Little 1st grade Science Thinkers is a complete curriculum that includes scripted teacher lesson plans, read-aloud books in a printable or projectible format, easy-prep science investigations and activities, assessments, anchor chart examples, and more.

This book contains a diverse selection of practical, user-friendly ideas for the primary classroom. It is written for the busy teacher and contains a wealth of tried and tested ideas for all ages. Extensive teachers' notes are included as well as lesson ideas, games and student activity sheets across all subject areas. Most of the activities require little preparation and are also ideal for relief teachers and last minute time-fillers. There are even activities for the whole school to take on board.

We all know and love Kahoot, right? If you do not know about Kahoot then we have a few blog posts with tips and ideas to get you up to speed.( here and here.) I LOVE how engaged and excited my students are when we play Kahoot. I LOVE that my students do amazing on my tests if we play Kahoot to review. But...what I don't love is how off-the-chains-crazy they get! I know they're having fun but it gets insane! I also don't enjoy the technology issues that go along with any lesson like this, students get kicked out in the middle of the game, it takes too long to log in, and not everyone has a device in my classroom. Unless you are a 1:1 school (I'm so jealous!) then it is hard to have devices for everyone to play along. Sometimes I really just want to use Kahoot as a formative assessment to see what my students actually know about a topic we have been studying, and not have them act like crazy people. So I came up with the paper Kahoot response system. All you have to do is use the game pin and log on with one student device (I actually just use my phone!) Then pass out the templates. If you already have them folded it works best. Then demonstrate to students how they will show you their answer. I love doing it that this way, the student can kind of cup the answer and not show it around to everyone but you. By playing Kahoot like this, it's actually a little calmer because they are trying to get the correct answer, not just just trying to be first. And you actually can scan the room to see who has it correct. Click on the template (on the right) and you can download it for FREE! I usually try to change things up in my room and not do it the same way every time. Sometimes, I just let them be crazy people! Do you love Kahoot? Pin for later....

Tips for Primary Teachers.

WHAT DO WE TEACH IN STRUCTURED LITERACY? We know that phonics instruction is critical to supporting all students including those with dyslexia and other reading disabilities but the problem is R…

Year 1 Phonics Test Flashcards to support children in their phonics test. A teaching resources to support Year 1 children and KS1 classrooms. These are

Effective classroom management is the key to success in any elementary classroom. These teacher-tested phrases will help to give your classroom management!

Tips to Help Your English Language Learners If you have English language learners in your classroom you already know that teaching reading for this group can be a challenge. Many teachers simply have not had much exposure to the kinds of strategies that can help these kids learn. Just like all other students teachers serve, English language learners have varying abilities and reading levels. What makes it complicated is when students arrive with no language skills other than maybe knowing the words hello and my name is.... Because of this challenge to the homeroom teachers in my building, I created this free resource as a kind of guide to help direct their instruction. I hope it is a help to all the teachers who feel they are helpless with the immigrant students. They need advocates and we, the teachers, are the ones to do it. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Five-Stages-of-Language-Acquisition-Made-Easy-2402804

Howdy! Jen Bradshaw here from Teacher Karma. Classroom time fillers Some teachers and principals think "time-filler" is a dirty word. The truth is, even for the very best teachers, time fillers happen in the classroom. It may sound strange, but there really is a way to use time fillers in your classroom and keep your students, as well as yourself, out of trouble. I'll go a step further. These classroom time fillers will actually help your students to practice their higher-level thinking skills AND they require almost no effort from the teacher. Smile. Secret to using classroom time fillers Below, you will find a few of the classroom time filler activities I included in this freebie for you. There are more included in the download. List of classroom time fillers After you read and print out my favorite time fillers, the first thing you will want to do is jot down some of the ideas that you can use in your classroom today. You have to be prepared here. To make it easy on you, I included a form that you can use to write down the time filling activities that you want to use. After filling it out, keep it handy so you can use it when you need it. List of time fillers For more ideas and to download your very own FREE cheat sheet for using time fillers in your classroom, please click here. Best wishes!

