Rainbows After the Storm

My beautiful classroom flooded last week. It was hard to "Keep Calm" as so many t-shirts and posters suggest. I'm mostly all moved now...into a REAL classroom. Eeek!

What the Teacher Learned: Rain gives us rainbows.

Most of these people are awesome everyday. I even got to meet some new awesome people. But in any case, thank you to...

Ms. Thomas for keeping her cool and taking her personal time to see to this matter.
Mr. Draper for sopping up water as it kept pouring.
Jay for doing the brunt of the wet clean up.
Mr. Soria & Mrs. Villa & two super students for rushing to the aid of my spilt, wet teaching materials.
The Think Together lady for giving us shelter at a moments notice.
Unnamed Teachers who took "overly helpful" students at a moments notice and offered to help me move my stuff.
Tony for helping me remember that everyone has their own special talents.
Tammy & Henry the two most patient and hard working movers ever.
Sophia & William for going with the flow.

Bingo Behavior

I use this in my class to reinforce positive behaviors. When the chart fills up, it's time to play "Bingo". I roll a special die with more than six sides. Then I roll a cube with the Bingo letters on it. The winner gets to pick a prize from the treasure chest. I usually roll for five winners. I find this is easier than kids having to hang onto raffle tickets. Also, we only "play Bingo" when the chart gets filled up. So, more positive behavior equals more frequent gaming sessions!  Now about that treasure chest...Let me know where you get your treasure chest "finds".

What the Teacher Learned:  Positive reinforcement is a lot easier, and way more fun!

Red Ribbon Week

 

If your school celebrates Red Ribbon Week, then you're probably familiar with the whole door decorating/class banner competition.  My students were super excited to show off our banner.  And to get out of class for a little bit!

I found a ton of great ideas on Pinterest, and was going to go with, "Make no bones about it.  Drugs are bad!"  I thought the kids could make little skeletons out of pasta and it would also tie in nicely with Halloween.

 However, we're currently focusing on figurative language.  I got to thinking how "make no bones" is an idiom.  I thought it would be a great idea to tie in other idioms in relation to drug free/healthy choices.  During our ELA block, I took some time teach the kids some new idioms.  The students then turned those idioms into sentences that related to Red Ribbon Week slogans. 

 Here's a sample of some of the slogans e came up with...

 Mind your p's and q's. Stay away from drugs!
Drugs are for the birds.
Take the bull by the horns.  Say no to drugs.
Don't beat around the bush.  Say no to drugs.

 Each student then wrote out their idiom slogan on a half-piece of white paper and decorated it in a silly way to illustrate the idiom. The kids had fun, we learned some new idioms, and we made a pretty awesome banner.

What the Teacher Learned:  Even an idiom knows that drugs are bad!  And all that tie-in makes my life a lot easier.

AR Goal Setting

 

Does your school use Accelerated Reader?  Have you learned how to set goals for your students? It's so easy! First, students need to take the STAR test on AR.  Then, simply go into "Goals", click on a few boxes, and voila...goals set!  Each student will have a different point goal based on their STAR reading level and the number of minutes per day you want them to be reading.

 

Here comes the fun part.  Once you set your students' goals you can begin tracking their progress.  For the first nine weeks of school I gave students a popcorn kernel (cut out of yellow construction paper) to glue on their card each time they reached 25%, 50%, 75%, etc... of their goal.  Students with 75% or more at the end of the nine weeks got a popcorn party.  I decorated the pocket chart with little popcorn holders that I found at Smart and Final. 

 

For the next nine weeks of school, students will earn a "marshmallow guy" for each increment of 20% of their goal that they achieve.  Can you see the "marshmallow guy"?  He's in "whipped cream".  Students that reach 80% or more of their goal get a hot cocoa party.  Yum!

 

What the Teacher Learned:  Food is a good motivator!

Study Island Competition

 

I'm not a very competitive person myself, but many of my students are.   I wanted to find a cute, visual way to monitor students' progress on Study Island.  It also needed to be easy. 

 

I found this serene island poster at Target for a few dollars.  Each student was asked to color in a clip art sailboat.  As students pass topics on Study Island, they get to move their sailboat closer and closer to the island. 

 

The students were very excited to work hard, pass topics, and move that sailboat along.  Why?  Anyone who made it to the island got to come to a pizza party.  Yum!

