Teaching Letter Identification

This week is the first week of school. The students will spend the beginning few weeks getting to know each other, learning classroom and school procedures and rules, and engaging in activities with classroom materials while learning expectations and routines.

It’s a time for me to get to know the students.

I do some informal assessments during this time. Our first grade teachers begin formal assessments in a few weeks.

During this time, I prepare materials for guided reading assessments and guided reading groups.

Our first grade teachers use The Next Step in GuidedReading Assessment kit. 

We also use Jan Richardson’s book, The Next Step in Guided Reading.

Most of our students enter first grade ready for traditional guided reading groups. But, I may get a few students each year that cannot identify most of the capital and lowercase letters.

Jan Richardson gives a procedure for helping those students learn the letters of the alphabet. She advises using it when students cannot identify at least 40 lower and uppercase letters of the alphabet.

Use letter cards or an alphabet book with alphabet letters and familiar beginning sound pictures. The student traces the lowercase and uppercase letters of the alphabet with his/her finger and says the name of each picture.

Have the child do this daily with a tutor or volunteer. The tutor helps the child when needed.

Jan Richardson has found this to be an easy and effective way to help students with letter identification.

I created a booklet for those students who need practice identifying the letters of the alphabet.

The pages can be cut and stapled together to make a booklet.

I added an alphabet letter card that can be laminated and used at a literacy center for reference. It can also be stapled inside a student's reading and/or writing folder.

You can preview and purchase it here. I hope you find it useful.

Quick and Easy Activities to Build Your Classroom Community

Having a class of students that respect and look out for each another is not only helpful but can be crucial to success during the school year, and it rarely happens by chance.  In order to build that strong classroom community I’ve found you need to be proactive from the very first hour of school.  Luckily, it’s not difficult to do.  In this article I’m going to share with you four little activities I’ve used every year to build a culture of respect in my classroom.

Bag Full of Me

At the end of the first day of school I always pass out a brown paper sack to every student in my class and tell them it is their first homework assignment.  They usually start moaning about having homework the very first day of school until I tell them what to do with it.  I ask them to go home, talk with their parents/guardians, and put 3 things in the bag that represent them.  Then, they are to bring the bags back the next day, unlabeled, and place them in a row in the front of the classroom. Throughout the week I call students to the front of the room to pick a bag, empty it out, and let the class guess whose it is.  Then, whoever’s bag it is comes up and tells the class about themselves using the items they brought.  This is a fun way for students to get to know a little bit about each other.

I Can’t...

This is a simple activity I usually do the first week of school.  I pass out a sheet of paper to every student in my class (you can just use papers out of the recycle bin) and have them write “I can’t” on it.  Then I have the class form a circle on the carpet holding their paper.  I ask several kids to tell me something they can’t do.  In 90% of the situations they come up with I explain to them that they actually could do it if they had some help, put their mind to it, etc.  Then I tell the class that for the rest of the year they aren’t allowed to say “I can’t” in my classroom and we brainstorm other phrases they can say instead like, “I’ll try,” or “I need some help,” etc.  Next, to make it memorable, I let my class tear up their piece of paper that says I can’t and on the count of three throw all of the pieces into the middle of the circle.  Before they go back to their seats I tell them they need to pick up every single piece and throw it in the recycling bin, reminding them not to use the new forbidden words, “I can’t”!

Hershey's Kiss Activity

This activity is great to refer to when building classroom community.  I start by counting exactly one Hershey’s Kiss for every student in my class and put them in a brown sack without showing my class what I’m doing.  I bring all of my students to the carpet and have them guess what’s in the bag to build suspense.  Eventually, I tell them its full of Hershey’s Kisses.  Next, I take the bag and pass it to the student sitting next to me in the circle and say, “Take some and pass it on but don’t eat them yet.”  They always will ask how many and I just tell them to take a few not giving a specific amount.  As the bag gets passed around the circle you usually see a look of panic on students’ face who haven’t got a piece of chocolate yet and a look of puzzlement on the faces of students who already have several.  The bag usually runs out about half way around the circle and I just sit there enjoying the awkward moment I’ve made for a few LONG seconds.  I tell the class I don’t have any more Hershey’s Kisses and ask them what we should do.  They usually problem solve together and the students who have several chocolates share with students who don’t have any until everybody has one.  I say “usually” because one year some students refused to give up their chocolates (Man that was a tough year!).  After everyone has a chocolate I let them eat it and I have a class discussion about how the class just worked together and helped each other out.  I tell them that I want this to be a reminder all year long and I want them to stick up for each other and have each other’s backs when they see a classmate struggling. 

