$1 Gifts, $1 Gifts, $1 Gifts Everywhere!

All teachers have been there!  Searching, scouring the web for new and improved ideas for student gifts.  First off, teachers struggle enough trying to provide for their own families Christmas that the idea of adding on 18, 20, even 30 more recipients to the list is daunting.  Look no further! Here are some great ideas to help IF you are wanting to get gifts for your kids. Remember, we give so much of ourselves each and every day that we should not be obligating ourselves into more!

                                          

Many teachers participate in Scholastic Book Clubs!  They usually have $1 and $2 books or even a lot of books for discounted prices too!  I also loved the idea of upping the motivation by playing bingo and winners choose the book they wish or even playing the left right left game!

If you haven't been to Oriental Trading you need to go run and check it out right now! This is seriously a rabbit hole for trinkets, candy, crafts, activity books and so much more.  Usually they are bulk priced and you get a dozen for the price, which makes them perfect for a classroom.  It is best to order when they are offering free shipping, but ask around and see if you can gather up enough sales in your school to reach the minimum for free shipping any day!  This year I am getting my kids these adorable plush animal bookmarks!

As educators we are innovative and constantly trying to find the next best thing.  Keep it mind that it is SO EASY and CHEAP to please.  A simple tube of chap-stick, pack of gum, any food, or a candy with a witty little pun attached will make them grin!

The other idea is to buy a classroom gift that the students can enjoy for the remainder of the year and future students too.  This is a great way to build up activities for fun Fridays, indoor recess, genius hour, or stem time!

I also was super intrigued when I found personalized pencils for super cheap!  Kids love different writing utensils and this would be a great way for them to take some ownership over their supplies.



This idea is too cute and seems way too easy to be true!  Holiday sock exchange! You can use bingo or the left right left game to distribute.  This would also be a great idea for the kids to gift to one another. I can just see the last day before break and everyone hanging out in their Christmas socks, drinking hot cocoa, and watching a good holiday film!







Completely free and again so easy would be a no homework pass or if you don't or rarely give homework then you could adjust it to adding 5 points to any assignment (excluding tests).





Do you have a full proof, affordable, and easy Christmas gift that you give to your students?  Share it with me below!

Wonders Reading and oh oh SO many resources....

And the conversation goes...."We just got Wonders and there are sooo many resources!"  I have heard this from many teachers who have just adopted the Wonders Reading program.  I agree that there is far more than one week's worth of material available.  Each teacher really doesn't have a choice, but to choose the aspects that are most crucial and beneficial to the students.  It is best to examine all the resources and choose the ones you think best fit your students' needs, but having some backbone to start with is also nice.  Here I am to share with you how we use the resources from Wonders, how I pull in other activities, and how we find time to also assess.

Like many classrooms there just isn't enough hours in the day to perfectly devote enough time to each subject.  I teach at a religious school, so we also teach religion.  When we first adopted Wonders I taught with a 10 day plan. This gave me the opportunity to really see what resources I found most useful.

Spelling Morning Work: Students write their words in cursive and in print on index cards. I use the pretest page and write the words in cursive on the lines.  Then I make enough copies for each child to use as a reference while writing. The cards go home and are used as practice for the Friday test. This is the only spelling homework kids have. 

Vocabulary: We begin our weekly vocabulary routine with a cloze activity. These are so fun and allow for some deep conversations about context clues.  All my vocabulary activities can be found in my TPT store! Click the pictures below to take you there!

Reading: Our reading routine begins with the Reading/Writing workshop book.  The students and I work through the shared read for the week using the accompanying skills sheet from Math Tech Connections.  I LOVE LOVE these sheets because they introduce all the skills for the week in a quick, kid-friendly way.

     

Spelling Morning Work: Students complete the word sort page from the Wonders sequence. 

Vocabulary: The second day we complete student led definitions.  The students and I have an in depth discussion on what they think appropriate definitions would be.  The vocabulary chart and cloze sentences from Monday are front to back so it helps to reference back to the way the word was used in context of a sentence. If we do not agree on something, then we always reference the dictionaries. Here is an example of a completed chart at the end of the week. 

Reading: Tuesday we continue working with through the shared read as a class and completing the skills sheet. 

Spelling Morning Work: Students complete the word meaning page from the Wonders sequence.

Vocabulary: The third day we work to complete the synonyms/examples and/or antonyms/non-examples. 

Reading: Wednesday we begin working in what we call our "BIG" book.  This is the main selection for the week that comes from the Anthology Reading Wonders book.  It usually takes us two days to get completely through the story.  Wednesday we also fill out the graphic organizer as we read.  Every single week in the series there is a graphic organizer for the main selection. 

Spelling Morning Work: Students complete the word proofreading and paragraph page from the Wonders sequence.

Vocabulary: The fourth day we continue to complete the synonyms/examples and/or antonyms/non-examples. 

Reading: Thursday's reading plan includes finishing up a bit of the graphic organizer if it wasn't complete from Wednesday as well as the entire anthology story.  As a class, we then complete my text dependent questions.  You can access these by clicking the image below.  It will take you to my TPT store for purchase. For the first semester or so we do this together.  I model complete sentences and using the questions in the answers.  Usually in the spring students are independent enough to complete it independently and/or with a partner. We also have designated chromebook time in the afternoons on Thursdays where the students take the Accelerated Reading test over the main selection anthology story and then work on the Connect Ed website and play Wonders Reading games. 