These worksheets and activities are the perfect way for students to practice sorting by texture during a Properties of Matter science unit! Aligned to first grade Common Core State Standards (SC.1.P.8.1). There are a variety of tasks for students to show that they can sort objects by the texture property. What's included? 4 differentiated worksheets to describe the texture of common objects. (Checklists, color version, and lines to write) 1 worksheet to write or draw things that are certain textures 2 cut and paste worksheets to sort objects by different textures 2 sorting mats to sort classroom objects by texture Suggestions: Gather some classroom objects to pass around for students to make observations. They can record their observations on the included worksheets Print on cardstock and/or laminate to be used as an interactive activity Looking for more? Check out the bundle here for 100 pages or worksheets and activities to practice sorting even more properties of matter! Properties of Matter Tests/ Quizzes ⭐Make sure that you're following my store so you never miss out on new products or sales! ⭐Don't forget to leave feedback for credits on future TpT purchases! ⭐Follow me on Instagram! @HappyHillTeacher

Contraction surgery isn't a new concept. There are many wonderful bloggers who have shared lessons in the past. Can you see our smiles? Each year my kids are exposed to contractions with a lesson and centers. We usually host a culminating event with surgery to produce an artifact from our week of learning. Things are so very different this year. My kids need the full experience investigating word construction. Understanding the meaning of words has been an instructional focus for me this year. Before I taught contractions, I started with a mini lesson on expanding. The dollar tree has a pack of expanding animals. They start in the form of a pill. After water is added, the animal expands into it's true shape. Once their animal expanded, we met back on the floor to continue our lesson... Once the kids were settled on the floor, I gave each child a rubber band. The kids were asked to work to make the rubber band expand. Most figured this meant to spread or stretch it out. Then it was time to discuss the opposite of expand, contract. In summary, we came out of this lesson understanding that contract meant to make smaller. Once my students understood the word contract, we watched a brainpopjr.com free video, for this week, about Contractions. If you are reading my post in later weeks, the video will no longer be available to you free until next year. I encourage you to get a membership for one computer. I pay a monthly fee of $8. It's worth every penny. The above video is only a few minutes long but the teacher in me won't allow the kids to watch uninterrupted. I stopped and addressed each concept as it was introduced. Brain Pop instructs with the words not, have, had, has, are, am, AND will. I love how they form a sentence using the two base words for each contraction. Once the words were highlighted red, I paused the video. We worked to contract the two highlighted words by making a letter or two disappear in order to form a contraction. Most of the kids use contractions orally but haven't made the connection until today. Once we determined the contraction, I played the video to confirm our answer. Now we are at the meat and bones of the lesson. Our surgical gear is on. The kids were given letter tiles. I only gave the kids letters to manipulate he is and she will. At that point, we are at our desks. My students were asked to form the words he is. Using a Band-Aid with an apostrophe written on the back side of the pad, we manipulated the tiles by removing a letter and replacing it with the Band-Aid. We repeated the steps with she will. Once the contraction was formed, I had the kids remove the Band-Aid with the apostrophe. The kids pushed together the letters. It became the word shell. Now the kids have an understanding of why the apostrophe is SOOO important. We traveled back to the floor for the introduction to our group centers. I used materials from First Grade Fever's pack called Contraction Surgery Center. I printed five sets of the game which is only a few pages each. Each set has two blank cards and four blank Band-aids. I used this to create a chart and model the center. The only difference, I switched the order in which the kids were to identify the contraction. In groups, they were to find the contraction written on the Band-Aid to the doctor with the two base words. My chart had the contraction written on the blank doctor cards and the two words on the Band-Aids. This gave them a separate but similar task to complete in groups. The kids helped to answer our guided question and we charted a little detail about the apostrophe before the class assisted me in finding the corresponding base words. Prior to sending the kids off to work in groups, we took the time and discussed the thinking questions and recorded a response. This became the artifact we used while matching contractions in groups. The energy was high as kids worked in teams to identify the contractions. Each team created their own chart. The center took approximately 20 minutes to complete. The kids were engaged the entire time. After the group centers were complete, I provided a split bone with two base words. Each kid was given a different word to manipulate with the multiple pages provided in the above unit by Surviving The Little People. After surgery was complete and an apostrophe is added, the kids glued their surgically repaired bones to our evidence of learning chart. What's ahead for me? I truly feel giving up an hour and a half today was beneficial. I gave the kids science, vocabulary, language arts, and centers. Moving forward, we will work in our journals recording sentences by manipulating the base words and recording the contractions. Students will be given various centers to be added in their literacy rotations. I'll share a few books on topic and will include in my students' writing. 

