Creative Christmas Lessons

   Excitement for the holiday ignites the hallways at school. I love this time of the year. Planning lessons around the Christmas theme gives me a much needed spark of creativity. One project we finished up this week was our opinion writing.  After reading the story, Peter Claus and the Naughty List, the children wrote an opinion paragraph stating whether or not Santa should remove Peter from the naughty list.

I designed the templates for their writing based on The Collins Writing model. 

The children created little Santas holding a list with Peter's name and a place to check mark for the naughty list or nice list.  I like that no two Santas look the same. They turned out adorable! 

You can download free winter holiday lesson ideas by The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs. So many fun ideas! 

   

Management Tips for Reading/Writing Workshop

The clock ticks.....70 minutes. 3 Classes. 75 students. I've completed thirty-five minutes of whole group Language Arts instruction with my first third grade class of the day. In order to make the most of my guided reading group time, my reading/writing workshop needs to run like clockwork. After three interruptions in the first five minutes of meeting with my first group, sweat forms on my brow, heat rises up my neck...the clock continues to tick. Each tick a strike of a bass drum in my ear. (I know...tend be a bit dramatic when I write.)

 Aside from the dramatics, the time crunch is very real. I've had to learn to make the most of this time with as little interruptions as possible, along with holding each student accountable for their time.  Here are the tips and tricks I've picked up.

Clear and Posted Expectations 

The expectations need to be clear and concise for your Reading/Writing Workshop. I have a chart displayed that tells what the students' jobs are during this time along with what my job is.  This is something we've practiced since the first week of school so that it is routine. Here is an example of what the chart looks like. 

Use a Timer

As simple as this sounds, it is a must for me. I try to keep my small group meeting time around 13 minutes. To start the week, I meet with my higher leveled groups first. With these groups, I can review the skill or strategy of the week with them, do an example together with the first couple of pages of the leveled reader, and send them on their way to finish up while I call the next group. Sticking to this format allows me more time in the long run for the groups that need more guidance.  By the end of the week, my meeting time with my higher groups is shorter. We meet enough time to make sure they are on track with the skill or strategy and to give them an enrichment assignment if needed. With the extra time, I can add meeting time minutes to the groups that need more. 

Reading Workshop Exit Ticket

 How can I hold seventy-five students accountable for their Read to Self time while I meet with groups? It's nearly impossible to check with each student daily on their self selected reading. I require that the students keep track of the books they read during this time in their book logs. Once a week, they need to pick a book they've read from their log to fill out a Reading Workshop Exit Ticket on.  I randomly choose students to share their exit tickets with the class, so they need to be prepared.  I have exit tickets for both fiction and nonfiction books. You can grab a copy here. 

Book Baskets

Even though the students are told to have enough reading material ready to read the entire time, I've found that it saves interruptions and wasted time to have book baskets ready for each table in case more reading material is needed. Each week I rotate the baskets so that new books are available. I choose high interest books in a variety of reading levels.   Some of the favorites for third grade are the Who Would Win? Books,  Diary of a Wimpy Kid,  Weird School Books,  Superfly Guy...to name a few. 

I hope you find these tips useful. Feel free to share your own tips in the comments section!

Here are the books mentioned in the post and the baskets I use.

                                           
      
             

Off and Running

   The new school year is underway. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you may remember that last year I had a big change, teaming with two other teachers. The three way rotation took a bit of getting used to but we made it work. This year I'm still teaming with the same teachers, however I am taking on the Language Arts for all three classes. Yeah....75 third graders for reading with Ohio's Third Grade Guarantee looming over me....no pressure😳Thankfully, my two colleagues are great to work with and we support each other 100%.    Another positive, I love to teach Language Arts, so teaching it three times a day is awesome.

     Something new I found for reading this year are finger lights for the kids to track their reading. The kiddos love them! On Friday, we shut the lights out for Read to Self time and they used their finger lights to read.   Another way I found to use them is to find text evidence in guided reading and shine a light on the evidence. It's a little thing that gets them motivated.      

   

CALIFORNIA CADE ELECTRONIC Finger Lights Bright LED Rave Laser Assorted Toys, Pack of 48

It's That Time Again

 I'm basking in the glory of my summer with books and sun. Then....BAM! The first back to school ad hits me out of nowhere. I don't even see coming. When I recover from the shock, I have to face it. It's that time once again.  Slowly, I allow my mind to drift in that direction.

