Verbs, Place Value, and Writing!

We sure have been busy in Room 11!

I finally feel like we have a schedule and routine going.  We have added 2 new students to the mix and overall I am seeing some real progress with this bunch!

Last week we attacked VERBS!  The kids loved being a VERB SUPERHERO and came up with some fun adjectives to describe their superhero.  We made flip books, played charades, and designed some verb superheroes!

Here are some pictures of our wonderful work!

We also made flip books sorting words into 2 categories - verbs and not verbs.  The kids had so much fun with this activity and sorted the words like masters!  I couldn't have been happier with how well they did and they had such a great time!

We spent a good part of the week working on place value.  Since we have no textbook that the kids can write in, I decided to create a whole new unit to use with place value this year.  I love to use anchor charts on my board to teach the skills and I wanted to have tons of different activities so they could practice this skill.

Some of the activities we did as a whole class, some in small groups, and some for reteaching.  As we worked, I added several different levels so that all the kids were doing the same basic activity.  I leveled several of the activities so that some of us were working on just 10's and 100's and others could add the 1,000's.  The kids really enjoyed it and were so engaged, so tonight I'm going to start working on more leveled activities for money next week.

Here are some pictures of our place value unit in action!  We made these cute flip books - each kiddo picked their own number to show what they know!  

We all made a 2 digit accordion with no trouble at all!

The 3 digit ones took a little help from the teacher, but once we finished the kids had the best time "pulling" their number apart!  We are masters of expanded form now!

We did lots and lots of hands-on activities with this unit.  I really loved using the anchor charts on my screen each day to go over place value with the kids.  The kids loved that most of the activities were leveled, so my high kids weren't bored at all and my lower kiddos could work without feeling rushed!   

Where did September go?  One smart kiddo reminded me that we needed to write in our learning journals Tuesday.  I completely forgot!  Thank goodness she LOVES, LOVES, LOVES these journals, so I'm sure she will remind me every month.

When we do these journals, we brainstorm together and create a list.  I do this for two reasons - one it helps so much with the "How do I spell...." and it also gives the lower kids some ideas to get them started.  They actually named over 20 things we worked on this month....  that made me SMILE!

If you don't have monthly learning journals, it is never to late to start.  They are great at Open House and make a wonderful end of the year keepsake.

So that is a wrap for this week!

Happy Teaching!

Getting ready for testing!

April is right around the corner....  let the testing count down begin!

No matter how much we try, it always worries us!  Will those kiddos do good?
OF COURSE THEY WILL!

I really want to make this year as fun as I can while we spend time reviewing.  We are going to have table contests daily.  I'm using little cheap buckets from the Dollar Tree and every time someone from the table gets a correct answer their team gets a coin.  I'm going to use the plastic coins we have in our math kits. At the end of the day we count up our money to see who has the most.  The winners get a treat on the way out the door!  So simple and they love it!

We also made an anchor chart for answering multiple choice questions.  We went over this everyday this week and it made a big difference for my low kiddos when we took Friday tests.

I have been working on some big projects and tonight with the help of my teaching buddy who did the editing for me, they are finally ready to go!

I wanted a set of games that my on-level kids could play during RTI time.  I only have one student in RTI, but I pull a few friends to his small group time who need the extra practice.  So that leaves about 15 friends that need something to do.  It is always a challenge to keep everyone on task and a little quiet.

The packet has 4 pre-made games and one blank game.  I am planning to use the blank one for my advanced kids.  A few weeks ago I had them make a math game and they loved it.  So, when I was creating this packet I made a set that they could use to create games.  We are learning all about pronouns next week, so their first challenge will be a pronoun game!  I can't wait to see what they come up with!

The pre-made games cover phonics, story elements, language, and reference book skills.  All of the stuff on SAT10 that we need to keep fresh in our minds!

The game boards come in color and black and white!

These are the game cards.  One from each of the different games!

Story Elements!

                    

Phonics!

Reference Books!

Grammar!

Differentiation is a big deal for my class!  I want everyone to be engaged.  I knew that my advanced kids would enjoy the pre-made games, but I knew they would finish quickly and might need a challenge.  These are two of the projectable pages to use to make your own game.  It also has blank game boards and cards.  I will review the directions with them and the leave the example page up for them to refer back to while they work.

We also had a great time this week playing SCOOT!  My kids love it!  They are always so quiet and on task when we play.  We practiced contractions and telling time.  I print off the cards and laminate them. I let my weekly helper tape them all over the walls of the classroom in the morning before we get started.  We grab clipboards and away we go!  They jump right to work and move so quietly! SCOOT might be the best game I ever learned!  Here is a picture I snapped real quick when 2 kiddos were at the same card and using their pencils to count by 5's.  LOVE IT!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Happy Teaching!
Tracy

Testing Time!

