It seems like every day there is an endless stream of students reporting behaviors or incidents that happen in the classroom. On one hand, we want to help our students feel heard and validated so they know we are a safe person for them to talk to. On the other hand, we certainly don't want to feed into the tattle machine. It's a fine line to walk. So how do we handle tattling in our classrooms?
Need to entertain the kids? Try some of these free indoor and outdoor activities for kids that can all be done from your own home. There's also a list of free online educational resources.
A list of little to no-prep, hands-on activities allowing students to experiment and learn Earth Science without relying on a textbook.
This introduction to poetry gives teachers ideas on teaching poetry minlessons that make a difference in how your students think about poems.
Understanding characters can be tricky! Learn my favorite strategies for helping students master character traits and changes.
From creating content for students to analyze to sharing strategies for assessment and classroom collaboration, ChatGPT has the potential to save you hours of time and make your life infinitely easier. Here are 50 prompts that will help with that.
This preposition poster serves as a great visual for students who are learning about prepositions. Shrink it and they can glue it right into their notebooks! I personally hang mine up on a skill focus wall. Enjoy!
All students want to feel part of their classroom community. Here are four activities to help them feel welcomed and comfortable.
Expanding Sentences Anchor Chart and Mini-Lesson
I have a fun reading resource for you! Book Talk is loaded with ideas to use for retelling stories, comprehending reading, and using books and tools to share some good conversations. Click here for a preview. Students will have plenty to do during reading time. Plus, there are some great homework ideas too! I recently updated this cover and added more graphic organizers and activities to this resource. Here are just a few examples of what's included: Questions to ask partners or questions for parents to ask their child about the book they are reading. It helps start and guide the conversation about books. If you ONLY want the Book Talk Questions, scroll to the bottom of this post. The questions come in a variety of ways. You can get them all on one sheet or on small papers like below. I put a ring on these and students have a ton of questions to ask themselves or with their partner. These are handy and ready to go on a moments notice. You can use these questions for any genre you are reading. This pack includes 5 book reports with directions and rubrics! Just copy and send home for homework projects. This pack has graphic organizers to keep the conversation going through writing. Over 40 graphic organizers included! Also some reading activities for students that finish early or need some more enrichment. One sheet is for partners to do together and one sheet is for the individual learner who can work at their own pace. You will be sure to find some reading logs in this pack too. There is even one for the entire class to keep track of the books you read together as a class. Plus so much more!!! All activities can be used with any book or any reading program you use in the classroom. You can find Book Talk here on my blog for a discounted price: Discounted Price:Sell ebooks If you ONLY want the Book Talk Questions, click the picture on the left. This pack has 10 pages full of questions students should be answering while reading their story. You can only purchase these questions here on my blog. Click to read more about it. If you ONLY want the book reports, Click on the picture below. Book Reports have 4 book reports with directions and a grading rubric. There are also 3 extra reports to use at anytime! You can ONLY buy this on my blog right now. Thanks for stopping by! See you soon,
Our principal has really been encouraging us to add more writing into our daily lesson plans. "They should be writing all day long" he tells us. The research is there to back him up. I bumped into this Roll and Retell page from Fun In First on Pinterest awhile back and finally figured out how to add it to our learning day. I printed and laminated four copies of the Roll and Retell page to hand out to each of my four table groups. After a round of Daily 5 I handed them out. I also gave each table one die. Each student at the table took turns rolling the die and then answering the question based on the number they rolled. They each used the individual book they were reading to answer the questions. I felt like it would be a great advertisement for new books for each child to read when they were done with the one they were working on. I also knew it would be great oral practice BEFORE they started writing. Once they had a chance to talk about what they were going to write, I set the timer for 5 minutes and let them write. Then we shared our responses. Here are a few of their responses. I had so much success with this activity with my students, that I created versions that cover the standards for 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades. There are 6 different Roll and Respond Sheets that cover all of the Second Grade ELA Common Core Standards for both literary and informational text. There are 5 different Roll and Respond Sheets that cover all of the Third Grade ELA Common Core Standards for both literary and informational text. There are 7 different Roll and Respond Sheets that cover all of the Fourth Grade ELA Common Core Standards for both literary and informational text. Before you go, head on over to our giveaway page to enter our current giveaway! Every week one lucky winner gets a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card! Dr. Susan Hall, literacy leader and founder of 95 Percent Group, mentions this Roll and Retell Activity as a Reading Comprehension Game that Students Will Want to Play Over and Over! Check it out for the other ideas there as well! What have you tried in your classroom lately? Link up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday and share! This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog. All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love. I would love to hear from you! ❤️ Have a question? Idea for a resource you might find helpful? Be so kind and leave a comment below.
Every English language arts teacher needs a variety of successful, student led discussion strategies that will provide opportunities for student learning.
In this blog post, read about my best teaching strategies to teach writing narrative endings. Grab all the freebies to help you teach.
This post shares tips and strategies for teaching different learning styles to meet the needs of all learners.
Are you looking for some activities for teaching suffixes? Check out these free materials including activities for Google Slides, videos, anchor charts,
Basic vocabulary, like knowing prepositions, is necessary for beginning readers. Teach prepositions with this simple game.
Concerned about the state of the world, Canadian author and illustrator Elise Gravel created a wonderfully timely illustrated poster that explains the
We've been learning about the parts of speech in the most fun ways. A parts of speech printable and flip book, writing our own mad libs, and more.
How to help your child find the right learning styles to enhance their potential in school and to prep the brain for higher learning. Learning is unique and different for each child.
Matchbook chapter summaries super simple and fun project that you can have your students complete during your next novel study.
If you’re looking for UNIQUE bulletin board ideas – you’re gonna love all these creative classroom bulletin boards, decorating themes and handmade classroom bulletin board decorations! Bulletin board ideas for...
