Teaching Smart

I'm linking up with Live, Love, Laugh Everyday in Kindergarten to talk about Teaching Smart.

(Click the picture to join in!)

Here are my top 3 tips for teaching smart:

1. Use your summer!  As a new-ish teacher and a teacher switching positions, I know that if I don't spend a decent amount of time prepping and planning this summer, I will be totally overwhelmed in September.  There are going to be a lot of unexpected issues that come up next year so anything I can do this summer, the better!  Please also remember to take some time for yourself!

2.  Get Organized...you can not be too organized!  Organize your supplies, label everything, and create a system for all the paper you will deal with.  I am in the process of making my teacher binder, plan book, and communication books.  I will post about those in the next few weeks.

Love these binders from Target!

3.  Don't do it all yourself.  There are thousands of teacher bloggers who are making and sharing super cute units and centers.  On my to-do list for this summer was to make a math calendar/morning routine for our morning meeting.  Kathleen from Growing Kinders just finished an adorable math calendar system.  She included editable pages so I can adjust the calendar to meet the needs of my students.  I bought it and now I can just print it out and focus on another part of my to-do list!


I hope you found those helpful!  Don't forget to link up!

Word Wall

I have always had small or shared classrooms so I never had enough room for a word wall.  I also had a wide variety of students (K-5) so figuring out what kind of words to put up was a challenge.  Next year, however, I will have all 2nd and 3rd graders who are with me all day :D  A word wall is a must for next year so I made some word wall letters to go with my color scheme. 

I'm considering adding orange in there too.  I plan on starting the year with a few sight words and environmental print...we will see how it progresses as the year goes on!  

I thought these came out cute so I added Custom Word Wall Letters to my Teachers Notebook store.  You can choose your own colors and fonts all for $1.  Check it out if your interested! 

How do you guys use word walls in your room?  Do you have any special activities you use with your word wall?

Follow the Road to Freebies!

Happy International Blog Hopping day! I'm linking up with Kreative in Kinder to share some freebies with you (these are actually just old blog posts, visit my TN store for more freebies)!  Click the picture below to join in! 

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.

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!  

Target Find

Yesterday, I was going through the 2nd & 3rd grade curriculum(s) and combining them into 1 document for myself since I'll be responsible for both next year.  Then I started looking through Teachers Notebook and Teachers Pay Teachers and added a TON of products to my favorites (I would be purchasing but I need to see my students first - these may be way too hard for them).  Anyways, one of the products I added was Lemonade Economics from Amanda Nickerson (author of One Extra Degree):

I love the idea of teaching economics with a lemonade stand!  While shopping at Target, I saw this cute Lemonade banner in the dollar spot (I LOVE Target's dollar spot, don't you?).  

I grabbed one to use with the unit.  I figured I'd share with you in case you could use it too!  

Monday Made It

I'm so excited to join all of you for Monday made it! 

I know that summer is going to go by way to quickly. Hopefully, this will help me get my to do list done..or at least shorter (I'm realistic)!

I do not have a bulletin board outside my classroom but I want to display student work. Naturally I turned to pinterest for ideas and decided to make a duct tape quilt! It was surprisingly easy and the duct tape came off the bags when I made a mistake.

Sorry for the not-so-spectacular picture...I will take better pictures when everything is up in the classroom!  

Currently July

I am linking up with Farley for her July Currently Linky!  (Is it really July already?!)

Can you tell that I'm all over the place with my thoughts right now?!  My head is swirling with remodeling projects, getting ready for a new position that I am totally unprepared for, and lots of catching up on tv shows :) 

I just realized that I forgot to announce the winner of my giveaway!  (I did tell her and sent her the giftcard as soon as it ended)...so Congrats to Kelly, my giveaway winner! 

Stop back tomorrow to see some of the projects I have been working on!  

Classroom Pictures Part 1

School is officially over! The last few days have been a whirlwind....Let me give you a little background on all the changes happening at my school.  Currently we have three 12:1:1 classrooms (K1, 2-3, 4-5).  The 2-3 teacher is retiring and I am taking over her room.  The district also decided to open three 8:1:1 rooms (k-2, 3-5, 6-8).  The K-2 room and the middle school room are opening in September, the 3-5 room will be open the following year.  That is a lot of numbers and a lot changes!  

My new position happens to be in one of my current classrooms so I didn't have to move out (which was very nice) but I did need to add all my materials from classroom #2 in as well as make room for all the materials that were purchased for the 12:1:1 room over the years.   

This was my stuff from school #1...just one shelf and a few containers.  

And below is all of the 12:1:1 things that were moved into my room that I now need to get off the floor:

Don't forget that I had to add school #2 stuff in too!