I came across a pin the other day about helping students set academic goals for themselves and I just loved the idea! Setting, working towards, and achieving goals is a powerful skill that will help students not only be successful now, but also in the future. This is learned skill they can benefit from for a

Learning about landforms with a hands-on landform building and narrative writing project.

This week I'm sharing a packet of materials on using and making dichotomous keys. You'll find a page of informational text, directions for using a key, directions for making a key, and two different student worksheets. Here's a sneak peak at the contents. Download Dichotomous Keys. I hope you get a chance to use these in your home or classroom. Please let me know if you try these and how you like them! **Updated January 2019. Please note that in the updated version the Blue-footed Booby has been replaced with another animal.

Visualizing the text is such an important strategy used for building your students’ reading comprehension. It is very versatile as it can be used in different ways with students of all ages and reading levels. I

An educational blog for sharing ideas, strategies and resources that support teachers of English Language Learners.

Need some fun, active learning activities for teaching prepositions in Kindergarten, first grade, or second grade? This post has 5 ideas to get you started!

The past few years I’ve had the opportunity to teach a course entirely through project based learning. Our local university approached a couple of schools in our district and asked us if we were interested in teaching a cross-curricular PBL program where our grade 12 students can earn college credits. Ummmm…. heck yeah! Basically, the ... Read more

Tips for Primary Teachers.

As a primary teacher, it can be very difficult fitting in grammar instruction into your day. I also have a little secret you might not know about me. I used to loathe teaching grammar. Can any of you relate? It's so difficult to even WANT to teach grammar when we have so many other things we could be doing with our day. Plus, many of us are expected to "spiral" it in with the many other subjects we are expected to teach throughout the day. Although all school districts, programs, and teachers are different, I have found something that students love doing, and that is applying new information into something called an interactive notebook!! And so I created these for grammar...and the students loved them!

Last week, E from McHomeschool and I went live on Instagram to chat about our favorite resources. Since the videos remain temporarily these blog posts will summarize and provide links. You can find…

We had another class Monday night with our new dual/ELL staff members, and this time we focused on differentiation and what that may look like across the subject areas. As we have done in the past, we had the teachers participate in a gallery walk and thus rotate around with their groups to add to a series of posters focused on this topic of differentiation. Yet again, our wonderful staff did not disappoint and came up with a wide assortment of ideas as to how instruction can be differentiated for our students! I typed up their ideas on a nice one page spread for them, and thought you all may find it useful as well! Click on it to grab a copy for yourself or a friend. Graphics/Fonts: Scrappin' Doodles, Rowdy Fonts, My Cute Graphics Also, (as if you haven't already heard ;)), I wanted to let you all in on the big secret. TpT will be hosting a "3 Million Teachers Strong" sale February 27-28th. In using promo code TPT3, you can get up to 28% off at my store along with so many more! How exciting is it to see this community of teachers growing and working together :)!

