tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79249577760863156352024-03-15T18:09:40.665-07:00~*~ Apples of Your Eye! ~*~SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-92078826346407512182020-11-29T19:02:00.001-08:002020-11-29T19:02:59.891-08:00 Compliment Can ~ Building Classroom Community with Purposeful Writing! <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: harrington;">One thing I do to help build classroom community and encourage purposeful writing is the Compliment Can. This is a very easy way to encourage even the youngest/beginning writers to write as well as reluctant writers; it gives real purpose to their work. The Compliment Can encourages students to focus on the positive characteristics/actions of their peers, and it builds a optimistic outlook in each student. </span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJh5Z_8WQfohyphenhyphenOa16L6juKcu2DBhhB0ULuBy3J0yZllDwaJNTcoVcj01OWMfuKPwO6DugqihN8zqqXOxK2NH2yBXLeL7ZAqPR4kK1jGDimyxRawnVV66fiotPtC4D-MH7IgZA-jvP7NcA/s2048/IMG_0273.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJh5Z_8WQfohyphenhyphenOa16L6juKcu2DBhhB0ULuBy3J0yZllDwaJNTcoVcj01OWMfuKPwO6DugqihN8zqqXOxK2NH2yBXLeL7ZAqPR4kK1jGDimyxRawnVV66fiotPtC4D-MH7IgZA-jvP7NcA/s320/IMG_0273.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "harrington";">All you need for the Compliment Can is an <b>old jar</b>/coffee can/plastic tubby/etc. My first one was an old coffee can covered with contact paper; my current one is an old plastic almond container from Costco. It doesn't have to be big and any container with a lid will do. You'll also want a <b>small container</b> to hold slips of scratch paper in, <b>little slips of paper</b>, and the sentence frame <b>title </b>for the jar. You can print one out for FREE at my teachers pay teachers site - </span><span face=""verdana" , "arial" , "geneva" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #67753b; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: underline;">http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Stephanie-Madison</span><span style="font-family: "harrington";"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "harrington";">Each week, I have students write at least one compliment to someone else in the class. We usually do this as part of the morning task list (the list of things students work on between the first bell ring at 9:10 when students start pouring in and when school actually starts at 9:30. I encourage them to compose a specific, detailed compliment in a complete sentence, and there are sentence frames on the actual can to help get reluctant writers, developing writers, and English Language Learners started. Once they've written their compliment, they place it inside of the Compliment Can and move on to the next thing on the morning task list. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "harrington";"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7X7laexC59xnG1BN2RAG_t9R26gPGLBK1yzQ_iloH7dr_fNHEB0t-og4RDU6LUe_R-ah1WnAg4AgimkB1j82utLrpZ8lhxuFJrgbO-Dbmon6xV-jfCDLi5vc6FY9JFrQmIoUTkRpQ9CA/s2048/IMG_0274.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7X7laexC59xnG1BN2RAG_t9R26gPGLBK1yzQ_iloH7dr_fNHEB0t-og4RDU6LUe_R-ah1WnAg4AgimkB1j82utLrpZ8lhxuFJrgbO-Dbmon6xV-jfCDLi5vc6FY9JFrQmIoUTkRpQ9CA/s320/IMG_0274.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "harrington";">Every Friday afternoon, we have a Classroom Meeting. I usually begin this meeting by reading each compliment aloud to the class as we all sit on the carpet in a large circle. After I read the compliment, we pass it to the student who the compliment is to so they can take it home. The rule is that if the tiny piece of scratch paper that each student writes their note on doesn't have the name of who it is to, who it is from, and a complete sentence compliment, it goes into the recycling without being read. I also let students write a compliment to a class pet/class plant/inanimate object in the classroom once a year, just because it's fun and keeps the classroom meeting interesting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "harrington";">How do you help students recognize positive actions and words of their peers? </span><span style="font-family: "harrington";">What do you do to encourage positive thinking and good behavior in your class? Please share your ideas in the comments below, and share this post with your friends.</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "harrington";"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "harrington";">Compliment Can<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "harrington";">To:______ From:______<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "harrington";">*I like how you _____________.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "harrington";">*When you ____________, I
appreciate it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "harrington";">*You do a great job at
____________.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "harrington";">*One thing I like about you is
______________ because it makes me feel ________.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "harrington";"><br /></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "harrington";"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMpiXxWoiYSaH2Q8STuKqh6Iy-59I58V8IKOFbADbmzI6QMF_lVsQvrMHVHRGA2K8Ck5K66E2IUlODhibfQjKy__3HBdprc40I9yxqNtRsCdkH-lCAgb-CxTka-scIpcfxF9slEtKICf0/s2048/IMG_0275.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMpiXxWoiYSaH2Q8STuKqh6Iy-59I58V8IKOFbADbmzI6QMF_lVsQvrMHVHRGA2K8Ck5K66E2IUlODhibfQjKy__3HBdprc40I9yxqNtRsCdkH-lCAgb-CxTka-scIpcfxF9slEtKICf0/s320/IMG_0275.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div><br />SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-90067037668215860212018-08-06T18:05:00.000-07:002018-08-06T18:05:06.286-07:00Teaching the Writing Process- The FUN Way!I like to make things fun. It helps my students learn more effectively. It makes their lives more enjoyable. It sets a nice tone for our classroom. It makes my job that much nicer too. That's why I like to do fun things with my class, and teaching the writing process is no exception.<br />
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Singing/chanting is a great way to start teaching the writing process. Anyone who has ever had a commercial jingle stuck in their head knows that songs can really help something stick! That's why some teacher friends and I made up the following chant while we were at a writing conference:<br />
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 36.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">@</span></span><span style="font-size: 36.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 22.0pt;">Writing Process Chant </span></b><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 36.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">?</span></span><span style="font-size: 36.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">By Courtney Thompson, Tabatha Colson, & Stephanie
Madison<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">First you take an idea and you plan it, you plan it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Then you take your plan and you draft it, you draft
it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Writing…Writing Process!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Wri-TING!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wri-TING!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Next you take your draft and you expand it, expand it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Now you’re going to want to edit, you edit!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Writing…Writing Process!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Wri-TING!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wri-TING!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Write your final copy and you share it, you share it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Now you’re a published author so you celebrate, you
celebrate!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Writing…Writing Process!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Wri-TING!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wri-TING!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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After I model the chant (their job is to listen, follow along on the chant with their eyes as I sing it, and identify important/high level vocabulary), then I have the students sing it with me. After that, they sing it in small groups and make up hand movements that symbolize each part of the writing process. What are your favorite educational songs and chants? Please paste one below, and I'll publish it on my blog for thousands to see! Did you try this song in your class? Leave a comment below, and make sure to subscribe so you don't miss my new posts! Happy singing and teaching!</div>
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<br />SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-24790379449486566502018-08-06T17:51:00.002-07:002018-08-06T17:51:52.279-07:00Classroom Pet Free Lesson Plan!<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's a nice little free lesson plan with a worksheet for incorporating your classroom pet into science and writing! This lesson is written to fourth grade science and CCSS standards, but it fits a variety of grade levels. One of my classroom pets is a bearded dragon, so I wrote it for my beardie, but you can easily adapt it to whatever type of classroom pet you have! </span><br />
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<b><u><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Built to Survive!</span></span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: #212121;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #212121;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Examining how
animals’ structures help them survive using your classroom pet!</span></b></span></u></b><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lessons for
3-6 Grade<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Created by
Stephanie Madison<u><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
<o:p></o:p></u></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Built to
Survive!<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Examining How Animals’
Structures Help Them Survive Using Your Classroom Pet<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lessons for 3-6<sup>th</sup>
Grade Created by Stephanie Madison for Pets in the Classroom<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;">Overview</span></b><span style="color: #212121;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;">Part 1- Examining Your Class Pet-</span></b><span style="color: #212121;"> Have students take a close look at your
classroom pet with magnifying glasses and discuss what they see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If possible, have them touch the animal and
describe what they observe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Highlight
the external body parts of the pet that help it survive (on a bearded dragon,
it uses its claws for digging for shelter, its ears for hearing predators and
prey, its eyes to track movements, etc.).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;">Part 2- Watch a Video/Look at Pictures of
Internal Structures</span></b><span style="color: #212121;">-<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since we can’t look inside our class pets
without hurting them, watch a brief video on YouTube or look at some pictures
of the internal structures that are inside your class pet to help students
understand what’s in the animal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Talk
about how these parts of the animal help it survive (on a bearded dragon, the
heart pumps blood to its body, its tongue helps nab food and move it down the
lizard’s throat, its cloaca expels waste/eggs, etc.).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;">Part 3-<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Write about How It Survives</span></b><span style="color: #212121;">-<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Use the included
worksheet for students to complete individually or in small groups, or create a
diagram of your own class pet to label the structures and how they help the
organism survive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next, have students
write about what they learned, using the sentence frames below or your own.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Science & Literacy
Standards Met<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This particular lesson
is linked to fourth grade standards, but it meets literacy and English Language
Development standards for many grades, particularly 2-6th.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;">NCSS</span></b><span style="color: #212121;"> 4.LS1.1 Construct an argument that plants and animals have
internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth,
behavior, and reproduction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;">CCSS</span></b><span style="color: #212121;">- </span>4.W.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and
information clearly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">4.W.7
Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of
different aspects of a topic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">4.W.8
Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information
from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and
provide a list of sources.<span style="color: #212121;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Extensions &
Adaptations<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;">*ELD Extensions</span></b><span style="color: #212121;">- For English Language Learners, front load
the vocabulary pertaining to your particular class pet (scales, lungs, heart,
eyes, cloaca, etc.) and the lesson (structures, organism, survival,
reproduction, etc.).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Write them on a
paper or board as you introduce them so they can use them in their writing
later on in the lesson. Use additional sentence frames at their ELD level to
help them expand their explanation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;">*Talented & Gifted</span></b><span style="color: #212121;">- Have your TAG students do an independent
study on an online encyclopedia/web data base on a different plant or
animal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Help them record their findings
and present to the class about another organism’s adaptations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If possible, have them compare and contrast
the structures and their functions on multiple organisms.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;">*Bodily Kinesthetic Learners</span></b><span style="color: #212121;">- Emphasize the touching, listening, and
observing of the organisms, have them make a model of the class pet & label
its structures, or create a costume with the adaptations of the animal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;">*Musical/Verbal Linguistic Learners</span></b><span style="color: #212121;">- Have students create a rap, poem, or song
about the structures on the animal and how they help the organism survive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next have them present it to the class and/or
your class pet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">*<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Visual/Spatial</b>- Encourage students to create their own
diagrams/detailed drawings of different organisms with their internal/external
structures labeled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have the students
give them to your class pet and post them around the animal’s cage/terrarium.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;">*Whole Class</span></b><span style="color: #212121;">- Create a Venn Diagram on the board/butcher paper/beneath the
document camera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Place two different
organisms on each side, and first compare their external structures and how they
help the organisms survive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next,
compare and contrast how the internal structures on two different living things
are the same and how they’re different on a second Venn Diagram.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, take it to writing; as a class, write
1-3 paragraphs comparing and contrasting the two organisms, or have students write
about it independently.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #212121; line-height: 115%;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" /></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #212121;">Name____________<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #212121;">Built to Survive!<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></u></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></b><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Date _____________<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1. Examine our class pet bearded dragon, watch
a video about bearded dragons, and/or examine the illustrations on this page.