Like it or not....  it is testing time!  With the stakes so high everyone is feeling the pressure.  From the teachers, to the kids, parents, and everyone who works in every building within a school system.  How do we make it as easy as we can for the kids?  That is the million dollar question.

I try really hard to make these next few weeks as fun as I can.  We go outside and use sidewalk chalk to practice our computation skills, ABC order, and even some questions that just require them to listen and write a,b,c, or d.  (I think those might be the toughest of all!)

I'm going to phase in the "review" slowly over the next few weeks.  Tomorrow we return from spring break and we will start the ball rolling by reviewing this anchor chart.

We give the SAT10 and honestly I have never been happy with the test prep materials that we had.  So I created my own materials that I use.  We use color cards (inside that packet) to signal our answers.
The kids seem to love this.  I think it is because they don't have to write anything and we make a big deal about waiting to the exact moment to show your answer.  Sometimes I have them press their card on their tummies and come and show me.  That really helps everyone feel comfortable and know it is OK to make mistakes when we review.  That's why we do it!

I was so pleased with the math.  It has a little bit of everything!  I tried to ask the questions different ways and put lots of answers in that would be correct if they did the computation wrong.  This is something we all need to work on.  We really push NOT looking at the answers and then doing the problems a second time to make sure that you are right.  Click on the picture to see more about this resource.

This is the ELA review.  It was a labor of love.  It took a great deal of research to pin point all of the different skills that the test might cover.  Each skill is identified at the top of the page and then you have several different samples of that type of problem.  We work on this packet a little differently than the math.  We work all the problems on the page and get our answers.  Then, we check in with our partner and compare our answers.  Finally, we work through them as a class.  We do a lot of talking and reasoning out the right answers.  Helping the kids understand that a problem might have an answer that is right, but this other answer is even a better choice is so hard for them.  Click on the picture to see more.

If you like these packets, they are also available in a bundle to save you some money!  Here is the link:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Grade-2-Lang-ArtsMath-Test-Prep-Bundle-Standardized-Testing-and-SAT-10-628608

If you teach 1st or 3rd....  NO WORRIES!  I have also written packets for those grades as well.

First Grade Bundle:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Grade-1-Test-Prep-Bundle-Math-and-ELA-great-for-SAT-10-1152301

Third Grade:  (Math Only)
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Grade-3-Math-Test-Prep-Get-Ready-for-Standardized-Testing-1040795

Well this teacher needs to spend some family time with the boys before it is back to work tomorrow!

Happy Teaching!
Tracy

Using Noticings and Wonderings in the Classroom!

People always ask me about my Noticings and Wonderings board when they visit my classroom, so I thought that this morning I would share one of the best things I learned from the IFL trainings.

Noticings and Wonderings are just like exit tickets, but with a twist that the kids LOVE!

When we finish some of our lessons, we do Noticings and Wonderings.  The great thing about Noticings and Wonderings is that is gives the kids a choice of what to write.  (This is a must have for any evaluation lesson!)

The kids can write a noticing about the lesson or their own learning.  The can write something they are wondering about or unsure of.  This is a great chance for a child to tell you something they don't understand without having to say it to the while class.  Or my favorite, answer the question on the board or make own up of your own.  This one takes some time to teach because I always have a few folks that want to make up something that deals with another lesson.  I always remind them that what they put on the sticky note has to be able what we just did.

The kids write on sticky notes and then stick them to this board.  Nothing fancy, but they sure do love to this!

Here are a few of the kids notes from Friday's lesson on adding 2 digit numbers.

This student wrote a noticing and answered the question  that I wrote on the board.

This kiddo made up with own problems to solve.

Sometimes I go over some of the sticky notes before we move to the next lesson and sometimes I save them for the next day.  It just depends on what I see in their writing.  I really love using this and more than anything the kids can't wait to do it.

I also wanted to share on of my favorite October stories!  Where's My Mummy?

This is an adorable book about a little mummy that just wants to play instead of going to bed.  I use it to teach adjectives.  I read the book to the kids and we talk about it during our reading block.  Then, later on that day we bring it back out and talk about adjectives.  We make these cute mummies and the kids make lists of all of the adjectives in the story to cover their mummy.  It is so much fun and makes a cute decoration in the hallway for October that isn't Halloween.

Here is the book!  What isn't to love about this little mummy?

Here is the display I put up in the hallway.

OK - so I am not the best drawer.  I wish I was, but I do try.  I made tracers out of manila folders and the kids traced and cut out their mummies.   They wrote their adjectives in their best "spooky" writing!

I hope everyone has a fantastic Halloween week!  I know the kids are so excited!

Happy Teaching!
Tracy

We will get this subject and predicate thing mastered!

We have been working and working on subjects and predicates for two weeks!  I had run out of ideas and worksheets, so I asked the kids what would help.

Of course....  A GAME!  It is mostly my boys that are having troubles.  So I created a game for us to play....  Ninja Subject or Ninja Predicate.  We made up some "Ninja Moves" as we practiced and when we finally got to the SCOOT game, it was a HIT!

