Happy December!

December has been so much fun!

This is my first year with Elf on the Shelf and I am LOVING it!  We very creatively named him Mr. Elf.  I tried so hard to get them to like Snowflake, but once the votes were counted Mr. Elf it was.  Our elf is a note writer.  He has written lots and lots of notes to the kids.  Without a doubt, the best day was when he wrote each of them their own note.  I haven't seen that kind of excitement in a while.

Let's face it....  behaving in December is hard!  So sometimes a little bit of bribery is all that it takes.   Mr. Elf brought us donuts and we couldn't have ate them any faster!

We have been decorating our room with our holiday work.  Here is a little thing we made last week that turned out so cute!           

We started out by talking about wishes and of course they all had wishes for Santa to bring them something.  I quickly turned it into a lesson on making wishes for others.  Within seconds we were brainstorming all kinds of ideas on how our wish could make this world a better place.  We each made this little craftivity and shared our idea with the class.  This one is one of my favorites!

                             

We made them into a display and I can't wait for the parents to read them at the holiday party this week!

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!  It is the last week for us and I can't wait for all of the FUN this week!

Happy Teaching!

Thanksgiving FUN!

We only have 2 days of school this week!  Monday and Tuesday!

We are going to have some Thanksgiving fun these two days!

We have been reading a bunch of read alouds for Thanksgiving this month.  

We laughed and laughed over the Plump and Perky Turkey.  If you don't have this one, please add it to your collection!

Not only did they not have a clue what shredded wheat was, but they got the biggest kick out of the modeling posters in the book.  We each grabbed a partner and they picked out their favorite part of the story.  They used manila paper and wrote about it and of course included a picture.  After they were finished, I read the book again and we sequenced all of their masterpieces!  What a great activity for them.  We had a few people out of place, but worked together to get everyone in the right one.

We are almost finished reading Thanksgiving on Thursday by Mary Pope Osborne.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this chapter book.  I am lucky and have a class set and we have been reading it over the last few days.  The kids are totally engaged in it.  They have been writing down little Thanksgiving facts on paper just like Jack does in the book.  I have just loved watching them get into this book so much.

We only have one more chapter left and then we will be doing some writing activities. This packet has 4 different options for writing.  I'm going to let the kids pick which one they want to do.  It is amazing how much harder they work if it is student choice!

Here are 2 of the writing choices.  It has 4 for the kids to pick from.

Here is a sample of the pages in the packet.

For math we have been working on 2 and 3 digit addition and subtraction.  This week we are going to work in groups to write Thanksgiving word problems.  We are going to divide into groups of 4 and brainstorm some ideas and write up some problems on Monday.  On Tuesday, the groups are to pick their favorite one to put on chart paper and present to class to solve.

We are also going to make this adorable booklet about turkeys.  It focuses on reading and text evidence.  It also includes having them write a paragraph to inform.  We are still very much in the early stages of paragraph writing, so we might have to do that part as a class.  Can't wait to make these with the kids!

I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL and SAFE Thanksgiving!

Enjoy every moment!

No Copies! No Copies! Yes, it can be done!

Copies....  that machine is a pain!  One day last year I needed to run off comprehension questions for a  novel we were reading and we had no paper.

PANIC!

I didn't want to put the lesson off, so I just projected the questions on my board and No Copies Reading Instruction was born!

I was in LOVE!  And best of all so are the kids!

Let's face it, every time the kids turn around we are handing them a worksheet.  NO MORE!

Over the last few months, I have turned my favorite novels into projectable pdf files and I wish I would have done it sooner.

We read chapter books in the morning for early bird, along with Number of the Day.

I project this page, so the kids remember which chapter we are one.  I like to give them something to think about while they read.  We use this question to start our discussion about the chapter.  First, they use their Turn and Talk partner to discuss it.  Then, we talk as a big group.

Here is what those slides looks like.  This is one from a Flat Stanley chapter book.

I try to tie some text-to-self into these as much as I can.  This is one from a Magic Tree House book.

Then we move into the chapter questions.  We work through these as a class.  If I need to take a reading grade, I might ask the kids to pick one or two of the questions and write their answers out. This is a great way to incorporate student choice into your instruction.

Here are some of the question slides.

This is from Muggie Maggie.  It is a must read for any kid starting to write in cursive!

This is from a chapter in one of my favorite Stink chapter books.  

When we finish the book, we WRITE, WRITE, and WRITE some more!  No need to run off writing prompts, they are just part of the pdf.  The kids write on regular notebook paper.  We might do one as a think aloud or as a group.  I always have two or 3 choices, so I lots of pick from.

I've seen HUGE growth in reading.  I truly attribute it to this practice.  The kids are so much more engaged now that reading isn't about a bunch of paper.

Since this was so successful, I've kind of adopted this practice for math as well.  We do a lot of practice on white boards and notebook paper.

