Every English language arts teacher needs a variety of successful, student led discussion strategies that will provide opportunities for student learning.
I so remember my first year as a new teacher! I wondered why I was even hired! (Did they not know that I didn't have a clue how to do ‘this teacher thing'?!) Yes, I had graduated with a degree, a teaching certificate, and had an idealistic philosophy of education (that had no basis in research […]
Hello Everyone! I have had several requests to update my New Year unit for 2014. While doing that, I decided to add a couple of things to ...
This post was written on November 5, 2011. Our first year of Essentials has proven T-O-U-G-H. It would have been a challenge even if we hadn’t been battling all the noise from the ongoing construction. In the process of learning how to implement Essentials in our own home, I have discovered some ways to make […]
My first year of teaching was full of disruptive students in the beginning. That is, until I discovered this method to control my class!
Let's take a little peek in a day in first grade! I love my job and working with the kids, tap to get some tips and tricks you can use too!
The first day of school is full of so many things: anticipation, wide-eyes, school supplies, new faces, maybe a few butterflies. And I...
If you have followed the discussion over the past years about "21st Century Skills" or have been on this planet long enough, you know that the ability to work with others is just as important as any "
Many of us have been in school for weeks, while some are just beginning. Regardless of the amount of time you have spent with your students.....there is always room for team building! :) One of my favorite team building games to play is called The Best Game. How great is that title?? I mean the title alone should tell you that you need to play it! I have played this game with kids AND adults---and everyone always has a great time! The purpose of this game is for students (or adults) to get to know one another and showcase completely random talents and skills. Here's a quick snapshot of how to play the game. Keep reading for tips and tricks on how to play the game and how to get the game delivered straight to your inbox! I always pass out the category cards to the teams and let them collaboratively decide who gets what card--this is a great way to get kids talking and becoming a "team." Side note: Please ignore my ugly index cards....I ran out of time to cut out cute category cards. Ha! Here is one of the category competitions in action.....It was "The Farthest.....to throw a paper airplane." If you are looking for a great game to get kids talking, working as a team and having fun......then The BEST Game is the game for you! Play it....you won't regret it!
We all know how much I love self portrait activities. I love how each of my kids draw themselves to reflect their personality. So when I saw...
Dialogue journals are a powerful tool for building trust with your students. Learn how they work.
Teaching students to listen is no easy task. Sometimes, I feel like I am trying to herd a bunch of cats! I use a “Whole Body Listening” poster in my classroom. The speech pathologists and ABA teachers at my school introduced me to “Whole Body Listening.” They use a Whole Body Listening Social Story they created through Boardmaker to give the students an idea of what whole body listening looks like. The idea behind the social story is based on an article written by Susanne Poulette (Truesdale) called “Whole-Body Listening: Developing Active Auditory Skills.” As you know, many students on the spectrum struggle with eye contact while speaking. I have found that through my years of mainstreaming, the social story worked well for all of my students. It is a great way to remind students of what active listening involves. I decided to make these posters to refer to when I wanted my students to actively listen. The mini-posters can be cut laminated and taped down to students’ desk. These are great for non-verbal cues. Now, when I need students to listen, I simply say “Whole Body Listening.” Click the picture above to download my posters and class-made book activity for free. I have always used this book, Listen and Learn by Cheri J. Meiners as an introduction to listening in my classroom. Another adorable book is called Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen by Howard Binkow. Through a bit more internet searching, I found this book called Whole Body Listening Larry at School!. It was also inspired by Susanne Poulette's article. I think this book would be great to read to your students on the first few days of school. Please, do not make "Whole Body Listening" a rule. Most students cannot sit still for long periods of time. In my own classroom, I allow students to stand to do do work as long as they push their chair in and stand behind it. I find they like to stand during center time and while creating art projects. I also ask my OT therapists to borrow "Movin' Sit Cushions," these help the especially fidgety children by letting them bounce or move a bit in their chair while still sitting down. Another tip would be to place Velcro inside the student's desk. He/ she can run his/her fingers along the soft and hard Velcro instead of playing with things in his/her desk. I hope these freebies help your students! For more listening ideas and to link up with yours, go to Blog Hoppin' by clicking below. Here is a link for an article about Susanne Poulette. *Susanne Poulette, a New York speech pathologist coined the term "Whole-Body Listening" with this article (click {here} to read it): Whole-Body Listening: Developing Active Auditory Skills, Susanne P. Truesdale Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools Vol.21 183-184 July 1990.
Well I did it again! I started the first day of school with a project, this one a little different than what I have done the last few years. I like to start the first day off with a bang. I asked t…
One of the most important elements of teaching is providing students with plenty of opportunities to actively engage in learning with their peers. This blog post covers my favorite cooperative learning strategies that I have used in my classroom. These activities can be used across all subjects and several grade levels (3-6+). Bonus: I created […]
Too many classroom icebreakers require students to take big social risks with people they barely know. Or they don't really help students get to know each other. Or they are just plain cheesy.
