August 15, 2016
Monday Made It | Classroom Management
Even though I’m doing the stay-at-home-mom thing this year, I still can’t believe that summer is winding down and Back To School is nearly here (I even know some friends and teachers who are already back at school!). I always loved the beginning of the year because I had a moment to refresh and start the year with a positive attitude, try new things instructionally, and anticipate the class coming in. For this Monday Made It I am sharing the classroom management tools I love to use in my classroom and has been a proven improvement in student behavior and accountability!
Be sure to link up with 4th Grade Frolics!
The Think Sheet
You can read more about this fabulous tool and how I use it in the classroom here, but these little sheets have been a huge lifesaver in terms of quickly dealing with behavioral issues in the classroom. I’ve been using them for a few years and every year I have only needed to use them a few times. It is designed to place accountability back on the student meanwhile allowing them to express themselves, think about what caused their behavior, and a means to discuss the problem with an adult both in school and with parents at home. Since students return them with a signature it allows me to stay on top of at-home communication easily and I store them in their student files in case it is needed for conferences or meetings with admin.
Testimonies from TpT:
"This made communication with my parents very easy and students knew to bring it back signed the next day or their parents would also receive a phone call.” -Michelle M.
"Great resource! I used this consistently last year and saw a great change in student behavior. The parents also told me they really appreciated having specific information about their child's behavior.” - Ashley S.
"This is a great resource to use with students to have them reflect on their behavior. Thank you!” - Karen H.
Awesome Behavior Recognition
Another great resource to use when implementing classroom management is acknowledging those students who are always setting the perfect example. It’s hard sometimes to notice these kids, especially when you may have one or two ‘difficult’ students. However, I’ve found that having these slips already printed off and easily accessible, I was able to fill them out quickly and send home a little handwritten note letting my parents (and kiddos!) know that they’ve been doing awesome in the classroom! See more about how I use these notes here.
Testimonies from TpT:
"Such a great and simple way to support a positive relationship with parent and students.” -Mindy E.
"This is great! I find myself too often only sending home notes when students misbehave, so this is perfect to acknowledge the positive behaviors too. Thank you!” -Robin D.
"I love being able to send these home with parents. Sometimes we get so caught up in calling parents for bad behavior that I can now send these home with my students on fun neon paper and they're parents are still getting that positive feedback!!” -Stephanie N.
"I love these notes! I have been using them a ton and my students are excited when they receive one. :)” - Sunny In SoCal (TpT Seller)
The Clip Slip
This clip slip is a perfect addition to any classroom clip chart you use! This download comes with the traditional clip slip language AND a blank copy for you to write in your own if you’ve customized your clip chart. Read more about how I use this clip slip here! It’s such an easy tool for students to again communicate their daily behavior to their parents - freeing up your time NOT writing daily emails or making those phone calls. Parents can simply check their slips and by initialing every night it allows me to see which parents are checking and who are not.
Testimonies from TpT:
"Absolutely adore this Clip Slip management system. It goes perfectly with my classroom behavior chart! Who knew??? Thank you so much! This is AWESOME!!!!” -Kimberly R.
"Easy format for daily use and maintaing Parent-Teacher Communication concerning behavior.” -Jara T.
The First Week {complete lesson plans & ideas}
I love the first few weeks of school because that is when you can really set the boundaries and practice routines and procedures until your kids understand what’s expected of them all year long. It’s also a lot of fun because you can integrate some fun read-alouds to discuss these expectations when establishing your class rules. I love creating the rules together as a whole class because it gives them ownership over their behavior and the behavior of their peers. I’ve put this download together as a means to start you off with fresh lesson plan ideas and some fun read-alouds to pair with them!
Testimonies from TpT:
"As a first time classroom teacher, I am excited to use this to start of the year with my students. It is comprehensive, yet concise. Thanks so much for sharing !!” -Kimberley E.
"Great resource that will be perfect for the start of this new school year. I am very excited to use it and love your simple four rules!” - Katherine S.
"This is a really complete package! Love that read-alouds and lesson plans are included, as well as posters and worksheets for the kids! Wonderful! thanks so much! :)” - Martine
Intersted in each of these products that have helped me get prepared and organized for establishing those classroom rules? Then opt for the BUNDLED version and get a copy of each resource at a discounted price!
How do you implement classroom management/routines in your classroom? Do you have any great resources to share? Share them in the comments!
August 8, 2016
Communities: A Resource & Lesson Ideas
One of the first social studies lessons that is covered at the beginning of the year is establishing communities within the context of our neighborhoods and in our very own classroom. Having students understand that communities reach far beyond what we see day-to-day helps them build a foundation of understanding of their roles both in their homes, neighborhoods, states, and country. It also relates to how they are a part of a common community at school. I have always enjoyed teaching communities because it’s the beginning of students realizing that their worlds don’t end at the tip of their noses. They begin to notice commonalities across the communities in which they live, work, and play!