Conflict Resolution Trading Cards

One more activity I do is ask my students to name different types of problems or conflicts they might run into at school or in the classroom.  Next, we make a chart of different ways to solve conflicts that are positive and respectful.  I then have my class make conflict resolution trading cards by drawing a picture to go with a strategy for dealing with conflict on the front and writing a definition of the strategy and sentence on the back.  I have my students cut these out and keep them in their desks or glue a holder in their notebooks to refer to throughout the year.  I also hang up larger versions of these on my wall for students to refer to when conflicts arise. This helps my students all use the same language and it makes solving problems a little easier throughout the year!

I hope your classroom community is the strongest it has ever been this year!  Remember, it doesn’t happen by chance!

Happy Teaching!

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!

5 Ways to Engage Your Students Using Stuffed Animals

Hello, It's Christina from Hanging Around In Primary.  I am happy to be guest blogging here at Who's Who and Who's New.  Today I want to share with you some great ways to engage students in the classroom with stuffed animals. Here are my top 5 ways to use stuffies in the classroom.

Classroom “Pet”

Meet Ellie – she is our classroom mascot and in the past she has visited my student’s homes on the weekends.  She traveled in a brightly colored bag and had a travel journal with her.  Each student would have a turn to take her for the weekend and then write about what adventures they had with her.  They loved having the chance to take Ellie home and it gave them an opportunity for some authentic writing at home.  I always took her home with me on Monday and gave her a bath just to be safe. 

Classroom Management  

When my students meet Ellie they learn that, although she has very small ears for an elephant, they are very sensitive.  She likes it best when everyone is working and using indoor voices.  She will often sit at the tables of students who are working well or sit on the laps of kids while listening to a story.  A hush falls over the room every time I remind them that Ellie is looking for somewhere to visit.  She really motivates my students to stay on task and try their best. 

Stuffed Animals are also a great way to make covering the curriculum more fun. These are some of the ways I use stuffies during my teaching time.  

        Reading Buddies!  

      Over the years I have collected beanie baby sized stuffed animals to use in my classroom.   I store them in my crate stools.  My students love to read to stuffed animals.  At the beginning of the year when we are building our stamina during Read to Self the students work towards reading with a stuffy.  Getting the opportunity to curl up with a stuffed animal on a carpet square is highly motivating. 

  

      Math Lessons

      I use my stuffed animals as manipulatives during math mini lessons are often as I can.  We have used them for sorting and patterning.  They are great for creating large concrete graphs at the carpet as well.  Stuffed animals can easily be used to show an addition/subtraction problem.  Using them makes math more playful and engaging for my students.  

       

      Guided Reading  

      I love to use my stuffed animals to help teach my students decoding strategies.  I have a Tryin’ Lion, Skippy the Frog, Stretchy Snake, Lips the Fish, Chunky Monkey and Flippy the Dolphin.  The only one I can’t find is an eagle for Eagle Eye - if you know where I can find an eagle stuffed animal I would love to hear about it.  When I teach each strategy I have the stuffy right at the table with us to reinforce the strategy.  I created a new poster set to use with my students while teaching these decoding strategies.  It includes posters to display with your stuffies, decoding wands as a visual reminder during the guided reading lesson and bookmarks that students can keep in their book boxes to refer to during independent reading.  If you are interested in checking it out you can find it by clicking {HERE}.   

I hope you have found these tips helpful and will start a collection of stuffed animals to use in your classroom.  If you already have stuffies perhaps you picked up a new idea here.  Thanks for stopping by! 

Five Tips for Co-Teaching Success

Hello!  It's Nicole from Learning Lab again!

Co-Teaching can be one of the most rewarding, yet challenging experiences.  The co-teaching partnership is kind of like a marriage and usually it's an arranged one!  Often, two teachers are partnered up without knowing much about each other.  Administrators dealing with staffing issues may not be able to look at teaching styles and personalities before pairing teachers up.

