Teaching Character Education and Building a Classroom Community are very important skills that often get overlooked due to standardized testing. I developed this activity for Teachers of Tweens and Teens. Included are classroom posters, lesson plans, anchor chart ideas and interactive notebooking ...
I have been using interactive math notebooks in my classroom for as long as I can remember. Math notebooks are a great place for students to take notes, record definitions and sample problems, and practice new skills. They are perfect to use for direct instruction and guided practice, in small groups or as a whole class.…
data:blog.metaDescription
Set of FREE printable world map choices with blank maps and labeled options for learning geography, countries, capitals, famous landmarks
When you join my email list, you’ll gain access to my subscriber-only resource library with tons of free printable teaching resources that you can use in your classroom right now.
data:blog.metaDescription
Teaching area and perimeter can be challenging, but these fun and meaningful lessons ideas can help you teach area and perimeter in a fun, engaging way!
Number talks, also known as math talks, are a short time frame dedicated to have purposely crafted talks about math. During these talks, teachers and parents provide opportunities for kids to have open-ended discussions.
I have been using interactive math notebooks in my classroom for as long as I can remember. Math notebooks are a great place for students to take notes, record definitions and sample problems, and practice new skills. They are perfect to use for direct instruction and guided practice, in small groups or as a whole class.…
I mentioned in an earlier post about how I love stations, and I am trying to use them more in my class this year instead of avoiding them like the plague last year. You know why I love stations so much? Because after the first time we used them this year (see my post on that here), my students have been asking when we are going to use them again - and today, when they walked in and saw that we were doing stations for the 2nd time this week, they actually said (out-loud), "Stations! Yes!" Now, I don't know about most of you but when I get my students to exclaim in excitement about something they get to do with math - well... it's fabulous! I am going to tell you about the first set of stations we did this week, and leave the second set until later. We are working on integers right now, and I really wanted them to have some more practice with adding and subtraction before we moved on to multiplying and dividing. I did not want to just use worksheets because they're so boring. An entire class period of worksheets sounded miserable, and I'm the teacher! Anyways, I planned out four stations for the students to cycle through. I love that even though the last time we did stations was a month ago, my students still knew how the system worked. This is how I organize my station rotations. Cute? No. Simple and effective? Yes. (Just ignore the poll in the top corner - that was for something else I was keeping track of) These are not the stations I used for this post, but you can see how I organize them in this picture. My first station was an adding and subtracting integers memory game. I laid all the cards out on the table face down and ready to go for the first group. Every group after that was responsible for putting the cards back in the same way they found them so the next group was ready to play the minute they started the station. Students took turns flipping over two cards - they had to say what the answer was to every expression they flipped over. If they found a match they kept the cards and went again. If they didn't find a match, it was the next player's turn. This game always starts a little slow, but once they can start remembering where the cards are it gets really fun as they can't find the match but the next person can. I am selling this game on my TeachersPayTeachers store. Memory Game all laid out and ready to play! The second station was very similar to a station I did last time (algebraic expression posters) - but this time they were only practicing the order of operations. This is something that we already covered, and students had a test on but it is so important that I like reviewing constantly throughout the year. Students solved each of the expressions on the poster and moved post-it notes labeled 1-9 around to show the answer. Each post-it note gets used exactly one time. If they find they need the same number or that they haven't used a number then they know they've made a mistake. After they are done, I quickly check them and have them get a new poster to complete. I have them work on these in pairs, and I love hearing their conversations as they discuss the correct order to solve the problems. One of the posters that they worked on! The third station was also very similar to a station I did last time (self-correcting excel spreadsheet). This time they were practicing adding and subtracting integers. If you