Have you ever found yourself thinking, “I just can’t wait to teach grammar?” I mean, we know that grammar is important and that we do need to teach it, but let’s be honest…It’s not usually one of the more exciting subjects to teach. That’s why I came up with some games, to make teaching parts […]
Many people struggle to learning new things. But what if I told you the problem might not be with what you are learning, but with how you are learning it?
Whether they're completed on a piece of paper, a tablet, or a whiteboard, exit tickets are a powerful tool to use in your classroom. Exit tickets are formative assessments that provide a quick snapshot about your students' learning and understanding of a topic faster than any other tool in the classroom.
These English teacher supplies are must haves for quick ELA lesson plans. Pair your back to school wish list with ideas for English teachers!
Do you need some help with opening and closing statements for writing? I have a list of ideas that will help any student begin their writing or end it with a bang! Opening and closing statements can either make or break the student's final piece of writing. Does their opening statement hook readers? Or does their ending leave the reader hanging? Years ago, I met with a group of teachers to create a list of ideas and examples for opening and closing statements. The list below is what we came up with together. When I started using these examples with my students, their opening and closing statements improved instantly. They were always trying to come up with a better opening or closing each time they wrote a piece of writing. I think these examples below will help improve opening and closing statements. Opening Statements: Open with dialog Describe a character or setting Open with a question Open with a riddle or joke Open with a quotation Open with a bold fact or statement Open with a sound Open with a feeling Open with a personal experience Closing Statements: Close with advice for your reader Close with a quote Close with a question Reword the beginning Close with humor Close with a feeling Close with a fact These opening and closing statements can be found in this pack below. This pack is set up to be kid friendly and work for any genre of writing. It includes 2 posters with a list of variety of ways to open and/or close writing. Students pick from a variety of ideas for their openings and closings statements. These ideas are listed above. Students will be able to see the statements on one sheet. The posters can be hung on your writing wall or placed in their writing folders. You will also get a blank template to practice writing opening and closing statements. This will help students create their own statements and revise it to their own writing. I also included examples for a personal narrative writing and for a report writing. Your students will get how to write good beginnings and not forget their ending. You'll be amazed how much better your students' opening and closing statements improve! Also included are black and white versions for those that do not want color. These posters will work great in writing folders or on a bulletin board for all to see. This is my most popular resource here on my blog and in my TPT store! It gets a ton of views and comments each month. I know these posters work. Your students will just get it and begin writing good opening and closing statements without you reminding them. Purchase Opening and Closing Statements right here on Teacher's Take-Out for a discount price. Here are some writing resources you may need to get started for opening and closing statements for the classroom. I linked them to Amazon to make it easy for you. Just click below to read more about each one.: Writing Posters Writing Process Bulletin Board Set Dr. Seuss Writing Posters Paragraph Writing Bulletin Board Writing Books Thanks for stopping by today! See you soon, Click here for more writing resources
Want an easy teacher appreciation idea that is personalized? Use this free printable of my favorite things list to get great gift ideas.
Boggle is such a great game for pattern recognition and spelling. You can even get a little math in there with the scoring. Kids (and adults) love it! Here is a template you can use with your class. The color version is for using with your document camera, while the grayscale version is perfect for ... Read More about Boggle Template: Make a New Game Each Time!
Corkboard Connections is a blog written by Laura Candler who enjoys connecting terrific teachers with amazing resources!
I've been reading the book, Mindsets in the Classroom by Mary Cay Ricci, and just finished chapter 3. It was a real eye-opener. Through all of my years of teaching, I thought I was differentiating by planning and implementing reteaching and enrichment lessons and activities as my class worked through a unit. But in this chapter, I learned how important it is to start the differentiation before the unit even begins! This process begins with the preassessment. So much valuable information can be gathered before you begin teaching a unit. The purpose of the preassessment is to find how much students understand the content before you plan and teach the unit. Do they have a complete understanding of the content? Then they will need enrichment and/or accelerated activities. Do they have a partial understanding of the content? Then you need to make note of the gaps in their learning so you can plan accordingly. Checklists are a great way to keep track of the objectives and student mastery. From this checklist, you will also see students that need to be grouped for instruction. Keep in mind that this grouping will change as students master the objectives. Another insight I gained from this chapter is the different types of assessments used in a classroom. I put together this graphic to sum up the three types of assessment you should be using in your classroom. Click on the image to download the pdf version. You can also download this free packet with three quick and easy formative assessments you can use
I am so excited to launch my first "series" of blog posts! It's making me feel all grown-up and blogger-like :)My first series is going to be on increasing student engagement in the classroom. Over
Got a talkative class? Check out these 5 ways to quiet the chatter!
Learn three simple things you need to teach your ESL beginners right away. These include variations of introductions, classroom surroundings and basic needs
How do you stop students from blurting out in the classroom? Do you have some processes in place to curb blurting, but they're just not working for you
How do you plan for differentiation in lessons? How can you cater for every student? Read 10 top-tips for teachers to differentiate over time to help reduce workload ...
Autocorrect has become my worst enema.
Do you hate to teach poetry? Do you want your students to learn and enjoy poetry? Try these simple ways to learn how to teach poetry...
This is a fun game to play with a pair of dice. Read a story and help recall the various features of the story with this creative activity.
In this blog post, read about my best teaching strategies to teach writing narrative endings. Grab all the freebies to help you teach.
I think there are so many ways this could be used in therapy and I am excited to try it out! The basic principle is the kids can shake the bottle around to find the different words hidden in the rice. Once they find a word, they can:
Do you struggle with classroom management? Here are four strategies that you can add to your toolkit that will make it just a little bit more effective.