Hi everyone! It's Naomi O'Brien from Read Like a Rock Star! I've noticed a lot of teachers heading back to school, and thought I'd share a few of the ideas I use to create a positive classroom culture. For years, my coworkers chalked my sweet and well behaved classes up to the "luck of the draw", but then they had to admit, it must have been something I was doing. We, the teachers, really are responsible for setting the tone in our classroom. Our children are always watching us and how we respond to situations teaches them a lot about how they should respond to us and each other. How I Create and Maintain a Positive Classroom Culture for K-2! I Tell them They Were Handpicked to be in My Class, but Shhhhhh, It's a Secret: On the first day of school, I always let my students know that I have a HUGE secret to share with them. The secret is that I asked for only the best students to be in my class. I let them know that I read information about them, talked to the principal and other teachers, and that I only allowed the best kids into my room. I tell them that this is a secret and that if the rest of the school knew, everyone would be trying to be in our class and then it would get too crowded and too crazy. I let them know they can tell their parents, but nobody else. During restorative conversations, I remind them that they are still the best, deserve to be in my class, and to never forget it. It's always really cute when we get a new student and my students are so excited to have someone new to share the secret with! I Let Them Take Over the Classroom: I give them a lot of opportunities to learn and share with each other. Sometimes it's hard to give up the reigns, but they learn to respect and listen to one another. Every now and then, I pretend to be the confused one, and have them help me learn a concept. They think it's hilarious and they come together for a good cause; to teach their teacher. I Take Time to Start Personal Conversations: Instead of walking around or sitting at my desk, I like to sit with my students and get to know them. I let them know I'm interested in who they are, not just what they can do. It's this relationship building that makes them naturally want to behave better for me. They know I care about them, and it makes them care about me too. I Give Them Plenty of Opportunities to Work Together: Team work makes the dream work! I make them discuss everything with each other, and collaborate often. Also, they are not allowed to tattle! Once they realize they need to work together without any help or conflict resolution from me, they learn to get along (slowly, but surely). I Don't Allow Tattling: I know I just mentioned that, but I wanted to bring it up again. Unless something serious happened, I ignore any and all tattles. Sometimes I say, "All you've done is let me know that you're a tattle-tale. Thank you." They learn very quickly that tattling won't get them very far and it forces them to talk to each other and work out their problems on their own. I always drive home the point that we have to look out for each other, not try to get each other in trouble. Instead of telling me that someone isn't working, they learn to nicely remind the friend to get back on task. This takes a few months to master, but it works out beautifully! I Teach Character Traits: I pick 6 traits that I think will help my students excel. I make sure to make time in our busy day to teach them about these traits; usually right after lunch/recess as a "cool down" activity. I chose Kindness, Ambition, Self-Confidence, Honesty, Thoughtfulness, and Respect last year. Think about the traits that are most important to you. Focus on the traits that you'd like to teach your students to possess. Find creative ways to encourage your students to take on these traits for themselves. I made badges for my students to earn to make sure they were aware of the traits and working on their own character. You can also post pictures of students that show a specific trait frequently in class, write positive notes about good or improved behavior you've noticed, practice acting the traits out in student led plays or skits, make class videos showing the traits, or read stories that exemplify characters that show good character traits. Make sure to point out the traits and have discussions about them. In order to create a positive classroom culture, you must truly be intentional about creating one. It's important to use your character trait vocabulary throughout the day too. I Teach the Art of Giving a Compliment: Compliment Plates were always a hit with my students! Give out plates, give out markers, have a good time! In the beginning of the year, with my first graders, we brainstormed nice compliments and I wrote them on the board for a writing support. They loved going around filling them out, and they loved reading what their friends had to say about them. This was always followed by "Thank you's" and "You're welcome's'" being called out across the room. Even hugs were often being given out for the kind words shared. I pick a Kid of the Day to be showered in compliments! I truly believe doing this daily is one of the most beneficial activities I have done for my students. I found that with my first graders, we had to first discuss how to give and receive a compliment. Outside of "You're my best friend", they really couldn't think of anything else to say. After a lot of discussions and practice, they were giving out compliments left and right, even when they thought I wasn't paying attention. I also had to teach them to accept the compliment with a "Thank you". Surprisingly, some of them would say something like, "No, I'm not pretty." and really had a hard time accepting nice things being said about them. We also had to discuss that simply saying, "I know I'm cute." wasn't acceptable either... I also have a Compliment Count on the board. It's quick and easy, and it gets their attention. (Side Benefit: It helps them count tally marks really well!) If ever anyone outside of our classroom gives us a compliment, they get a tally mark added to the Compliment Count. If the principal gives them a compliment, it counts for two tally marks! This promotes great behavior when they are walking in the hallways, at recess, at lunch, and at Specials. Whenever we reached 20 tally marks, they got some of my stash. I Make My Students Reflect on their Unsavory Behavior: When students act out it is important to give them consequences for their actions. I believe it is equally as important to follow up with the student through a reflection sheet. After the student has been given time to cool down, I take the time to fill this out with them, or have them fill it out themselves if they are able (only after a discussion to make sure they understand what they did wrong and what they can do differently in the future). My students so loved and responded to this that when they were sent to their seats or to a cool down area, some would ask, "Are we still going to talk about this later?" I think they appreciated being heard, forgiven, and accepted again. It's so easy to hold a grudge for the rest of the day, but we have to be the best example of forgiveness to that child and for the rest of the class to see. This is a resource that I made and used, but a quick TpT search will surely bring up a few freebies, if you don't have time to create one yourself! This is also great to make a copy of and keep data on students. It’s also a wonderful way to keep parents in the loop of what’s been going on in class. At Open House, I let my parents know that if they see one of these sheets it means their student has already had consequences, so they should just discuss their child’s plan to make better choices in the future. This helps to build a parent/teacher partnership. I Created An Outsider Looking In: Creating an outsider to notice your class is a great way to promote a positive classroom culture. In addition to our Compliment Count that I track on the board, I created an invisible fairy friend! Sylese, the kindness fairy, would stop by our classroom every once in a while leaving a note, treats, and glitter in her wake. She watches the class without them knowing because she's invisible. They never know when she's watching or when she's coming for a visit. You can have another teacher write the note so your students don't recognize your handwriting. This was basically another way for me to give them a compliment, make them feel proud of themselves, and strengthen our positive classroom culture. This was done once a month, or once every other month. I simply leave glitter on their desks, bring in a treat, like stickers, cookies, candy, a movie, popcorn, (really anything you’d like to reward them with) and post the note somewhere in the classroom. I would usually wait for them to find it, and act like I was just as surprised as they were. Whenever it had been a while, someone always says something like, “Guys, why do you think the fairy hasn’t been back? We need to do better!” You could use anything to keep an eye on your class that leaves notes and fun treats! I Focus on the Behavior I Like: While it can be so tempting to want to always address a disruptive child right every time at the exact moment of disruption, I've learned to ignore it and focus on the behavior I like. If I have 23 students and only 1 is acting out, I'd rather give my attention and energy to the 22 that are doing a great job. I'm sure they appreciate it too. I always let them know when they are doing something that makes me happy. Scratch-n-Stickers were always a quick and easy reward. I also made up some "Caught Ya" cards to reward this good behavior and would slip them onto their desks. They could turn these cards in to enter a weekly drawing. This was a great motivator, and usually got that one disruptive child to stop what they were doing. If not, I would pull them aside at a later time and address their behavior. Because of the way I handled those situations, even at 6 and 7 years old, the rest of my class learned to ignore those behaviors too. Some would even ask if they could help that student make good choices, which was just fine with me! When you've got students that care about themselves, each other, and you, you've got a well oiled machine that is bursting with positivity! I hope you enjoyed these ideas and are able to take some or all back into your classrooms this year. Believe me, you won't be disappointed. Grab this resource for your classroom from my TpT store! Don't forget to come back tomorrow, and for the rest of the month to check out all of the other amazing ideas offered from your friends at:

