Journal Covers and Pages

I have a late Easter gift for all of you this week! 

 Now most of you have probably been on spring break the past week, well my school ran up until last Friday. I am sure all of you had this same feeling right before spring break. My last day of school before break consisted of the normal chaos and a special treat *sarcasm* of a girl having an accident during our Good Friday Mass. Kindergarten teachers do it all! This was me all Friday.

And this was me on Friday night 

This weekend I enjoyed over eating and spending some quality time with my husband. Now that it is Monday, I am starting my week out productive!

I got a manicure and pedicure,

I went to the dentist,

and ran some errands like a successful adult!

When I came home from my busy and productive Monday I checked my amazing Erin Condren planner and realized I have a blog post due! 

Because I kinda dropped the ball on my blog post,

I am offering everyone a free gift!

These journal cover pages are what I have been working on lately. They are designed for teachers to use as monthly journals or seasonal journals. There are horizontal and vertical styles for each month/season. 

Click on any of the pictures below to bring you to the freebie. 

This will only be free for a week so act fast!

I am now off to enjoy the rest of my spring break!

Turkeys! Fact-Based Opinion Writing

During the week of Thanksgiving last year, my third graders did some opinion writing that was centered around the question: Should turkey be Thanksgiving's main dish?

When I posed the question to students, their feelings were surprisingly strong...

"Of course we should have turkey! We've eaten it every year in my family." Or, "Are you kidding me? Let's get rid of it! My dad always overcooks it. It's so dry and disgusting. I'd rather have pizza."

Needless to say, students could explain their opinion by pulling from their personal experiences.

But I knew we could do better.

I discussed with the class that when you are trying to build an argument to support an opinion, a carefully chosen FACT that is explained and connected to your opinion can make a big impact on your audience. 

But where to get the facts? Sure, we could launch into a bunch of research to find the perfect fact to support our opinion, but that's a whole other thing, isn't it? I really wanted to focus the activity on the writing, not research.

So that's why I had already prepared some turkey facts for them!

I had collected eight facts about turkeys, and put each one on a different card. After reading through the facts together, students cut apart their cards and worked together to sort them into categories: facts that supported YES, turkey should be the main dish; and facts that supported NO, turkey should not be the main dish.

When students shared how they sorted their facts, the differences were interesting. Sure, some facts strongly supported one opinion. For example, most students said the fact, "Turkey has more protein and less fat than other meats like chicken and beef," supports the opinion that turkey should be the main dish because it's a healthy option. But other facts, like, "An average size turkey takes about 4 hours to cook in an oven," could support either opinion. Some students said that it would be better to have a food that didn't take as long to cook, but other students said that cooking in the oven so long was a good thing: it gave families more time to visit together and it makes the turkey seem more important.

From my perspective, I just loved how students were thinking and analyzing each fact, independent of their personal opinion.

I then had students choose the facts they thought would help support their own opinion. I modeled how to effectively incorporate a fact into your argument, how you can't just throw it in and leave it up to your reader to interpret (we just found out that some facts can be interpreted differently). You needed to explain how the fact supports your opinion.

The last step was to write their opinion piece!

Afterward, I liked how the lesson went so much that I created a few more pieces to go with it, including:

• a preliminary "poll question" to hook students
• a poster of the turkey facts
• a poster of the focus question
• a planning organizer for the student writing
• an extension activity where students look at the focus question from different points-of-view.

It also includes a detailed lesson plan. If the full resource interests you, click the image below for more details.

Happy Thanksgiving! Stop by my blog, The Thinker Builder, anytime!

Interesting CAFE Lessons

Well it finally feels like we are in the swing of things at school. CAFE is an excellent way to help your students become a better reader. Here are some of the lessons I do while we go through the CAFE strategies.

 

Tune in to Interesting Words with Dr. Seuss! Throughout the reading of Oh, The Places You'll Go! students put up their hands when they heard a word they found interesting. After each page we added the words to our anchor chart. This was a fabulous book for the lesson because in typical Dr. Seuss fashion there are a ton of "interesting" words.   

 

One of my favourite CAFE lessons is for Make a Picture With My Mind. I always use the fractured fairy tale Trust Me, Jack's Beanstalk Stinks! 

Students can relate to it because most of them have already heard about Jack and the Beanstalk. 

Before the lesson, I chose 6 spots in the story to stop and have students sketch what image is in their head. At the start of the lesson we talk about what a sketch looks like (no colors, quick drawing, very little details) and I demonstrate on the board for them. I hand out the papers for the activity (see below for a free copy) and tell students they will only have 1 minute to draw each sketch and then we will move on. This is key. Don't give them too much time or they will get hung up on the details and be upset when you have to move on. 
It always amazes me how silent the student are while I am reading. They don't get to see the pictures in the book so they have to listen closely. When I give them the signal to start sketching, EVERY student quickly goes to work. Yup, EVERY student. When I signal all pencils down, that happens too because they don't want to miss out on the next part of the story.
Here are  a few examples of what I got from my students last year :) 

Last year's class was pretty excited about the wedding at the end, hence the kissing pictures. Most years I have had pictures of the giant looking through the clouds at Jack and his mother.