In second grade in most states the beginning of the discussion about communities is understanding past vs present and how that relates to communities changing over time due to various circumstances. Although it ends there, I love extending my lessons just a touch to include conversations about what these different communities look like, how they’re similar or different from one another, and how they’re impacted over time. I mean, who can understand past vs present without first understanding the communities in which they’re learning about?
One of the resources that I use for teaching communities is this Communities Among Us packet. It is complete with a fun and engaging flap-book style workbook that breaks down each community as it gets larger and larger starting with the student and working all the way up to the country in which they live. This flap-book is a perfect addition to the popular read-aloud: Me On The Map by Joan Sweeney!
I have also included three workbook pages that break down each community: rural, suburban, and urban! These can be stand alone worksheets or even be included in an interactive notebook. Another fun activity is the Guess My Community writing page! Students select a community that they have learned and come up with three clues that describe facts about their chosen community. Then when displayed the reader guesses the community then flip up the top portion to see if they’re right!
I also love finding amazing resources from around the teaching blogosphere too and these caught my eye for engaging activities that the whole class can participate in!
Mrs. T’s First Grade Class - Here students create a timeline of sorts that compares vocabulary and concepts relating to PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE. I love that this simple activity gets kids connected and relating to the objective being taught!
This blog also has a wonderful technology component as well where she uses a Pixie App where they label the seven continents, then created a simple clip art picture of themselves and used the Superimpose App to place themselves upon the continent in which they live. How cool is that?!
The Teacher-Trap - Kady of The Teacher-Trap blog has a wonderful collection of read-aloud that introduce students to how communities look across the globe. Although she’s teaching to third graders, I know second graders could benefit from her lessons! I love how she breaks down her objectives to teach her students the different characteristics that describe different communities!
Mrs. Winter’s Bliss - Lastly, Christina at Mrs. Winter’s Bliss blog has a great second grade appropriate compare and contrast flap book where students compare past vs present as it relates to living long ago and today. I also just love how she connects her ELA objective for informative writing with her social studies objective!
Teaching communities is such a blast and with these ideas you’re sure to get the year kicked off to a fun start! What are your favorite lessons to teach related to communities or past vs present?
In second grade in most states the beginning of the discussion about communities is understanding past vs present and how that relates to communities changing over time due to various circumstances. Although it ends there, I love extending my lessons just a touch to include conversations about what these different communities look like, how they’re similar or different from one another, and how they’re impacted over time. I mean, who can understand past vs present without first understanding the communities in which they’re learning about?
** This download has been updated to reflect Canadian provinces and country portions of the flap-book! (This is why I love my readers and customers on TpT!!)
One of the resources that I use for teaching communities is this Communities Among Us packet. It is complete with a fun and engaging flap-book style workbook that breaks down each community as it gets larger and larger starting with the student and working all the way up to the country in which they live. This flap-book is a perfect addition to the popular read-aloud: Me On The Map by Joan Sweeney!
I have also included three workbook pages that break down each community: rural, suburban, and urban! These can be stand alone worksheets or even be included in an interactive notebook. Another fun activity is the Guess My Community writing page! Students select a community that they have learned and come up with three clues that describe facts about their chosen community. Then when displayed the reader guesses the community then flip up the top portion to see if they’re right!
This download also includes fun vocabulary cards for the classroom!
I also love finding amazing resources from around the teaching blogosphere too and these caught my eye for engaging activities that the whole class can participate in!
 |
| Image Source: Mrs. T’s First Grade Class Blog |
This blog also has a wonderful technology component as well where she uses a Pixie App where they label the seven continents, then created a simple clip art picture of themselves and used the Superimpose App to place themselves upon the continent in which they live. How cool is that?!
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| Image Source: The Teacher-Trap |
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| Image Source: Mrs. Winter’s Bliss |
Mrs. Winter’s Bliss - Lastly, Christina at Mrs. Winter’s Bliss blog has a great second grade appropriate compare and contrast flap book where students compare past vs present as it relates to living long ago and today. I also just love how she connects her ELA objective for informative writing with her social studies objective!
Teaching communities is such a blast and with these ideas you’re sure to get the year kicked off to a fun start! What are your favorite lessons to teach related to communities or past vs present?
August 6, 2016
Creating Free Thinkers, Not Robots
It’s summertime and now it’s the season for teachers to begin planning the upcoming year. I always have to laugh to myself whenever I hear people comment about teachers having their summers ‘off.’ If they only had the time to actually discuss this misconception they would realize that a lot of teacher’s summers consist of professional development, lesson planning, etc.