Plural nouns are words that are more than one person, place, or thing. When changing a word from single noun to a plural noun, the spelling of it goes a little haywire! There are many spelling rules that students need to keep in mind when writing or spelling plural nouns. I have 8 Plural Noun Rules that students can learn to help them keep their spelling straight. There are more plural noun rules, but these 8 are the most common for elementary students. Not only will these rules help when writing, but they will help when reading too. Students will be able to see the spelling of the plural words in writing and will understand the meaning better when they understand the spelling. This will make students vocabulary and word recognition go up. Here are the 8 Plural Noun Rules: Plural Noun Rule #1: Add s to form the plural of most nouns. Most nouns just need an "s" added to the word to show that it's plural. Plural Noun Rule #2: Add "es" to nouns that end in ch, sh, s, x, or z. For example, beach=beaches, wish=wishes, dress=dresses, box=boxes, quiz=quizes. Plural Noun Rule #3: Nouns that end in "y", with a consonant before the y, change the y to i and add es. For example: penny=pennies. The letter before the y is a consonant. Therefore, the y changes to an i. Plural Noun Rule #4: Nouns that end in "y", with a vowel before the y, just add s. For example, boy=boys. The letter before the y is a vowel. Therefore, nothing changes and just an "s" is added. Plural Noun Rule #5: Nouns that end in "f" or "fe", change the f or fe to a "v" and add es. For example, elf=elves, loaf=loaves Plural Noun Rule #6: Nouns that end in "o", with a consonant before the o, add es. For example: potato=potatoes. Plural Noun Rule #7: Irregular nouns will change the spelling completely. For example, child=children, mouse=mice, ox=oxen, goose=geese. Plural Noun Rule #8: Some nouns use the singular spelling as the plural spelling. For example: fish=fish, deer=deer Here are the 8 plural noun rules on one sheet! Plus, it's FREE! Click the picture below to download this poster and begin using it today in your classroom or with your students. keep handy in their writing folder. They will be able to refer back to this sheet at any time to help them write plural nouns. I have a pack of worksheets, games, and centers dedicated to plurals. The Plural Pack below has over 61 pages that follow the poster above and work on each rule. Here is what's included in the Plural Pack. Just click the pictures below to read more about this pack in my Teachers Pay Teachers store: Here are some items you may need when teaching about plurals. I linked them to Amazon to make it easy for you: If You Were a Plural Word book Plural Poster Plural Task Cards Irregular Plural Flashcards Mad Libs Thanks for stopping by today! See you soon, Check out more Grammar activities by Teacher's Take-Out: L.2.1b