Label external structures on the photograph of the bearded dragon that
might help the animal survive, grow, or reproduce.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="color: #212121; font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Label internal structures on the diagram of
the bearded dragon below that might help it survive, grow, or reproduce.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="color: #212121; font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Discuss how internal and external structures
on a bearded dragon help it survive with your class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can use the following sentence frames to
write a paragraph on the back of your paper.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">*The<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>__ (organism)__</u> has the external
structure the <u>__(structure) __,</u> which helps it survive by
__________________________________________________________________________.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">*An internal structure
in the <u>__ (organism)__</u> is the <u>__(structure) __,</u> which helps it
survive by
__________________________________________________________________________________.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-63113337002499457942017-05-31T13:35:00.000-07:002017-05-31T13:35:00.038-07:00Fine Motor Skills Interventions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The dread of every teacher and parent- a whole page of work a student has toiled over for hours, and it's completely illegible! Fine motor skills can be tricky for students to master, especially with the emphasis on typing. Parents and teachers can use strategies in the list below to encourage fine motor skills in students of all ages; these have been collected from occupational therapists, teacher friends, and my own classroom experience. Start with one that sounds the most engaging to your student!<br />
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<b>Pencil Pushups</b><br />
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Take a pencil in your hand and hold it the "correct" or most ergonomically comfortable way for a typical writer. First, keep your "stop" fingers tucked in, just like when you write. Then, pull in your three "go" fingers (your thumb, index, and middle finger that grip the pencil) so that each finger is bent and retracted as closely to the hand as possible. Finally, extend your "go" fingers so that they are completely straight. You've just done a pencil pushup! Repeating this movement a few dozen times a day will help build muscle strength of those tiny finger muscles; this will make it easier to have the stamina it requires to write. It also encourages the "correct" grip on a pencil, which will make it more comfortable for the writer, and will allow them to write for longer periods of time with greater accuracy, and less pain or discomfort. Teachers can begin or end a certain subject area, like at the end of math, every day that the whole class does pencil push ups. Set a timer for a few different times during the day to help build pencil pushups into your daily routine! <br />
<br />
<b>Handwriting Levels</b><br />
I have a set of mini drawers that I keep different "levels" of handwriting in. The first level is the sentence, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog!" on large handwriting paper. The second level is the same sentence but on regular lined paper. Next comes, "THE FIVE BOXING WIZARDS JUMP QUICKLY?" on large handwriting paper. Level four is the same wizard sentence on regular lined paper. Level five is the alphabet in cursive and level six is the fox sentence in cursive on handwriting paper. The fox sentence in cursive on regular lined paper is level seven, and level eight is the student's name in cursive on regular paper. To pass a level, a student must fill the page with the letters/sentence in <b>legible </b>handwriting. Then they "graduate" on to the next level. This set of handwriting levels helps students master basic to more complex handwriting and they feel accomplishment as they graduate from each level. I used to spend about a half hour a week on handwriting levels, but now that cursive handwriting is no longer part of Oregon state standards, I just pull intervention groups for students who need help with their fine motor skills/printing.<br />
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<b>Pencil Grips</b><br />
There are a wide variety of pencil grips available for purchase. Through a grant I wrote, I got my entire school a set of the little Steno pencil grips, like these- <br />
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They are inexpensive, help force students to hold their pencil correctly, and provide some cushioning support for smaller fingers.<br />
I also have these available for just my students that have difficulty with fine motor skills. They have more cushioning and also help students grip their pencil ergonomically.<br />
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<br />
<b>Detailed Coloring Sheets</b><br />
Before detailed coloring sheets became popular a few years ago, the only ones that I could find were created by Dover Publishing. I love them because I chose pages that correlate with whatever we're learning about, and they each include a little informative paragraph that explains what is happening in the illustration.<br />
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<b>Personalized Handwriting Practice</b><br />
Either use a handwriting font on Word or go to a website like https://handwritingworksheets.com/flash/printdots/index.htm to create customized worksheets. My students love pages of their name in cursive, sentences I've written about our class adventures or interests of theirs. This offers higher levels of engagement because they're interested in what they're writing; it's not just random sentences!<br />
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<b>What Works Best for You?</b><br />
What are your favorite ways to practice handwriting and fine motor skills? What do your students or your child like the best? What made the most difference in your own fine motor skill development? Leave a comment below, share this post, and subscribe to make sure you don't miss any new teaching goodness that comes out!SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-13377585634309340642016-08-01T19:29:00.000-07:002016-08-01T19:29:20.745-07:00Add Intervention Time with Wonderful Word Work Ideas!<b>Independent Language Work</b><br />
It sounds like a dream, doesn't it? Your whole class, focused independently on meaningful language development so you have time to pull an intervention group, meet with a behavior student proactively, touch base with your IA so she knows what to cover with her small group today, or any of the thousands of things we do as teachers. Here is a huge list of ideas to help students develop their spelling & language pattern identification independently. If you're a parent, you can use these strategies at home to help your child become a better speller. Experiment with these ideas, find what works best for your student, and stick with it! Because there is so much variety, students don't get bored, and many different learning styles are addressed.<br />
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*<b>Vocab Ring</b>- Students find challenging
vocabulary from their reading & write it and the word’s definition on one
side of a note card. On the other side,
they use the word in a sentence, and draw a picture that symbolizes its
meaning. Note cards are hole-punched and collected on a metal ring.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>*Write a synonym & antonym</b> for each word.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>*Body Spelling </b>is something we do in class. For tall letters, like t, h, and l, raise your hands. For, letters that go below the line, like p, y, and q, bend over. Bring your arms to the sides for the rest of the letters. Practice each word with this method daily for results.<br />
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*<b>Stamps/Beans/Wikki Stix/Pipe
Cleaners/Scrabble Letters/Alphabet Blocks</b>- Use these or other small
manipulatives to spell each word and find patterns between them.</div>
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<b>*Read the words aloud</b>, letter by letter. Then read them aloud as students write them down.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>*Write each word</b> 10 times as you say it aloud.</div>
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<b>*Stencils</b>-Use stencils to write out
each word.<o:p></o:p></div>
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*<b>Rainbow</b>-Use three different colors, and
write the word three times, overlapping the colors.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>*Ladder Words- </b>Write the word
horizontally, then write it vertically from the same starting word.</div>
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<b>*Circle the vowels & underline the
consonants </b>in each word.</div>
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<b>*Keyboards </b>- have an old keyboard laying around? It doesn't matter if it doesn't actually work or even if it's missing the backspace. I collected a set of obsolete keyboards for my students to take to their desks to practice typing in their spelling words on. They simply type the word, then write it on their page. This also helps with keyboarding skills since the computer lab is always booked for testing from winter-spring!</div>
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<b>*Beat/Clap the syllables- </b>Write each
word, clap the syllables, then draw lines through the word to show where the
syllables start and end.</div>
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<b>*Stair Step-</b> write the first letter of
the word on the first line, the first two letters of the word on the next line,
and so on until the word is spelled completely.</div>
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*<b>Sort</b> the words, by length, sounds,
vowels, alphabetically, or any other attribute.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">*</span><b style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Chalk</b><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">- Write each word with sidewalk chalk outside or on a chalkboard.</span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">*Alphabetize </span></b><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">the words.</span></div>
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<b>*Make flashcards</b> with the correctly spelled word on one side and a picture about that word on the other. Practice with these by first holding up the word side and having them repeat the word aloud, followed by how to spell the word (“Dog. D-O-G. Dog.”). Then flip the card over to remind them of the picture they drew that symbolizes that word for them. Then practice the words by showing them the picture side, having them tell you the word and how to spell it.<br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><b>*Make the words with play-doh or cut them out of paper. </b>I get the bag of tiny Play-Doh containers at Target during their Halloween clearance and it lasts my class well for the year. I organize my Play-doh, pipe cleaners, and beans in a set of drawers for students to easily access.</span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">*Look up each word</span></b><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"> in a dictionary and thesaurus. I usually have my students write down the definition or synonyms. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><b style="line-height: normal;">*Wipe boards- </b><span style="line-height: normal;">Have your students write each word on a wipe board.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">*Use each word in a sentence</span></b><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">, or make up a story with all the words in it.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><b>*SpellingCity.com </b>has great ways of practicing spelling on the computer and you can put your own words in for students to manipulate on the website</span><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">.</span></span></div>
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Students can grab a bag of letters and go spell! What's your favorite way to encourage spelling and language pattern skills? Leave a comment below and share this page with friends. Don't forget to check out my store at TeachersPayTeachers- https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Stephanie-Madison</div>
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SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-88268413444885959902015-11-04T15:55:00.001-08:002015-11-04T15:55:40.210-08:00Greek Goodness~ A Writing Unit Focusing on Greek Characters<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm excited to announce that I finally finished writing a new unit that helps students research a Greek mythology character, take notes on their findings, outline an essay, and write a rough draft as well as a final copy. It also has guidelines for how students can create a high-quality poster and develop a presentation all about their character. The following 19 fourth grade CCSS are covered in this unit:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">4.RL.3, 4.RL.4, 4.RI.1, 4.RI.2, 4.RI.4, 4.RI.9, 4.W.2, 4.W.4, 4.W.5, 4.W.6, 4.W.7, 4.W.8, 4.W.9, 4.W.10, 4.SL.4, 4.SL.5, 4.SL.6, 4.L.1, and 4.L.2. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">This fits many 3-6</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;">th</sup><span style="font-family: inherit;"> grade standards as well. My new unit even includes audience member expectations so that you can keep all your students engaged during presentations!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Below is the unit schedule and general information on audience member guidelines. You can find the complete product, ready to print & use with your students, on my TeachersPayTeachers account at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Greek-Mythology-Character-Writing-Unit-2185774</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: inherit;">Unit Schedule<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I usually give my fourth graders about 3-4 weeks for this unit, depending upon how much time we can devote to writing each day and the level of skill & speed of my students for the year. Generally, I have about a half hour for writing each day. You can adjust the following schedule to fit the needs of your students and your writing schedule:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Week 1:</b> I introduce the unit with the included materials, students choose their mythology character, gather books from the library, print information from websites like http://www.greekmythology.com/ , and start writing the information into their outlines (blank copies for student use are in the unit).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Week 2:</b> I introduce the sentence frames included in this unit's rough draft and review editing later in the week. Students draft their essays with the help of the sentence frames in the included rough draft. I only let my lower-level students have a personal copy of the sentence frames to actually write on, and I discuss and display the frames on the SmartBoard to assist the rest of my class, but encourage them to write their own sentences. Students begin editing. If I’m using this for an official writing assessment, I don’t let them peer edit or use the exact sentence stems in their final copies, but otherwise they work with at least two other people to edit their work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Week 3:</b> I show students example final copy essays, like the one included in this unit, as well as posters created by former students. Students finish editing their essays and write their final copies. They begin work on designing their poster (I have them create them at home as homework over a week).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Week 4:</b> I introduce converting an essay into a speech (writing the keywords from one paragraph of the essay on each index card for their presentation). Students summarize their essays on their notecards, practice presenting, and present their character to the class utilizing their posters! When students are not presenting, they are listening attentively to the presenter to provide feedback because everyone is expected to tell a presenter what they did well on and how they could improve their presentation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Audience Expectations during Presentations</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Once the presenter finishes, we clap for them as a class, students raise their hands, and the presenter calls on a student of their choice- the first student they call on gives positive feedback, the second gives something to work on. Once a student has been called on a speaker, they can’t raise their hand again until everyone in the class has gotten a chance to give feedback. i tell them before hand that I sometimes cold call a student who doesn’t seem to be paying attention to keep them listening to their peer’s presentations and evaluating their work. After the two pieces of feedback have been given to the presenter, the speaker gets to choose a fun way to be congratulated, like a round of applause, a microwave (students wave to the presenter with just the tips of their fingers), etc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Again, if
you’d like to cover a plethora of standards in one fun writing unit, this is
the perfect product! This unit includes:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">*a
weekly unit schedule to guide your teaching<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">*an
outline for students to gather information on<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">*a
blank rough draft complete with sentence stems to help students frame complete
sentences and flowing paragraphs for the whole essay<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">*a
completed rough draft with sentence frames filled in so students know how to
use them<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">*a
sample final essay<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">*a
title page for student’s essays & space for an illustration<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Find it at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Greek-Mythology-Character-Writing-Unit-2185774 Thank you so much for buying this product and supporting my work. Because of your purchase, a teacher’s request