(This is school #2 stuffed into the back of the car)

There is another table full of things too that I didn't take a picture of.  I went down to get more cabinets out of the current 12:1:1 room so I could put all of this away and...they were all full!  At that point, I decided to go home and come in next week to deal with it.  Hopefully, next week I'll be updating with pictures of a perfectly organized classroom....a girl can dream right?!

*Don't forget to enter to win a $20 amazon gift card and an item from my TN store!  See the last post to enter...you have until Sunday night!

I'm linking up with Karlie for her Before Classroom pics linky!

Click the picture to join it!

100 Follower Giveaway & New Job!

This has been a CRAZY year.  This year started with a massive flood and is ending (tomorrow) with a new job!  I officially accepted a position as a 12:1:1 (12 students, 1 teacher, 1 aide) teacher for a 2nd & 3rd grade classroom.  I am beyond excited and a little nervous about the new position.

Today was basically my last day with students...tomorrow is the official last day.  I had my students share their animal research posters while we decorated animal shaped cookies (no pictures of the cookies - sorry!)

I also gave out all of my summer packets today...these are just the books for 5 students...I have 43!  

Now for the giveaway!  To celebrate reaching over 100 followers I am giving away a $20 amazon gift card and an item of your choice from my store.  You can enter by following my blog & posting about this giveaway on your blog.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The giveaway ends Monday.  

Martha Stewart

The other day I was in staples and I saw the new Martha Stewart Home Office collection....have you guys seen this?  It is AMAZING!  I almost bought everything there.  She has cute labels and stick on white boards...even chalk board labels!  Here is what I bought:  

(Please ignore the messy cabinet) I am using this stick on pocket at home to hold take out menus but I am going to get another one for my classroom to hold the emergency folder.  The pockets just stick on and peel off without damaging walls! 

This is a stick on white board that I got for my fridge.  There are a ton of ways you could use these in the classroom...I really love the shape of it. The items aren't as expensive as I thought they would be either...I think this was only like $3.  

I also grabbed the matching smaller labels that you can print on.

I plan on using these labels to label all of my bins in the classroom....and at home.  

I'd love more creative ideas on how to use these products, let me know how you are using them! 

Alphabet Songs

Have you guys seen the alphabet song videos from Have Fun Teaching?  I love these videos and I have been using them a lot in the last few months.  I work mostly with 2nd-5th grades and my students know the alphabet, however, many of them struggle with vowel sounds!  It is not easy to find vowel sound resources that don't seem "babyish" to 5th graders but my students love these videos!  Check out this video for the letter E: 

I LOVE that the music is upbeat and catchy.  It doesn't seem to be aimed specifically at younger students. My students ask to listen to the songs while they do independent work.  I also love that the songs are so repetitive...my students learn the songs quickly and begin singing along.  The songs give students plenty of opportunities to practice saying the sounds (both long and short vowel sounds).  Just a warning...these songs will get stuck in your head!  

Make sure you check out their giveaway...hurry though it ends today! 

Desk Plates Freebie

I still have 17 days left of school but I'm already getting ready for next year.  I keep reading about all of you who are already on summer break and I am soooo jealous!!  I already started printing some of the things I want to make like this adorable welcome sign: 

Click the picture to grab yours for FREE from Live, Love, Laugh Everyday! 

I haven't decided on a theme for next year yet.  I am thinking about doing a Where the Wild Things are theme...I'm a visual person so I have to see different themes before I can choose one.  I made some simple desk plates to see if it is a theme I might want to do.  Feel free to grab them from my Teachers Notebooks store...they are also free :) 

If you want the lines colorful, leave a comment with what colors you would like and I'll send them to you.  

Literature Circles

Sorry for the lack of posting lately...I finally finished this semester of full time grad school (what was I thinking?!).  After being observed 4 times in two weeks, writing a thesis paper, and creating a giant portfolio, I was exhausted.  A few days after my classes ended I had to put my dog to sleep.  The next day, I found out my cat has kidney cancer and there is nothing we can do for him.  It's been a rough few weeks! Life is starting to get back to normal now...I hope!
 
Onto teaching related things...I started literature circles with my fifth grade group last week and I thought I'd share how I set everything up.  The first thing I do is find some books that I think they will like.  I do mini book advertisements for each one so the students get a feel for the books.  Then they vote on the book they want to read.  These were the books they could choose from:

  

All five of my boys chose Dear Mr. Henshaw which is secretly the one I wanted them to pick :)

I only have them for 30 minutes a day so usually the book advertisements/browsing and voting take about the whole time.  If they have any extra time, they can look through the book some more. 