Spelling Morning Work: Students complete a word search from The Teacher's Guide.  We also assess on Fridays.  We use plain sheets of loose lief paper.  The kids write their name, date, and the unit/week as the heading.  I taught them to fold the paper in half vertically (hotdog style) and trace the line, creating two columns.  They number 1 to 10 in the left column and 11 to 20 in the second column.   The students receive one point for each of the 20 spelling words on the front.  We then complete 5 blind dictation sentences on the back.  Each word is a point that is at least 2 letters long for first semester and then 4 letters long for second semester.  By adding the words correct from the front and the back gives the total score for spelling.  Capitals and punctuation is also given credit as a grammar score from the dictation sentences. 

 Of course before completing the spelling test we play SPARKLE.  Kids LOVE this game!  It is so simple and gives them one last chance to hear the word right before the test.  The kids stand in a large circle facing inward.  One student is given a word, he/she must say the first letter, next student says the second letter, and so on until the word has been spelled.  The NEXT student says sparkle and therefore the NEXT student is out.  This child who is out sits down and play continues around the circle.  This is a fast-paced game that allows all children a chance to win, not just the good spellers. 

Vocabulary: The final day of the week we do one last vocabulary practice with a crossword and then complete the weekly assessment that is included in the Wonders series.

Reading: Friday is traditionally assessment day, so we also complete the Weekly Assessment Test from the Wonders series.  These tests are made up of two cold reads with 10 questions each.  With some of my class being below grade level, as in all classrooms, we can not get through two reads.  I just copy one of the cold reads with the 10 questions and then just adjust the written response from the back to only include information from that one story.  

Back to School

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work we go!  We are just shy of one month into the new school year and I will just say my class is FULL of little darlings!  I am so thankful that there are a variety of personalities and each of us seem to have found exactly where we fit!  I have found myself saying so much this year with our new math curriculum (Eureka) that we are all the smartest!  There will always be something smarter than you at something and you will always be smarter than someone else at something...so THERE you have it! We are all the smartest. 

Speaking of smartest.....of course we know the old saying....You Can Lead a Horse to Water But You Can't Force Him to Drink.  GROWTH MINDSET!  I remembered this darling book last year that I found in the Scholastic Book Club and ordered, but never really found a good use for it - Rufus Goes to School by Kim Griswell.

This year I was determined to put this sweet story to use.  I just loved little Rufus and his determination to learn and could be adapted to such a large variety of character education lessons!  First, we read the story and had a discussion of course.   All the little, sweet, 3rd graders gathered around the carpet... it was DARLING!!  Then we used Mandy Neals Growth Mindset resources to create a class anchor chart for our learning.

I just DIE for these directed drawing activities so I created my own for Rufus Leroy Williams III!  The students and I worked through the anchor chart, then the directed drawing, and finally added our own speech bubbles to Rufus to display our Growth Mindsets!

So here we are...starting a new year, with new kiddos, and new goals for growth!  You can grab my directed drawing directions for Rufus by clicking one of the four pictures above of Rufus!

Catholic Schools Week UPDATED

Gearing up for Catholic Schools Week I thought I would share some of my favorite Religion projects I have done this year and in the past!

I had been searching EVERYWHERE to get a Catholic version of the Ten Commandments Phone I saw all over the place.  I just couldn't seem to find it and it was very confusing for my kids to see one thing in their Religion books and then another in the activity, so I created one that perfectly aligns to the Catholic Bible!  If you are interested in this activity click the pictures below!

This created the most amazing hallway display!!  I just found an image online and had my aide trace them onto large pieces of construction paper, white printer paper, and some yarn...voila!  The kids looked in magazines for the letters to the acrostic poem and we brainstormed words that described our Catholic School!

We have really been trying to get our students to actually utilize their Bibles!  This is a great activity for any time of the year (we actually did it around Christmas), but would be great during Advent, Lent, and even Easter!  The kids first used their Bibles to look up the verses and find the name(s) of Jesus in each verse.  Then as a follow up activity each child selected a name and did an illustration.  If you are interested in snagging a copy just click either picture below!

As we get closer to Catholic Schools' Week please come back and check out how I have updated this post to include more fun!!!

UPDATE NUMBER ONE

One theme to Catholic Schools' Week is to show our appreciation to our families for supporting our school.  The students are going to write thank-you letters and we needed some stationary to match!  This is FREE on TeachersPayTeachers!

UPDATE NUMBER TWO

Keeping in theme with the family appreciation we added something new to our calendar this year that EVERYONE is raving about!  Family Picnic Day!!!  Of course it is January and today was a high of 28 so it was an inside picnic, but still.  As a parent and a teacher it was great to get a glimpse of the pros for all parties......no work on the teachers part, except sending home an invite and super motivating for the students!  My kindergartner asked all weekend when her picnic was!  Basically each grade level had a picnic one day during the week. We doubled up so it was K with 5th, 1st with 4th and so on so that there weren't too many parents in the cafeteria at once.  The kids ate at their regular time and either brought a packed lunch or families brought in something special.  It was easy peasy!!  Here is me and my little one....of course she got McDonald's!  I have included an example of our invites.  The CSW logos can be found at https://www.ncea.org/csw .

Another thing we did this week that went along with our religion chapter but was also great for CSW because it allowed the kids to get up and move was Fruits of the Spirit posters.  Each child found 9 pictures, one for each fruit and wrote a caption.  It opened up great discussions about what are examples of gentleness, patience, etc.  Again, so easy for such a packed week!

 STAY TUNED!