I’m here today to share a fun lesson I always look forward to doing with my kiddos at the beginning of the year. One of the first standards I taught at the beginning of the year was citizenship and what it means to be a good citizen. It’s actually pretty fascinating to ask my class each year what the Pledge of Allegiance means and why we say these words every day before class and to hear crickets in response.
A lot of students have no idea what it means to pledge their allegiance to something and it’s a shame they memorize the words but have no clue as to what they’re saying.
My goal is to not create robots, but free thinkers. I do this by simply educating and informing my kids of what it truly means to have allegiance to the United States and what those big words mean in the pledge they recite each morning.
This workbook is so easy to prepare and it’s something my kids always loved learning about. This packet combines a little language arts, handwriting, as well as an interactive component. Plus there’s coloring involved and who seriously doesn’t like to color?
What’s Included...
The United States of America
In this section, students quickly locate their state and it’s membership to the United States of America. You can easily slide in geography standards or objectives here by having students locate their state on a U.S. map!
Color, Paste, and Match
Students have pictures that they must color and match to the correct section of the pledge. If you want differentiation, skip the matching pictures and have your students create pictures of their own that reflect each line of the pledge.
Practice language arts and handwriting by having students copy and write the pledge line by line. Discuss with your class the reason certain words are capitalized and others aren’t, punctuation found throughout, and introduce new vocabulary.
Interactive Pages
This workbook has many interactive pages where students work together to learn the different terms found in the pledge. This is a snapshot of ‘and to the Republic’ where students practice voting to make a decision, which is similar to how our government works today.
After completing this lesson I found that my students stood a little taller during the morning announcements when they recited the pledge and I have to say it makes me heart happy to see that.
How do you tackle beginning of the year objectives in Social Studies?
May 22, 2016
Launching Guided Reading
Guided Reading is a vital and necessary portion of your language arts instruction no matter what grade you teach. It's a dedicated time for teachers to meet with the little readers in their classroom, which always span multiple reading levels. The purpose of this time is to model and instruct students on specific reading strategies and skills while giving students time to safely practice these skills and learn to become better readers.
Text:
One text that EVERY teacher should own or somehow get their hands on is Jan Richardson's The Next Step In Guided Reading as it is the current bible on guided reading instruction. If not every district, most districts use this textbook and teachers model their instruction after her practices. So if you are unfamiliar or have yet to read it, it's my #1 first recommendation. She does a great job explaining step-by-step how to implement each section and includes examples for Pre-A-Fluent reading levels.
The next step after familiarizing yourself with Jan Richardson is to begin organizing your binders and materials for your groups. At the beginning of the year you receive your class list and current independent reading levels based on assessments (typically DRAs) from the spring the year prior. Use that data to help begin setting up your groups or dedicate some time at the beginning of the year to assess your students as they are at the beginning of the school year. Every teacher is different so find what works for you and what your school district requires.
Grouping:
I typically like to have about 5 or 6 groups made up of no more than 6 students per group. More than 5 even can begin to be too much of a hassle, but again, go with what is comfortable for you and accommodates your class. Give your groups a theme! I used Dr. Seuss characters when I was teaching kindergarten and it stuck even in second grade. I used these characters to create my reading center board and listed the students in each group so they always knew what group they were in and what centers they'd be doing that day. You can kinda see the poster I made on the bulletin board near the table.
Setting up your reading table is another organizational hurdle you're going to have to jump. My guided reading area consists of:
1. kidney table
2. student chairs
3. plush rolley chair
(your buns will thank you!)
4. magazine holders for each group
5. caddy or plastic drawers
with guided reading materials
6. strategy posters and room
for anchor charts
Another great resource I use for organizing my guided reading time are my colorful D5 Teacher Resource Packet, which includes center posters, rotation cards, introductory D5 lesson supplemental resources, and more!
Assessments:
Assessments are another necessary evil and can be quite overwhelming, at least I thought when I was in my first year teaching. Your assessments, whether they're anecdotal notes or running records and DRAs, they're all wonderful data points that all teachers need to collect throughout the year. There are a million different ways to collect and record your data so this is another time where I recommend you find what's comfortable and will work for you.
Binders:
I keep two binders for my guided reading table. First is my main binder where I have dividers labeled with each of my groups, lesson plan copies for that group and day, and multiple pages for anecdotal notes and assessments. This helps me keep everything together and easily accessible. However, it would be a recommendation to keep all assessments in it's own binder so you have all your data in one place for each child. Just a thought ;)
My second binder is my lesson plan binder. Here, I keep all copies of my lesson plans for each book at different levels for throughout the year. I write a basic template that will never change (such as the introduction of the book, vocab words, etc.). That way I all I have to do is make copies of that original and input the info for a specific lesson for that day, for that group, and with that particular focus. It helps me save time so I don't have to constantly write out the same lesson over and over again. Plus it's a way to save all your lessons and use them again in the next years.