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SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-32289121123789503012015-03-25T10:27:00.001-07:002015-03-25T10:27:06.205-07:00St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Art<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYxjKW71_SEODCB0C5NTIMHmvo54Xmd1JPAC-vJGe1aE4xogaf35Y-hyrO12Ngi5fffdlOy9GJjDkKWwkWMRaCuQLzLKwrKt3iSXQjg6xopVhyphenhyphenJjdUFulfPKwEYyRvpikmLgDRzfAc_4Y/s1600/IMG_3717.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYxjKW71_SEODCB0C5NTIMHmvo54Xmd1JPAC-vJGe1aE4xogaf35Y-hyrO12Ngi5fffdlOy9GJjDkKWwkWMRaCuQLzLKwrKt3iSXQjg6xopVhyphenhyphenJjdUFulfPKwEYyRvpikmLgDRzfAc_4Y/s1600/IMG_3717.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is a fun project that my students enjoy doing a few weeks before St. Patrick's Day. First I read aloud from a few different St. Patrick/Irish books, like <u>St. Patrick & the Peddler, Jamie O'Rourke & the Pooka, Daniel O'Rourke</u>, etc. </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9DiD_CG2L7ldReMlwyQyXtg5LBse5qOjbKdb4-q9F9j3fbzPdCm1mwCH2VBntJNLRkh0xaF50JguoR1IsAiMrWrksgP8CVA_mBnnLJP_YeqzzbolHKX3xZGjmmCJZxEZb7aVD9hoLtsY/s1600/IMG_3723.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9DiD_CG2L7ldReMlwyQyXtg5LBse5qOjbKdb4-q9F9j3fbzPdCm1mwCH2VBntJNLRkh0xaF50JguoR1IsAiMrWrksgP8CVA_mBnnLJP_YeqzzbolHKX3xZGjmmCJZxEZb7aVD9hoLtsY/s1600/IMG_3723.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVenHEXiqchgPIlzjH6R3TPXrXdzD_v_uK_RvQPsbe0gsh8ZkVAHyGtW-TtDADOUfA4NqGr-Z21w6acPsIhDisi7b4drBfBwTXGq5cQvF-ufXrR1cmjWzmaIgOSpki0WEYBR2WFXK5XEQ/s1600/IMG_3721.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVenHEXiqchgPIlzjH6R3TPXrXdzD_v_uK_RvQPsbe0gsh8ZkVAHyGtW-TtDADOUfA4NqGr-Z21w6acPsIhDisi7b4drBfBwTXGq5cQvF-ufXrR1cmjWzmaIgOSpki0WEYBR2WFXK5XEQ/s1600/IMG_3721.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Then I start with a mini lesson on some art vocabulary, including line, color, and mediums. We talk about how we'll only be using one color, green, but that there are many shades of green, like we observed in the Irish texts from the Emerald Isles. I discuss the different types of lines in art, like dotted, dashed, swirly, and straight lines (I also contrast this with the mathematical definition of line; in math, a line has to be perfectly straight and it goes on forever in both directions). Last, I talk about the different mediums they'll be using- the paper shamrock, colored pencils, markers, crayons, and glue.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_4opzNauifV2rQFxdo2tC-xeIvbQ3XKexv4nM8fZu3ae389Ft-bL1hTCYQrlnhlYJlz05YqdVo07XZ5m06pJc0XAt3MhJrUILcRFdKfdMiXPufPeYMMyW43OPQg-IxHAAC2hy6ZwBVw/s1600/IMG_3720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_4opzNauifV2rQFxdo2tC-xeIvbQ3XKexv4nM8fZu3ae389Ft-bL1hTCYQrlnhlYJlz05YqdVo07XZ5m06pJc0XAt3MhJrUILcRFdKfdMiXPufPeYMMyW43OPQg-IxHAAC2hy6ZwBVw/s1600/IMG_3720.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">After showing a few examples of how to use a variety of green lines to decorate their shamrock, students are released to start their creations. We glue them onto a black background for better contrast, and then write one Irish phrase on it. Students can choose an Irish phrase they remember from one of our read alouds (with teacher check ins), or they can choose one from the list I display on the Smartboard. Some of the phrases I display include:</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s easy to
halve a potato where there is love.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mind the
pooka!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Laughter is
brightest where food is best.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Beware o’
the leprechaun!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Top o’ the
morning to you!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Happy Saint Patrick's Day!</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you don’t
know the way, walk slowly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Saints
preserve us!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Luck be with you!</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBkss2WKz7xncYbSrN1hGYdqmHTZibGtzEdx1xMcN9TLYgVasiQMTUkKKlXhM5kx7uw63YQ11xJ9F0mO5VN4WPViCe151B2mDYOUlQj0SHLwceizwhu9cu7Wlpv8Fi2KcvuigAMwjsWk8/s1600/IMG_3719.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBkss2WKz7xncYbSrN1hGYdqmHTZibGtzEdx1xMcN9TLYgVasiQMTUkKKlXhM5kx7uw63YQ11xJ9F0mO5VN4WPViCe151B2mDYOUlQj0SHLwceizwhu9cu7Wlpv8Fi2KcvuigAMwjsWk8/s1600/IMG_3719.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPDGs0XMmjNSiH7mP2ZVJZKF3KoKwW3o7Wz-cuJ-6a4KSZDZt-7a-u6bXCc3AwSafnoRSxuiyNQ9Xiahu9l39Y9kWnkDg18Mf9S6FCUFJU5sn-RgoxP0PoiKFZ8NedsmuIEO7zur3kfmI/s1600/IMG_3722.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPDGs0XMmjNSiH7mP2ZVJZKF3KoKwW3o7Wz-cuJ-6a4KSZDZt-7a-u6bXCc3AwSafnoRSxuiyNQ9Xiahu9l39Y9kWnkDg18Mf9S6FCUFJU5sn-RgoxP0PoiKFZ8NedsmuIEO7zur3kfmI/s1600/IMG_3722.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There's an easy art lesson for a fun holiday! What do you do for St. Patrick's Day or other spring holidays? Leave your idea in the comments below. Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!</span>SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-61871252151927791082014-07-31T16:36:00.003-07:002014-07-31T17:16:13.714-07:00Back to School Share<div style="text-align: left;">
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What is your favorite back-to-school teacher hack? What do you always forget about until you step foot in your classroom in the fall? I'm compiling a list for a new teacher (and hope to give it out to all of my student teachers and for free on TeachersPayTeachers.com as well), and I hope to have a "Teacher To-Do List for Back-to-School." Please share your thoughts in the comments below to help other educators. I've put some questions in bold to think and share on, but I'd love to hear input on any back-to-school subject. Here are some basic ideas that I've come up with so far:</div>
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*Organize the <b>furniture</b>. Usually having large furniture up against the walls will open the room the most and make it seem bigger. It will also make for easy flow of student traffic. <b>How do you like to arrange the furniture in your classroom? More specifically, where do you place your teacher desk? </b>Check out this site that has a bunch of different layouts & styles of classroom decorations- http://www.theschoolsupplyaddict.com/room-setup.html </div>
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*Set up your <b>student desks</b> how you plan to teach. If you want a lot of silent, independent work time with lots of teacher lecture/instruction, separate all your desks and have them all face the main board of instruction. If you like more student interaction, peer learning, and cooperative work, I suggest making long rows of students facing each other so that everyone in the classroom need only turn their head slightly to face the main instruction area. I usually have three long rows, split into six cooperative learning groups with a bout 5 students in each group (heterogeneously grouped with talkers near quiet students and my ELL's, and behavior/attention students near the front or with an empty desk nearest them, etc). Above and below are a couple pictures from a few years ago, when I still had each table group separated instead of in longer table rows:</div>
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*Hang up your <b>emergency folder</b> in a visible area near the emergency exit. Mine is a red pocket folder that has a student roster and what to do in case of each type of emergency on one side, and all of my students' emergency forms on the other (with where to send them in case of an early closure). Make sure you/someone on your team has an emergency kit to take out with you during a fire drill/ real emergency. <b>What's in your emergency kits at your school?</b></div>
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* Put up <b>posters</b>. Decide what you want up for the students to read on the first day when they walk in where you want to put posters you'll create with them and display. I've organized my posters by unit of study, and I'll get a blog up about that one of these days! :) Make sure to leave room for necessary postings, like the map to the nearest emergency exit, what to do in a Lock Down drill, etc. What posters do you display on the first day of school? <b>What posters/visuals do you make with your students during the first week?</b></div>
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*Plan your first week of <b>lessons</b>. I always plan more than we could possibly do, because it's better to have too many things planned and knock some of them off/save them for the next day than to have too little planned. </div>
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*Plan <b>what you're going to say</b> in the first 10 minutes of class. They will set mood for the whole year. Harry Wong's <u>First Days of School </u>is a great place to start if you're a new teacher.</div>
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*Prepare all the <b>worksheets/books/materials</b> you will need for the first week of school. Dust off the text books, send homework to print, and ready the manipulatives!</div>
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*Put students' <b>names/numbers</b> on everything. I just write their names on little address labels (you could easily print them too). I put names on:</div>
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-backpack hooks/cubbies</div>
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-mailboxes</div>
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-student work files</div>
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-name plates for their desks</div>
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-my teacher pensive with all of their writing & reading conference notes/running records/goals/etc</div>
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I put their student numbers on:</div>
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-a dry erase marker (to keep inside their desk. If they lose it or ruin it, they get a new one, but it costs 5 Pioneer Dollars, which is the money they earn in the token economy we do in my class)</div>
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-an editing marker (also kept inside their desk for writing)</div>
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-the homework chart (along with their name. This is where we keep their name & number posted throughout the whole year so they can look up their own number in case they forget, or figure out which student the editing marker they just found on the ground belongs to).</div>
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-their clicker/smart response remote for answering questions on the Smartboard.</div>
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*Write your back-to-school/<b>welcome letter</b> and send it to print. What do you include in your letter to parents? I'll get a copy of mine on TPT, or I can email it to you if you leave your email address in the comments below.</div>
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*Organize your classroom <b>library</b>. For tips, see my post about it here- http://applesofyoureye.blogspot.com/2012/10/organizing-your-classroom-library.html</div>
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*<b>Decorations/theme</b>- I'll need to write an entirely separate post about decorating a classroom, but I generally like to choose a color theme rather than a specific thing. Instead of doing owls, cupcakes, a popular movie, etc, which will be slightly awkward to repeat the next year and will undoubtedly go out of fashion in the near future, I chose to go with a blue and purple theme and selected different timeless decorations, classroom furniture, accessories to match. (I do love owls, cupcakes, movies themes, etc, and I've seen many of my colleagues have absolutely darling rooms with these themes, but I also see them spending at least $20, if not hundreds, every year or two as each popular theme loses popularity.</div>
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*<b>Write a grant </b>on DonorsChoose.org. The best time to get a grant funded is in August & September, because those are generally the months that large corporations want to get some time in the spotlight for their generous contributions to the schools. Think about what you still need/want for your classroom in the last few weeks of summer and take an hour to write up a grant for it. It's one of the easiest things that I've done to gain over $5,000 worth of products for our classroom in a little over a dozen grants.</div>
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*Think about a <b>class pet</b>. If you want one for free (or nearly free) visit PetsInTheClassroom.org and fill out the easiest grant you'll ever write in your life! It is literally TWO sentences long! See my post about the many benefits of having a pet in your classroom-http://applesofyoureye.blogspot.com/2012/08/great-classroom-pets-explained-bearded.html</div>
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*Write your back-to-school/welcome letter and send it to print. What do you include in your letter to families? I'll get a copy of mine on TPT, or I can email it to you if you leave your email address in the comments below.</div>
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*Bring in some oxygen when you bring in some <b>plants</b>. Read my posting about how you can increase the oxygen levels in your room and implement some educational ventures with some green leafies as well here-http://applesofyoureye.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-case-for-class-plants.html</div>
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*Prepare a <b>substitute folder</b>. I created emergency sub plans for mine, ones that any sub could whip out and employ on any given day in the year if some emergency came up where I couldn't make lesson plans. Make sure it's somewhere easily visible, and include any health plans or notes on particularly challenging students.</div>
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Okay, mastermind teachers! What are your other tips for preparing the classroom for the first day of school? Please leave your advice, ideas, & questions below!</div>
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SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-62119539491953262992013-10-01T11:58:00.001-07:002013-10-01T11:58:23.581-07:00New Blog- Pennywise Pursuit!Want to save a few thousand dollars each year with some small changes? Check out my new blog, PennywisePursuit.blogspot.com to do just that! My husband and I are working together on it to share ideas on simple ways to have more money for the important things in your life. <div>
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<a href="http://pennywisepursuit.blogspot.com/2013/08/are-you-not-entertained-television.html">Pennywise Pursuit</a></div>
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Take a look and let us know what you think!</div>
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SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-40459775971883107042013-09-18T11:02:00.000-07:002013-09-18T11:02:48.614-07:00Getting Creative & Multilingual with Table Group Names<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Instead of having the same, boring table group names for the entire year, I like to mix things up and make them educational at the same time. Below, you will find a plethora of table group names that fit the different units we do throughout the year, like this one from our first math unit- place value!</div>
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Here are our table group names for our geometry unit. You could do them in two languages, have the picture on one side and the name on the other, or do the name of the figure on one side and its definition on the other like I've done here.</div>
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One of the highlights for third and fourth grade for social studies is state history. Here are some pioneer-ish table group names; one side is English and the other is in a different language.<br />
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For our temperate rainforest unit, I have the name of a common temperate rainforest animal on one side of the table group name and its name in a different language on the back.<br />
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In our fraction unit, we use these table group names with a common fraction written in words on the front with the picture shown in bars, and the fraction written numerically on the back with the fraction shown in a circle. I just hole punch a little hole at the top of each piece of construction paper after I laminate it, thread a string through it, tie a little thumb tack to the end, and pierce the ceiling tile so it dangles over the center of the table group.<br />
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We also cover Oregon geography and the continents, so I have created these table group names to put up during those units:</div>
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What are some of the table group names that you have used in the past? How do you connect them with the units you teach? Leave a comment below, and check back for more teaching goodness!<br />
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SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-59035309005361719472013-09-12T11:33:00.000-07:002024-01-17T10:17:15.850-08:00Why I Haven't Posted in a While-This is just a quick post to let you know why I haven't posted in a few months- my daughter joined us in early July at 8 pounds 6 ounces and 20 inches long. I'm adjusting to my new role as mommy, but hope to be posting a bunch in a few weeks as I'll have time off of work until December. Thanks for your prayers and happy thoughts for my newest blessing!<br />
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<br />SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-66241946238391375212013-05-22T14:53:00.002-07:002013-05-22T14:53:48.275-07:00Guessing Jar: Math Made Delicious!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was introduced to the concept of the Guessing Jar by my wonderful mentor teacher, Jacqui Forney, when I student taught in her classroom. This activity, which I do about once a month, is a fantastic way to incorporate a variety of mathematical concepts and it can be modified to fit nearly every grade level. It makes math exciting, students are highly engaged, it costs very little, and it's delicious!<br />
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<b>Guessing Jar Supplies</b><br />
As you can see in the picture below, all you'll need for the Guessing Jar is a large, clear container with a lid (I cleaned out an almond container from Costco for mine), a label for the jar, a folder, and some sticky notes or scraps of paper. <br />
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"How many things do you think there are in this little Guessing Jar?"</div>
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<b>Deliciousness with Which to Fill It </b><br />
Each month, decide upon what type of scrumptious treat with which you'd like to fill the jar. Some examples I've used in the past, with the time of year/unit in parenthesis are:<br />
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Candy corn/pumpkins (fall)<br />
