Back to School Sale!

The much awaited TeachersPayTeachers sale is now underway!  Click the picture below to go to my TPT store!  Make sure to use the coupon code BTS13 for an extra savings!

Morning Meeting Activities

YAY!  I finally finished my first set of Morning Meeting Activities to go along with my Morning Meeting Greetings!  If you are interested in seeing a preview of this product just click on the picture below.  If you like the preview you can purchase the entire set at my TeachersPayTeachers store.  It'll be 28% of on Sunday and Monday, August 18th and 19th!

 

 

Spelling with Spoons

A while back, and I do mean a while, I saw a really neat idea on Pinterest with spoons and the alphabet.  I've been wanting to make a set, but really had no reason to do so as I teach fifth grade.  WELL...my youngest is going off to kindergarten this month so I thought to myself - what a great back to school gift for his teacher!  So after a bit of searching for white and clear spoons that were both the same size (which was not as easy as I thought it would be!), this weekend I made five sets for his teacher.  I put uppercase stickers on the white spoons and lowercase stickers on the clear spoons.  I will say I'm not thrilled with the lowercase "a" or "q", but I think students do need to be exposed to both styles.  It'll be up to her to decide if she wants to use them or replace them with other stickers.  I've given her blank spoons just in case.

 

It was late when I finished, so I just put them into five different bags and left them on the table to take care of in the morning.  This morning my son came downstairs and wanted to make words with them (which gave me another idea...but we'll hold that thought for a few more minutes.)  So he gets them out and the stickers are already falling off!  YIKES!  I'm so glad he wanted to play with them.  So I pulled out my Mod Podge and coated every single last one of those 260 spoons!  Problem solved and they're all back in their bags!  YAY!

Now onto the light bulb that came on when my son asked to make words with the spoons (he already knows his letters, so matching upper and lowercase letters isn't something he's interested in doing.)  Now I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't think of this on my own - but DUH...sure, my fifth graders know their letters, but why not use them for spelling words?  I mean currently I have a pretty good great collection of activities for my students to use to work with their spelling words that I'm constantly adding to.  Why not add this one to it?!  So here are some of the spoons I made for my classroom. 

 

And here's the direction sheet students will get.  You can click on the image to download this fun Freebie!

 

 



 

Here are some of the other direction sheets for a few of the extensions we do.

 

 

 

If you're interested in purchasing the entire set, you can get all 30 Spelling Activities as well as forms, tips, and other resources in my TPT store.  Just click the image below.

 

 

 

 

If you are looking for more freebies then check out Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies by clicking on the image below.



Science Tools Foldable Graphic Organizers

I just put my latest Foldable Graphic Organizer up on Teachers Pay Teachers....except this product is actually FOUR foldable graphic organizers because there are so many science tools (including safety tools) I want students to put into their notebooks!  Here's the first FGO.  I have students mount them on colored paper so that it can easily be put into their notebooks.

 

We'll do an activity for each tool before completing it on the graphic organizer.  For example, for the gloves and safety goggles students will be given a coloring page and asked to make their child into a safe scientist, labeling everything they add.  During this time I'll be walking around noting which students include gloves and goggles.  I'll also be looking for aprons, and other safety items during this time.  In addition, , I'll be engaging students in conversation about why they picked the items they did.  If a student includes the goggles and gloves at this point, I'll check the student off of my list.  However, for those students who didn't include the goggles and gloves, after we learn about safety in the science classroom, they'll get another chance to add to their drawing.  I've even had students make note of the particular type of shoes the scientist were wearing!

 



Boys are given the one on the left, girls the one on the right.



For most of the other items, like the prisms, magnets, microscopes, graduated cylinders, etc., after giving a mini lesson on each item, I'll set up centers so students get a chance to get comfortable with how to use all of it.  Not only do they get more comfortable with using the tools, but I've found that this exploration time helps minimize the "playing" with the equipment at other, inappropriate times.  

 

Here are the other 3 organizers.  There are 21 tools in all.

 

To purchase these Foldable Graphic Organizers for TPT, click here: Science Tools Foldable Graphic Organizers.

 

And by the way, the adorable boy and girl graphics, as well as many of the
graphics in the foldable graphic organizer, come from:

 

There are a ton of wonderful graphics available on this site with no licensing

fee because Laura respects us as teachers!  How awesome is she?!