If you haven't played SCOOT in your class yet, you are missing lots of fun!

Now that they are Ninja Masters, they earned a new bookmark!  They loved them!

Happy Teaching!

Tracy

It's Testing Time Already??????????????

Where has the year gone?  I can't believe we will begin state testing in two weeks.  Did I get it all covered?  Are they going to bubble and not get lost in the answer sheet?  I am starting to have those testing nightmares already!  Ha Ha!

This post will be all about test review.  YIPPPPEEEEE!

We reviewed conjunctions with a quick activity.  Each child picked out two sentences that they could join together with a conjunction.  They wrote each sentence on a sentence strip.  Next, they glued a "glue bottle conjunction" to join the two sentence strips.  This really helped them understand that they had to "glue" the sentence together to make it correct.  We still are working on capital letters and punctuation, but they basically have the idea.

I had to share some other Pinterest finds that another teacher on my hall found.  She made this cute replica from a picture she saw on Pinterest.  So cute to help them remember the difference between area and perimeter.  I'm going to made this to my charts for next week.

 They made some "pledges" for testing time.  "OWL" use my BEST Test Taking Strategies.  Adorable!  Each child made their own owl and write their favorite strategy on it.

We made a BRAG BOARD on the chalkboard to show off good work from our review activities.  The kids LOVE to see who's papers got picked and we make a huge deal as we put new stuff up.  Here is a picture of the board from one day this week.

                           

We reviewed magnets and made these flipbooks.  They turned out GREAT!

We have been using several packets from my TPT store to help them review.  At this point in the year I don't have time to spend with a lot of prep.  Most of them are just print and GO!  Which I LOVE!

The first one is no prep to review sentences that don't belong.  It's a project on my board and use product.  No copies at all.

Elapsed time!  Holy cow is that a hard skill.  We have been much more successful since we started putting it on a number line.  Here is something that we will be using next week to review.  It is another SCOOT game that is a simple print and go.  Nothing to put together.

We are also reviewing place value with a SCOOT game.  Can you tell we love to play SCOOT!  My kids LOVE to see the cards hanging up when they come in.  It's so easy and it gets them up and moving.  

It has an answer sheet and key, as do all the games.  Since paper is a little hard to come by this time of year, we are going to just write our answers on notebook paper.

We will also being using one of my newest products for math test prep.  All you have to do is project the questions on the screen.  It comes with answer cards that you can print off for the kids to use or you can use whiteboards.  

I also have math and ELA test prep available in my TPT store for my 1st and 2nd grade friends.  It is aligned to common core and SAT 10.  All of the test prep bundles are on sale right now.  : )

So that's about it for today.  I am getting very close to my first goal with my blog and TPT.  As soon as I hit it look for some very special "thank you" giveaway and a sale to celebrate.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Happy Teaching!

Tracy

A Busy Week!

I can't believe it is Thursday already!  One week of February is already over.  Spring break is right around the corner.  OK... maybe not.

We are still working on fractions.  I wanted to share some pictures of a great lesson we did on putting fractions on a number line to see how they are equivalent.  I made an anchor chart while the students made their own charts.  Here is a picture of mine.

Before you make the chart, fold the paper ahead of time.  You need nine equal sections length wise.   Folding it really helps the kids space things correctly and make it neat.

To make the chart with the kids I had them get out a red, a blue, and  a green crayon before we started. We put the title on the top and then start working from the bottom.   We labeled the eighths first - go one at a time.  Then, we talked about how fourths could be equal to eighths and we labeled them with our blue crayon.  Next, we added the halves.  The last step was to talk about how each part would "jump" on the number line.   Doing this part really helped them understand that 2/8 stops in the same spot as 1/4.  We practiced the "jumps" and they loved it!

Here is one of my kiddos chart.  She was so excited that I took a picture of it.

Then we used our favorite.... TURN AND TALK.

Which is bigger 2/8 or 3/4?  They took turns asking each other questions.  They used their charts to answer their buddies questions.

For homework, I asked them to take the charts home and play teacher with their parents.  I heard from two parents that said they finally understood how a fraction and number line went together!

How many times do we have to review editing sentences?  EVERYDAY!  We wanted to think of an acronym for the kids to remember the different things to look for when editing sentences.  An amazing teacher in fourth grade shared her secret....

We all copied it down and practiced using it with some sentences.  We have the worst time picking out the sentence is that is incorrect from a list.  I'm hoping this will help.

We are getting ready to work on prefixes again.  Here is a preview of one of the packets that I made over the summer to help the kids get practice this important skill again.  It is really easy to use and has teacher suggestions to use it in your classroom.  It has anchor charts, flipbooks, printables, and games. You can click on the picture to take a look at it in my TPT store.

I hope everyone is staying warm!

Happy Teaching!

Tracy