Apple candy (fall)<br />
Gummy trees (Christmas, temperate rainforest)<br />
Snowman poop/marshmallows (winter)<br />
Gummy snowflakes/snowmen (winter)<br />
Gummy hearts/mixed pink & red candy (St. Valentine's Day)<br />
Golden chocolate coins(St. Patrick's Day)<br />
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Saltwater taffy(spring/summer)<br />
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Gummy butterflies (spring/summer)<br />
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Pilot bread/Hardtac (Oregon Trail/Fur Trapper)<br />
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Swedish fish (temperate rainforest)<br />
Trail mix, crackers, dried fruit, etc will work year round. Usually, I base it off of what I can get on clearance, in the seasonal bulk candy bins at Winco, or just whatever is least expensive at the store!<br />
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<b>Preparing for the Glorious Guessing Jar Day</b><br />
I love watching which of my students will be the first to realize that I have filled the Guessing Jar with some new form of tasty treat. Initially, you will want to carefully wash your hands, clean/sanitize the container, and add the filling. Screw the lid on tightly and make sure your students know that the lid must stay on the container at all times until it is Guessing Jar Day. Explain to your students that they will be making an estimate (here's a great lesson in and of itself), and cover different strategies for making an accurate estimate. They can pick it up, count the number of treats on the outside, count how many are on one side, etc. Once they have an estimate, they can take a little sticky note/slip of paper, and write their guess, the label, and their name on the paper (such as, "452 candy corn pieces, Mrs. Madison). Let them know that if it is missing any of these three things, it will tragically be thrown away; then you will have to deal with fewer no names. I like to get them in the habit of labeling any mathematical answer, as it will serve them well throughout their math careers. Once they have their guess, label, and name recorded, they can open the folder and add their estimate to their classmates'. There is no peeking into the folder before hand to base their guess off of someone else's estimate; sneaking a peek will also result in their tragic disqualification (they can always try again next month). I usually put this on the morning board as one of their tasks to do as they prepare for the day, which also helps reinforce the importance of following the board directions in the morning.<br />
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<b>Guessing Jar Day</b><br />
In reality, the whole Guessing Jar activity usually only takes about an hour, but you could very easily fill an entire day with it. I save one morning a month to do Guessing Jar, and the kids LOVE it. Here's how the morning goes:<br />
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1. Students wipe down their desktop & pencil, wash their hands, get a piece of paper towel at their desk, and get a piece of graph paper out at their desk.<br />
2. While students head and title their papers, I rove around the classroom and hand out a random handful of the Guessing Jar contents to each student on their paper towel when I see they are ready. It doesn't matter how much they get at this point, because we will divide it all evenly later. There is always something for every student to be doing, whether they are a slow worker or fast; this helps ensure their full engagement. If students are not doing their jobs as mathematicians during Guessing Jar, then they do not earn its delicious contents (I have only had this happen once in the last six years).<br />
3. Their first job is to count how many they have (often times I will have them categorize whatever it is by color, shape, etc to add additional dimensions to our data) and to record their results on their graph paper. Then they help their table group find their personal totals, and finally they determine their whole table group totals. Once everyone has it written down, they choose one representative to come up to the Smartboard and record their table's data in our class chart (just a chart with table group names and columns to record each table group's data). Quick students will complete this and have time to find the total number for the whole class, and divide it by the number of students so we know how many each student will get at the end of Guessing Jar.<br />
4. Next, you can tailor the Guessing Jar to whatever form of math you're working on. If you're doing fractions, determine the fractional amount of each color of saltwater taffy, for example. If graphing is your focus, create a pictograph of the different types of Chex party mix, or a bar graph for each color of gummy worm. If you're focus is multiplication and division, analyze the data by finding the mean, median, mode, range, etc. I usually do graphs regardless of our current unit of study so they don't have to wait until the end of the school year to hear all the great vocabulary that comes with the unit, and it's great to practice fine motor skills as well as learning to read & create different tables, charts, graphs, etc for literacy.<br />
5. Have your fastest students order the estimates in the Guessing Jar folder from least to greatest. Once you know the total for the Guessing Jar (when your students find it, thus eliminating the need for you to count everything), you can determine which student made the closest estimate. I usually give that student 2 pioneer dollars (part of our classroom's token economy) and we all congratulate him or her. Generally, I have them share how they came up with their accurate estimate, which can further help other students develop their estimation skills.<br />
6. Last, once the main math part is done and the students have determined how many pieces of the Guessing Jar goodies each person gets, we divide them up. If students have more than they need to fill their Guessing Jar quota, they bring their extras to my desk, and students who I originally gave a tiny handful can come up to my desk to get their missing snacks. Sometimes I check the students' papers before they start enjoying their Guessing Jar loot, and other times I have them just turn their papers in so I can check them later.<br />
7. Clean out the Guessing Jar, recycle or hand back the old estimates, and refill the Guessing Jar with something new so the fun can begin again!<br />
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<b>Important Notes</b><br />
If you have students with any kind of allergy, you will obviously want to check the ingredient list very carefully for whatever you decide to put in the jar. In the past, when I have had students who are allergic to multiple things, I didn't even want to take the risk of causing any kind of a reaction. Instead of handling the food or even being near it, I had them work at my desk, and just do the math part. When they were done with the math, they got an alternative treat that was safe for them to eat. This assures their safety, but still keeps if fun because they get something delicious too. Use your best judgement, and always err on the safe side!<br />
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I generally do not give out junk food or candy as prizes in my classroom, and I require all daily snacks to be at least moderately healthy. Because we only do Guessing Jar once a month, it should not have any great impact on the overall health of my students, which is how I can justify them eating a few high fructose corn syrup laced treats. I also invite my students to eat part of their tasty math bounty, and then save the rest for lunch or home. Generally, because the container is relatively small, students only end up with a small handful of sugary goodness anyways. Still, the health of your students should be taken into consideration when choosing your Guessing Jar fillings.<br />
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Questions about the Guessing Jar Extravaganza? Leave a comment below! If you have a neat variation you can share with us or an idea on how to make it even better, let us know too. If you would like the Word document that has the label I use on my jar, just leave your email address below so I can send it your way. Comment, share, pass it on, and have fun with your students and the Guessing Jar!<br />
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<br />SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-4855331864059040512013-04-20T22:19:00.000-07:002013-04-20T22:19:04.899-07:00Handwriting Made Easy (or at least easier!)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
I realized the other day when I had some teacher friends visiting my classroom from another school that I have explained my handwriting practice/assessment so many times that I need to do a post on it! This way, I can say, "Oh, just check out my posting about handwriting; it has pictures of each level, explains how students work through the levels, how I grade them, and everything!" Of course, this is not a complete handwriting curriculum, nor is it perfect, but I think it's worth sharing as it might be of some benefit to teachers lost in the sea of fine motor skill ineptness that seems to be engulfing our youth!</div>
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Let me begin with Level One. It involves students writing the sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog!" ten times, all in lower case, on handwriting paper, as shown above. Many adults know this sentence because it contains all the letters in the alphabet. Before we begin our literacy centers at the beginning of the year, I introduce all of the handwriting levels and explain my expectations for each level, as well as showing them the laminated examples they can reference throughout the year as they progress through the levels. When teaching lower grades, you will have to have extensive conversations about the "upper," "mid," and "lower" lines on handwriting paper, where to begin each letter, etc. As students approach third grade, they will need explicit instruction on writing in cursive. Luckily for me, by fourth grade they have been, for the most part, already introduced to both print and cursive and are just needing some polishing. I will do another posting on what I do for my handwriting interventions for students who struggle with fine motor skills.<br />
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When students can write Level One clearly and accurately, they advance on to Level Two. If they are still struggling with forming a few of the letters, I simply write out the letters they are struggling with on their page, have them watch as I write them and explain how to form them, and then have them trace and practice writing them a few dozen times. I have them do the same sort of thing if they are struggling with spacing between letters/words or if their print is too large or small, but I generally write the full sentence out for them while explaining and then have them do a few more sentences. Level Two is the exact same sentence, but this time they write it on lined paper.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMJID5MRM9TNRprZt9ndNKdEnA0E8tji784yHb0CV-Xu3zboQ5HsxhHUh-Gx0-h2UFKpRhbKF8LlqZM_O7wBO74fgX5hNeNhuFSp4_1JuC48K6hmO5cJNOXda-G9BMke-VybuStcDJ07Q/s1600/IMG_0826.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMJID5MRM9TNRprZt9ndNKdEnA0E8tji784yHb0CV-Xu3zboQ5HsxhHUh-Gx0-h2UFKpRhbKF8LlqZM_O7wBO74fgX5hNeNhuFSp4_1JuC48K6hmO5cJNOXda-G9BMke-VybuStcDJ07Q/s400/IMG_0826.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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The third level involves upper case letter writing on handwriting paper, as the students write: "THE FIVE BOXING WIZARDS JUMP QUICKLY?" This is, obviously, to practice their "caps lock" writing and a new form of punctuation, and it also includes every letter in the alphabet. Level Four, also shown below, is the same sentence but on regular lined paper (I get college and wide ruled paper donated to my classroom and have no preference). <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHzbP5CaG6fQBlPPSX2W7pQe8mFc0h_TWeUQ5ANEWUVOrTAaguO9KkLjMK6tQLzgI5hWl6pt0_86DNw7cW6ZGtnFCn_zNDzE_cGEejduQ3hxIKCKY83yj-VIXtwFLaHV3mUSAoCkeSyl8/s1600/IMG_0788.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHzbP5CaG6fQBlPPSX2W7pQe8mFc0h_TWeUQ5ANEWUVOrTAaguO9KkLjMK6tQLzgI5hWl6pt0_86DNw7cW6ZGtnFCn_zNDzE_cGEejduQ3hxIKCKY83yj-VIXtwFLaHV3mUSAoCkeSyl8/s400/IMG_0788.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8o9frRSVtUSERqZlt89G1aLsRg3IQ2sNi2jF2jP2rnYS9VXJe7NgkkiY6vWeHbcNcepczGRQWnybLOdYFF4MlK_UFkNFS2uUFizCnLjYiEXPognkHxc1fAo_8zW7TiWqEuf1bO4i4eoM/s1600/IMG_0789.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8o9frRSVtUSERqZlt89G1aLsRg3IQ2sNi2jF2jP2rnYS9VXJe7NgkkiY6vWeHbcNcepczGRQWnybLOdYFF4MlK_UFkNFS2uUFizCnLjYiEXPognkHxc1fAo_8zW7TiWqEuf1bO4i4eoM/s400/IMG_0789.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
When students have mastered Level Four, they have illustrated that they have the ability to write every letter, in sentence form, in lower and upper case. Now they can advance to Level Five, which is the alphabet in lowercase and uppercase in cursive three times on handwriting paper with the added midline to guide them. They do the same thing on lined paper for Level Six. Here are my examples:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfiGUsY1EZblhdHbXctLPtR3U6Zr-xtgvz3GIYDQZyw2ec5BQZSqb1UFHnITVAaLvn2CeZxTBUYAdd_M7PEnc5mT2SMSx18t3JNjgTj0oJZXSGCYk4TfLL6VgcKqN-QgWLfiFfh7Tcs4s/s1600/IMG_0828.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfiGUsY1EZblhdHbXctLPtR3U6Zr-xtgvz3GIYDQZyw2ec5BQZSqb1UFHnITVAaLvn2CeZxTBUYAdd_M7PEnc5mT2SMSx18t3JNjgTj0oJZXSGCYk4TfLL6VgcKqN-QgWLfiFfh7Tcs4s/s400/IMG_0828.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwp_Un78nFmTuKeHNJiYSZPBagiXKyFxLauFmvBqUg7X90d_e0dofGt-FR-sN5hgyZXUcUZpLiH68yIKHcD6Qs2KULEHKtgjcDVq7KUAHmClpLNtIe-zYhmcywroGJfXjsRN0ezpEJH2M/s1600/IMG_0790.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwp_Un78nFmTuKeHNJiYSZPBagiXKyFxLauFmvBqUg7X90d_e0dofGt-FR-sN5hgyZXUcUZpLiH68yIKHcD6Qs2KULEHKtgjcDVq7KUAHmClpLNtIe-zYhmcywroGJfXjsRN0ezpEJH2M/s400/IMG_0790.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Once they've got the hang of the alphabet, it's time to check in on how well they connect letters in cursive with the seventh level. Here, they write, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog!" ten times in cursive on regular lined paper. This is usually the most difficult level for students to grasp at first, but with practice, they can quickly develop this skill.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMk2ITZx-tTPVtEKfvqfwj7VWhcHA6GmGm6w6JRy6kGck0riiTS26feNj91ONS_gxPUhyphenhyphenwbevBM2aj77K202KZ9-r4GBRr8o62XNOScQvIpnYSme-DQ-tnmC2oYVdWiuWyOhxFfmMGib4/s1600/IMG_0791.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMk2ITZx-tTPVtEKfvqfwj7VWhcHA6GmGm6w6JRy6kGck0riiTS26feNj91ONS_gxPUhyphenhyphenwbevBM2aj77K202KZ9-r4GBRr8o62XNOScQvIpnYSme-DQ-tnmC2oYVdWiuWyOhxFfmMGib4/s400/IMG_0791.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Last is Level Eight. This level involves the students writing their first and last name in cursive twenty times. I do not spend that much time teaching and practicing cursive in my classroom simply because most of my students will not need to use it much in real life, other than signing their name on checks, mortgages, etc! That's part of why I made the final level signing their name.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9m7C-EcS1-X2QGkG268UjBiGpqpCqPGWfcOvIaavN0OH59ITQSZqxt_0Tgu00Wyv_P978K1-j5CP6p0MnVgr2gL4EWiMxArjG7hp3P4ekNN_VTMw3CyiP3xYxtwxyPYI_AGPaIfa2ZR0/s1600/IMG_0792.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9m7C-EcS1-X2QGkG268UjBiGpqpCqPGWfcOvIaavN0OH59ITQSZqxt_0Tgu00Wyv_P978K1-j5CP6p0MnVgr2gL4EWiMxArjG7hp3P4ekNN_VTMw3CyiP3xYxtwxyPYI_AGPaIfa2ZR0/s400/IMG_0792.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
Once students are through all 8 levels, they get to practice their typing skills on the computer! They can go to freetypinggames.net or another site that's linked on our school website to learn how to type, practice, and play typing games for free. We only have 5 computers in our classroom, however, so when they are being used (which is pretty much every time we do literacy centers) students have the option of "practice typing" on these keyboards! Look around at garage sales, Goodwill, thrift shops, etc for old keyboards, or put a posting on Craigslist for some to be donated to your classroom. I cut the cords off of them, and viola! Now students can practice typing without actually needing a real computer. (I also use these keyboards for one of our word work options, which will be a whole new post!)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5YfDpz_lIc2TaiLZAL-s-aSS8JHBc9Mc1x91u9IlSZcJbihKRkMqbg_aTY8V5b6V9pr5ub-9CtWFyHqk1J7IXBrVvfs7p-PJTxFT3EvAlbolelP_SPrQxz8zqoNVnj6t1HbZJ-z_E4FE/s1600/IMG_0784.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5YfDpz_lIc2TaiLZAL-s-aSS8JHBc9Mc1x91u9IlSZcJbihKRkMqbg_aTY8V5b6V9pr5ub-9CtWFyHqk1J7IXBrVvfs7p-PJTxFT3EvAlbolelP_SPrQxz8zqoNVnj6t1HbZJ-z_E4FE/s400/IMG_0784.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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So there you have it. It's an easy way to make handwriting a part of your literacy centers and students are completely independent while doing each level (I have them turn the level in to the inbox when they are done with it and go right on to the next level, and then I meet back with them to either congratulate them on a job well done, or to help them with the letters/words they're still struggling with. I track their progress with a simple chart, like the one shown below.)<br />
