Today kicks off Teacher Appreciation Week and Tuesday is Teacher Appreciation Day. We celebrate it to honor those who devote their lives to teaching children and serving others. It's nice to get a pat on the back, especially this time of year. We often go about our day lecturing, explaining directions over and over, wondering if anyone is listening, if anyone cares. Sometimes it's a thankless job. Sometimes it seems as if we've not made a bit of difference. Then, perhaps years later, we receive a note from a student or a call from a parent who just wanted to say thanks. Those moments lift us and remind us that our jobs may not have immediate rewards, but they DO make all the difference in the lives of others. As we near the close of another school year, stay positive and end it with a smile. And know that even though you may not see the fruit of your labor this year, or next year, or even in ten years, you have planted the seed and it will continue to grow because of your efforts. Thank you to teachers everywhere for your efforts with our children...with our future. Here are some of my favorite teaching-related Pinterest pins:

We're happy to say that today is Management Monday! I don't know about you, but my students this year are a lot different from my students from last year. What worked last year with behavior, was not so much working this year. So I tried to come up with a fun way that would help students take control of their own behavior. I thought about it for a couple days and came up with a Baseball Behavior Card. This year in class, we are focusing on being Teammates. We read this awesome book about working together and standing up for one another. (I got my copy of this book from the *amazing* Deedee from Deedee Wills' Kinder and her new online bookstore Clever School Teacher.) Going along the lines of being a team, I thought that a baseball type behavior system would be perfect for my class this year. So I came up with something that went along with the saying, "Three strikes and you're out." Only I changed it to, "Three strikes = time out." Here's how it works in my classroom: Each week I tape a card to each student's desk. Each day of the week students record their behavior based on a 3 strike system. One strike = reminder, two strikes = warning, and three strikes = a time out. You decide what a time out looks like in your classroom. As a reward for good behavior, I collect the cards at the end of the week and trade them in for class dollars. Two class dollar for no strikes at all, one class dollar if they have strikes, but didn't make it to a time out. Click here to download your FREE copy of the Baseball Behavior Cards What the Teacher Wants - Behavior Linky Party!! Want to join our Linky Party? Simply blog about how you manage behavior in your classroom. Link your direct link {not your blog url, but your specific post's url} it to this post by Friday night using the graphic below. We'll choose 3 of our favorite posts to highlight next week!

How is your school climate this year? I was reading an article today which made me think about my own experiences. I do think principals play a vital role in school climate. During my twenty years of teaching, I have been very fortunate to work for some outstanding principals. When I began to reflect about my own experiences, I tried to narrow down some key ingredients that these principals possessed. Trust is the key! Let's be honest here . . . if you have a group of people, whether it's a group of students or a group of adults, issues will come up. It's inevitable! A principal who holds the trust of his/her teachers has a better idea of what is going on at his/her school than one who is hands off. A principals is better able to support a teacher when a parent calls or meets with them if they know the whole picture. In order to build trust, principals should be approachable and able to maintain confidences. Management, whether it's managing a group of students or a group of teachers, means you occasionally have to find the gray area. This is something that is hard for new teachers and some new principals to understand. Rules are guidelines that we set up for our classroom or school. Strictly adhering to a set of rules is fine if you are managing robots, but schools are made up of people. People are complex creatures and there aren't enough rules to cover ever situation that will arise. Teachers and principals have to use their best professional judgement and cross over to the gray area from time to time. As a teacher, one of our goals is that our students turn in their homework when it's due. Have you ever had a student that habitually didn't turn in his/her homework? When you investigated the situation you found out that after school your student is babysitting his/her younger siblings while his/her parents work the late shift. The rules say that there is a consequence when students don't turn in homework. You live your life occasionally in the gray so you find a way to work around this. You might let this student come early to work with you or you might shorten his/her assignments. This is called differentiating. Principal who differentiate their management are principals with positive school climate. I had several principals that during the 30-45 minutes before school began could often be found wandering the halls of the school. They would often pop into teacher's classrooms and chat. These principal were informally "taking the pulse" of his/her school. Are all the teachers here? Is there a problem that I need to know about? Because the principal is stopping by informally, teachers will often be more comfortable sharing a concern he/she has about a student. In the teacher's eyes, this problem may not be bad enough to warrant a formal sit down meeting with the principal, but if the opportunity presents itself, they will often take it. This is the pay it forward philosophy. The amount of time principals spend chatting informally about small problem pays huge dividends in the time it would have taken if the situation escalated. They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. I think the same holds true for teachers. Smart administrators realize that you need foods from the three main food groups at meetings, especially if the meeting is after school. Those food groups are salty, chocolate, and crunchy. It doesn't have to be a fancy spread, you just need to cover the food groups. You would be surprised at how appreciated a huge bag of popcorn or pretzel from Costco or Sam's Club will be. There are a variety of ways principals can fund this. Most P.T.A.s are happy to help in any way they can. Money from the vending machine can also be used to fund this expense. The one thing I suggest is do not assign groups of teachers a month in which they are responsible for providing snacks. You need to be in charge of snacks. If you've read the book Love Languages, this would be your act of service and a gift. What does your principal do that helps your school's climate?

