Free Forms

I created a few forms that I wanted to update and I thought I'd share them with you.  The first one is a parent contact form.  

The second one is a problem solving sheet for students to reflect on their behavior.  

Click on the pictures to grab your copies.  

Clutter Free Classroom Catch Up & freebie!

I haven't been keeping up with the Clutter Free Classroom project but I have been busy organizing! 

Week 8's challenge was organizing and storing thematic units.  A few days ago, I posted about the new containers I bought.  Here one is with it's label: 

I don't do thematic units but I'm using these bins to store all the wonderful resources I get from all of you as well as seasonal books: 

Week 4 was all about the teacher's desk....Here is my desk before: 

Everything was just thrown in.  I don't really use my desk drawers so I should probably get rid of it BUT all the furniture in my school is accounted for right now so I have nothing to replace it with. 

I took everything out of my desk drawers and threw stuff away:

 I organized what was left in small bins: 

The green basket contains my extra supplies like markers, pencils, post it's, Velcro, highlighters and I threw some stickers on top for quick access.  Next to that, I have a box of "teacher tissues".  In the back of the drawer, I have a blue bin full of rewards for my students.  I got rid of my prize bin but I do need to keep some incentives on hand.  There are bookmarks, play-dough, and glow sticks in that basket.  I put a bag full of teacher stamps on top (sign and return etc...).  Next to the blue basket, I put extra folders, card stock, Ziploc bags and page protectors.

My top drawer (not pictured) has my binder rings, clips, label maker, index cards and band aids...the things I use everyday.  

I also worked on straightening some shelves in my room: 

Before

After

I'll leave you with a freebie.  Remember my daily materials labels?

                                                      

Click the picture to grab yours!  I just have one little request - I'm almost to 100 followers so if you download the freebie, follow my blog (if you don't already) Thanks!!

Terrible Blogger

I feel like I've been a terrible blogger lately!  These have been the craziest few weeks ever.  In a span of about 2-3 weeks I've had to write 10 IEP's, go to 10 CSE meetings, set up and attend 3 parent meetings, write 40 progress notes, fill out forms for my midyear evaluation, and do a write up about how my yearly goal is progressing.  Throw 2 grad classes, an observation, and tenure paperwork (including compiling a 3 year portfolio) in there somewhere too!  Luckily, everything but the grad classes and tenure paperwork is done now!  

On a different note, my fifth graders REALLY do not get cause and effect relationships.  As I was thinking of some activities to help them with it, this came up on my Pinterest feed: 

I love pirate themed anything and it's FREE!  Go grab your copy at Pitner's Potpourri (click on the picture to be taken to the post).  

TGI(almost)F!

SQ3R

Have you used this strategy?  I use it with my 4th and 5th graders every year but 3rd graders could use it too.  For those of you who aren't familiar with SQ3R, it is a great strategy to use with non-fiction, especially textbooks.  It keeps students actively engaged while writing.

To use it, have each student fold a piece of paper in half hot dog style and give them a non-fiction text.

S - Survey - Students should survey the text.  Read headers, bold words, titles, captions etc...

Q - Question - Ask questions about the text.  I have students turn the headings and titles into questions.  These are written on the left side of the paper.  

R- Read - I have my students read one section at a time.

R - wRite - (I know, it doesn't really start with an R) Students write the answers to their questions on the right side of their paper.

R - Review - Students use their notes to review the information in the chapters.  

I made a quick template to use with your students - although you can just use lined paper too.  Click on the picture to grab your copy!  

Sight Word Book Freebie

Halfway through my first year, I was assigned a group of 1st grade girls.  Up to this point, I was used to working with 3rd-5th graders.  My plans for the girls were the same as my older kids - read a book and do some sort of writing with it plus a little word work.  The girls were done in about 10 minutes.   I still had 20 minutes to fill.  The girls needed to work on sight words so I decided to make a dolch kit and practice sight words during our sessions too.  Since I still had time left in my sessions, I made a simple sight word book template.  I had the girls choose one sight word from their list that they struggled with and write a predictable book using that word.  

Here is a  small picture of the cover.

Sorry that these pics are sideways - I can't figure out how to make them the correct way!  These are interior pages from a students book called "They had Animals".  Her pages say things like "They had an elephant."  "They had a cat."  The girls were able to recall & retain the sight words they made books with.  Within 2 months, they were discharged from AIS (academic intervention services).   You can grab your free copy of my book template at my Teachers Notebook store!  

Early Start and 50 followers!

Okay, first of all, I am SOOOOO excited that I have 50 followers.  I started this blog as more of a journal and place to collect ideas.  Over the summer, I started reading some blogs and quickly became addicted!  That is when I started using this blog more as a place to share my ideas.  As a thank you to my 50 followers, I have a few freebies for you! 

As 2011 comes to an end, I have been reading everyone's new years resolutions...organization and planning seem to be two goals most of us have in common for 2012.  I have been wanting needing to come up with some forms that will allow me to do long range planning.  So I got an early start on my 2012 goals and made a few different sheets. 

 This is a general sheet you can use to jot down ideas for the future. 

This is a sheet I made that outlines each week in the quarter.  The blank section next to the week is for the dates.  You can get them both for free by clicking on the pictures or by visiting my Teachers Notebook store!  

Enjoy! 

Exit Slips Freebie!