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How do you teach/practice/track/assess handwriting in your classroom? What have you found to be helpful in assisting struggling writers? How might I improve my centers, and what do you do help students learn to type, since that is more of the focus for the CCSS (even though writing legibly is still important!)? If you would like a PDF copy of all of the levels, just download it for FREE from my TeachersPayTeachers store or paste your email in the comments below. Leave a comment, share, repin this, visit http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Stephanie-Madison to support my efforts, and check back for more!SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-90623416930297665412013-04-01T15:32:00.003-07:002013-04-01T15:32:52.315-07:00Celebrating Bilingual Literacy!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDJUXc1OFdZJvLq2eB7fU4Uj0wvAhz2VF57tKhr_N00FiUsNPlPbjaK0RiHemkH8YkJYlnnvOfoE4qKd7QYQ9VQEVvsKTKx_H9PKmzfC8BeF2Bpus96rz5stE6_o9ff4HNYGYcD_oW-L0/s1600/IMG_0454.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDJUXc1OFdZJvLq2eB7fU4Uj0wvAhz2VF57tKhr_N00FiUsNPlPbjaK0RiHemkH8YkJYlnnvOfoE4qKd7QYQ9VQEVvsKTKx_H9PKmzfC8BeF2Bpus96rz5stE6_o9ff4HNYGYcD_oW-L0/s400/IMG_0454.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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Every year, our school has a "Celebration of Students" night where families are invited into the school to see their students' art work and written work displayed on the walls. We have an artist come in to lead a craft/art project, and give out free popcorn as well as having an "Open Mic" for presentations of music, poetry, etc. Another aspect of our art-filled evening that we added last year is a bilingual section to specifically highlight the biliteracy that many of our students have worked hard to develop. We had Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, and Dutch pieces featured last year.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi241VqpGh1tvHec6pXVOU4onMhWKGudDVbdW1-VZbBM0q4KmCetUWYDOYEwQaMLnwZZil9XPccnUxzpBjnckuOYv2WRWrssw-awQwRuv1dsG69WISjpcJo8dqrlcbPU0j75ErgbqiVcnc/s1600/IMG_0455.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi241VqpGh1tvHec6pXVOU4onMhWKGudDVbdW1-VZbBM0q4KmCetUWYDOYEwQaMLnwZZil9XPccnUxzpBjnckuOYv2WRWrssw-awQwRuv1dsG69WISjpcJo8dqrlcbPU0j75ErgbqiVcnc/s400/IMG_0455.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here is a story written in English and Russian. Below is a report written in English and Dutch.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRQgxQb-LA8svHTkFrfiHOIqCcIcRDep6UmmOgYRKSD-iqgFtXGrtFPP_ReQ9Mo4O48FKZrXyMZbM-ZXKT-sBphzHJmeKbpcwAHMxDeB1QaTpKxnQtpV4t0cLJuHYDN9XnotRjxfzQlBQ/s1600/IMG_0456.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRQgxQb-LA8svHTkFrfiHOIqCcIcRDep6UmmOgYRKSD-iqgFtXGrtFPP_ReQ9Mo4O48FKZrXyMZbM-ZXKT-sBphzHJmeKbpcwAHMxDeB1QaTpKxnQtpV4t0cLJuHYDN9XnotRjxfzQlBQ/s400/IMG_0456.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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A poem in English and Spanish is shown below.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4U2z1VxrJYt4C6YPz9kOiKRVvkdbvjeZc1NCcWmXSZPOqAT4UULGHAnsNCSvod-EGrg4VCTGX8cvFd7dSsHxdxJK-oesUoHEZWi2VKsDpSTkbcLZF7EmMTrWVN5N0MDyR9rMSnHGHjOc/s1600/IMG_0457.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4U2z1VxrJYt4C6YPz9kOiKRVvkdbvjeZc1NCcWmXSZPOqAT4UULGHAnsNCSvod-EGrg4VCTGX8cvFd7dSsHxdxJK-oesUoHEZWi2VKsDpSTkbcLZF7EmMTrWVN5N0MDyR9rMSnHGHjOc/s320/IMG_0457.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This bulletin board was also given a special location near the principal's office at the front of the school. It's just one of the many ways that we celebrate and show the value of knowing multiple languages at our school. I organized it by simply asking each classroom teacher to invite their bilingual students to submit a piece of work for the special acknowledgment, and then just added the bilingual border. How does your school celebrate biliteracy and bilingualism? What do you do in your own classroom to encourage this advancement in literacy? Leave a comment, share, and check back for more soon!</div>
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SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-73925334471757572362013-01-01T18:18:00.005-08:002013-01-01T18:20:29.463-08:00You Are a GiftThis is such a touching project that I stole from my friend Heather (she even hand-made a poster for each student in our class!). If you need a fun way to lift up your students, help them think positively, increase their adjective use, develop their writing, and just make everyone feel loved, this is the easy, 15 minute project for you!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12-8MXRe7EhvgHGT3AvtYrRwcQ-LaVDVC0e95Bi3L8jaKIMcYTJt8Shtp34tybgQvFv9b0Bi-sxo6CREDCgqbcgZ1P93ajh5G_emxaa4FZ5MEZwDTkykzSuW-vl_2P6TwhPKvM5Xti8o/s1600/IMG_1327.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12-8MXRe7EhvgHGT3AvtYrRwcQ-LaVDVC0e95Bi3L8jaKIMcYTJt8Shtp34tybgQvFv9b0Bi-sxo6CREDCgqbcgZ1P93ajh5G_emxaa4FZ5MEZwDTkykzSuW-vl_2P6TwhPKvM5Xti8o/s400/IMG_1327.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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All you need for this project is large, white construction paper. You, or a fabulous parent volunteer, just write each student's name as "_____- You are a gift." Add a little bow to it, and they're ready for the class.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8vj98u5YnLHcRrgIuEbahYF_2d-vBK8l8-Oj9wKKsK7No4P07_5z0VXyN3pyYZw0VSaqBNzJnCQ6g3HYuwxSU_YvUQ6BNqhAJpRM5b5JmPOp-5T9SIW5S4idZIm_kzvjz1LheeEmp3X8/s1600/IMG_1324.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8vj98u5YnLHcRrgIuEbahYF_2d-vBK8l8-Oj9wKKsK7No4P07_5z0VXyN3pyYZw0VSaqBNzJnCQ6g3HYuwxSU_YvUQ6BNqhAJpRM5b5JmPOp-5T9SIW5S4idZIm_kzvjz1LheeEmp3X8/s400/IMG_1324.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
We laid them on each student's desk before they arrived in the morning. Each student walked around to the other students' desk and wrote a complete sentence about why they appreciate that person or qualities they enjoy. On the board, I had a list of positive attributes and some sentence stems, like:<br />
I appreciate how you are ______ and ___________.<br />
You are always _____, __________, and __________, and I love that.<br />
Two admirable traits you have are _______ and ____________.<br />
______, I like how you ______________.<br />
Leave a comment below or check my TeachersPayTeachers account for the free Word document that I typed up for this project. Students just choose a sentence, the attributes they feel fit the person, and sign their own name. The goal is for each student to write at least one sentence on everyone's poster.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaFKiQ0oKvwt68qKvCq7wAM137FnJZBJPUjqL78NpmdIIqJARdAAr_qQxJsRdhGZcxxZcxtCX1diIvSefs8a-b3VY9VpKb42x9KsSAwTQf8FCPrbiauIjCOt27De-PXdXgkN7wszyBtTw/s1600/IMG_1325.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaFKiQ0oKvwt68qKvCq7wAM137FnJZBJPUjqL78NpmdIIqJARdAAr_qQxJsRdhGZcxxZcxtCX1diIvSefs8a-b3VY9VpKb42x9KsSAwTQf8FCPrbiauIjCOt27De-PXdXgkN7wszyBtTw/s400/IMG_1325.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
It's just that simple. We decided to put ours up in the hallway; one of the morning tasks will be for each student to go and read everything that people wrote on their poster. Eventually, each student will take their poster home to keep. These are the types of things that many kids hang on to for a long time; you never know what might make a difference for students, even years down the road. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcxp4lA1CKDXX-yxMEmWu0TvzJUUFuv5dJXSFRfCdpvW9U3IVOoj4RNH-RR8pDzyMcQQMO-GnOkxEbrL9Tvd2F-UXBtcVkdbksf9kaDgDOI_XdBbMw1tACy3MNgpkPrvLNEWUwVjQha90/s1600/IMG_1326.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcxp4lA1CKDXX-yxMEmWu0TvzJUUFuv5dJXSFRfCdpvW9U3IVOoj4RNH-RR8pDzyMcQQMO-GnOkxEbrL9Tvd2F-UXBtcVkdbksf9kaDgDOI_XdBbMw1tACy3MNgpkPrvLNEWUwVjQha90/s400/IMG_1326.JPG" width="400" /> </a></div>
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Leave a comment with how you might use this, or tell us about something that you do to lift someone else up! </div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs2v7tO6SixMwUEzUfmnoq5HdyruFmw-OPVUOuD5tvh-NHDWzokUJvIQ26Q9ynNyk9RP4an_Avm8gFxCqvCpqM13BxvClyjmRhat8m964mk0HL0LJRz_aAtUMcaZCxWqGE8UbH1hiDQ2o/s1600/IMG_1323.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs2v7tO6SixMwUEzUfmnoq5HdyruFmw-OPVUOuD5tvh-NHDWzokUJvIQ26Q9ynNyk9RP4an_Avm8gFxCqvCpqM13BxvClyjmRhat8m964mk0HL0LJRz_aAtUMcaZCxWqGE8UbH1hiDQ2o/s640/IMG_1323.JPG" width="640" /></a>SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-37344274165096968942013-01-01T17:41:00.002-08:002013-01-01T17:41:10.976-08:00Oregon Trail Day!After all my students passed the post test for our Oregon History unit, we decided to celebrate with an Oregon Trail Day. The Oregon State Standards used to have a lot dealing with the westward migration of the 1800's, and it was SUCH a fun unit. Although we can't do the whole unit because of the standard change, there's still a lot that fits in. With this Oregon Trail Day, we incorporated writing, literacy, geography, history, and some good old fashioned fun. Here are some of the things we did:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijiyOkwxou4oqSZ5QQt73fmQXKNlBDTBNYx189ExpxqOm8YYAAV5pt6mw22N4dDMATgGizZrRr1s2WQy8De7dnCwAagSXebh-Bru_qTl2dZFkh6h7I_UlVCWIVyJTQ8tkiKY62oqdVc_0/s1600/IMG_1293.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijiyOkwxou4oqSZ5QQt73fmQXKNlBDTBNYx189ExpxqOm8YYAAV5pt6mw22N4dDMATgGizZrRr1s2WQy8De7dnCwAagSXebh-Bru_qTl2dZFkh6h7I_UlVCWIVyJTQ8tkiKY62oqdVc_0/s400/IMG_1293.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
<b>Costumes</b><br />
Students were invited to wear their own school-appropriate Oregon emigrant costumes to school, but we also had some prepared. Besides the random cowboy hats, leather vests & jackets, and bonnet that I have out with our other Oregon history realia, I had an awesome parent make two more things for each student. Using one large piece of construction paper, she made one of these bonnets in a variety of colors for each student (some didn't want one, but even most of they boys thought they were awesome, and eagerly wore it all day long and took it carefully home).<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie-b4WRTIAN_mDOLGKAC0LJTa9hymO8FTGud6Kzz-gTaFXvTEtnD9crpf4t7Qio-yNesNduhMqBuKmt3oUIDOM6-UPGacMuvSow3iKdULvkdhkgb0MImRH_PsxJGLYgIfU1pGlmBRDseY/s1600/IMG_1285.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie-b4WRTIAN_mDOLGKAC0LJTa9hymO8FTGud6Kzz-gTaFXvTEtnD9crpf4t7Qio-yNesNduhMqBuKmt3oUIDOM6-UPGacMuvSow3iKdULvkdhkgb0MImRH_PsxJGLYgIfU1pGlmBRDseY/s320/IMG_1285.JPG" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgokpELWPlA6kX2-ncSuxEQo-P0Hme3dgq5gCvxcGRNP1EpY8gAkP7uMwavJMrq_jPB5TywJrf-DtWTatrWvpJ6qW2wKPSSrXI2Ol3MR0ZoTU54a5nOPZJx-NJ0RMrEyCUM4FkwgWM2hY4/s1600/IMG_1289.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgokpELWPlA6kX2-ncSuxEQo-P0Hme3dgq5gCvxcGRNP1EpY8gAkP7uMwavJMrq_jPB5TywJrf-DtWTatrWvpJ6qW2wKPSSrXI2Ol3MR0ZoTU54a5nOPZJx-NJ0RMrEyCUM4FkwgWM2hY4/s320/IMG_1289.JPG" width="320" /> </a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUX9CgdyW21nEiJiAGNEvjGQL6-AA10oTjF8bh8UnQfx_NGcyHP4p82TgRc8PAyKW7daXQsnkUNlbTorGS7vRTFTp18jeaEvpqC0pryfH3GoT3-XNdexmUPA3DPQvajs_MDvN-8sipc4s/s1600/IMG_1290.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUX9CgdyW21nEiJiAGNEvjGQL6-AA10oTjF8bh8UnQfx_NGcyHP4p82TgRc8PAyKW7daXQsnkUNlbTorGS7vRTFTp18jeaEvpqC0pryfH3GoT3-XNdexmUPA3DPQvajs_MDvN-8sipc4s/s320/IMG_1290.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhOQdUc8ApqMpMZhuQk1OrWrFV-eVtWCjrbEpmfJFgUW8grgbQAaDP20Esd6eXQOmf2LUcH5yGJdwSVbwLp-cudi66lHlasCPmkMj7GCqdUEHIkShh8-RZpKCohPI6o7x32MsA4-uoms/s1600/IMG_1291.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhOQdUc8ApqMpMZhuQk1OrWrFV-eVtWCjrbEpmfJFgUW8grgbQAaDP20Esd6eXQOmf2LUcH5yGJdwSVbwLp-cudi66lHlasCPmkMj7GCqdUEHIkShh8-RZpKCohPI6o7x32MsA4-uoms/s320/IMG_1291.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCnCFVAo28YiGuMgwgTUbEzpc5rceMcZQMSU4OFp_x8u6Y7XWPm4lhBVFu9BDx0xCYgFBvlORMi7DMGTw_mnOxgSxiARfJu0v6SZA7q7VWwocrYkuWQFRcGJ3L37JAWFr_0u3IIvWGUsQ/s1600/IMG_1292.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCnCFVAo28YiGuMgwgTUbEzpc5rceMcZQMSU4OFp_x8u6Y7XWPm4lhBVFu9BDx0xCYgFBvlORMi7DMGTw_mnOxgSxiARfJu0v6SZA7q7VWwocrYkuWQFRcGJ3L37JAWFr_0u3IIvWGUsQ/s320/IMG_1292.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
Even our amazing principal donned a bonnet when he came to present our Principal Award winner for this week. The kids were thrilled.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqGcbyzb_DZnDg2zHzMmJREOcoza6sdFPF1meexjh1ezJymhcB9BB3NNWCshfQzQ4u7fNHSKSnEGPBW8kB-GLIhsBJ6dJ3cLkq5bk1FeyhPdvprghwN_aTi1MuMd9__EhiGYbDCqS6NJc/s1600/IMG_1262.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqGcbyzb_DZnDg2zHzMmJREOcoza6sdFPF1meexjh1ezJymhcB9BB3NNWCshfQzQ4u7fNHSKSnEGPBW8kB-GLIhsBJ6dJ3cLkq5bk1FeyhPdvprghwN_aTi1MuMd9__EhiGYbDCqS6NJc/s400/IMG_1262.JPG" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijiyOkwxou4oqSZ5QQt73fmQXKNlBDTBNYx189ExpxqOm8YYAAV5pt6mw22N4dDMATgGizZrRr1s2WQy8De7dnCwAagSXebh-Bru_qTl2dZFkh6h7I_UlVCWIVyJTQ8tkiKY62oqdVc_0/s1600/IMG_1293.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
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From paper grocery bags, we made these fun "leather" vests. Students also thought these were very cool, although they were a bit difficult to move around in.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVpebytaM8_sksQgknW-gC6ub6zOfo9egIgtuVIQGcn2aTPoSylaVrM4HvVi_HGv5swwA5jFhzMK3V3U0t6Tf0kPLr9U8M8JYxGN_-SGUP09F0u8Ia1b2AWIuZ_vjelfl3Yd7zcbdyLqQ/s1600/IMG_1280.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVpebytaM8_sksQgknW-gC6ub6zOfo9egIgtuVIQGcn2aTPoSylaVrM4HvVi_HGv5swwA5jFhzMK3V3U0t6Tf0kPLr9U8M8JYxGN_-SGUP09F0u8Ia1b2AWIuZ_vjelfl3Yd7zcbdyLqQ/s320/IMG_1280.JPG" width="240" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwIcCJDlMaKy0uL6ncWmComSsfzks_YlSLrylIbu1NIacq7BrxZ98GK6Id1DVMj01QW3e305TuVoHMim_0JRnsfWN8Yq9GfQfEt3K4lmIZuyg7nK-LYBs9dqxpKObkfJme58If3k8zvTk/s1600/IMG_1281.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwIcCJDlMaKy0uL6ncWmComSsfzks_YlSLrylIbu1NIacq7BrxZ98GK6Id1DVMj01QW3e305TuVoHMim_0JRnsfWN8Yq9GfQfEt3K4lmIZuyg7nK-LYBs9dqxpKObkfJme58If3k8zvTk/s320/IMG_1281.JPG" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8bnj0cfa2vLnV4drBr-EZ6SeKwOoyeGtJq_pmhWvNCHkkr6N3s_mXjuJCWaEaQ7yyg4FHTaJi18sINdMNGLhJLR-IUejHRwojmfxMAZ2XoYraRdkeEqn3Ybin1z1G0aa2-DL-WwLQ77E/s1600/IMG_1282.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8bnj0cfa2vLnV4drBr-EZ6SeKwOoyeGtJq_pmhWvNCHkkr6N3s_mXjuJCWaEaQ7yyg4FHTaJi18sINdMNGLhJLR-IUejHRwojmfxMAZ2XoYraRdkeEqn3Ybin1z1G0aa2-DL-WwLQ77E/s320/IMG_1282.JPG" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfOIRQ-j9_1le-DAphjpRZj55wy0tMUtgJO20d9T1CRftep8Wa5x9H6r1MjsTGW7QIeFQTctSaptlOfvFZhiy29wzKca7mcBnLAsYz1LDAHD_avNh9IAUGHVGvj5tGkQT4-nvyXI2M5PM/s1600/IMG_1284.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfOIRQ-j9_1le-DAphjpRZj55wy0tMUtgJO20d9T1CRftep8Wa5x9H6r1MjsTGW7QIeFQTctSaptlOfvFZhiy29wzKca7mcBnLAsYz1LDAHD_avNh9IAUGHVGvj5tGkQT4-nvyXI2M5PM/s320/IMG_1284.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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<b>Diaries</b><br />
Each student made up their own pioneer name, and their table group was their family, so they decided on a common last name. Students determined their age, gender, likes and dislikes, and wrote about their life on the trail. We actually started this activity a few days before Oregon Trail Day so that the students were on their third diary entry by the time we got all dressed up and read our diaries to each other. Here are some of the students reading their diary entries:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghDmBLWBMqonruy1Vae-FxQJQsq1MHyiG_sVyYTw62a01FXzieo5MG3XyFL9YMmNg164OgZaYu98FfwgjEVI9Dgb4y0XxHKQyiQW0dRgkOMCYbRXrzP6-CAXGWn4OB-WPsXjdG4-Uqgs0/s1600/IMG_1268.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghDmBLWBMqonruy1Vae-FxQJQsq1MHyiG_sVyYTw62a01FXzieo5MG3XyFL9YMmNg164OgZaYu98FfwgjEVI9Dgb4y0XxHKQyiQW0dRgkOMCYbRXrzP6-CAXGWn4OB-WPsXjdG4-Uqgs0/s320/IMG_1268.JPG" width="320" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheRMGspJCF91QM7sLDuvCfLdrQB9i7IjQKMKngy9d-y-_9I1KpKnH6UAdca-0xDOFhlrhnq-KfWrKvhptWE5clnilpjY93CPfopzQGXZb0pXBlc7M8BMi3YEFC2eHWhyphenhyphenw2wGTI4-1MhfM/s1600/IMG_1266.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheRMGspJCF91QM7sLDuvCfLdrQB9i7IjQKMKngy9d-y-_9I1KpKnH6UAdca-0xDOFhlrhnq-KfWrKvhptWE5clnilpjY93CPfopzQGXZb0pXBlc7M8BMi3YEFC2eHWhyphenhyphenw2wGTI4-1MhfM/s320/IMG_1266.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqVWR_6P52vRqojglVEKlnePAvWz6tPVwosytOc5wecn4di4AMf9SgGsYNeMPgQC2ZHnR9PVYzZeHetHV6vTdh2GtzQXVMPQpeYgmTStN6QhVo1EuUT20Pl7NppwPRsYVeONdzQcOG6MY/s1600/IMG_1270.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> <br />
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<b>Little House Read Aloud with Peppermint Sticks</b><br />
Because Christmas is just around the corner, I read the Christmas chapter from Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. When it got to the part about the children getting a peppermint stick in their stockings, we handed out candy canes and they enjoyed their small dose of mint & high fructose corn syrup while I finished reading the chapter. (We learn about a variety of cultural celebrations and students are invited to share their own family's traditions with the class too).<br />
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<b>Oregon Trail Computer Game on the SMARTBoard!</b><br />
Every student gets to press something on the Smartboard as we play the 4th Edition Oregon Trail Game. We go fishing, plant gathering, hunting, talking to people, visiting forts and landmarks along the way, etc, and they LOVE IT! Every day for the last two weeks, we have played it during lunch, and every day I have students ask if they can stay in from their recess to continue playing it.<br />
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<b>Photos of Mrs. Madison Posing on Every Oregon Trail Monument Open to the Public</b><br />
This is the part of the day where my students crack up at pictures of me posing near/at/on/in a variety of Oregon Trail landmarks. <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizSLBNamJ0eFRCzLO8WQcB1prhb75G6qXFUEoFThXsge3yncH5w_tG5Lo0qhvVBgF1mspmpVHEYuFlZYlkFSu4yaXhJEFSCeIFIHloEYvxGF1M3bI0hmFLVJZFH_jS8ZJzqrJe0n1CxzE/s1600/P8190187.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizSLBNamJ0eFRCzLO8WQcB1prhb75G6qXFUEoFThXsge3yncH5w_tG5Lo0qhvVBgF1mspmpVHEYuFlZYlkFSu4yaXhJEFSCeIFIHloEYvxGF1M3bI0hmFLVJZFH_jS8ZJzqrJe0n1CxzE/s320/P8190187.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh0qtXAVMW2zA8ZvdfaRuD6juy8-VLAi2gavmYaywi0Vc5SwHbKDXnHCfzpWzB1jpWfwr6xiCQI3gSrnXz7Gkuvz_3Cc7n167mrAgyJtbE4mhqPzCIw9fqBQtsocNdrWMCT96Hiy1ZHaI/s1600/P8200278.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh0qtXAVMW2zA8ZvdfaRuD6juy8-VLAi2gavmYaywi0Vc5SwHbKDXnHCfzpWzB1jpWfwr6xiCQI3gSrnXz7Gkuvz_3Cc7n167mrAgyJtbE4mhqPzCIw9fqBQtsocNdrWMCT96Hiy1ZHaI/s320/P8200278.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLHmYJ0BPdSP0HK3aXdVaNuvzwGHyaQSV0Mxz1NdKqez81gZH_xSogB4blzIvD8Gq326nn7TtoUKiKwRl780z64X3-n6Vad96_3Idy0NBJKNKGnmCwFUapTpFd7OfGSyOdHT9otdWkLFg/s1600/P8220334.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLHmYJ0BPdSP0HK3aXdVaNuvzwGHyaQSV0Mxz1NdKqez81gZH_xSogB4blzIvD8Gq326nn7TtoUKiKwRl780z64X3-n6Vad96_3Idy0NBJKNKGnmCwFUapTpFd7OfGSyOdHT9otdWkLFg/s320/P8220334.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHWfBAO5MLiaPmfaUCLjDhqSGFz8EtxMDnUw9Pgzr4hGfEjUd_wqXfpnscOoMO5EMrogimzkuxbNw0PWFTybeApQLw1cIB6DlT-slDqSYn2Ss2sl97SQRXj-LtlfJM11X9O3bPg9F5JDs/s1600/P8270538.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHWfBAO5MLiaPmfaUCLjDhqSGFz8EtxMDnUw9Pgzr4hGfEjUd_wqXfpnscOoMO5EMrogimzkuxbNw0PWFTybeApQLw1cIB6DlT-slDqSYn2Ss2sl97SQRXj-LtlfJM11X9O3bPg9F5JDs/s320/P8270538.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYF0BqNnXDvsOYeK6tSUs6KL5a03-c9YcRdTgR-NQebEXOxoHaYq8UudtR1dw6BTOxLJHmaW47jKZUsiDneC8kHi4xteE6fwBATLRrpta7BMTgjSE65hFc5kuUtEuE_hVRKHwgaelomrI/s1600/P8280592.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYF0BqNnXDvsOYeK6tSUs6KL5a03-c9YcRdTgR-NQebEXOxoHaYq8UudtR1dw6BTOxLJHmaW47jKZUsiDneC8kHi4xteE6fwBATLRrpta7BMTgjSE65hFc5kuUtEuE_hVRKHwgaelomrI/s320/P8280592.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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<b>Oregon Trail Chants/Songs</b><br />