Here are a few pictures I took today of Calendar. It will give you an idea of what each piece looks like when completed. Here is the entire calendar board. This is the actual date. The students recite this. I have it written up here, as the kids tend to forget ;) We move on to the School Day Fraction. You can see that we simplify the fraction, as well as find the equivalent decimal. The division and multiplication sentences come from some form of the date. The entire second half of the calendar board. More of the big number work. Some of the bigger number work. So there you have it. Calendar in pictures :) You can find all of the documents here You can read about the routine here You can read about the first week of implementation here

My Top 10 Handmade Christmas Gifts1. Snowball Truffles by Nichole at Papertrey Ink & Nichole Heady 2. Hungry Monster Pillows by Leslie from Leslie’s Art and Sew 3. Sticky Note Books from Greeting Arts 4. I-Spy Book by Rebecca from Happy Baby Designs 5. DIY Twine Vase by Jill from Women Who Do It All 6. French Sew Tidy by Ruth Read more

Arrays arrays arrays! BUNDLE of Activities, worksheets, and math centers to help your students practice rectangular arrays! Including Multiplication as Repeated Addition Worksheets. PICTURES in Preview! Everything you need to learn and practice rectangular arrays! All arrays are up to 5x5. Included: (Please download preview to see!) - Array Puzzles Math Center: Students match the eight different 3-part puzzles (24 puzzle pieces total) to match the rectangular array (picture) to its repeated addition (3+3+3+3=12) and multiplication factors (4x3). Students record their matches on the recording sheet - this is great practice for them to understand how arrays work. - Arrays Sorting Activity Book: Students create a cute book where they cut, color, and glue pictures of rectangular arrays under the correct factors. For example, they will glue the 3 sets of 2 kittens picture under the 3x2 factor. This will create a little book to help them solidify their understanding of arrays while having fun. - Cookie Tray Arrays: Students draw a rectangular array of cookies on the cookie sheet and color their picture. Then, they answer the questions about their cookie array. This cute little activity would look great on a bulletin board! - Array Matching Math Center: Students get a sheet of colorful array pictures and a baggie of factors cards (3x4, 2x5, etc.) to match on top of the arrays that represent them. Then, they record their matches on their recording sheet. You could also give them the sheet of factors and cut up the array pictures to match on top instead. For differentiation, I also included cards you can cut up of the totals to either make it easier by switching them out for the factors cards OR make it more difficult by adding them as a 3rd element to match. - My Little Book of Arrays: This is a 2nd book the kids can make where they are given the factors of an array (ex: 3x4) and they write the repeated addition equation (4+4+4=12) and draw a picture array of it. The book has 8 pages including the cover and is a fun way to practice arrays. - Fun with Arrays worksheet: Students look at the repeated addition equation and draw a picture of an array to represent it. *ADDED*: Two more worksheets like this one, another with repeated addition and one with "3x4 =__" to give a bit of an extra challenge. If you've already purchased this, download it for free :) These 2 added pages are not shown in the preview. - Arrays in Columns and Rows worksheet: Students look at a rectangular array and simply write how many columns it has and how many rows. - 2 Array-nbows worksheets: Students are given factors (ex: 3x4) and a grid for each to color in an array to match it. - 2 Arrays Practice worksheets: Students are given a large grid and are challenged to find as many arrays that total a certain number as possible. Example included. - Arrays in Real Life homework sheet: A challenge to find arrays in real life around their house (eggs in a carton, water bottles in a large pack, quilt, ice cubes in a tray, etc.) - Cereal Arrays: A fun activity to do in class where students use cereal o's to make rectangular arrays, glue them on their sheet, and write a description underneath (ex: 3+3+3+3=12 or 3x4=12 or both, however you want to do it) To see real pictures & fun ideas for how to use these activities, check out: How to Teach Arrays For a ton of fun multiplication facts practice, check out my: Multiplication Fact Fluency Math Unit It has a lot of fun multiplication games and activities to help students solidify their facts! If you want to see when I post fun, new things, click this to follow me on TpT! :) - Miss Giraffe