Click on the image here to get your free copy of the graphic organizer. 

I hope your students enjoy this as much as mine did.

Cheers,

 

Mining for Spelling Patterns

Happy Saturday!  I'm Pamela from Hedgehog Reader, and I am here to share a fun way that students can play with letters and words to discover, practice, and reinforce spelling patterns.

Have you ever played Word Mines?  Maybe you've called them something else...  Basically, here is how Word Mines go:

You are given a word (or sometimes a phrase).  To play, you form as many words as possible in the given time using only the letters presented.  (If there is one R, then R can be used only once in that word.  It can be used once again in another word, and so on.)

Call me a nerd (believe me, you won't be the first!), but this has been one of my favorite pastimes for as long as I can remember.  So it was a natural thing for me to develop Word Mines for my students, because I knew it would be a fun way to identify, discover, and play with spelling patterns!

How to Start:

Although it doesn't take long for students to learn Word Mining strategies and procedures, it does require at least one session of whole class instruction to ensure smooth sailing ahead:

• Students are ready for Word Mines when they have started to develop phonemic awareness, and have begun to identify common spelling patterns.  They should also have some sight words under their belts.
• Make sure that any word you give students to "mine" is one that holds plenty of words within it.  Not all words are suited to this activity, so my best advice is to try it yourself first.
• It's fun to use seasonal words or vocabulary pulled from content areas of current study.
• I find that controversy is avoided by declaring the following rules:  *No proper nouns   *No foreign words   *No contractions
• I begin by projecting the word to be mined.  (I've created cute seasonal Word Mines so that I could put them under the document camera, but you can also simply write it up on your board.)  Although traditional Word Mines are done with a word or phrase in its original form, I always scramble mine so that students get the bonus activity of solving the "secret word."
• Depending on the age of your students, it's often helpful to begin with letter tiles, one for each letter in the scrambled word.  This allows students to physically manipulate the letters (concrete reasoning), until they are ready to move into mentally manipulating the letters (abstract reasoning).  This also ensures that letters are only used as many times as they are found within the word.
• I model my thinking aloud as I "solve" the projected puzzle.  I make sure to demonstrate how patterns can help.  For instance, if I see the pattern ALE, I will play with each consonant and blend to see if it fits with the pattern to create a word.  Then I move from ALE to EAL and repeat the process.
• Normally after one such session, students are ready to mine for words on their own, with a buddy, or in a team.

Use Word Mines as a Whole Class:

Once students have a grasp of how to work with Word Mines, these make a great Morning Work activity or sponge activity, either individually, in buddies, or as teams:

• Students stay even more focused if they know they will have 3 minutes for team consultation to tally up total words once the time is up.  It only takes a moment or two to quickly go through how many words each team came up with  (I am not picky, and the students do a wonderful job holding one another accountable for following the rules), and points are awarded for order of most words found.  For instance - If you have 6 teams in your classroom, the team with the most words earns 6 points, and then work your way down to 1 point for the team with the fewest words - so everybody earns something!

Use Word Mines in a Literacy Center:

Word Mines make a great literacy center activity:

• Glue a puzzle to the front of a file folder or manilla envelope.  Hide an answer key inside.  Provide a set of laminated letter tiles.
• Students can record their answers on notebook paper or whiteboards, or on prepared worksheets.
• It’s best to use only one puzzle at a time to prevent confusion; puzzles can be changed out based on your students’ need.  

I've created this FREEBIE for you to try out a Word Mine with your students!  (I have various seasonal and thematic Word Mine resources in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, and I add to my collection often.)

Have a wonderful year with your students, and thanks for reading!

Using anchor charts in the classroom

Hi, it's Aimee from Pencils, Books, and Dirty Looks.  Today I want to talk about using anchor charts in the classroom.  I love anchor charts!   Anchor charts make thinking visible to students.  Posting anchor charts around the room keeps current and relevant learning accessible to students.  Students can refer to the charts and use them as tools all year long.  Due to wall space, I can't display all of my anchor charts at once.  When a new anchor chart replaces and old one, I still like to keep it available for student use.   Here's how I store my charts:

Anchor charts can be a spur of the moment thing or a resource that is used year after year.  For anchor charts that I plan on keeping, I laminate them to keep them in good shape.  Since chart paper is larger than most laminators, this is how I laminate my charts:

 I also like to label my anchor charts when they're put in the anchor chart bin.  Here's how I label my anchor charts:

If you don't have room to display or store all of your anchor charts, you can use personal anchor charts.  My Anchor Chart Toolkits contain all the pieces needed to make an anchor chart, but also include personal anchor charts for your students.

I would love to hear how you use anchor charts in your classroom!  If you would like to try a sample of one of my Anchor Chart Toolkits, click on the picture below.