 

Morning Meeting Greetings

In anticipation of Monday's freebie linky hosted by the Organized Classroom...
I know there are so many of us out there who are doing Morning Meetings in our classrooms!  I don't know about you, but I find it so frustrating when I find myself doing the same greetings and activities day after day after day!  It's not like there aren't plenty of options out there, I just found it frustrating to take the time every week when I was planning to think of them!  So, finally I just took the time to find all the greetings I wanted to use in my classroom, I typed them up, printed them, matted them on cardstock, laminated them, and then I used a sharpie to number the backs of them.  Then I punched holes in the corners of the cards and put them on a binder ring.  I did two sets and keep one at school and one at home (because I do a lot of lesson planning there!)  Now, when I'm lesson planning I just write the number of the greeting I want to do that day, and I can go right to it on the ring.  It just works for me!  I'll try to remember to take a picture of it when I go back to school, but for now....if you would like a little taste of the greetings I use in my classroom, just click on the image below!  Please note the first time I tried my link I got an red error bar, but I just closed the red line and was able to download the file without issue. 

 

 

 

 

If you like love these greetings, I have 2 more sets, with 28 greetings each, in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  You can check them out at Morning Meeting Greetings I and Morning Meeting Greetings II.  I'm also finishing up my morning meeting activities and you should see some of those up very soon!

 

If you are looking for more freebies check out Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies by clicking on the image below :D 

Sometimes I Wonder About Myself!

Have you ever just wanted to kick yourself in the head because you did something that was an attempt to make things better organized, but really all you did is create a nightmare for yourself?  Welcome to my world today!  I just realized that by cleaning up and organizing some of my freebies differently on Dropbox that NONE of my links work anymore!  OOPS! I'm headed in now to fix all my links, so if you click on something and the file can't be found...try back tomorrow.  <smacks forehead!>

Nightly Reading Requirements

Today Jeanie posed a question on the Organized Classroom’s Facebook page.  It’s something I feel passionate about and have a system which I love, so I thought I’d answer her question here...

Jeanie wrote, "I teach 5th grade, and I am looking for a new easy reading log that I can check quickly without hassle. In the past I have assigned the students to read 20 minutes each night and have their parents sign the agenda...they tried to outsmart me and sign themselves. I have used "ThinkBooks" where they write two entries a week about what they read however it can take time on Fridays to read 2 entries per child when you have 25 children...plus I tried to comment on each entry. I was curious what others are doing. It’s important to read and be held accountable...I welcome any and all suggestions!"

I teach fifth grade in a self-contained classroom and am also a certified reading specialist.  I require students to read a certain number of pages instead of reading for a length of time.  Although I'd rather have it be for a certain amount of time, it's too hard to track (and verify) so I’ve found page numbers just work better for me.  This also enables me to easily differentiate when needed (so not all students necessarily read the same number of pages) and students also know they can come to me if they are reading something above their grade level that may make it more challenging to get their pages done each night (ie: Harry Potter is one that comes to mind).  I also tell students I may increase the number of pages per night when appropriate.  For example, sometimes I have fifth graders who want to read Junie B. Jones, Horrible Harry, Magic Tree House, etc.  These are typically below my students’ grade level, so I might require them to read more pages.   I don't always change the requirements, but take it on a case by case basis.   I know some teachers cringe when I tell them I allow my students to read books that are so obviously below their grade level, but I look at it this way – I’m trying to help students become life-long readers.  I want them to read for enjoyment.  When I read for enjoyment I don’t read challenging, technical, or hard to follow books that I’m not interested in.  I read mysteries or historical romance, or whatever else I’m in the mood to read.  When I’m told to read something specific (maybe something for professional development), I do it, but with a different purpose.  I make sure we’re reading what I consider quality literature in the classroom.  I make sure they are exposed to a variety of genres in class.  I make sure they are reading books at their grade level (in class) on a regular basis….so when I’m asking them to read at home, for THEIR enjoyment, I think they should be able to read what they are interested in. 

Now, I do offer incentives – last year when my theme was oceans they each had a treasure chest that they put jewels on.  The first picture shows their treasure chests at the very beginning of the year with no jewels on them, the second picture shows them at the end of the year.  I gave them their chests at Meet the Teacher Night and they brought them back, decorated, the first day of school.