Who are the people on our coins and bills? When I was teaching our money unit, a student asked me about the people on the coins. I have to admit I didn't know much. I had to look up to see who was on the dime! I decided to create a poster highlighting the people on our coins and dollar bills. There are 2 posters. Each poster displays a picture of each coin or bill (front and back) plus some information about the people on each one. When I showed it to my 3rd graders, they were really interested in it! So I thought your students would like it too. I'm sharing it here today with you. You can hang in your classroom or on a bulletin board. Kids will love the facts! It's a great way to learn about our Presidents and the important people who are on the United States coins and bills. Just click any picture below to download it. You can download it at my TPT store. Need some money resources for the classroom? Below you will find some fun math centers or math lessons using money. Just click the picture to learn more about it. Here is a pack of 30 task cards with coins on it. Students count the coins and record the amount on a recording sheet. The coins included are quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies. There are also game boards included to use with the task cards. Plus, worksheets to help reinforce coin counting skills. Menus for Math has a pack of 10 menus. Each menus comes with 2 word problem worksheets. Students can also use the menus to answer word problems from the menu or they can create their own word problem questions. These are great for problem solving using money. Click the picture to see 10 menus that are included in this pack. Show Me the Money is another Freebie! This one has students using coins to match with the amount. These are great for math centers or small groups. These boards will help you see which students are still struggling with counting coins. Coin Counting Task Boards has 10 boards. Students use the task board and a recording sheet. They count the coins on the task board and then answer some questions about their coin counting answers. These are great for your coin counting lessons or for early finishers. They also work great during small group time. Just grab a task board and a recording sheet and start counting coins. Here is a pack of coin counting worksheets using coins only. This pack uses quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies. It has a fun pirate theme. It includes 24 worksheets all about money. These are easy to hand out for homework, use for extra work, display at math centers, or give to early finishers to keep them busy. Click on the pictures to read more about it. Here are some classroom resources you may need when you are teaching your money unit: Magnet Money Classroom Coins Play Money for Kids Money Poster Lemonade in Winter The Coin Counting Book Counting Money Learning Set The History of Money Money Bags Game Money Flashcards Thanks for stopping by today! See you soon,

This may be the first time I’ve ever linked up with Kacey for Five for Friday…on a Friday! I must confess the real reason I’m posting on time. It’s 5:30 and I just walked in the door from school. Our holiday party is tonight, but doesn’t start until 7:00. I’m blogging now to literally keep …

A blog that covers educational concepts and products from Pre-K through Middle School. It features time-saving tips for teachers of all grade levels.

Using Dice to Teach Math Skills I love dice. Dice come in all sizes and shapes. There are the basic 6 sided dice that we are all familiar with. You can find these made of plastic, wood, rubber, foam and paper. They may be as small as a bean or as large as a

This post is going to be full of randomness! Our author study for this month is David Shannon. We've been loving all of his books, especially the David books! The kids drew David. So cute, right? During the Daily 5, we've been talking about how important it is to select books that are a good fit. We compared hard, easy and just right books to riding a bike. We also worked on retelling and what a good retelling sounds like. The retelling anchor chart I adapted from Hello Literacy. we In math, we've been working on Tally marks! This little poem helps the littles SO MUCH when figuring out when to cross the 5th mark. Finally, in Science we are learning about weather and the water cycle. We made these super cute rainbow-clouds to hang from the ceiling. They took all of 10 minutes to make and really brighten up the room! I found this water cycle song on proteacher.net. We sing this to the tune of She'll be Coming 'Round The Mountain. Enjoy the rest of your week!

Hello Everyone! Thanks for stopping by to take a peek! My favorite thing from today? Learning about "The Big Idea!" We have been talking ...