Here are some tips on how to make your co-teaching relationship a successful one!

It takes time to develop a rapport. Get to know your partner over the summer, if possible. Attend trainings together. Go out for lunch and chat about your family, interests, likes, and dislikes. The trust built over the summer will make the entire year run more smoothly.

Talk about what your expectations are for the year and set boundaries. Do you expect to plan everything together? Do you expect to work before or after school? How will you address grading and report cards? Do you prefer to be contacted at home with a question or would you rather wait until returning to school? Discussing your expectations before the school year starts will make your partnership more cohesive.

Think about the general education teacher as the curriculum specialist. Chances are, they are more familiar with the grade-level curriculum and expectations. The special education teacher is the modifications expert. They will have great ideas of how to modify the classroom environment and assignments to fit the various needs of the classroom. 

Each of you brings great things to the classroom. You each have different experiences and training that has gotten you to this point in your career. You may be used to doing things differently than before you started co-teaching. Just like in a marriage, your co-teaching relationship is a give and take. You will learn a lot and gain a lot if you are open-minded. 

Whether you share one space or you each have your own “home base”, it is important for both of you to truly feel at home in each space. Within the main classroom, you each should have a desk or other personal space. The classroom signs should include each of your names. My classroom signs always include the names of both teachers, all of the teaching assistants,

and all of the related service providers that play an active role in our classroom. It is important for everybody to feel a part of the team. To avoid using the terms “my room” and “your room”, I named my assigned room the “Learning Lab” and refer to the co-teaching classroom as just our “Classroom”. When you split up into groups, it might be a good idea alternate which teacher leaves to use the other space.

Banish the phrases “your kids” and “my kids” and replace it with our kids. Both of you are equally responsible for the students assigned to your classroom. Your students should not feel a sense of belonging to one teacher over the other. When you split into groups or assist 1:1, alternate which teacher works with the different levels of kids. The same goes for working with parents. Communication should come from both of you.

Just like in a marriage, you need to appear to be united. You might not always agree with the other teacher, but it is important to put on a united front and then speak about those differences in private. You always need to back each other up and also support your paraprofessionals as well. Your students will pick up on any disconnect between you and will try to use that to their advantage.

Always speak positively about your partner. You need to work together for at least the entire school year so your relationship needs to be strong. The staff lunch room is not a place to talk about your issues. If you do not have anything nice to say, do not say anything at all. 

A few years ago, a friend of mine was having some trouble within her classroom.  Her team of paraprofessionals were disjointed and often went against each other in front of the students.  She reached out for some advice and it inspired me to create a product geared towards helping classrooms with multiple adults to work together collaboratively in harmony.  I have found it quite useful in my own classroom which has four paraprofessionals.  

Whether you are new to co-teaching, new to your partner, or have been paired up for years, I hope you find this these tips helpful.  

If you want more information about co-teaching, you can find just about everything you need in my Ultimate Co-Teaching Start-Up Kit.  

Thank you for stopping by today!  For more ideas, stop by my blog, Learning Lab, or follow me on Instagram (@Learning_Lab).  Instagram is my favorite way to share quick ideas!

See you again next soon!

5 Time-Saving Tips for Teachers

Happy Wednesday! I'm Krista from The Knitted Apple and I'm excited to be back with another blog post on Who's Who!

There is a major change that happens at this time of the year.  The switch from the carefree summer schedule (where I’m not even sure of the day) to the minute-by-minute scheduling that is part of teaching.   Our shiny new teacher calendars and planners are opened for the first time and quickly filled with to-do lists, reminders, and meetings.

It’s always a jolt to return to a such a rigid schedule, and there is never enough time to get everything done.  I manage to squeak out just a little more time in the day by using time-saving strategies. Here are the top five time-savers that I use every day.

1. Use a timer.
I consider a timer to be a time-saver because it helps me use time effectively.  I use a timer regularly during math, reading, and writing workshop.  Before I used a timer my mini lessons would run long and I would lose time needed for meeting with small groups.  I would then have to make up that time the next day, sometimes putting me behind for the rest of the week.  Now  I use a small digital timer to limit my mini lesson time.  When the timer goes off  I wrap up my thoughts and move into working with small groups or individual students.