I am an English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher, so language learning is important to me. One of the GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) strategies that I use throughout the year in all subject areas is chants/songs. Each student in my class has their own chant book with a copy of all of the chants that we do during the year, and they get to take it home during the summer. Here are some students practicing singing some Oregon Trail chants with a partner:<br />
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If you would like a copy of some additional chants, let me know in the comments below. I have chants for nearly everything for third and fourth grade. They help students build reading fluency, vocabulary, and content knowledge, and they are an excellent resource for teachers.<br />
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<b>Oregon Trail Foldables</b><br />
See my other posting about these fun vocabulary foldables that can easily be adapted to any set of vocabulary that you want your students to learn here- http://applesofyoureye.blogspot.com/2013/01/vocabulary-foldables.html <br />
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<b>Spinning/Fiber Arts</b><br />
My mom is awesome, so she brought in
her spinning wheel and a variety of fibers and wool to share with my
class. She led a mini-lesson on fiber arts and showed the students how
to use a spinning wheel. Then, each student got a piece of wool to
"spin" with their hands to make a bracelet or bookmark. We ran out of
time to have every student finish the project, but they got to take
their wool home, with which they were very happy.<br />
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What fun theme-centered activities have you done? Can you think of a
way to adapt one of these activities to fit a different theme? Leave a
comment below, and head out west with your class! <br />
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<br />SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-44465868589657439672013-01-01T16:50:00.002-08:002013-01-01T16:50:26.488-08:00Vocabulary Foldables<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Happy Holidays, everyone! We continue to have a very Merry Christmas in the Madison household (since we're Catholic, Christmas lasts 12 days!), and I finally have time to post a few fun things we've been working on the last few months. Why not start off the new year with some fun foldables? They are easily adaptable for any subject and really help with vocabulary development. You can make a fun bulletin with them like this:<br />
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That way, not only your students, but students passing by your room will increase their vocabulary as well! I even had a few adults tell me they didn't know some of the vocabulary words that our students were using. This particular set of vocabulary foldables is for our Oregon Trail/Westward Migration unit.<br />
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Here is the basic breakdown of these foldables: fold a sheet of paper in half. That's it! :) There are a lot of different types of foldables, and I'll post some more complex ones later, but this is just as easy as it gets. Still, just working on different kind of paper than they're used to and folding it is enough of a nuance for students to make it exciting. It also makes for a couple good games when they're done.<br />
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On the front, each student writes one word (I wanted to do a game with these and hang them in the hallway for others to learn from, so I made them all choose different vocabulary words from the unit, particularly, from a non-fiction read aloud that we did from an Oregon Trial book). Then they do a picture that symbolizes the meaning of that word. In the example below, you'll see the word "Scurvy"along with an adorable picture of a pioneer who has softening gums, bleeding skin, and teeth coming out of his skull. No one said foldables have to be sweet, and the boys in the class particularly enjoy the more gruesome vocabulary words!<br />
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On the inside of the folded paper, your students will write the word again, along with the dictionary definition of the word. This is yet another time that we practice dictionary skills, and the students already have a basic understanding of their new word from the non-fiction text that we read aloud from. If you are giving the words to your students "cold," you will probably need to help some of them decipher what the dictionary definition actually means. Last, they write a complete sentence using the new vocabulary word. I just love the sentence this student created- "I'm sorry, your brother has scurvy." I had my students take a few minutes to color their foldable and trace the pencil in colored pencil after I checked them over since we were "publishing" them in the hall.</div>
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Now the fun begins. One game that I play with these is Musical Vocab Partner. Each student walks around with their foldable up against their own chest. I play music, and when the music stops, each student rushes to find a partner. They read their partner's word aloud and try to guess at the meaning of the word based upon the picture they see on the front of their partner's foldable. Then their partner tells them how well they did. I usually use sentence frames like:<br />
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I think your word _______ means ____________ because your picture shows ________________.<br />
I predict that your word ________ means _________ because your picture depicts ___________.<br />
<br />You are correct/close, my word ______ means ___________.<br />
The definition of my word, _______, is _______________, which means your prediction was correct/close.<br />
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With any leftover time, they read their partner's foldable aloud and then their partner reads their foldable aloud, practicing for fluency and cementing the new word in place. I start the music again, and they learn a new word.<br />
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If I already have the bulletin board up, I usually make it a morning activity (one of the first tasks that they need to accomplish after getting their things settled before we start instruction) to go out and take a look at the bulletin. Sometimes, I'll have them write down what they think was the trickiest word on a piece of scratch paper, along with its definition and sentence and then turn it in. I might have them use the above sentence stems to just write about one of the words they see on the bulletin, and then check their own understanding by lifting the foldable flap. When we have our little first grade buddies over, I have each student explain their word and show their buddy their foldable (they are often given as a buddy 'gift' as well). Sometimes we send our foldables to our pen pals, which gives the students another reason to make them look great and gives the writing more purpose. <br />
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What foldables have you used? Do you have any fun games or activities that you use them with? What other vocabulary development activities do you do? Comment, share, repost, and have a fabulous 2013! </div>
SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-73004154846156315382012-11-04T22:16:00.001-08:002012-11-04T22:16:35.294-08:00Scary Story Writing Unit<span style="font-family: Harrington;"><span style="font-size: large;">I just put a new writing unit onto my Teachers Pay Teacher account </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Harrington;"><span style="font-family: Harrington;"><span style="font-size: large;">( </span><a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Scary-Story-Writing-Unit"><span style="font-size: large;">http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Scary-Story-Writing-Unit</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> ) </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">that is great for autumn. Here is a little sneak peek for my blog followers!</span></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">10 Day Scary
Story Unit ~ Writer’s Workshop Mini-Lessons<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Teacher’s Guide,
printables, and examples<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">The entire unit has 10 pages of complete student-friendly instructions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Below, you will find the breakdown of what I present each day during the mini-lesson of our writer’s workshop time as well as some examples to help get the students inspired to write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have some students who do not celebrate Halloween, are not allowed to write/read/talk about pretend creatures, or who just don’t like to write about scary things, so I modify this for them by encouraging them to do any autumn related story that they’d like, or bring one of the seeds from their Writing Ideas section (see my Writer’s Notebook labels& lessons kit on TPT) to final copy form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The vast majority of my students (especially the boys) LOVE this unit and students come back years later still talking about it. Here is the basic breakdown of each day, most of which have an accompanying printable page further on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have tried to create each section so that you can simply display one on your projector or beneath your document camera and you won’t need to print a copy for every student if you don’t want to.<o:p></o:p></span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Day 1<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Day 2<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Day 3<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Characters<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Setting<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Plot/outline<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p>Drafting Drafting Editing</o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Day
7<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Day 8<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Day 9<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Editing<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Final Copies<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> Final Copies</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">Day 10</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Presentations/Bulletin Board</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Scary Story Characters<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Begin by
thinking of the characters you want in your scary story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the My Writing section of your Writer’s
Notebook, write down the following information for your scary story characters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember that you do not have to have all of
these characters because you get to decide as the author how many characters
you have and who they are.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Protagonist
Name _____________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Physical
Description (age, hair color, length, eye color, clothes, etc)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Personality
(funny, understanding, smart, kind, clumsy, thoughtful, etc)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Scary Story
Setting<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Physical Location</span></b><span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">~ Start thinking about the
physical location you want your scary story to take place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the My Writing section of your writer’s
notebook, write a few of the ideas that you like below, or write in your own
setting for your story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think about the
areas where you want your characters to be during your story, or the different
settings you want them to move through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Scary Story
Editing<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Use the 6
writing traits to edit your work carefully. Review your work with an editing
checklist to polish your work. Make sure that your story meets all of the
following:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">1. First, check that you have one main idea for your whole story. Take out
any random sentences and make sure that you have supporting details in each
paragraph, with at least three sentences per paragraph. (Ideas & Content)</span><b><span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: System; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">2. Next, make sure that each paragraph is separated with an indented line
or that you skipped a line between each paragraph. Check that each paragraph
has one main idea and supporting details. (Organization)</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">3. Now, make sure that all of your sentences start in different ways. Add
transition words or rearrange sentences to make them start differently.
(Sentence Fluency)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Harrington; mso-bidi-font-family: System; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">4</span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">. Highlight any word you think might possibly
be misspelled. Look up these words on dictionary.com, in dictionaries, and on
spellcheckers. (Conventions)</span><b><span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: System; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">5. Make sure that you have at least one great juicy, descriptive, or
feeling word in each sentence. (Word Choice & Voice)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">6. Examine the first letter of each sentence and look for proper nouns
(names of people, places, or things) and check that they are capitalized.
(Conventions)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">7. Read your entire story aloud with a whisper phone, and change anything that
needs to be edited. (Sentence Fluency)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">8. Re-write your story on a fresh new sheet of lined paper. (Presentation)</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Final Copy<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Write
your polished final copy in your best handwriting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Add illustrations or borders to your final
copy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might look like this when
you’re done:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ1aW6kvX-jwUJbYfzWhgRMZTuyBK97znI9krL4KoBEsSqJyTuV4gztBK4RN32eGO9T2DCnNwsNEwCn-7RCY_kAJ08CyWxSLVCYsT56tINFDUnXAhRhXX-9XXBR9mpwFiw8ICEn16hKqU/s1600/IMG_1209.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ1aW6kvX-jwUJbYfzWhgRMZTuyBK97znI9krL4KoBEsSqJyTuV4gztBK4RN32eGO9T2DCnNwsNEwCn-7RCY_kAJ08CyWxSLVCYsT56tINFDUnXAhRhXX-9XXBR9mpwFiw8ICEn16hKqU/s400/IMG_1209.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Presentations<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Dim the lights, get out a flashlight, and have
students celebrate their writing by reading part or all of their scary story to
the class.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Find the full unit at <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Scary-Story-Writing-Unit">http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Scary-Story-Writing-Unit</a></span></div>
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What are your favorite ways to get kids excited about writing? Which writing unit is your favorite to teach in your classroom? Leave a comment, share, repin, and relish authorship with your students!</div>
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SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-35851063581304913922012-11-04T17:02:00.001-08:002012-11-04T17:02:37.478-08:00Editing Checklist Made Easy!<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">I've seen a lot of different editing check lists out there, but I haven't really found one that matches the 6 writing traits for the third/fourth/fifth grade level. So I made one. Here is one of the editing checklists that I use with my students for nearly every piece of writing that we take all the way to the publishing stage. Feel free to print and use in your classroom as well!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg12wkX16nJ851FbKwOG-UlEnFuIYMNRn9-HkaCIeGzb3hZdHSjtrmht2SC04KLQW2lK7KVmHWahYpUBd0EQirPzxxQ1B6k3LZGjXeMKP3bgL6lNLsVr0kYNYNu8zWaHvgFxtP8j6ZdofM/s1600/IMG_1213.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg12wkX16nJ851FbKwOG-UlEnFuIYMNRn9-HkaCIeGzb3hZdHSjtrmht2SC04KLQW2lK7KVmHWahYpUBd0EQirPzxxQ1B6k3LZGjXeMKP3bgL6lNLsVr0kYNYNu8zWaHvgFxtP8j6ZdofM/s400/IMG_1213.JPG" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"><u><strong>Editing Checklist</strong></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Use the 6 writing traits to
edit your work carefully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Review your
work with an editing checklist to polish your work. Make sure that your story
meets all of the following:<b><u><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></b></span></div>
<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Harrington; mso-bidi-font-family: System;"><o:p><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></o:p></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, check that you have one main idea for your whole story. Take out any random sentences and make sure that you have supporting details in each paragraph, with at least three sentences per paragraph. (Ideas & Content)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">2. Next, make sure that each paragraph is separated with an indented line or that you skipped a line between each paragraph. Check that each paragraph has one main idea and supporting details. (Organization)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"></span> </div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">3. Now, make sure that
all of your sentences start in different ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Add transition words or rearrange sentences to make them start
differently. (Sentence Fluency)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;"></span> </div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">4</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Highlight any word you think might possibly be misspelled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Look </span>up these words on dictionary.com, in dictionaries, and on spellcheckers. (Conventions)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make sure that you have
at least one great juicy, descriptive, or feeling word in each sentence. (Word
Choice & Voice)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Examine the first letter
of each sentence and look for proper nouns (names of people, places, or things)
and check that they are capitalized. (Conventions)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Read your entire story
aloud with a whisper phone, and change anything that needs to be edited.