Teachers like starting the school year feeling well-prepared and confident. Read about 5 Strategies for a Solid Start to Your School Year
I wanted to do something for my choir kids as a thank you for all their hard work this semester. This was a relatively affordable "gift" even though I ended up getting the giant sized Symphony bars (since Walmart didn't have enough of the XL bars stocked....) I conned my sister into helping me cut out the tags and tie up the ribbons. Here is the finished product. I designed the tags in powerpoint. Here is a closer picture and a PDF if you'd like to print your own.
Contractions are great for writing words shorter to save some time. But there is some confusion when students shorten the words. Contract means to make smaller. Students contract two words into one small word. This is what students need to remember about contractions: The first words always stays the same (except for the word; will not, won't). The apostrophe goes where the letters come out. I have a Free Contractions Bingo game to practice reading and writing contractions. This 2-Player game has students matching the two words that make a contraction to the contraction word on their bingo board. The first player to make a bingo is the winner! All you need to play are the Bingo Boards and Contraction Cards. Click the picture for your free download! Place the Contractions Bingo Game in you center rotations or use during small group time. Play after teaching or reviewing contractions. Feel free to send home for homework to play with a family member. Place the Contraction Cards and some writing paper at a Writing Center. Students use the cards to write sentences using the contraction word. Check students for understanding. It helps to remember the first word stays the same and the apostrophe replaces the letters that come out. The only time this rule doesn't apply is for the contraction word, will not - won't. Try this pack of Contraction Task Cards. It includes 3 centers. The first center has 40 task cards that students choose from multiple choice answers to find the correct contraction. The second center has 36 task cards. Each task card has a contraction. The students write the two words that make up the contraction. The third center has 36 task cards. Each task card the two words that make up the contraction. Students write the contraction that make up the the two words. This pack will keep your students sharp on reading and writing contractions all year long. Here are some resources you may need when teaching contractions. I linked them to Amazon to make it easy for you: Contraction Puzzles Contraction Chart If You Were a Contraction - book Thanks for stopping by today! See you soon, Check out more GRAMMAR activities by Teacher's Take-Out:
Subscribe to the Teach 4 the Heart Podcast.It was a great day when I discovered 4 magic words that just seem to dissolve tension and eliminate at least half of the arguments in my classroom.And those words are: "You're not in trouble."Students can be so defensive, can't they? (and let's be honest,
It's that time of year! Magic e! I love teaching my kids about the magic e because it means they have really grown as readers! I know th...
My new obsession this year has been making and using anchor charts for my lessons. Here are just some of the anchor charts I have made this year. Some of these charts are original ideas but many are ideas I have seen and used from other teachers. I am not good at drawing so I use clipart from my computer to add pictures to my anchor charts. I print them out and glue them onto the chart! It’s so much easier and looks so much better than what I could draw! I also laminate my anchor charts so I can use them year to year. By laminating the charts I can easily write and erase on them by using an Expo marker. Click HERE to download the worksheet writing templates for opinion writing, informative writing, step writing, personal narrative writing, fictional narrative writing, and postcard writing that match these anchor charts from my TpT store! Click HERE to download the files needed to make the Sequence of Events and Transitional Word Examples anchor charts from my TpT store! Click HERE to download the file needed to make the Fiction/Non-Fiction Sort anchor chart from my TpT store! Click HERE to download the words I used on these anchor charts on my TpT store!
Hello Everyone! I almost forgot to post one other thing. I have had a ton of questions and e-mails about my story retelling rope that I posted on last year.You can read about that here! :) I have been doing retelling ropes for a long time. Does anybody remember "Project Read?" The author of that amazing curriculum was my inspiration for this way of teaching kids about the parts of a story and extending that into retelling. "Retelling" is an important component of discriminating comprehension in our beginning readers. Making it hands on is important to me! Kids almost always cement learning better when they can incorporate as many senses as possible. I took some time to redo my retelling rope icons, my retelling poem, made some little posters about the parts of a story, and redid my anchor chart. Here are some pics of what this little unit includes. Here are some pics of finished products, anchor chart and student retelling rope. For your free mini unit on retelling grab the rope and click here! I hope this helps with your lessons on retelling!! Hold on and have fun!! Joyfully! Nancy
I have a new favorite chart! I found this on pinterest and knew it would be great to use during the first week with my new little first grad...
My Algebra 1 students have just started their unit on sequences. This is my first time teaching sequences in Algebra 1 because it used to be in the old Algebra 2 standards. For the past four years,
Learn About the 7 Continents! Exploring the 7 Continents has never been more exciting! It’s a Small World Continent Study is filled with over 35 activities to help your students gain a greater understanding of the seven continents. This 130+ page unit is filled with great resources, posters, printables, activities, and projects that will open […]
Why I don't review the syllabus on the first day of class in high school and what I do instead. Fun first day of school activities and icebreakers!