 

 

For every five AR points they earned a jewel (there were different colors for each month and each color had 10 different styles for them to choose from).  They got silver gems (diamonds) when they reached 25 points, gold at 50, and at 100 points they got a bigger treasure chest to decorate and put on the board. If they recommended a book they had read to another student and that student read and took a quiz, then they got a string of pearls to glue on their treasure chest.  I have even had several occasions where a student has recommended a book to me!  I love that and of course I read the book!  I love having them ask me what part I'm on and then having little informal chats about the book!  I also did other challenges that they could earn different "pirate treasures" (coins, cups, etc.) – if we read a book in class by a certain author and they read another book by that author the could earn something to glue onto their treasure chest.  Every month there was a special challenge that related to that month.  For example, in January I put out a number of books about MLK, Jr.  When we were studying something like the American Revolution I offered treasures for books relating to those concepts, too. Over long breaks I would assign a certain number of pages, anyone who read double that number got a special treasure.  They loved having colorful treasure chests and liked getting the next size chest!  Since they are still 10 and 11 year olds, these incentives worked for my students.  However, don’t get me wrong, I know it wouldn’t work for everyone – I just take it year by year! 

 

These are just a few of some of the jewels they could earn.  The green was March, blue was January, silver was 25 points, gold was 50 points, pearls for book recommendations, coin and cup for special challenges.

 

 

In terms of accountability, they have to take an AR test when they finish a book.  If they don’t pass the test, then I conference with them about their thoughts on why they think they didn’t pass and we decide jointly what the next step should be.  That said, last year my 13 students (it was a very small class!) took 629 quizzes and passed 619 of them.  That’s a 98% rate of success.  In addition, the average quiz score was a 93%, so I feel confident that for the most part they are reading and understanding their books.   Keep in mind my goal for this is to just get students reading on a regular basis.  I do not use my nightly reading requirement for any type of assessment purposes. 

I have a form I use to record page numbers daily.  At the beginning this takes a little while to do, but after a couple of weeks I can get 20 students done in under 2 minutes.  The first day this of course takes forever.  First, I get the title of the book everyone is reading and then they tell me what page their book begins on (many books do not begin on page 1!).  Then each day they simply tell me a page number unless they have finished their book.  On the day they finish their book they would say something like, “Island of the Blue Dolphins ended on page 218.  My new book is Number the Stars.  It starts on page 3.”  Then I call the next student’s name.  It really goes very smoothly once they get the hang of it!  You can click on the image to download an editable version of this chart. 

 

Here is an example of what a completed form would look like.  I write the page number they were on the previous Friday under page number and then document page numbers each day.  Once in a while we'll get busy and not take page numbers, but I typically take them at least 4 days per week and always on Mondays and Fridays.  A few other things I do…when they finish a book I put a star at the end of the page number the book ended on so I know the book is finished and I should expect to see a quiz taken. I usually check at the end of each week to make sure they’ve taken the quizzes they were supposed to. Once I’ve verified that they’ve taken (and passed) the quiz, I check it off in my grade book. Although it’s their responsibility to remember to take a quiz, when they tell me they’ve finished the book, I do remind them to take the quiz before the end of the day.

 

Just to make this sound a little more confusing...here's another twist...although students are required to read a certain number of pages each evening....let's say 10 per night for easy math...they can (and are encouraged to) read ahead.  Once I take page numbers on Friday, all page numbers start over.  They are then required to read 10 pages per school night (so 5 nights per week) for a total of 50 pages a week.  If they know they have something to do on Wednesday night, I encourage them to read their pages ahead of time.  Theoretically they could read all 50 pages over the weekend and then be done for the entire week.  I feel by allowing them to do this, they are able to start working on their time management skills, which as we all know is very important in life.  I still continue to take their page numbers and give them accolades when they are reading more than they are required.  When they are doing some great reading at home (above and beyond my expectations) I let them add their name to our class BINGO chart that students really like getting their name on.  I will say that I have NEVER had students who have read all their pages over the weekend and then don't read again for the rest of the week.  For whatever reason, my kids just read every night.  I have to emphasize, I'm really positive about students reading and praise, praise, praise them!  There are consequences when they don't read, primarily they don't get to go to recess until they are caught up on their pages (which rarely happens), but I really try to focus on how great it is they are reading and liking it!

I realize this really sounds complicated.  I promise you, it’s not.  If you want more information or clarification, feel free to email me and we can chat back and forth or even arrange a time to chat on the phone.