Lesson Plans:
So how do you plan for your groups? Well, thanks to Jan Richardson she provides you with the template for each reading level: Pre-A & Emergent, Early, Transitional, and Fluent. These lesson plans will carry you throughout the year as your students continue to make progress and move up in their reading levels. Allllso lucky for you I have taken all of her plans and put them in easy to use templates that I have used every year.
Be sure to nab your copy for BTS and get yourself organized and prepared for the reading year ahead!
April 15, 2016
Five For Friday {April 15th}
It’s been quite some time since I’ve been able to link up or even just blog, but I’m excited to return and share some of my favorite things from this week! It’s been a bit of a whirlwind these last few weeks over at the our household (you know, that whole had a baby thing...) and I couldn’t be more tired or thankful. I’ve been busy transitioning into becoming a new mom, doing the whole stay-at-home gig caring for our one month old (see below), preparing back to school products, and managing to somehow shower and get a bite to eat in between it all.
Thanks to Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting and I can’t wait to see what everyone else was up to this week!
ONE //
I am in the process of getting Back To School ready and this means going through all of my favorite products and resources for the classroom and giving them a much needed facelift! I’ve been quite busy and am very excited to share the newest products I’ve made - and even a bundle & GIVEAWAY! Be sure to read all the way to the bottom to enter to win this BTS bundle!
BACK TO SCHOOL STUDENT POSTCARDS {FREEBIE}
I love sending postcards to my kids at the beginning of the year telling them how excited I am to meet them and what’s better is that they love receiving mail! I always get comments from parents as to how their kids loved getting a handwritten note from me, which made them that more excited (and less nervous) about the first day of school.
STAR STUDENT OF THE WEEK RESOURCE PACKET
Every classroom celebrates a Star Student throughout the school year and get prepared for your year ahead with this cumulative packet! This download also comes with blank editable templates just for you to customize for your classroom needs. I also love the Star Student pendants that are hung in the classroom after each week - by the end of the year you have such a lovely classroom display. This download is meant to accompany those Scholastic Star Student Posters, which can be sent home for your students to fill out.
BACK TO SCHOOL PARENT PACKET
How tedious is preparing all of those BTS forms for parents? Not necessarily my favorite part about the return of the school year, but I love making the necessary parts of teaching easy and less stressful. I’ve created a Parent Packet that includes everything you’ll need for Back To School and collecting all of that important info about your students, their families, volunteers, permission slips, etc.
THE WRITING PROCESS POSTERS (V2)
The best decision I made was turning my writing process posters into a useable part of my classroom by making into a clip chart! This year I’ve spruced up my posters and made them more grade appropriate for my second graders, but yet perfect for any upper grade.
YEAR-ROUND CALENDAR CARDS
Another favorite new product I’ve just included in my TpT shop are these calendar cards! I’ve always opted for the store-bought cards that came with the generic looking calendar and have found myself needing specific holidays - so I decided to create my own calendar cards! I love how bright they are and the clip art just pops. Read more about how I use this product here.
BACK TO SCHOOL DAILY SCHEDULE CARDS
Every year I love to update the look of my classroom and that also comes down to the little details such as these daily schedule cards. I’ve included many different subjects to accommodate every classroom and grade. Of course, if I’ve missed something I’d be happy to make a card for you - just shoot me an email and I’d be happy to get in contact.
TWO //
I can’t believe it’s been a month since welcoming our little guy and oh, how our lives have been changed. I no longer have any kind of routine, sleep is a foreign concept, and I feel as though I could be compared to a cow given that I feel like I’m a milking machine. However, all of that is worth it when I get to stay at home and stare at the beautiful miracle that is our son.
THREE //
Our downtown district has a new ramen place and this new mama couldn’t be more happy! When my husband and I lived back in DC we had the luxury of having all kinds of restaurants at our fingertips, which had spoiled me in a way. Living in Ventura we don’t have a lot of food diversity aside from your typical Mexican, sushi, fish tacos, or Thai joints. But, ramen has been an answered prayer and I couldn’t be more excited!
FOUR //
As new parents my husband and I love spending time with our new little nugget, but that also means we don’t get to leave the house very often as a couple and do our favorite pastimes like happy hour or brunch. However, now that our baby Greyson is a bit older we ventured out to one of our favorite places, Cafe Nouveau, and enjoyed a brunch on their patio. This mama enjoyed her first non-virgin Bloody Mary while munching on beignets and pancakes and taking in that we are beginning to enjoy and remember that our pre-baby outings are not a distant memory.
FIVE //
Looking for a bundled option for all of the products I showed above? Be sure to check out my NEW Back To School Teacher Bundle download where all of these products are in one .zip download! Did I also mention it’s on sale? And there’s a giveaway?! Be sure to enter below for your chance to win a copy for yourself and get BTS ready!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Be sure to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and have a wonderful weekend!
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