want a copy of this, just click on the image below. It looks really funny on google drive, but downloads correctly. Students solve each of the problems, and type the answer in the second column. They then check the third column to see if they are right or not. I was planning on having them go to www.multiplication.com (LOVE this site, especially since I still have students who don't know their facts!), but our Internet was down. (Don't you hate when that happens?!?) Instead I had them work on their homework - an adding and subtracting integer worksheet. It wasn't nearly as entertaining, but the kiddos all seemed to appreciate having time to do their homework in class. This is the Adding and Subtracting Integers spreadsheet they did - see how in the third column it tells them whether they are right or wrong? The fourth station was my favorite. My students have done some graphing before, but never with all four quadrants of the coordinate plane. We did a coordinate graphing picture earlier in the unit to practice, but I wanted to do a little more with it so I created this game. It's battleship with the coordinate plane! And, I made it with a Pirates of the Caribbean theme! All of the ships are named after ships from the movie series, and my students LOVED it! They were either the pirates or the royal navy, and hid their respective ships on their coordinate plane. Then they took turns trying to find their opponent's ships by calling out coordinate pairs and marking them on their board. I originally made a version that can be printed out on paper where you would break everyone into pairs, and pass out a pirates sheet to one player and a royal navy sheet to the other player. Then, realizing that this would be a lot more fun with dry erase markers, I made a more permanent version using manila folders and laminating them. Then, because I was so excited about it, I decided to sell it in my TeachersPayTeachers store. The front of the folders - are you going to be the Pirates, or the Royal Navy? My brilliant students actually figured out that if you use a binder clip the board would stand up on its own. They're geniuses. Playing the game! My second time with stations went really well - I just need to remember to set the timer at the beginning of each station! Also, this was a good reminder that I always need a back up in case the Internet is down and I've planned an activity using it - this is when having good 'go-to' games are awesome (which I will talk about in a later post, I swear)! What are some activities you use to practice integers? Do you have any 'go-to' back up activities for when technology decides not to cooperate? ~Brittany
Book Talks are a powerful way to share new books with students and encourage them to try out different genres they may not have thought about before. While I have been doing book talks with my students for years, I wanted to bump it up a notch and not only have them begin to create... Read more
Different Activities, Strategies, and Resources to Help Your Students Become Masters at Problem-Solving in Math
Why not teach common core standards for English Language Arts using Pixar short films, Ted Talks, popular film clips for students and other inspirational video clips for students? Need a fun Point …
Have you ever thought of giving an interactive notebook a try in your primary classroom, but the thought seems too overwhelming? Do you have an interactive notebook resource, but are not sure
These are some of my Behavior Management tools... Our school mascot is a Pirate, so we designed what we call "Pirate Bucks." They ...
This four page printable is designed to encourage children to do some really good research about a country of their choice, and put together a book that they will be proud of! We've asked them to compile all sorts of interesting facts but left room for creativity too.
In science, we have been talking about animal adaptations. One of those adaptations, and one that students really love learning about is ca...
A simple way to teach your students classroom procedures and expectations at the beginning of the school year
I have been using interactive math notebooks in my classroom for as long as I can remember. Math notebooks are a great place for students to take notes, record definitions and sample problems, and practice new skills. They are perfect to use for direct instruction and guided practice, in small groups or as a whole class.…
If you are getting started with Interactive Notebooks, then this blog post is just for you. With information on choosing the right book, page numbering, envelopes, bookmarks, and tables of contents, this post has it all to help you get started on the right foot. Help your upper elementary and middle school students shine with interactive notebooks that scream organization, structure, knowledge, & fun. Ideal for social studies, history, math, science, and ela, interactive notebooks are the best.
Here are 5 tips to better classroom management. Improve your teaching, and improve the learning environment! Easy and actionable.