One of the things we are required to do with all work that is placed on bulletin boards is post feedback to the students (well, I know we really should be doing this on all work we assign, but the bulletin board one is a mandate ;) ) Since every board has a rubric, a task, and the standards, it would be presumed that the students know what they did or didn't do to earn the score posted. But, they really don't. So giving feedback became another layer to all of our assignments. Now, I think that feedback is a WONDERFUL thing, just as much as the next guy, but actually providing written feedback on all papers that go on the board is quite time consuming. If you know anything about me (and from this post you just might), you know that I practically wallpaper my room with student work. So giving feedback on all of the papers would have me at school until the cows come home. To avoid that, but still have some feedback on each paper I put up, I have created these little tools to help me. Just GUESS where I made them ;) Let me show you them in action. The sticky notes are the ones I use the most. They are great for writing projects because there is a section to score each of the major strands I will be looking for on a written essay or other paper. Upon reading the final draft, I give each section a score, then an overall score on the entire piece, write a few recommendations/commendations and I am done. I stick the sticky note on the back of the final (usually on the rough draft) and I am done. You can see it hangs off slightly. This is so that when the final draft is over it, you can see the sticky hanging out just a teeny bit. The sticker is for papers, such as a math or science sheet, that don't have very many "next steps", and really are more cut and dry. Those just get stuck right on the page. I use the stamp in the same way. Though usually I use it on papers that are going directly in their portfolio. I just like the look of the stickers more for bulletin boards. I can not tell you how much easier life has been with them. Since there is only a finite amount of space on each one, my commenting has become quick and to the point. (instead of just writing on the paper itself, which I really don't like to do...what if I make a mistake and have to cross it out??? This takes the pressure off me ;) ) It also gives the students a bit of feedback, without having to write a novel. Since for most of the work that is up on the bulletin board has been through conferencing and we have discussed it already, these little tools make my life so much easier, but still help me to meet the bulletin board requirement at my school. And, they look really cute ;) Do you have to put feedback on all of your displayed student work? How do you do it?

Handmade bookmarks make great gifts any time of the year! Just add a little note or give one with a book. You really can’t go wrong. Oh, and don’t forget how easy they are to mail to a friend and brighten their day! Make a few to share from this list of lovely bookmark tutorials!… [read more]

Today my students completed this multiples mini book. It's my third year using it, and I always enjoy it. Students use highlighters or ...

Well, I've been mulling over my classroom design - in particular, what permanent bulletin boards I will have and where they'll go. I saw thi...

How many of you are knee deep in fractions right now? Last week, we started talking about factors, multiples, simplifying, equivalents, and more. Before I knew it, my student’s eyes looked a bit cross. Many of them were tripping up on the difference between a factor and a multiple. No matter how many times we […]

If there was a college course on bulletin boards I would have been signed up and sitting in the front row. In my journal in high school instead of doodling boy’s names and hearts, I was sketching out how I would make my bulletin boards when I had my own classroom. It is something that […]

Language Arts: Starfall Raz-Kids Utah Write Read, Write, Think Spelling City Big Universe (Online Books) Free Rice Wordle Magnetic Poetry Storyline Online Math: Times Attack Multiplication.com Cool Math Games Math Journey J Math Page Lemonade Stand Create a Graph Virtual Manipulatives Illuminations Arcade Skill Builder I Know That IXL Science: Periodic Table 5th Grade Science - Sciber Text Strange Matter Social Studies: 50 States Puzzles CNN Student News US Geography Games National Geographic Kids The White House Plimoth.org Revolutionary War - Mission US Health: Kids Health Kids.gov - Health and Safety Other: Pioneer Library Typing Games Just for Fun/Misc: Yahoo Kids! PBS Kids Study Jams Fun Brain Brain Pop Brain Pop Jr. Fun 4 The Brain ABCYA For Teachers: Everything! (Portaportal) Internet 4 Classrooms *Please Note:* As you give me your ideas, this list will grow. Thanks in advance! :)

Story maps are a great way for students to organize their understanding of a story. Use these foldables with interactive reader's notebooks, as a literacy center, with a novel study, or weekly story. Different versions included that would work well for grades K-5. Posters for Characters and Setting included. Hang on the wall for students to reference. 4 versions included: - Story Map, Characters, Setting, Beginning, Middle, End - Title, Characters, Setting, Beginning, Middle, End - Story Map, Problem, Beginning, Middle, End, Solution - Title, Problem, Event 1, Event 2, Event 3, Solution Click here to check out my Book Study Forms. Please leave feedback and earn credits towards future products. To follow my store click here and then click on the green Follow Me star at the top of the page.

This is a randomly random post. I am sorry I have been MIA lately, but we are in the process of searching for a new house! Yay! {Don't wor...

This post has been moved to my new blog, The Colorful Apple. Check it out here!

With Presidents Day just around the corner, you can integrate social studies and math by reviewing money when you talk about the important leaders of our country. I am a big believer in multiple intelligence and am always looking for new ways to reach the different learning styles. The Money Rap (below) has been around for a long time. It's an oldie but goodie. I don't know who wrote it, but if you do, please let me know. Music is such a great way to reach those musical rhythmic learners. You can print the cards on card stock and let volunteers hold the signs up when you sign about that coin in the song. Click HERE to download this for free. I also have some money packets you should check out. (click) Cost: $5 Math & literacy activities (click) Cost: $4 Money fluency center (click) Cost: $1.50 -oi and -ar Sorting Center (click) Cost: $7.50 Get all 3 packets and save money!