(Sentence Fluency)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">8.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Re-write your story on a
fresh new sheet of lined paper. (Presentation)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Harrington; font-size: 16pt;">Do you have a favorite editing checklist? What are some ways that you've gotten your students excited about editing? How do you help them find misspelled words? Leave a comment, repin this page, and enjoy writing with your students:)</span></div>
SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-30256167032302964462012-10-15T17:45:00.001-07:002024-01-17T10:05:01.994-08:00The Easiest, Most Delicious Bread Ever!<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsXo8iGsV4s-0_YuuZWbR4D6mMDVru5LbGRybTdHWwTyDUcZKN3hrI7lKpAgQmjVIMlQMd_A76fCiGRv_2arn6qw6md1mrcAV9vERRjVE4RTmlHI5PM6wAWOT2kJySl5OtxN-PIdA-V-A/s1600/IMG_1188.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsXo8iGsV4s-0_YuuZWbR4D6mMDVru5LbGRybTdHWwTyDUcZKN3hrI7lKpAgQmjVIMlQMd_A76fCiGRv_2arn6qw6md1mrcAV9vERRjVE4RTmlHI5PM6wAWOT2kJySl5OtxN-PIdA-V-A/s640/IMG_1188.JPG" width="480" /></a> </div>
This has got to be the easiest bread I've ever made in my life. It's just four ingredients and about 10 minutes of actual work. The original recipe is from http://simplysogood.blogspot.com/2010/03/crusty-bread.html, but I'm going to break it down into a clear recipe and share a few of the mix-in's that I've tried thus far. You'll make bread this pretty too!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIP8XyqlvNVGJPv91ku1oqDa5lMqY-aONnqpPjdjHSWpC3M9L4eCE0CxNaeGef4UAGpw9z26xFjXlbp8kJV7Y_VVueMu8tk9ovIrAO1FiG1dysN7wUAl6JsdmMn00ZG3uIlvXDoRk2nY8/s1600/IMG_1190.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIP8XyqlvNVGJPv91ku1oqDa5lMqY-aONnqpPjdjHSWpC3M9L4eCE0CxNaeGef4UAGpw9z26xFjXlbp8kJV7Y_VVueMu8tk9ovIrAO1FiG1dysN7wUAl6JsdmMn00ZG3uIlvXDoRk2nY8/s400/IMG_1190.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
3 cups all-purpose flour<br />
1 3/4 teaspoon salt<br />
1/2 teaspoon yeast<br />
1 1/2 cups warm water<br />
Optional Mix-In's (see below)<br />
<br />
<b>Directions</b><br />
1. Mix flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Add the water and mix again. It will probably look like a gloppy mess, and this is okay.<br />
2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let it sit in the bowl for 12-18 hours WITHOUT refrigerating it.<br />
3. Take a large pot with a lid and place it in the oven.<br />
4. Preheat the oven to 450 F. Let the pot heat for about 30 minutes. While your container is heating, knead the dough a few times on a well-floured surface. Then let it sit for the rest of the time.<br />
5. Carefully remove your hot dish and plop your well-floured dough into the middle of it. Put the lid on, and bake it for 30 minutes.<br />
6. Remove from the oven, take a peek inside to admire your handiwork, and then let it continue to bake with the lid on for another 15 minutes (or until you can't stand the delicious smell of home-made bread you've just created, and you burn your fingers getting it out of the pot while it's still very hot, only to smother it in butter and devour it!). Enjoy!<br />
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Above is a little loaf of Parmesan & rosemary bread. Our house smelled much akin to Heaven! My cast iron pot after baking- very little mess to clean up! Actually,
when you cook with cast iron, you mostly just wipe it cleanish and call
the rest "seasoning!"<br />
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As for the container, I use my cast iron pot & lid, but the the insert to a crock pot, an
enamel-covered cast iron pot, Pyrex dish with lid, or anything else
that can stand 450F will work too. I haven't tried it uncovered yet, so let me know if you use a dish without a lid and it still works. I'm going to try it in my cast iron on top of the woodstove to see if it works. If it doesn't work on the stovetop, I'll try it inside the woodstove!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBClkS20whSyWHPv2lBuVfw5LugxDZWO_KwSQP6jbeL39dPAY3zReqZHEUfozpDyOW5u8ZCAwxr9YpJ0PFWlCb01oQx23lucC9WA6muxhYi5sOWOya0akBdtv7E68Q4ARWGxGhOQ3Co8U/s1600/IMG_1192.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBClkS20whSyWHPv2lBuVfw5LugxDZWO_KwSQP6jbeL39dPAY3zReqZHEUfozpDyOW5u8ZCAwxr9YpJ0PFWlCb01oQx23lucC9WA6muxhYi5sOWOya0akBdtv7E68Q4ARWGxGhOQ3Co8U/s400/IMG_1192.JPG" width="400" /></a> </div>
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Now for the mix-ins. Add whatever sounds good to you during step 1. I added 1 cup of Parmesan and about 2 Tablespoons of finely grated rosemary from our garden, and it turned out DELICIOUS! Throw in a few Tablespoons of brown sugar and sprinkle it on the top in step 5 for a sugary treat, or add in a few tablespoons of your favorite nuts- sunflower seeds and flax taste wonderful. I'm going to try some cranberries and lemon zest along with some Stevia in my next batch. The knife in the very top picture is actually my favorite knife of all time- the cheese knife from Cutco! <b>Please leave a comment below to let us all know what mix-ins you've tried!</b> Happy Baking & Eating! :)<br />
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<br />
*Update- Try these mix ins for a unique loaf:<br />
*1 tablespoon of flax, 2 tablespoons crushed walnuts, and 1 tablespoon of almonds makes a great, nutty bread. <br />
*Add 2 tablespoons of garlic and a few dashes of garlic salt for a delicious loaf of garlic bread too! <br />
*2 tablespoons of crushed walnuts and 3 tablespoons of brown sugar mixed in along with a dusting of brown sugar on the top will make for a scrumptious dessert bread. <br />
*Mix in a cup (not packed down) of cranberries and a heaping tablespoon of orange zest for a sweet and tart loaf.<br />
*With a 1/2 cup of cranberries and a 1/2 cup of chopped apples mixed in, you'll have a scrumptious loaf of cranberry apple bread! </div>
SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-89815511285945366762012-10-13T18:44:00.002-07:002012-10-13T18:44:12.529-07:00Fourth Grade Year Long Plan- ALL Subject Areas!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I just thought I would share this scope & sequence/ year-long plan. For anyone teaching in Oregon, this plan covers all of your standards for math, social studies, science, reading, & writing for the year. It will change a bit next year as we transition to the CCSS. This is all you need for Oregon, but I'm hoping that bits and pieces of it will be helpful for those teaching in other states & countries too. Let me know if you have questions or want clarification on things, as this is just the basic guidelines that we developed at our school for the 4 fourth grade classrooms.<br />
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">4<sup>th</sup> Grade Year Long Plan</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Science & Social Studies</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">September</b> <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Oregon
Government/ Oregon
Natives</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">October</b><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Oregon
Natives/ Immigrants / Pumpkin work sample</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">November</b><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Immigrants/ Modern Oregon</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">December</b><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Modern Oregon</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">January</b><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mapping</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">February</b><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Energy/ Matter/ Changes</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">March</b><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Daffodils/ Seed work sample</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">April</b><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Temperate Rainforest</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">May</b><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Inventions work sample</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">June</b><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Inventions work sample (boat
with buddies?)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Math</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">September <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Place Value & Math Workshop Intro</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">October<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Multiplication</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">November<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Division</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">December<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Math work sample</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">January<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Geometry-Area</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">February</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">March<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></b>Fractions & Decimals</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">April</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">May<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></b>Review</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">June</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Writing</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">September <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Begin Dictado, Writer’s Workshop, Word
Work, Personal Narratives</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">October<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Scary Story<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">/ </b>Pseudo Test 1</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">November<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Intervention Groups 1 & 2</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">December<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Expository</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">January<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Persuasive</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">February<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Pseudo Test 2<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>& Interventions</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">March<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></b>Interventions<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">/ </b>Poetry </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">April<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></b>District Writing Test/ Poetry</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">May<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></b>Collaborative/ Imaginative</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">June</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Reading</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">September <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>CAFÉ/ Daily 5 / Parts of Speech</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">October<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Predicting/ Connections/
Summarize-Story Elements</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">November<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Theme </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">December<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Conflict-Resolution</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">January<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Non-Fiction Locate & Interpret
Info/ Main Idea/ Summarize</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">February<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Inferences-Confirmation/ Cause &
Effect/ Fact & Opinion</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">March<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></b>Generate Questions/ Interpret
Text & Support </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">April<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></b>Poetry- Onomatopoeia,
vocabulary, structural elements</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">May<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></b>Main idea/ Compare &
Contrast themes/ Connection between forms of lit</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">June</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">And now, for your viewing pleasure, a picture of our class pet, Chubbs! This is her, "I am not amused" look.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEincJv5cxw2IcUEgB75EotHOEpw4slV1Qm99lkccR9E4VpBYYJ7spRy0_DdWkkjW_ng6c37_wRMH1gMylo24imrcRVisr4QotGLQUxFwvivd1XbkiufUWuDimtyM8W5ldWOnXAtskGi_rE/s1600/IMG_1104.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEincJv5cxw2IcUEgB75EotHOEpw4slV1Qm99lkccR9E4VpBYYJ7spRy0_DdWkkjW_ng6c37_wRMH1gMylo24imrcRVisr4QotGLQUxFwvivd1XbkiufUWuDimtyM8W5ldWOnXAtskGi_rE/s320/IMG_1104.JPG" width="320" /></a> </b></div>
SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-54047588912236365892012-10-13T18:10:00.000-07:002012-10-13T18:10:21.786-07:00The Basics of Writer's WorkshopI've had a number of people find my organization of the Writer's
Notebook to be very helpful; hooray! However, many need more information on
how to actually implement the Writer's Workshop (also called Writers'
Workshop & Writing Workshop). When I found this visual today (and
repinned it on Pinterest- Stephanie Madison) I knew I had to get it up
here. It didn't have the creator, but the original graphic can be found
at:
http://media-cache-ec3.pinterest.com/upload/173670129351766770_LI9UQzFs.jpg
It's a perfect visual for the basic breakdown of Writer's Workshop:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjwEX-RxGuaAZ50sKhtPual5CGwr0aNgbOmXzSPb1Cdx10olK_xlhgemrfIEU-LBF5Tzcrrv2BWQcChExyd04IUjV4O21FpeUoBwckiEHW9jBjcIAWemobGJQeev4oXL5Ayhu_PU9RInY/s1600/WritersWorkshop+Time+Break+Down.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjwEX-RxGuaAZ50sKhtPual5CGwr0aNgbOmXzSPb1Cdx10olK_xlhgemrfIEU-LBF5Tzcrrv2BWQcChExyd04IUjV4O21FpeUoBwckiEHW9jBjcIAWemobGJQeev4oXL5Ayhu_PU9RInY/s640/WritersWorkshop+Time+Break+Down.jpg" width="606" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
That pretty much sums it up! You start with a mini-lesson about whatever you are working on in writing. This can be guided by the standards that you're working through and the curriculum you have. We don't really have a writing curriculum in our district, so I mostly make stuff up based on the standards and what I see the kids need. See my post on dictation ( http://applesofyoureye.blogspot.com/2012/09/dictation-dictado.html ) for more on how to focus in on what your kids need practice with on writing. You can use this 5-15 minutes for any mini-lesson your students need. Your students can take notes on what you taught them/copy down information from your mini lesson, draw the graphic organizer you used, etc, in the Writing Notes of their Writer's Notebooks, like this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuoDsmxCcnPXftO3PTBnYn_ik46nIDd7tKXSS4NC4iEVAfjMnXpjDF_JaqjjY2N1dC9V7hGGvOy3dD2QpCm-BswGtmylLIuRluEYMukzjSPxn-6l8AibppUGShFlVeKtHFVx4FzMgx5Y4/s1600/IMG_1057.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuoDsmxCcnPXftO3PTBnYn_ik46nIDd7tKXSS4NC4iEVAfjMnXpjDF_JaqjjY2N1dC9V7hGGvOy3dD2QpCm-BswGtmylLIuRluEYMukzjSPxn-6l8AibppUGShFlVeKtHFVx4FzMgx5Y4/s640/IMG_1057.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
Then, students have time to do independent writing in the My Writing section of their Writer's Notebooks. In a beautiful world that did not have high-stakes, standardized testing, you could always let your students "free write" during this time, which is to say they can write about any topic in any form, and never complete an edited or published copy of anything ever. However, since we're teaching in the real world, this independent writing time is a balance between free writing and writing to a prompt/general theme. For me, it is probably about 30% free writing and 70% writing with some sort of guidelines, although even they can be very loose. It is my understanding that the "official" Writer's Workshop model does not ever "make" a student write about a prompt, but rather offers prompts for them to write about. In Oregon, we have a district assessment (which for 4th grade is reported to the state as well) for all of our students in which they must write to a prompt in essay form and take their writing all the way through the writing process. This is why I make sure that my students practice what they will be graded on (and what I will be judged on) so that they are successful. I try to do fun & flexible prompts so they are always interested; I'm planning a post on our personal narrative unit and our scary story/fall story unit, so check back for those soon!<br />
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While your students are writing independently, you get to pull small groups (for advancement or for interventions) or conference with individual students. I look for students who have writing skills that are above and beyond fourth grade, and I'll pull that small group of students to work with so I can help them take their writing further. For every writing worksample we do (I try and do one about every other month but I'm constantly scanning their classwork, dictados, etc) I also form intervention groups. Some examples include students who are still struggling to capitalize the starts of their sentences, trouble identifying misspelled words, breaking writing into coherent paragraphs, staying on topic, adding sensory & descriptive words, capitalizing "I," etc. While the rest of the class is silently and independently writing, I pull these intervention students and do a mini-lesson/activity with them to help them develop the writing skills their missing. <br />
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I also conference with every one of my students about every other month. After each work sample they do (as in a formal writing piece to a prompt or theme that they have not had outside help with), I grade them according to the 6 writing traits. Then, I meet with each student individually and discuss all the greatness in their writing. Next, I tell them a few things that they can work on, and they choose one of them to be their writing goal, and they record it in their Writing Goals section of their Writer's Notebook. They take a tiny sticky note and write their name on the front of it. On the back, they write their new writing goal. Then, they stick that goal to the writing trait that it falls under (like, "split writing into paragraphs with one main idea" would go under Organization). Until next month when we meet again, they will work on that goal. I usually have them tell someone else their goal, write it on a slip of paper to take home, read it to themselves with a whisper phone, etc about once a week to keep it fresh in their minds. The next time we meet, we see how they're doing with that goal; if they've got that one, we set a new one. Here are some examples of writing goals: <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9nSJdeInXYsb0TBCk-EswdLPET3SHL6gaGY_g43PH1NCtTMgIOM4zrkN7p8Yv_3C1naVk0ndjWqCYKlJl4utTQ7lX208mHZxzK1_asMOPLxXovTvAxLDpaVUKZ1LS2stcY5JlYh6-yXI/s1600/2012+Classroom+&+WN+041.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJyFsf1P9LoDCECacdPoWM8DIG1aLUBh4ySRxEMpntEb37Lxlt7GRwcdzpntcwuFtgtTDHnVxHUfkMkW6MljzTN09wlmjp_iVxjIpyfI-PsZNCNRw329JxaTHXvJ9xEcuDubyiDf6Uic/s1600/IMG_1058.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJyFsf1P9LoDCECacdPoWM8DIG1aLUBh4ySRxEMpntEb37Lxlt7GRwcdzpntcwuFtgtTDHnVxHUfkMkW6MljzTN09wlmjp_iVxjIpyfI-PsZNCNRw329JxaTHXvJ9xEcuDubyiDf6Uic/s640/IMG_1058.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