I remember when I was a new ESL teacher, I really had no clue where to begin. Thank goodness I had an amazing mentor and roommate; without her I would've been completely lost. Each school district is different, so you may be required to do certain tasks at the start of each year, but as a seasoned ESOL teacher, here are my top 5 suggestions for starting off the school year strong. Where to Begin the Year - ESL Edition Teachers in my district head back to school a week prior to students. The week is filled with meetings, professional development, Open House and squeezing in time to set up instructional spaces. During this hectic week it's also important to find out who my English learners are, who the classroom teachers are that I'll be collaborating with, and to think about routines and procedures I want in place for my ELD instruction. Week 1 - Prior to Students Arriving at School Get your hands on a student list. The list should include important information such as grade level, classroom teacher, ELP level and home language. Sometimes I need to ask the registrar at my school for a list, but most of the time I can find it on my district's EL database site. You'll also want a list of ELP scores from last year (preferably from the past two years) so that you can analyze student proficiency levels AND growth in each language domain. This is key in determining strengths and areas of need. Once you have your student lists, you can begin thinking about how you want to group your students. I'm lucky, in my district to have the autonomy of grouping my students the way that best targets their needs. Some schools/districts group students for you AND make your schedule, giving you no control in these two areas. If you are able to group your own students, I like to group based on language need with about 6 students per group. When I have small homogeneous groups, it allows me to really target students' linguistic needs. I usually use something like this to map out my groups. Students and ELD Groupings Once I have my groups, which I try not to have more than 10 in all, I then I create an initial instructional schedule. That's really a whole other post in itself! It's probably one of the most challenging tasks of the year. Considerations include the master instructional schedule, specials, lunch & recess schedules, as well as gen ed classroom focus minilessons because we don't pull students out during their focus lessons. There's a LOT to consider when creating an effective instructional ELD schedule. I use something like this to map out my draft schedule. Weekly Schedule You'll likely need to tweak your schedule at some point, so keep in mind that it might change as the needs of students change. Both of these pages are from my ESL Teacher Planner, linked at the bottom of this post. Recap Week 1 - get student lists that include the information you need to help create homogenous groups, as well as your instructional schedule. Week 2 - Students First Week of School Students arrive, so now what happens? I do not start my pull-out schedule on day one. IMO, It's important for students to stay in their gen ed classrooms and get settled, even for the first few days. They are building a classroom community, learning procedures and getting acquainted with their new setting. My district does kindergarten K-WAPT testing the first week, so I might not start my ELD schedule until the end of the week. I do push-in though the first few days, when I can, and introduce myself to my students, give them resources such as bilingual dictionaries, as well as a vocabulary workbook to my newcomers. And check in on teachers, especially if they have newcomers in the class!💛 Once I start pulling my groups, the focus is all about Getting to Know You. I really take time this week and next to start building relationships with my students. On my first day with students I share a slide that tells about me and my family. I also share things that I like doing outside of school. Then we go around the group and give each student time to share about them. Introduction Slide It's incredibly important to build trust with students, so really take this time to get to know them as individuals. It'll pay off big time. Some of my favorite "Getting to Know You" activities are... Getting to Know You Activities Four Corners Activity Teach Us Your Name - FREEBIE 👉Additional Getting to Know You activities and resources will be listed at the bottom of this post. Recap Week 2 - let students get settled into their general education classrooms, then start meeting with your students/groups. Introduce yourself and focus on getting to know them as individuals. Start building trust. Week 3 - BOY Assessments Once students have been in school a week or so, and we've started getting to know each other, it's now time to get to know them better as learners. What can students do at this point in time? I have their ELP scores from the previous two years, but that data is not recent, and they've been out of school for a couple of months, so where are they now in their language proficiency? The goal - to find their instructional "starting points." The main assessments I do at the beginning of the year are... Newcomer Group/Level 1 Students - a phonics assessment. Do they know their letter sounds? Which sounds do they know? It's also important to know the literacy level of newcomers in their native language. Do they have age appropriate literacy skills or do they have gaps? Have them write in their native language. Find a book in their native language and let them read it to you. Don't have books available? I often write a message using google translate, then have them read it to me. Did they understand the message? Where they able to respond to it? It's important detective work. 