My school is on a MAJOR paper restriction.  Each teacher was giving 1 ream of paper (500 sheets) to last the rest of the year.  We are allowed to send our copies out to the BOCES print shop (those pages won't count towards our 500 sheets) but the print shop was flooded and they are operating from a remote location.  They are about 3 weeks behind.  That means that you would need to plan a month ahead to have your copies back in time.  That's just not going to happen for me.  I might have an idea of what I want to do in a month but it will probably change.  My solution to this problem is to come up with some generic worksheets that I can use for a variety of different books or topics.  I'm sending those items to BOCES so I know I will always have something in a pinch.  

On a slightly unrelated note, the principals went to a training on what to look for in lessons when observing teachers.  They bought copies for every teacher so we know what they are looking for.  They didn't pass them out yet but said we could pick up our copy if we wanted it early.  I wanted mine early.  I want to know what they will be expecting so I can be ready!  The book talks a lot about closures and assessments.  They HIGHLY recommend exit slips.  So I made a generic exit slip or ticket out to be sent off to BOCES.  Now I will always have a closure & assessment ready!  

This side of the ticket is lined for questions that require a written response.

This side of the ticket is blank for solving math problems or drawing a quick picture (Draw what you visualized while reading today). 

I printed them double sided so I didn't have two different sets.  Grab your free copy from my Teachers Notebook store by clicking the picture.  

Classroom Jobs for the Resource Room (Freebie!)

I like the idea of having classroom jobs for students but until this week, I could not wrap my brain around how to set this up.  I have 37 students, some come to my room everyday but at different times each day, some come 3 x a week, some only come to my room on occasion (I push into their rooms usually) so how do I set up jobs?

This really bothered me my first year because our mentors gave us a bunch of new teacher books to help us set up our rooms and half of it didn't apply to my setting.  That's actually the reason I started this blog, there was no information out there as a guide for resource room teachers (or any non-traditional teachers). 

So here is my solution.  I numbered my chairs 1-5 and came up with 5 jobs.  I chose to number the chairs so that the kids wouldn't pick the tape off the table and it's not distracting.  

I wanted students to be responsible for pencils, materials, chairs, erasing the board, and a helper for odd jobs.  Rather than assigning every kid a specific job and switching them, the chair numbers assign the students the jobs.  If job #1 is the materials manager, whoever sits in chair #1 has that job for the day.  Rather than numbering my job posters, I made numbers that I can move around to avoid having students do the same job every day if they have assigned seats.

Grab your copy for free in my Teachers Notebook store,  

5 Minute Drills & a Freebie

The way the new New York State IEP's are, I have to probe (assess) my students progress frequently.  For my students who have a goal of solving # of basic facts in x minutes, I assess every 2 weeks.  Some of the students only need 40 addition facts, some need 100.  I don't want to have to make different probes for every student, especially when I have 37 now!  I figured the easiest thing to do was print 20 different 5 minute drills (100 problems).  Some of my students, however, are overwhelmed by seeing 100 problems at once.  I make a quick template for them that only shows one row of problems at a time.

Sorry, the pictures are not coming out well at all!  Download the free template from my Teachers Notebook store!

Enjoy!

Parent Teacher Nights & Freebie!

There's nothing like 2 parent teacher nights in a row!  Overall, everything went well.  One parent asked me to assign her child nightly reading.  Both of her kids are perfect angels in school but they really resist doing any extra work for their parents.  When I got home I quickly made a reading log so I thought I'd share it with all of you! It is supposed to be landscape and I'm not sure if it uploaded correctly.  If not, email me and I'll send it to you.

I'm off to bed...TGIF!

-Becky

Small Group Anecdotal Notes & Vacation Work

In 7 days I go back to work.  Summer has been great and I really don't want to start setting my alarm again but I am ready to start working with kids.  Mentally at least.  Right now, I don't have a list of my students.  I have no schedule (because I have no kids) and therefore I have no lesson plans ready.  Since I can't write lessons, I decided to work on some forms I will use this year.  The first one is what I use to take notes on students when I push into a classroom (usually for math) but you could use it for small group instruction too.

Click the picture for the file.  

It is basically self explanatory- I have a spot for a short lesson or activity description, a list of my students (I type in the students before I print the sheets), a box for attendance, and a spot to mark whether the student mastered the concept, is progressing, or needs more instruction.  The bottom contains a spot for notes and follow up ideas.   

The second thing I want to share I found on Mrs. Smith's blog.  She created a sheet with activities for students to complete when they go on vacation.  I can't tell you how many times I have had students go on vacation during the school year and the classroom teacher expects me to gather work.  From now on, I'm going to send Vacation Tic Tac Toe home with these students.  Such a simple solution to a time consuming problem!

Visit Mrs. Smith Teaches Fifth to get your own copy of this! 

Now I'm going to go relax with my kittens who are currently snuggled up next to me. 

Ally (orange) and Waffles <3

Goodnight!

-Becky

Word Problem Organizer & Behavior Chart (free!)

I was having a hard time finding a freebie during teacher week because I couldn't upload any of my documents.  Well I fixed the problem and now I have something more for you!  In New York, our math tests want students to explain how they got their answers.  This is not easy for kids!  I created this organizer for students to use when solving word problems.  It is two sided (only side 1 is shown below).  I print it double sided to save paper.

Click here to download the sheet. 

I also made a 1 page math keywords sheet for students to take home when solving problems.

Click here to download the sheet.

This year I have decided to use binders rather than folders for my students.  Every student will have a binder to keep their papers in.  I started working on reading sheets I want them to have in their binders - like a make-shift readers notebook (reading goals, books to read list, think-marks).  I will be posting those sheets soon so check back!

Enjoy!

-Becky

P.S. A while ago I posted my version of a clip chart.  Now that I figured out how to upload documents properly I adding the link to download it.

Click here for the chart.