same callback all the time. Callbacks add some novelty to the day and elicit an enthusiastic response. How to Use With callbacks, there is a teacher phrase and a student phrase. The teacher says their phrase (to get students' attention), then the students respond with their phrase to show that they recognize that it's time to pause and listen. Introduce each callback to your students before using them. Practice it a few times with the students before actually using it to get their attention. Have students place their hands on their shoulders and put their eyes on you after they respond to the callback. Otherwise, they may very likely keep on doing what they were doing once you have initiated the callback. The idea is, you want their attention so you can share information or signal the next activity, so having them freeze in place with their hands away from objects and materials is a good way to do this. Make sure you have everyone's attention before launching into your announcement or explanation. One simple way to do this is to just stand there and wait. Silently (a few seconds is all it takes). That silent teacher pause is pretty effective at getting students to realize that something is going on. Once you have everyone's attention, start talking. Stick with callbacks that work for you and your students. Some may just flow better for you, stick with what makes you feel most comfortable. Switch up your callbacks. You can change them daily, weekly, or monthly. It's up to you! Post your current callback on your whiteboard. This way, students can see it, read it, and never forget it. Where can I find callbacks? If you search callbacks on Google, you will find a ton of options! Here are a few: T: Hocus pocus! S: Everybody focus! T: Peanut butter S: Jelly time! T: May the force... S: Be with you! T: To infinity... S: and beyond! If you liked that last one, then, you are in luck! I created a set of FREE callbacks that are all Disney movie themed. Simply, print, laminate, cut and use! You can post them on your board as you use them, or you can add them to a ring. It's up to you! Click HERE for your freebie. I hope they make it fun and easy to get your students' attention! Looking for more classroom management related posts? Easy and Effective Classroom Management Ideas 11 Practical Classroom Management Ideas Classroom Management: Movement Code Word Classroom Management: Name Sticks Lucky Duck Classroom Community Routine Reward Tags DON'T FORGET IT, PIN IT Share It:
Are you obsessed with everything farmhouse? Me too! I had the amazing opportunity to partner with my Alma Mater-The University of Central Florida, and give
Do you love Disney as much as we do? Then check out these Disney inspired classrooms created by real teachers! Students will love these creative classroom decorations and themes!