I just finished making a lesson to teach word problems with adding to 100.

I think what I really love about this approach is that I am not tied to my board writing.  I can use my clicker and walk around the room and have a conversation with the kids.  It is great because I included talking points, so I don't forget any important things I want the kids to know.  I am able to gage their learning because I'm watching them work the problems and can give them more 1-on-1 help as I walk around.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

My challenge for you....
Find something to use next week that doesn't require copies.  Make a powerpoint (or buy one - Ha Ha!) and see if it makes your instruction stronger and your kids more engaged.  I bet it will!

Happy teaching!

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!

The last day....

It is here!  The Sunday before we go back to work!

I've been busy getting stuff ready for my classroom, putting the finishing touches on my presentation for district learning day tomorrow, and of course filling my wish list for the TPT sale that starts tomorrow! Use code TPTX0 at checkout!

One of the big things on my TO DO list over the summer was to create a spelling choice board for kiddos and it was just finished this morning!  

It is very similar to the homework choice boards that I made before that have math, reading, writing, and spelling.  This one focuses just on spelling.  You can use the choice boards for homework or for independent work in the classroom. The kids really love the choice boards because of the variety of assignments they get to pick from.  

The packet includes 11 different boards, so the choices are endless!  They start off easy and get harder.  This packet has a BIG emphasis on writing with the spelling words!

The kids will be coming to meet me on TUESDAY!  No, my room isn't ready yet!  However, I just had a HUGE, AMAZING idea and my teaching BBF is on her way to my house so that we can make some amazing things for Meet the Teacher Day!  Check back soon and I will post pictures and a link to get all of the materials for the day for a FLASH FREEBIE!

Happy Teaching!

Tracy

The next TPT Challenge!

The next TPT Challenge was to complete your masterpiece.  I am always looking for more non-fiction text to use with my class.  In a perfect world the text and writing would come together.   Everything that I have is either the reading or the writing, not together.  So I decided that my masterpiece would be to create a series of packets that does just that!  So let the creation begin....

Animals on the Loose!
Reading with Text Dependent Questions!

Each packet features 5 different animals with reading and writing for each.
The first page is the reading and text dependent questions.
The next two pages help the kids focus in on writing about the animal using information from the text.

Packet #1 is complete and #2 is almost ready.  My thought was that I would use one packet each month with my kiddos.

Here is a preview of the packet.  It will be on SALE in my TPT store for the July 4th weekend!

Well folks....  I am all packed and off for Vegas in the morning!  Time for a little family fun before the TPT conference!  

Have a wonderful weekend!  

Tracy

Reflections on my summer so far....

Today was my first "official" day of summer vacation!

I've spent the last three weeks teaching for the Department of Education in TN.  To those familiar with TN, it was part of the summer TN Core trainings.  This year, our training focused heavily on ELA tier 1 teaching. I took lots of pictures and want to share some of the most memorable activities that we did.

During the training, we stressed the importance of teaching vocabulary.  Did you know that over 50% of reading comprehension is tied to the student's ability to understand vocabulary?  It isn't about teaching a list of words from the story, it is about helping the kids use their context clues and learn vocabulary as it is embedded into the text.

Crazy... when you think that so many of us give out a list of words to study each week and test them with a matching test on Friday.  NO MORE!   Each week I will be testing the kids on their ability to understand the vocabulary in a new text and writing about it.

Here is a way to help the kiddos "dissect" vocabulary within the text.  This is a "tier 2 word" from the story Lon Po Po.   Tier 2 words are high frequency/multi-meaning words.  If you haven't read about vocabulary tiers yet, just google it.  Very good information to have and it will change your vocabulary instruction!

The format for this acitvity is always the same.  The word and a picture are at the top.  In the next section, they define the word in their own words.  Next, they write a sentence.  The last section is the actual word taken from the context of the story.

I've used this activity in my classroom at the end of the year and the kids LOVED IT!

We also spent some time working on using close reading and repeated reading.  I have to admit, before this training I don't think that I spend enough time rereading text over the course of several days, so it will certainly be something that I focus on this year.  I have already picked out a bunch of books to help the kids uncover the multiple layers of meaning throughout the book.

We stressed the you don't have to reread the whole story.   After the first read through, you can reread smaller sections to help the kids really connect the meaning/purpose of the story.  So the first day you start off by reading the whole thing, then on rereads you can either read a small section or specific part.  

We had lots of fun creating these posters during our discussion.

Another area we talked about was decoding.  So much of our instruction seems to be using isolated lists of words.  We encouraged our teachers to try and write a text for the students to read using a specific pattern/sound.  Here are some of the examples, that they wrote in less than 5 minutes.    While we discussed the benefits of using this in our classroom, we saw how easy you could differentiate this for your best readers... having them write their own TEXT!  This allows those already reading fluently to still participate during this type of activity.   How cool would it be for the class to decode a text that was written by a classmate?