2. Simplify your conference records.
When conferring with students during writing or reading workshop,  I try to spend more time listening and less time writing.  When I first started conferring with students I took meticulous notes as individual students read aloud or shared writing pieces with me.  Unfortunately I wasn’t the best at giving feedback because I was too busy recording data.  Now I give students my full attention, which results in a more productive conference.  As soon as they get up to leave, I quickly jot down the highlights of the session.  I find that I'm able to meet with more students during the time given and have more useful information which I can use to plan the next conference.

3. Organize your everyday items. 
This is the one I struggle with the most, especially at home.  I am constantly looking for my sunglasses, phone, keys, etc.  At school I am a bit more disciplined.  Near my desk I have wall hooks for those items I need every day, like my classroom keys, badge, and recess whistle.  The few times I have forgotten to place these items in their "home" have resulted in frustration and wasted time.

4. Create a PowerPoint slide for morning work or directions.
One time-saver I am consistent with is the use of single slides for morning work and directions.   I use PowerPoint to create a single slide like the one shown below and display it on the large projector screen. I make it engaging for students by using a school or seasonal theme.  Students are trained from the beginning of the year to check the screen as they enter the classroom.  Mornings are now more focused as students complete their tasks independently.   I am free to greet students, check homework, and submit attendance.  I save this slide on my computer desktop and use it every day, changing the information as needed.

5.  Use newsletter templates.  I mentioned in tip #4 that I create a single PowerPoint slide for morning work and quickly change it every day as needed.  I also use templates for weekly newsletters, which communicate curriculum and other important news to parents.  Once the template is created I can quickly change the information each week.  The newsletter shown below is part of my Superhero Newsletter Templates.  

Hopefully these time-savers will be useful to you.  I’d love to hear your time-saving tips.  Please post your tips in the comments! 

If you are interested in viewing the Superhero PowerPoint and Newsletter Templates as shown in the pictures, just click the images above.  I also have many free newsletter templates for you to try! Click here to check out the free newsletter templates in my TpT store. 

Happy Time-Saving! 

Shared Journals {Kid Tested, Teacher Approved}

Hey everyone!  It's Aimee from Primarily Speaking. 

I'm popping in today to share with you my love of shared journals.  They have quickly become a favorite resource of mine!

I have used these themed journals in my classroom for the past several years, and I really can't imagine not using this resource in some way, shape, or form.

What are shared journals?
Shared journals are a fun, and meaningful, way to encourage students to write.  Students take turns writing in the journals.  Over time, they can read the stories in the journals and continue to add new stories to them.  One thing I have learned is that my students love to write stories for their classmates to read, and they really enjoy reading their classmates' stories.

How do you use them?
There is no right or wrong way to use shared journals in your classroom.  Like most things, it is a resource that you can easily use to meet your needs!

• I have used them as part of my writer's workshop.  When a student finished his/her assigned writing, he/she could write in one of the journals if they wanted to.  
• I most recently used them as a fast finisher activity.  I set the journals out and whenever students had free time, they were allowed to write in them.
• Some people use them as part of their Daily 5/Centers program.

Tips and Tricks 

• Be sure to keep the journals in an easily accessible place.  You want your students to use them, so don't make it difficult for them to get to the books.
• If a student starts a story but isn't able to finish it with the time he/she has, have them mark their page with a sticky note.  Show them how to place it on the page so that the note sticks out the top and write their name on it.  This lets readers and future contributors know that the author is still working on that page.
• Make sure YOU write in them too!  You can do this as often as you'd like, but I will tell you that when you do, your student will go crazy. They love to read what the teacher has to say, and it is very motivating for them!
• Think about switching them out.  What I mean by that is, place a few different ones out at a time and rotate them every few weeks/months.  If you set too many options out at once, students get overwhelmed.  I like to place 2-3 out at a time and rotate different themes out every few months or so (or whenever I can tell my students need me to).

The beauty of shared journals is you can manage them and use them however you like.  It's one of those resources that allows you to encourage your students to read and write, but allows you the flexibility to use it to best meet your needs.  You can find the journal covers shown in this post here.

Happy writing!