  In anticipation for a new year, I created a Parent Reading Survey to pass out at Open House. Basically, I'm fishing for information on how the parents feel about reading with their child at home. The feedback I get will determine which path I take for required reading at home. You can download a copy of my survey here  if you'd like to give a try.  Enjoy the rest of your summer!
                       

Peculiar Plants

The clouds parted and sunlight shone down on us. Sounds of cheers and songs of joy filled the air. It all happened Friday after the last state test in my classroom was submitted. No more testing the rest of the year!  I might have exaggerated a bit, but it did feel like the clouds were lifted.

  Every year we race to get all of the curriculum taught before state testing. Once it's over, I take a deep breath and always ask the same question...now what?  With a month left of school, and all the state standards taught, there's an opportunity to....should I say it? Let the kids be creative!

One project that allows my kiddos to apply what they've learned while putting their own creative spin to it, is the Peculiar Plant Project.

Here is a list of tasks the students do for the project:

Task 1: Draw a diagram of a plant they designed with the correct anatomy of a real plant with one exception, they create a special element of their plant that no other plant has.

Task 2: Create a life cycle foldable for their plant and explain each stage.

Task 3: Write a paragraph introducing their plant, what's unique about it, where it grows, what it looks like, etc.

Task 4: Design the plant and put everything together on a poster and present their plant to the class.

The kids love this project. It allows them the freedom to utilize their creativity and own interests. I can honestly say there are no two plants alike.  Check them out:

Enjoy your after testing bliss! 

Five Ways to Use Mini White Boards in the Classroom

 Sometimes the littlest things turn out to be amazingly useful for many reasons.  Post-it notes for example continue to be one of my most useful resources in the classroom. Click here to read a short post I wrote about how I use them for behavior monitoring.

  Another great invention I find myself using more and more in the classroom are mini white boards. It seems every week I find another use for them. The kids love using them also.

Here is my list of ways I use them as a resource and am sure my list will grow.

1. Guided Reading: While meeting with my reading groups, the children and I use the boards to draw graphic organizers to fill in as we read to aide with comprehension. No matter the skill I'm targeting, there is some way to use the boards to demonstrate comprehension.

2. Assessment: For a quick assessment, I often use them to ask a closing question for a lesson. The children write their answer and turn the board face down until I tell them to "reveal their answers".

3. Cursive Writing: I know. I know. The long lost art of cursive writing we hear so much about. I admit that I don't have time to spend teaching cursive everyday, but I try to make sure the kids know how to write their names in cursive. I'll introduce a couple of letters during morning work time once a week and let the kids practice on their wipe off boards once all their work is done.

4. Word Work: I use the boards to reinforce lessons on word patterns, sounds, prefixes, suffixes, etc. .If we're working on a certain suffix or prefix, we'll take our white boards with us to hunt for those words in the hallways. I tell the children to write the word and circle the suffix or prefix and underline the base word. I do the same thing with digraphs, blends, nouns, verbs, etc.  After the hunt we share what we found and make a class chart of the words to display.

5. Writing: I have used the boards for mini word banks for any type of writing we are working on. A way to differentiate is to give students that need it, their own word bank by jotting down words to help them with their writing. I might write a sentence stem on one and give it to a student struggling to get started. It's also helpful for all the kids to apply the spelling strategy "which looks right". They write the word they're not sure how to spell a couple of different ways and pick which one looks right.

I'm sure they're many more ideas for using mini white boards that I haven't mentioned. Please share some of your ideas in the comment section. 😊

BDA Reading Questions

 With our second set of conferences right around the corner, I'm anticipating many questions on how parents can help to prepare their child for the upcoming state reading test.  Rather than giving the parents a stack of practice test selections, I've created Before, During and After Reading Questions to use with authentic reading.  I designed questions that require the depth of thinking needed according to the common core standards.  I've included both reading literature and reading information text questions.  These questions are available for free at my TPT Store. In addition to passing them out to parents at conferences, here are some other ways they can be used.

• Buddy Reading-the kiddos can take during asking each other the BDA questions as they read.
• Guided Reading Groups
• Information Text questions can be used with Science or Social Studies Texts
• Book Club Discussions

     Click on the picture to download. Enjoy!