 

What the Teacher Learned:  Tracking student progress is helpful to both the teacher and the student!

Haunted Multiplication Houses

 

The inspiration for these Haunted Multiplication Houses came from the book MathART Projects and Activities.  The students were able to work on them during math rotations. 

 

We just began our division adventure, so this was a review of relating multiplication to division.  The students chose a fact to review.  This student chose his eights so on the door he wrote "House of 8's".  On the outside of each window students were to write a factor, and on the inside the product.  This student also wrote a related division fact on the inside of the "shutter".

 

Since Halloween is almost here, I purchased some seasonal foam pieces for students decorate their houses with. 

 

What the Teacher Learned:  Art and Math do mix!

Computation Sticks

 

One of my goals this year is to keep the kiddos moving with centers, centers and more centers.  (Because they listen to each other way more than they ever listen to me!) 

 

I saw this great idea for Computation Sticks at Confession of a Teaching Junkie.  They were a breeze to make, and can be tailored to any standard you might be introducing, covering, or want the students to review. I have five sets for my math center.  Each set is written in a different color Sharpie so the sets don't get mixed up. 

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I can even see this being used in Language Arts:

 

Start:  What is the prefix in undone?

Un:  What is a synonym for accurate?

Correct:  How many syllables in attention?

etc...

 

I think I'll try to rope my 4th grade Partners in Crime into making their own sets.  Then we can trade from time to time. 

 

What the Teacher Learned:   Sneaky learning is downright fun!

The Toll Bridge Troll Activity

 

This was a fun activity to start the year with.  I was able to fit in oral reading, a fun group activity, and a writing prompt!  Score!

 

I began by reading The Toll Bridge Troll to my students.  In this book, it's the troll that gets outsmarted by the little boy on his way to school.  Ultimately, the troll decides he should go to school to get smart too.  You can have this read for your students on You Tube too!

 

After reading the story, we played a game in which students worked in pairs to solve riddles and "cross the bridge".  It was a fun way for students to work with new classmates.  It also gave students a chance to show off their riddle solving skills.  I have some outside the box thinkers this year!

 

Finally, I used this book as a way to teach summarizing and a little bit of response to literature.  Phew!

What the Teacher Learned:  A great story can go a long way!

 

AR Goal Setting Bookmark

 

I can't take credit for creating this bookmark, but I can direct you to The Book Bug.  Just scroll down a bit and you'll see this bookmark in it's color image.

 

I really enjoyed using AR last year.  It gave me a very straightforward way to track the students' reading.  This is the first year that I have done Goal Setting. Basically it's a point value arrived at by taking into account the student's ZPD and how many minutes a day they should be reading. 

 

Don't worry, the AR program does all the work for you.  First make sure that each student has taken the STAR test in the AR program. Then, log onto AR and click on the Live Chat link. The nice people at AR will walk you through it.  It will take you all of five minutes. 

 

In my class, students that meet their AR goal in the first nine weeks will be invited to a popcorn party.  In fact, the students will also get a pizza party if they reach a goal set by our principal.  How's that for a good deal?!

 

What the Teacher Learned:  Setting clear and attainable goals helps students find success.  And a little treat never hurt either!

Birthday Display

I'm really bad at remembering birthdays, and I'm a huge fan of cupcakes.  Really, who isn't?  So, when I saw this darling way to keep track of my students' birthdays from Scraping West I knew I'd have to give it a try. 

I just free handed the cupcakes, frosting, candles, and flame.  The months are written in white on the base of the cupcake.  The candle has the student's name written on it, and the flame has the day (number) of their birth. Thank you so much to the nice mother that did all the writing. Volunteers are the best! 

What the Teacher Learned:  Cupcakes make the world a better place.  Especially those parts of the world filled with yellow cupboards!

Welcoming the Students

 

I've seen this idea using Goldfish Crackers in many ways on Pinterest.  Sadly, our printer was running low on ink the night before school started, so I had to  go with something very basic.  If you're interested in something craftier, check this out.

Thinking basic, I found a very handy template for sandwich bag treat toppers over at Avery.   I was able to fill up 36 bags with 29 grams of Goldfish per bag.  To do that I purchased one bulk size container and one regular size bag.  I think I could have put in a few less grams and gone with just the bulk size container of Goldfish. 

My students were so excited to get these at the end of the first day.

What the Teacher Learned:  It's great to get off on a good start!