Well this weekend has already flown by. My plans were to have a guest post by an AMAZING person and a wonderful give-a-way to celebrate reac...
I know it's late and it's almost not even Friday anymore but I wanted to link up with First Grade Parade to share my favorite pins of the week!! My Five Favorite Pins of the Week - 1. A recipe which is kinda funny because I CAN'T cook.....like not at all...... Click on the picture to go to the site. This is for Bourbon Chicken. We LOVE Bourbon Chicken from the little restaurant at the mall. I am just not sure we would love it if I cooked it. Besides it has about 20 ingredients so this is probably a "pin and never do". Do you have any of those? 2. For my classroom decor - You can click on it to go to the site but it doesn't go to the how to, just to a main page. I have two old TV stands like the top and I hope to be able to redo them before school starts to look cute and stylish like the bottom although I may leave the wheels on it. 3. For my home decor - Sadly, this link is for a session at a store on how to make it and not instructions. I need to find instructions on how to make this and make myself one for my front door. This is perfect for fall!! I would change the green ribbon at the top to more green mesh stuff though. 4. For my classroom lessons - Oh my goodness!!! This is the cutest game ever!! Mrs. Prince tells you all about it on her blog if you click the picture. I can't wait to play this game with my kiddos this fall! 5. For my classroom lessons during the first week - Oh isn't this the greatest thing ever!?!??!?!? I want to make one and leave it up on my wall YEAR ROUND to remind my students of how a great classmate acts! Thanks for hanging out with me tonight as I looked through my pins this week! As promised, your flash freebie is my Apple Alphabet Bingo! It will only be a freebie until tomorrow night around this time so hurry over to TPT and grab it. This game comes with 26 alphabet bingo cards for the students to use as well as 26 apple cards with each letter of the alphabet on them to use when calling. If you do download my Apple Alphabet Bingo, please leave me feedback! THANKS!!! Have a great weekend!
What students should know starts with themselves and moves outwards to a content area. Here are questions students should be able to answer.
Pass them on to your first grade teacher friends!
I just wanted to do a few updates of our classroom happenings! This week I have focused on introducing Math Work Stations to my kiddos. We have not only discussed the rules and procedures of Math Work Stations but I have slowly been introducing our first set of workstations. I will have nine work station tubs and the 10th work station will be an activity on the computer. The Math Workstations will change out as our focus in math changes as well as if my observations of the students show mastery in certain areas. If the students are breezing through certain workstations then this usually means that it is time to introduce another workstation! However, some workstations are great to keep all year around and just modify the materials such as using more difficult numbers, etc. Our focus in Math is currently Number Concepts: comparing numbers, more than, less than, least, greatest, ordering numbers, and so on. I have introduce a few of Cara Carroll's Math Workstations which the kids loved! I also introduce one of the workstation I created with dot cards. This is definitely a more simple work station but it was a hit with my kids! They loved the idea of using the pocket chart during this time! To see the post about the Dot Cards click here! To go to my TPT store click the picture below: In order to have the students rotate through workstations I use the back side of Debbie Diller's Literacy Work Station chart. I love this system! I will simply turn around the pocket chart and math will be on the other side. On this side there will be numbers 1 - 9, and a computer workstation card which I will rotate down each day. Simple right? Which is exactly what a teacher needs! Here is my example from last year... I only had to use one side last year however, now that my class size has grown I will have to use the other side. Luckily, Deb being the smart woman that she is made it two sided! Here are the number cards and the Meet with Me cards I created for the rotations. My Math Work Stations were stored in these Math Tubs last year. The size is perfect for large papers, and materials and I like the lids! I am trying to find the perfect home in my room for these now! We are also in the process of introducing our Literacy Work Stations, more to come on that next week as we finish up! Also, below is a picture of the Good Listener poster I created with the kids to remember to be a good listener (Thanks Mrs. Jump for the inspiration)! Lord knows we could use some help in this area , but they have come such a long way already! Happy Wednesday!
This week I tried something new with the vocabulary in the story. I got the idea at a First Grade Conference in December. The student writes the vocabulary word in the middle of the sheet and then there are four things to do with the word. We completed two of the boxes together as a class and they finished the last two boxes independently. The kiddos sure had a great grasp of the vocabulary after this. When we read the story they had fantastic comprehension.
What’s on your mind? Is a terrific way to get to know your students + these make an easy and awesome bulletin board too! Great activity for the first week of school and a nice ice breaker for students to get to know their new classmates. What’s On Your Mind Activity From: TeachWithMe.com Would you ... Read More about What’s On Your Mind?
Ready to help your students move beyond "nice" and "mean" when describing characters? Here are 6 ways to build their character traits vocabulary!
What to teach complete ESL beginners? Having an ESL beginner curriculum guide certainly helps! It is like a roadmap of what to teach in that first year.