I was asked to present Interactive Student Notebooks at our Gulf Regional Innovative Teaching Conference. I have used them in my classroom for 4 years and was super happy to share all of the things I have stolen from other teachers! I only had 50 minutes to talk about something I could talk for days about! What better way to teach teachers about interactive notebooks than to have them create their own! This is also my love letter to Math Equals Love for putting her amazing ideas out into the math world. I actually do have some of my own ideas but I am sure they originate from hers! I put all the handouts together, in order, for each participant so I would not have to use precious time passing things out. I think this saved time. That and me talking super fast! I wanted them to leave with a product and something tangible they could refer to. My classroom model notebook that I keep through the year is helpful for me the next year to look back on. It was important to me that they experience the "interactive" notebook like students do. A couple of the staple activities used in my classroom were easily adapted. There are not enough adjectives to describe how happy using Math Equals Love's Unit Dividers make me! You can see the green one in the notebook above. If you do interactive notebooks, you need these in your life! The next thing was to show how important color with meaning is to the interactive notebook. I first saw the idea of a coloring page from Math Equals Love for translating expressions. For the conference, teachers color coded "Why Should My Classes Use ISNs?" into three categories. These are all of the reasons I love using interactive notebooks with my students. My students answered a survey at the end of the year about them and the overwhelming theme of their answers were that the notebooks were fun and made it easy to keep up with their stuff. Students take ownership of their notebooks and are proud of them. Pockets or envelopes are a staple of interactive notebooks. They are great for holding flash cards, task cards, any kind of cards you have! For the teacher's notebook, I put cards of all the supplies they would need. Card sorts and matching are two activities that you can use for everything. This matching activity had the teachers match the word with things they needed to think about in setting up their notebooks for their classes. A shutter foldable had them talk about the administrative things when using notebooks. My favorite page was the mini foldables! They turned out super cute! But it also gave teachers practice in folding and taping as well as ideas of what foldable to use for which notes. How could I not show them POOF books? They are one of my students' favorite foldable. I first saw these at Math Equals Love where she had made it for exponent rules. Inside, teachers found advice about using interactive notebooks. To show how to layer pages and how the tape makes hinges, the last page had a couple of pages of resources for them. Bloggers that do interactive notebooks and things to ask Google, especially MTBoS, were on the pages along with a place for them to write notes. It only took two trips to haul the supplies into the building! I think I won for most stuff required for a presentation! Teachers seemed excited to take interactive notebooks back to their classrooms and that makes me excited! Find all the things here!
Last week I created this sweet spider then jam-packed him FULL of interactive activities all about spiders! Peek under the first top flap and bottom flap to find… Below is...
Articulation Notebook Templates for /r/ - Use this FREE resource with your Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade speech therapy or special education students. These templates can be FULLY CUSTOMIZED so
This year, I revised the materials in my reader's notebooks. I'm using a combo of a binder and a notebook for reading workshop this year, and I'm not 100% happy with it. I thought I would share some of what I've been doing. Maybe you can help me tweak. Let me first tell you how I've been working it. In their binder, they have a section for anchor charts and handouts. There's an index where they write the title of the paper so they can see at a glance what they have. It' sort of like a mini version of my anchor chart binder, but they have only the few charts I give the entire class and the ones I give specifically to them as needed during conferencing. There's also a section in their binder to keep track of books they have read, books they want to read, and a genre tracker. Now, the notebook is more of our workhorse. The notebook is where they take notes during mini-lessons, jot their thinking about their independent reading, and write their weekly letter to me for assessment. These are the notebooks I use. I got them at Staples during the ten cent sale. My friends turn their notebooks in one day a week. This way I only have to read 4 or 5 a day rather than all 24 at once. As you can see, orange notebooks are due on Tuesdays. When you open the notebook, you will first find this page: I think the note is pretty clear. Our focus this year is all about thinking deeper about our reading. The next couple of pages give an example of friendly letter format and how to edit/proofread their letter. We edited "idea chart" to read "thinking stems" Next, there are facing pages that have the "thinking stems" we use. A reader had asked me to post a link to these, but I just can't find it. I pulled these pages from a file I've had for a few years. I know I originally found them on the web, but when I tried to find them again this year I couldn't. If you have ever run across these, please let me know where so I can credit the author. This is glued on to the left page of the notebook. The other pages is on the right side. I like them facing each other so they can see it all at once. For some reason, I took two half-page pictures of the other page, Update! (7/22/12) Special thanks to Marilyn who emailed me the link she found for these Thinking Stems. This link should take you to a Word document you can print out. I believe they are from the Calhoun School District, but again not sure. CLICK HERE TO GO TO DOCUMENT. These thinking stems are good for helping my friends who have difficulty coming up with something to write. I used them as a springboard when I modeled writing a reading response letter not just once, but twice for my friends. I will do more modeling of this as time goes on and I expect more from their letters. After these pages, I still have two blank pages. One is for a rubric that I have yet to put in their notebook. That's one of the things I've not yet figured out to my satisfaction. While the kids know what I'm looking for, I want a rubric in their notebook. The problem is I can't find one that fits exactly what I want and I've been too lazy busy to just sit down and make my own. I guess I'm going to have to just do it this weekend. The rest of their notebook is filled with notes from our mini-lessons, their independent writing about their reading, and their weekly reading response letter to me. It's actually all working pretty well so far, but I just have this gnawing feeling that I'm missing something. So, I'm throwing it out there to you! What are you doing with your reading notebooks? What do your friends do with their notebooks? Do you use a rubric? What and how are you assessing them? What's worked for you? By the way, don't forget to ENTER MY THANK YOU GIVE AWAY! There are only about 22 or so entries thus far, so the odds are pretty good! You have also been leaving some great ideas for picture books to use in mini-lessons. Click over and check out the comments. Even if you don't enter, you will get some great picture book suggestions.