Place Value Fun

At the beginning of the year I usually start with teaching my students place value. Place value is a concept that show up again and again throughout the year so it is essential that students have a solid understanding of it. 

As part of my unit students become very familiar with the hundreds chart. At one of my math centers I have students put together a variety of hundreds chart puzzles.

You can get a copy of your very own for free here!!!! I recommend printing each set on a different color piece of card stock so they are easier to gather into sets if they get mixed up.

Cheers,

QR Codes: Black, White and Boring!

I just returned from Galveston, TX where I presented a session on how to incorporate QR codes into learning stations to make them fun and engaging but educational at the same time.

It was evident by the size of the audience in my session and the comments from teachers and administrators that there is still lots of interest in QR codes despite the fact that they have been around for years now. Why? Because although they are common place to me, that is not the case everywhere.

When I first came across QR codes I thought, "Black, white and boring!" Aesthetically there really is not much of a "wow" factor.

It was not until two years ago, when I learned how to link QR codes to audio that I began to get interested in them.  Having worked with preschool aged students for many years, my mind raced with possibilities for incorporating them into stations.

Soon I discovered how to link QR codes to images and by then I was hooked on them.

There are two types of people reading this right now, those who have used QR codes with their students and those who have not.  Regardless of where you land, I hope to share with you new and creative ways you can utilize QR codes with your students.

The following are FREE QR code activities that span a variety of subjects and grade levels.

Beginning Sound Detectives 

Ordering Numbers

Place Value QR Code Fun

Rhyming QR Code Fun

Spring Addition w/o Regrouping 

Ten Frame QR Code Fun

Write and Scan the Room 

If you are interested in even more ideas, you can follow this QR Code Pinterest board.

Follow Teaching with Nancy's board QR Code Learning Stations and Classroom Ideas on Pinterest.

What to learn more? Here is a website I created to get you started. https://sites.google.com/site/qrcodesinclass/ 

Favorite FREE Websites for Math

Happy Memorial Day!

It's Jennifer from Elementary School Garden!

Looking for some fun, FREE, educational, math websites to use in your classroom?  Here are my top 3 . . .

Xtra Math
Use this site for a quick and fun way for your students to practice their math facts both at home and at school?  You simply create a username and password, set up your class list, print out your students log-in and password info and your off and running.  A quick video plays for them when they log-in and it walks them through all the steps.  The best part is Xtra Math emails you, the teacher, weekly data for how your students are progressing with their math facts.

Sheppards Software
This site contains hundreds of educational games, activities, quizzes, articles, and more all for FREE!  Use this site to reinforce math, language arts, science, and social studies concepts throughout the day.  I have students access this site during math center rotations.  There are loads of fun math games that focus on common core math standards.

Common Core Sheets

Looking for some Common Core worksheets to supplement your curriculum?  Check out this site.  I love how there is a spot along the right hand side for students to record their answers.  Answer keys are included for each worksheet with the answers along the same side to make for easy grading.

What are your favorite math websites?

Phonics Intervention Freebies

Hello again! It's Christy from Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road, and I have a few fun resources to share with you.

I teach in a 4/5 building, and although I work with "big kids" we still have students who have gaps in their reading. We use Aimsweb testing, and the QPS (Quick Phonics Screener) for students who are not meeting benchmarks. Often, this is due to a lapse in skills along the way. We have a small group intervention time for reading, in our MTSS (multi-tiered systems of support) know as RTI (response to intervention) in many parts of the country.

During this time, there are small groups, 1-5 students working on individual skills. There are also three larger groups working on vocabulary and fluency. We are hoping to add in a multisyllabic words in the near future.

Today, though, I wanted to share 3 tried and true resources with you. Some of these at the 4/5 level are useful for students who have more significant needs, but would be great for younger grades. Others, have a wide range of applicable ages and skills, so take a little bit of time to peruse to you hearts content!

West Virgina Reading First

The first free resource comes from West Virgina Reading First. There are multiple lessons and most of the needed resources for each lesson are included (ex. flashcards). This resource is great for younger grades, and I used parts of it for students in my building who had a high need and the super explicit lessons and activities worked great.

Florida Center for Reading Research

I absolutely LOVE this resource! Florida Center for Reading Research is worth checking out for awhile. A variety of topics, activities, and applicable grade level skills. Love, love, LOVE! Block off some time to see everything and have plenty of ink on hand!

Phonics Genius

Phonics Genius free app with tons of phonics combinations. I have my students use the flashcards set up for a new card on a swipe and the word to be pronouced for them with a tap. This way, students can try out a word and have the ability to listen and see if they were correct. If they were, I have them listen and try to repeat while they look at the word. A quick little activity we do from time to time, and the students are super engaged. More so than if I were to have paper flashcards. There is also a game mode that can be utilized as well.

There you go! Three FREE resources to help support your phonics instruction and intervention work!