Another activity we did to practice decoding was to break a story apart on sentence strips.  The students read their strip and together they work to put the story in the correct order.  It was more challenging than you think!  I tried this with my kids in May and they couldn't get enough of it!  They worked in teams to write their own 10 sentence story and for the next 4 days we practiced this activity with the stories they wrote.  Doesn't get much better than that!  Here are some teachers trying the strategy out. This was a favorite of my teacher participants!

This wasn't actually in my training, but I saw it in another room and had to share.  You put sight words in the snack size ziplock bags.  Attach the bags together using tape on the back.  Then, you can mix the words up and change them out in a snap!  What a fantastic idea!

That is about all for today....
It has been a busy three weeks!

People always ask me why in the world I spend the first month of summer vacation teaching teachers? The answer is simple.....  I LOVE IT!  At the end of the 3 weeks I know that I've touched so many more classrooms and hopefully gave a few teachers some new ideas that will make their classrooms a better place!

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

Snow and a MOVE!

Well the last two weeks have been some of the busiest ever!  Here in TN we finally got hit with ice and SNOW!  As exciting as it was it couldn't have hit at a worst time....  my family was in the process of moving to a new home!   Who knew that movers would move your house even with ice coming down from the sky.  So after two weeks of packing and then unpacking my family is finally settled in the home I hope and pray we will stay in for the next 20 years.  As long as the hubbies company doesn't pull something crazy, we should be able to stay put for a long time.  I sure hope so because I truly LOVE this house!

I haven't had a lot of time to work on TPT, but I did just finish something that I have been working on for my kiddos.  We loved our animal projects so much that I decided to do one for countries.  It is the same format, just tailored to hit those Social Studies standards.  Here is a sample of some of the pages.
It has a parent letter to explain the project.  It has two sets of poster cut outs.  One set has lines and the other doesn't.

Click on the pictures to see the packet in more detail.

After we finish ours, I will be sure to post pictures of them.  I know the kids will do great with this!

Happy Teaching!
Tracy

It's been A LONG TIME!

Moving to a new grade has kicked my tail!  Between the new grade and all of my son's baseball practices I have really left my blog hanging.....  tumbleweeds are rolling across it!

BUT NO MORE!

So I have lots and lots to tell you about.

We are really reading a ton of non-fiction texts in my class this year.  Each morning when the kids come into the room, they are greeted by a special book on their desk picked by ME!  I found a bunch of old leveled readers in a storage room and organized them into sets so I have a huge collection of fiction sets, but not many non-fiction.  So to make sure that everyone gets a chance some of the non-fiction that I only have a few copies of, I have been making our early bird into some quick math review and and then read your special book.  The kids love it!  Plus our AR points are going up!

One of the few non-fiction book sets that I have is on bats.  We worked on this story for three days and they really enjoyed it.  We have been focusing on picking important details out of the text and taking notes, so that we can write good informational paragraphs.  So instead of taking notes on paper we took them on BATS!

I just made tracers out of manila paper and BATS we have!  The kids loved making them and even though our spelling isn't the best (we are working on that one) they look cute on the wall!

We took our bats and shared facts so that we could write paragraphs.  Here is a picture of the display we made for open house.

I wanted the book to also be on display to help my parents see the type of books that they need to be reading with their child.  I just used clear tape and a page protector.  I know it isn't pretty but several parents commented on seeing the book, so it worked!

Here is one of the kid's finished writing.  We have been using a combination of Pow Tide and the Stoplight to learn to write good paragraphs.  After some thought, I have decided to stick to the following formula for every paragraph we write:

Topic sentence, 5-6 detail sentences, and a closing sentence.
I know kind of hard for second grade, but they are doing it!  AND SMILING!

We are doing great on the detail sentences, but are struggling with the topic and closing sentence.  Go figure!  I know they will get it, it is just going to take some time.  I can already see a HUGE improvement already.

We also have completed our first BOOK REPORT!  I was really pleased with how GREAT they came out.  We have been talking about making things VISUALLY APPEALING and they nailed it!  I hated to take them down today, but we needed to get a new project up.  Here are some of the kids projects. You can click on the picture to go to the packet on TPT.  Everything is in it for the kids to make a book report poster at home, all you need to do is making copies.  It even has the a parent direction page already made up!  I am all about working smarter this year!

I wanted to make something cute for their desks for open house that was sort of Halloween, so the day before we made these 3D pumpkin life cycles.  This project is part of a larger science unit and you click the picture to go to the unit.  The kids really enjoyed coloring all of the pumpkin pieces and it gave me 30 minutes of quiet to tidy up the classroom library before the parents came to open house!

Well I have lots more, but it will have to wait until the weekend!

I hope everyone is making each day count with your kiddos!

Happy Teaching!
Tracy