🕵️‍♀️ Phonics Survey for Level 1-2 Students All of my groups, except for maybe my newcomer group, write to a prompt. This allows me to analyze their writing skills. The BOY prompt is usually, "Describe a place you like to visit. Tell what you like to do there." We brainstorm possible places, then I have them write for about 20 minutes. Afterwards, I collect their writing and take anecdotal notes on skills we need to focus on in that group. Beginning of the Year Writing Prompt My school district gives assessments, most of which I'm not a big fan of, that include iReady for reading, PRF for fluency and DSA for spelling. We used to give the DRA2 reading assessment to find the instructional reading level of each student, but we no longer do that, so it's been an adjustment trying to figure out where my kids are in that particular area. The best way, for now, is to listen to them read and check for comprehension. Each data point is a small piece to a much larger puzzle. With all of the assessments listed above, especially my own, I usually have a pretty clear picture of starting points. 👍 Recap Week 3 - take time to assess students so that you know what they can do AND what they need. Finding their starting points will be critical in knowing what to teach them. Week 4 - Routines, Procedures and Planning ELD Lessons It's not until THIS point that I begin planning ELD lessons. Now I know my students better, both as individuals and as students, I've built some trust with getting to know you activities and I've assessed their needs, so NOW I can plan lessons to better suit them. But WAIT! There's one more important item to do before diving into planning! For me, I need to decide which on-going activities I want certain groups to do and then teach them the expectations. What's an on-going activity? It's a skill based weekly activity, such as phonics, grammar, idiom, sight word, writing, etc., that has a procedure needing to be taught or modeled. I definitely don't rush this. This is a big part of routines and procedures! Some of my groups (level 1 & 2 students) have a weekly phonics minilesson and activity, for example. I set this up for success by teaching students the components and expectations of the activity. We set up their ELD Notebooks and I model each expectation. This is really important, IMO, for a successful year. Modeling Expectations for Word Work Weekly Phonics Word Work Activity-Student NotebookPretty soon, the on-going activity becomes a very familiar part of their class time with me. If I want my newcomers doing something in their general education classrooms during independent class time, like a vocabulary workbook activity, I need to take the time to teach them how to do that. Here's a post about planning these types of weekly activities! Once I'm done teaching expectations for on-going activities, THEN I'm ready to plan targeted ELD lessons! 👏 Recap Week 4 - teach routines & procedures- identify on-going activities for groups and model expectations. Start to plan & prepare targeted ELD lessons based on students' linguistic needs. Bottom line... there's a lot to do at the beginning of the year before targeted ELD lessons begin. But at this point, I'm in a MUCH better position to plan lessons that meet the needs of my students. At about 4 weeks into the school year, it's time to plan and prepare materials for my first language function unit... the language of INQUIRY. Here's my post on Language Functions. It explains what a language function is, how to plan a unit and why I love teaching functions. This next post on "Forms and Functions" dives a little deeper into the language forms that accompany language functions. Check them both out! My advice for starting a new school year, do not stress about what you're going to teach the first couple of weeks of school. There are many other priorities that require time and attention. I promise you that spending time getting to know your students both as individuals and as learners before you plan lessons will only enhance your ability to target your instruction, which will ultimately get students to the next level in language proficiency. And that's the goal! 🙌 Additional resources that help get my year started.👇 ESL Teacher Planner Would You Rather My Country Activity "I Like" Activity Vocabulary Workbook for Newcomers - Year-Long Bundle Available! Notebook Covers and Tabs for the ESL Classroom Best of luck to you on a smooth back to school season. Having plans in place for a strong start will set you and your students up for a very successful school year! Take care, Affiliate Links: My Amazon Storefront

9 pages - 5 MB - PDF

Strategies, models, and resources to give students hands-on practice with part-part-whole with addition and subtraction.

Statistics resources and worksheets for teaching and learning mathematics in a fun way designed for teachers and kids. Each worksheet is visual and differentiated.