Snowflake taken on black paper with Ollo-Clip lens on iPhone. Take your students outside while it's snowing BIG FLAKE...

A vocabulary list for an introduction to poetry. This download contains simple, easy to remember definitions, as well as teaching tools to focus on haiku and limericks. The haiku and limerick handouts contain detailed explanations, directions and examples for writing a haiku and limericks.

A humor blog about kids and being a mom. Saying the things people want to say. People I Want to Punch in the Throat.

The kinda music just soothes my soul {insert Tom Cruise sliding across the floor in his tighty whiteys}! Here's a little Sunday pick-me-up! Ya'll know that song, right? I love it! I did a dance routine to it when I was in 1st grade. I'm sure I rocked it...hahaha, yeah right! I have made a time packet of activities{hour and half hour} based on games I've already played with my kiddos during my unit on time. I just cutesified them! This packet has 13 games {over 60 pages} that can be played whole group and in small groups {perfect for math tubs}. The best part might you ask???? I have made a colored AND black/white version for each game...just in case you like to save on the colored ink. Here is one of the games in the packet that I'm giving to you as a a freebie {click here}! Head over to my TpT and check out this packet of activities {you might just see EVERYTHING in my store on sale TODAY, including this packet}! Oh and I'm giving this packet away on our Facebook page so head over there and "like" us to find out how you can win!

Adventures in Second Grade!

Do your students need more variety in their sentence structure? This resource takes students on a step-by-step process that shows them how they can use sentence variety to spice up their writing. The slides (pdf) are designed to help you introduce the concept and to illustrate different methods that students can use to add variety to their sentence structure, lengths and beginnings ( this sentence expanding resource is more in-depth - and a student favorite too) The first few slides teach students about the difference between simple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentences. Next, students are introduced to different ways they can construct their sentences. Finally, students will practice varying their sentence openings and lengths. In this file, you will find handouts that accompany the slide show, ones that students will use to practice the techniques you will present to them. Slides also include “answer keys”, which are only guides as there are always multiple ways to put together the sentences and paragraphs. The last three pages of this file are handouts on FANBOYS, conjunctive adverbs and subordinate conjunctions, in case you want to give students more explanation on ways to combine sentences. These lessons could be used all at once, or divided up as class openers. Would you like more writing lessons? ✅Word Choice Lessons ✅Writing Mini-Lessons Bundle ✅Narrative Writing ✅Persuasive Essay Writing ✅Expository Writing ✅The Research Magazine ✅Creative Writing ✅Connect Reading & Writing ___________________________________ Get tips, strategies, and freebies: Learning in Room 213 Room 213 on Instagram Be the first to know about my new discounts, freebies and products: • Look for the green star near the top of any page within my store and click it to become a follower. You will then receive customized email updates about this store. ___________________________________ Copyright © ROOM 213 Permission to copy for single classroom use only. Please purchase additional licenses if you intend to share this product.

In my previous post, I talked about "Staple" Literacy Centers. These are centers that I can pull out throughout the year and use. I also use these centers in my "I'm Finished Bin". When a student is finished with their work, they can get a station to work at their seat quietly. I really love this idea, especially for math. I always a have a few that I have to really keep challenging them! One of my FAVORITE "Staple" packets is from Anna Brantley's Fun-in-the-Sun-Math-and-Literacy-Center-Packet. I love this packet because it includes both Short and Long Vowels, Time AND Money, and the sentence scrambles are amazing! I love packets that include a variety of popular skills, because I can use them for so many things! She has TONS of great products, but this my favorite! Another great one from the none other than Cara Carroll is her Ready-Set-Learn-Back-To-School-Math-Literacy-Activities packet! This one is great because it focuses on skills that are often assumed. Sometimes teachers "skip" basic steps, and before you know it, students get to third grade and can't spell the word "twelve"! This packet is great for basic skills that sometimes we assume kids know, when in actuality they do not :) Go check it out..now :) Another great "staple" packet is my Parts-of-Speech-Mini-Packet. This packet includes 4 literacy centers, 6 printables, and 6 mini anchor charts! Finally-- my Leaping-Over-Word-Families is great for those moments when you just have a few minutes here or there. "Sponge" Moments is what my principal calls them! I love these cards for that purpose. They are great on rings, and can be pulled out at any time!! Be sure to head over and check em' out right HERE Stay tuned this week, I am linking up with some of my favorite bloggy friends for a great surprise! Till Next Time :)