Next, students share their work with others. This can be broken into two separate sections, as suggested in the top visual, with the first being time for students to share with a partner and then the whole class. I usually just leave 5-10 minutes for them to share, and I mix it up. Some days they share to a partner, some days to their table group, some days a few students share to the whole class, some days everyone shares to the whole class. I think this helps in keeping things interesting and helping them stay motivated; sometimes I tell them who they'll be sharing to, and other times I don't, so they always have to be doing their best work, and it makes it more exciting to share. Note: this is the easiest part to leave out of the Writer's Workshop process, but LET THEM SHARE! This is a great motivator for some students and what makes it fun too. This gives them an audience and a chance to get feedback from peers and you on a daily basis. Based on your findings from what you saw in students' writing that day, you can plan for tomorrow's/next week's mini-lesson and go from there. <br />
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All that being said, I usually don't have a full hour of Writer's Workshop every day. Because I incorporate writing throughout the subject areas and do dictado, I simply don't have enough hours in the school day to fit in a full 60 minute Writer's Workshop time too. My writing time is usually about 30-40 minutes. I do a 5-10 minute lesson, 20-30 minute independent writing/conferencing time, and then a 5-10 minute share time. I don't think workshops, writing, math, reading, or otherwise, should be inflexible molds that are followed to a T. You know your students and what they need. You get to decide how to best meet their needs. Writer's Workshop is just an awesome way to organize your writing time, to help your students become better writers, and to ENJOY writing! That's why I've been using it ever since I found out about it around six years ago. My students love it, and I do too.<br />
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Questions? What isn't working in your writing time? What's going well? Leave a comment to let me know what future blogs you'd like to see too. Happy Writing!SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-45723398204195889912012-10-13T13:54:00.000-07:002012-10-13T13:54:21.654-07:00Contraction Mansion!<div style="text-align: center;">
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Our dictado for the last two weeks has been focusing on contractions, and I wanted to do something fun and craftsy with my students. I had seen a similar project on Pinterest, but of course I adapted it so that I wouldn't have to print anything and that it would be slightly more educational and still fit within the time frame of an hour. I have the complete instructions for the teacher, examples of each step, step-by-step student instructions, and the fun bulletin board we made from it on my site http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Stephanie-Madison This is just a sneak peak for my blog friends to share a fun idea!</div>
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Some students did a scary, haunted Contraction Mansion, while others did a pleasant autumn-themed mansion. I have a number of students who don't celebrate Halloween, so I always leave it open for the students to decide what they'd like to do. Above is a picture of the completed bulletin board, and here's a little more detail of a finished product:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgiUwVhWXZH1re6BdJYCKtAuMNSJdTZcakmZUKOJ2a581rsmLMVsMW4aD3w5D61W8Dd54lcP4Mq21YTv0A8hZuSvKBKAkv2QmiN4KKZ8wspjaxzJxgNK3NZ0VzC2fMUeffkCdl4_wyMDU/s1600/IMG_1172.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgiUwVhWXZH1re6BdJYCKtAuMNSJdTZcakmZUKOJ2a581rsmLMVsMW4aD3w5D61W8Dd54lcP4Mq21YTv0A8hZuSvKBKAkv2QmiN4KKZ8wspjaxzJxgNK3NZ0VzC2fMUeffkCdl4_wyMDU/s640/IMG_1172.JPG" width="480" /></a> </div>
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What fun, fall-themed activities are you doing in your class? Are you doing anything special for Halloween in your room? Leave a comment, repin, share on facebook, etc so others can create creepy contraction mansions as they practice their spelling skills too. Happy Autumn!</div>
SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-18519835998214279662012-10-06T23:26:00.002-07:002012-10-06T23:29:16.253-07:00Organizing Your Classroom Library<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hopefully your biggest problem in your classroom library is how to organize the hundreds of books you have. If you're still needing more books for your class library, head to my Finding Great Books on a Dime blog ( http://applesofyoureye.blogspot.com/2012/10/finding-great-books-on-dime.html ). I was very lucky as a first year teacher because I started teaching the same year that my uncle retired from 25 years of dedicated service to the education profession and bequeathed to me boxes full of amazing books (he chose carefully for his class library and had some great titles perfect for late elementary school age students). I also had a few dozen books from my own childhood and a couple of boxes from garage sales. There were even dozens of books left for me by my amazing mentor teacher, Jaqui Forney, who I had student taught with in the same classroom two years before! I was very blessed in terms of a starting classroom library, and I've added a few hundred books to our collection thanks to DonorsChoose.Org grants and Scholastic Book Club orders. Above is a glimpse of part of our classroom library; the green bookshelf to the left houses our class set of dictionaries as well as the first and second grade level books (each get their own shelf) and our third grade level books (which take up the two bottom shelves). Without fail, I have had a kindergarten/first grade level reader every year as well as high school level readers, so a good variety of books is essential!<br />
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There are many ways to organize a classroom library, and each grade level and teacher will be a little different. The way I organize my books probably works best for 3-12 grade, but some teachers prefer to have their libraries organized by genre, especially in the younger grades.There are a few reasons why I organize my books by reading level. The first is research. If a child is reading a book where they don't comprehend at least 90% of what they're reading, they will be at the frustration level and will get very little out of the text, let alone build a life-long love of reading. Some research puts the percentage of required comprehension as low as 80% to reach frustration, but anyone who has tried learning another language and attempts to read something that's beyond their current comprehension level will know this frustration first hand. Research has also shown that a student's independent reading level should include books for which they comprehend about 95% of the words on each page, and that only for the instructional level should we bring them down to only knowing 90% of the words (At least I got that much from my Reading Endorsement, although I am too lazy to actually cite my sources since I'm not being graded! :). This is one reason that I level nearly all of my books and organize them by reading level- so that students will find a "just right" book that will build their vocabulary while increasing their love of reading and building their comprehension. Here are some of the titles on one of our fifth grade level shelves:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPrd-NdwL9GWFMNs6y1VfEpSwwWfSesyv82-bKsH0EA1E2qqEq5iKH7MrdGjOAny3aEdRZeeCezUHid3zyRC2jzMgCev3Rd3IRGqxCaejC6eu1KPcM5nawkOtOKDUaCE9z3rx43XidSsg/s1600/IMG_1121.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPrd-NdwL9GWFMNs6y1VfEpSwwWfSesyv82-bKsH0EA1E2qqEq5iKH7MrdGjOAny3aEdRZeeCezUHid3zyRC2jzMgCev3Rd3IRGqxCaejC6eu1KPcM5nawkOtOKDUaCE9z3rx43XidSsg/s400/IMG_1121.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
Another reason I can get away with this is that I know the books in my library. No, I don't have them all memorized in alphabetical order or anything, but I have a general idea of what books I have in my library and could probably rattle off a few hundred titles. When a student is struggling to find a good book, I can ask them about what type of book they like (funny books, mysteries, animal books, adventure, etc). With that in mind, we go to the shelves that have their book level on them, and I can pick out about 5 books that suit their reading interests and have them excited to bring their favorite three back to their desk to put inside their book bag within 5 minutes (I use a gallon sized Ziploc bag instead of book boxes to save space and have them easily accessible).<br />
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We use the STAR Reading Test to get a general feel for each student's reading level. I also do a quick vocab test (I'll have to save that for another post) with each student within the first few weeks of school. Using an average of those two scores and what I've seen from their classwork, I tell them a grade equivalent reading level. If they are at a 4.2, they record that number in their "My Reading Level" of their Literacy Journal (see http://applesofyoureye.blogspot.com/2012/08/literacy-journal-organization-sections.html ) and they also write 3.2-5.2. This means that they can get any book in our classroom library that is within a grade level of their scores (between a 3.2 and a 5.2) to do the "Five Finger Test" with to see if it is a just right book. As you can see in the picture below, I just use a tiny piece of a label to hand write the book's level and stick it to the spine.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv9HXXBIYHoPVw4eYa0_L-ds8SAq29Fdz1RwPBjI7tJrWZFSoz-6Eq7BB-onbExheqFWOz_e-xDqZJoiNcqChR09nKp1rGZry0Yc_tbxHZzsfkEF3B92jjQ3Imq1f1lS_y_d8q164y_3E/s1600/IMG_1119.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv9HXXBIYHoPVw4eYa0_L-ds8SAq29Fdz1RwPBjI7tJrWZFSoz-6Eq7BB-onbExheqFWOz_e-xDqZJoiNcqChR09nKp1rGZry0Yc_tbxHZzsfkEF3B92jjQ3Imq1f1lS_y_d8q164y_3E/s400/IMG_1119.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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All my students are trained on the "Five Finger Test." I don't know who made up this little method of finding a good fit book, but it mostly assures students that they'll get a book that will be at their independent reading level. A student turns to a full page of text in the book they're interested in and starts reading. As soon as they get to a word that they're not sure about (they couldn't give a definition or use it in a novel sentence) they put a finger up, preferably their pointer finger. They continue reading until they reach the end of the page (usually about 100 words in an average chapter book). If they knew every single word on the page well, the book is too easy; they find a different book that will help them build their vocabulary a bit more. If there were one or two words that they weren't sure about on the page, it's a just right book and they can keep it in their book bag. If, after reading the page, they had three or more fingers up, it is probably not quite at their level yet, and they should look for a book just a titch lower. Generally speaking, I find that some students will claim they know all the words until you have them read it aloud to you and you help them keep track of words they can't decode/define/use in a sentence. This seems to be especially true for lower level readers who are eager to read harder books but are still building their reading skills. If students are complaining about not having much in the way of reading material, or that they can't find a book that's at their reading level because they never find any new words, a quick read aloud by them will almost always find some words that they may have missed when reading it independently!<br />
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I have leveled all of my chapter books by grade level equivalent (find the conversions for DRA, AR, and so forth with a quick internet search for charts like this one: http://www.thecurriculumcorner.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/readinconversiontitle.jpg ). For example, most of the Amelia Bedelia books are around 1.9, 2.5, 2.7 grade level equivalents. Scholastic's http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/ will help you level your books, but for older books or random ones, you'll have to use your best judgement as to what level they are. My books are organized by whole number (like all the 2's together on one shelf, all the 3's on another, etc.) The tall white bookshelf below is for all my fifth grade level books (between 5.0-5.9). To the left is the white book shelf where all the books from 4.0-4.9 are shelved, and the brown bookcase to the right holds all the 6.0+ books. Once my students get above the 6th grade reading level, they can choose any of the books on the brown bookshelf because there will always be new words in them.<br />
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Here is a better view of the brown bookshelf:<br />
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Our fourth grade level books:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZSq7Zybwo6omiDRVRaswsCW8xcyqkc2NlNrn7P8Z3zyFMCW3vfSftXuqKmS2j0jN_OPY6MEKPIaAi7RJ6KUR6w4phneQnLKdgj65za6B2-4sojaOmLjQ_JTTXYgNb4QjBTYXSjqquswA/s1600/IMG_1118.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZSq7Zybwo6omiDRVRaswsCW8xcyqkc2NlNrn7P8Z3zyFMCW3vfSftXuqKmS2j0jN_OPY6MEKPIaAi7RJ6KUR6w4phneQnLKdgj65za6B2-4sojaOmLjQ_JTTXYgNb4QjBTYXSjqquswA/s400/IMG_1118.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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Below is a picture of my bookshelf with the group book sets. I collected these mostly from Scholastic and they range from Kindergarten to high school reading levels on a variety of subjects. Most of the reading my students do is from a book they've chosen from the shelves, but I group them homogeneously for the book group. Each group has a set of three books that are at their level to choose from, and they read the book together and do a variety of projects with each one.<br />
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The only books that I don't label are the huge/non-fiction/class-created books/comics/random ones that I keep in these bins as "Everybody" books. I mostly just pull them out if they pertain to a particular topic we are covering in class, but other than that, my students only read these during a "read any book to self" time or our buddy reading with a younger class. They also won't fit on my regular little shelves that are chapter book height or are tricky to level. I also have about 100 books in separate bins that are from the school district, so I keep them separate from my own books.<br />
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How is your classroom library organized? What have you found to be helpful when you're guiding students in book selection? What are you still struggling with in your library, and what's working well? Leave a comment below, share this with a friend. Here's to great books!SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924957776086315635.post-84306282418479294452012-10-06T18:05:00.005-07:002012-10-06T18:05:44.429-07:00Classroom Jobs<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Want to build the kind of responsibility that sticks with kids for the rest of their lives? Do you want kids to learn hard lessons the easy way? Could you use a few less hours of work around your classroom each week so you can get other important things done to provide the highest quality education possible for your students? Then <b>CLASS JOBS ARE FOR YOU</b>!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3PGNFvO3liesqQTDR19P5WaG4wPDY6Q1023ETqJkYQyzE1_jqZPbFQUYR90AZJwnjZ2cA7PEynhSK1BzJDmA78cUieA0TJIgqsiL-KTVcOKtI1MTNMiofrY3usaq0u1p4Kx7LTlbWfjY/s1600/Class+Job+Pics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3PGNFvO3liesqQTDR19P5WaG4wPDY6Q1023ETqJkYQyzE1_jqZPbFQUYR90AZJwnjZ2cA7PEynhSK1BzJDmA78cUieA0TJIgqsiL-KTVcOKtI1MTNMiofrY3usaq0u1p4Kx7LTlbWfjY/s400/Class+Job+Pics.jpg" width="298" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">You can find my complete class jobs starter set at www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Classroom-Jobs-Starter-Pack for only $2, but I'm going to give you a sneak peak here! </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">In my Class Job Starter Pack, you
will find a complete list of jobs that are adaptable to your own classroom, a
student-friendly job description of each job, further details about each job
for the teacher to consider, and a job application that students complete. There is also a class job list that you can
print and laminate, and then use on the wall to write the name of each student
next to the job they have. The complete
set will explain pretty much everything to a teacher who wants to hand some
responsibility over to her students to make the classroom run like a well-oiled
machine!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u><span style="line-height: 115%;">Sample Job Explanations for the
Teacher</span></u></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">Librarian</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;"> <b>1</b>- These students make sure all of the
books in our classroom library are organized, facing the correct way and on the
right shelf. They also bring to my
attention any broken or ill-used books, and check our library check-out list to
make sure people are returning our classroom library books from home.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">Lights</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;">-Turn the lights
on and off.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">Doorperson</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;">- This person
holds the door open for our classroom and shuts the doors when things get noisy
in the hallway.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">Mail Carrier</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;"> <b>1</b> These two students pass out all the
papers/bulletins/graded homework/etc to each student’s little mailbox, which
are emptied by the students at the end of each day.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u><span style="line-height: 115%;">Student-Friendly Job Descriptions-</span></u></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">Pencil
Sharpener</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;">- Sharpen the class pencils so there is always a good supply of
sharp pencils and we don’t waste our learning time sharpening them!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">Office Runner</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;">- Bring things
down to the office when the teacher needs you to do so.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">Line Caboose</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;">- This student
stands at the end of our line as we’re walking though the hallways and waits
with someone if they have to step out of line to tie their shoe or return to
the classroom for a forgotten item.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">Ready to print job applications, the
complete job list ready to post with your students’ names, and complete
explanations are included in this set.
Of course, with your purchase, you get to pick my brain and I can help
you adapt it to your classroom too! </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Also, when you buy things from my TeachersPayTeachers store, a teacher’s request on DonorsChoose.org will be a little closer
to being funded, and great new supplies will soon be in the hands of our youth. Your purchase will also help provide food,
clothing, shelter, medicine, or the start to a new small business for the
world’s most impoverished people through Food for the Poor. (I give 20% of my profits to charity). I greatly appreciate your support.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">A teacher’s job is hard enough as it
is without worrying about the dozens of small things that need to be taken care
of every day in the classroom. Leave
time for more important things in your schedule while helping your students
build responsibility- try class jobs today!</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> Have you tried class jobs in your room? What positions do you have available to your students? Which student job has alleviated the most work from your schedule so that you're free to help your students with more important things? What difficulties are you still having with class jobs? <span style="font-size: large;">Leave a comment below.</span></span></span></span>SpiffyStephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188348140314428981noreply@blogger.com1