Next we split up the book into 6 sections because I have 6 lit circle roles and I want them do each role once.  I assign the roles by giving each student a card with a role on it.  That is the role they do first.  Then they rotate the cards...that is their second role and so on.  The page numbers, roles, and due dates are all written in their lit circle packet. 

My favorite part of literature circles is the discussion.  After they read, the discussion director leads the group in a discussion about that section of the book.  I let the older students run the discussions with no help from me meaning if the group gets off topic or isn't paying attention - the discussion director needs to get them back on track.  I ALWAYS have kids tell me that they didn't realize how annoying it is when other students keep interupting you during a discussion.  They are  usually better behaved after having the experience of being discussion director :) 

With my current group of 5 very chatty boys I decided to use a talking stick.  Best. Idea. Ever.  A huge thank you to whoever came up with the talking stick!  The boys took it VERY seriously.  Only the person with the stick can talk.  If you talk without the stick, you get a check on the behavior chart.  They were so quiet that they actually had extra time at the end of class instead of leaving with homework because they didn't get everything done.


(I just use a crazy straw for my talking stick.)

I recently added a Wild Things literature circle packet to my Teachers Notebook store...feel free to check it out!

I'm always looking for ways to make literature circles better so if you do anything differently, please share in the comments section!

Predictions

What a crazy few weeks!  I feel like I have barely had time to sleep, let alone post - sorry!  I'm still in the middle of state testing and end-of-semester grad school projects so this is going to be a quick post.  I was cleaning out my files on my school computer and I found some "formal" lesson plans.  This one I did with 3rd graders to help them with predictions.  It uses the book Nate the Great and the Missing Key. 

Here is a quick picture of the lesson plan (click to download it for free):

Happy (almost) Friday! 

Tax Break Sale!

Today is the last day of spring break for me...it also happens to be tax day!  I'm celebrating (having 1 day left of break) with a Tax Break Sale!  Everything in my Teachers Notebook Store is 15% off today.  

Click on the picture to go to my store!  

I know this says TPT not TN...I'd change it but I'm trying to finish my grad school thesis :(

Enjoy! 

I've been Tagged!

Marcia from Learning in Bliss tagged me!  She just did a really cool wax museum project with her kids - you should check it out!  Here are her questions for me: 

1. What is your favorite holiday project for your classroom? *I forgot to answer this one before posting - oops!  Honestly, I don't have a favorite holiday project...it seems like everyday I see more ideas on Pinterest that I LOVE.  I don't think I could choose just one!  


2. Which do you prefer reading/writing or math/science?  I love teaching reading & writing.  I'm starting to really like teaching math too.  I've never taught science. 

3. What is your favorite piece of technology for your classroom?  I love my document camera!  

4. What was the last thing that happened in class that made you cry?  I am a resource room teacher (as you probably know) so I get some kids for multiple years.  One of my students tried for a YEAR to consistently subtract with regrouping and he just wasn't getting it.  This year, something clicked and he could do it!  I cried because I was so excited haha

5. Who is your favorite children's author? Mo Willems

6. What is last song you listened to on your iPod or radio?

7. If you could go any where on a trip, where would you go?  If I were going to go on a road trip right now I'd go to Boston.  I'd like to go to England sometime.  

8. Which do you prefer winter or summer? Fall is my favorite season...between winter and summer, I have to go with summer because I love swimming.

9. What is your most memorable teaching experience? Recently, I was working with a group of five 5th grade boys.  It was the perfect session (why can't my observations go so well??).  The boys were talking about setting a purpose for reading, activating their schema, and making connections while we read a book together.  They were using everything I had taught them...it was amazing to see everything come together for all of them. 
 
10. Why did you decide to start your blog? I initially started my blog to document my own teaching experiences for myself.  Last summer, I found all of these amazing teaching blogs and decided to start writing for others.  There is very little out there for resource room teachers so I hope that I have helped someone through this blog!  


On a side note, I have a student who is having trouble learning sight words.  He loves monsters and Where the Wild Things Are so I made 600 sight word flashcards with wild things graphics.  They are adorable and available in my Teachers Notebook store!

Peek at my Week(s)...

This is such a crazy time for all of us NY teachers!  We are officially on spring break today!! Our state tests start the day after we come back (thanks to whoever made that schedule!) so the last few weeks have been spent on test-prep and making packets for kids to do over the break so they don't lose everything we have done over the last 3 quarters.  I can only stand so much test prep so I split it up with some fun activities like:

Making our Hortons

Watching Ralph S. Mouse (after reading the book - this is the first movie I have shown as a teacher).  The kids were making connections to the book and comparing the book and movie without me prompting them : )

We did a little "cooking" and made Cups of Dirt

And how could I forget making fraction animals

Since it's kind of warm today, I'm going to go take a walk and enjoy the sun :)