Using fraction number lines to build fraction understanding and develop math talk and reasoning skills is one of the best math teaching strategies!
data:blog.metaDescription
Interactive Activity Templates for Speech Therapy Notebooks This packet of templates can be fully customized to suit the goals of the students on your caseload. The photographs show completed demonstration items but templates are left blank for you to add targets for your own students. ******************************************************************** This packet is a great starter kit and will give you everything you need to get started with notebooks in your speech room. You should also check out my bestselling Articulation Notebooks Value Bundle. It contains all the items in this packet plus full-size color and blackline images for all targets, “I can…” statements, data tracking options, and hundreds of pages of themed notebook templates for all sounds. ******************************************************************** In this product you will find: ★ A choice of 6 covers for the notebooks ★ 6 different templates for stackable pockets to keep pieces safe mid-project. ★ Over 50 different templates, foldable, and flap books. The majority of these are editable. ★ Photos of sample pages of the notebook put together to give you an idea of how the materials can be used. ★ A packet of 700+ small images, sorted by sound to use in conjunction with the templates for non-readers. ★ Mini word lists – ideal to send for home practice. ******************************************************************** Buyers Say... "Great packet! I just discovered the use of notebooks for articulation and love the ideas for practice during therapy and for homework! I like the blank templates for easy customization. Thank you for all of your hard work!" "Awesome for creating an ongoing resource for articulation therapy. Easy to track progress, keeps kids engaged and provides ready homework/practice. Also good for accountability! Graphics are fun and well-created!" "My Speech Interactive Notebooks are looking amazing with these awesome activities! Thank you for such great artwork and practice sheets." ******************************************************************** Other Notebook Activities You May Enjoy: ★ First Week in Speech - Speech Therapy Notebooks Quick Start Pack ★ Articulation Notebooks for Speech Therapy Value Bundle ★ Preschool Notebooks for Speech and Language Therapy ★ Speech Therapy Language Notebooks Value Bundle
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...
Procedures Turn and Talk – Procedures and Routines How to Use 1. Question Pose a question or prompt for students to discuss and tell them how much time they will have. A one-to-two minute dis…
Looking for esl task cards to use with your english language learners? Try these picture cards that are perfect for quick and effective language practice!
Laura Candler's Geometry File Cabinet includes helpful freebies and teaching resources for the upper elementary grades.
Here is a fun way to motivate students in a math journal or math workbook! As you teach a new concept or unit of study, introduce the reference tools...
What a busy week! I can’t believe it is only Thursday! Well we’ve been up to our elbows in plants this week. Here’s a peek at what’s been “sproutin”” in our classroom! To kick off our seeds and plants unit, we’ve been using The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle (You can check out this special […]
Affiliate DisclaimerWe sometimes use affiliate links in our content. This won’t cost you anything, but […]
Have you ever had a practically perfect day of teaching? You know what I mean… the kind of day where the kiddos are right on point. The conversation is academically juicy, kiddos are engaged, and you’re wondering why your admin isn’t picking today to come do their observations! 😉 It’s been a while since things have gone […]
