Back to School Activities

Whew!!  Teaching on a normal day is a roller coaster, but this past month has literally flown by!  I can't believe it is already nearing the end of September, and I am just now getting around to sharing our back to school plans.  I have been a bad blogger...I promise to do better.

One of my favorite things to do the first day of school for morning work is let the kids color their own name coloring page.  We use these all year to label our cubby spaces.  Plus these are free!  Just click the image to the left.

We also worked on a classroom scavenger hunt!  This allowed the kids to roam the room, get a closer look at the different areas, as well as find materials they will use all year.  This activity was great for the kids to get up when they usually spend so much time sitting and listening the first few days.  I also loved this activity because it opened up a lot of discussion about procedures, essential information, and any questions the kids still had about our classroom.

Every year I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to read "Chrysanthemum!"  It is seriously one of my all time favorite read alouds.  This book is so great for kids of all ages because of the interesting vocabulary, plot, and the opportunities for connections.  After reading the book we did a super fun classmate connection venn diagram activity from Third Grade Thinkers.  We also started our first chapter book read aloud that tied in perfectly with this picture book, "Lone Bean."  This is an adorable book about a third grader, name Chrysanthemum, who is having trouble adjusting to her new life in third grade.

My kids are still a few years shy of being able to have an actual facebook account so I decided to give them a taste of what they are missing! Each kid was given a large piece of white construction paper and we measured a line at 2" and 8" to divide our sections.  First, they wrote a sentence or two about something they did over the summer and added an illustration.  Next, each child had 5 pictures of themselves.  They added one picture to their timeline post and then were able to walk around and comment on their friends' walls with the extra 4 pictures.  This activity was ADORABLE and it was so simple to ease into the new school year!  I got a chance to get to know the kids personally and sneak a peek at their writing abilities too.

We also took some time to talk about voice volumes.  Myself, by nature, am a Decibella.  My table talk voice is louder than most, so this is a skill that I can even work on.  This is such a fun read aloud and had the kids 100% attention the entire time!  If you are interested in some free class activities and the class voice volume chart click either of the pictures!

When I started pinteresting researching what back to school activities I would like to do, fact or fib was a quick and easy choice.  I hadn't really planned it all out and stumbled upon this book.  I was excited about how perfect the activity would correlate with this book.....my expectations were blown out of the water.  The kids were ECSTATIC about this book.  We could have sat there for days and drooled over each and every page.  Kids love fun facts!  There is a second book too that I am hoping to purchase in the near future. 

Finally, the last book/activity I wanted to share is probably the most important.

 "Mrs. Spitzer's Garden."  

This is a joyful, inspiring book that reminds teachers what is truly essential about our profession.  It is also an opportunity to build a relationship with the kids by letting them know their best interests are your number 1 priority!  We read the book multiple times and did a few writing and comprehension activities.

Making the Move

In the past three years I have taught kindergarten, first, and third and BY FAR the question I get asked most often is "What grade do you like best?"  Honestly, I am a born teacher.

Yes, you can go to college and learn all the techniques, tricks, and curriculum.  However, I am a firm believer that there are some people that are just born to be teachers....let's just say they have a knack for it! Therefore, I have loved every grade I have taught in their own way.  Each grade has its own sets of joys and challenges.  Third being no different.  With only one full week under our belt I have to say that my favorite thing about third, thus far, is the INDEPENDENCE!

We are spending the first two full weeks launching our small group time in both reading and math so don't make the assumption that this super independent age knows your expectations.  It is just nice to not have to teach things like how and when to go to the bathroom, where the lunch room is, how to line up.  The other great thing about the kids being so independent is their abilities to occupy themselves!!!  When the my grade level partner told me that you will just give them work and they will do it....I was like REALLY?!?!

DISCLAIMER:  Since we are still going through expectations and procedures this hasn't happened for me yet, but they have let me turn my back for a few minutes to get my lesson plan together.....totally different than kindergarten and first where you have to occupy them ALL THE TIME!

I am 100% sure that this will be an AMAZING year full of growth for myself and the students and I will quickly be adding to my pro's list for teaching third grade!

What's in your cart?! Linky

With the big move to third grade this year I knew my TPT cart would be full of new and exciting resources to meet those third grade standards!  I have done my research, anxiously awaited the sale, and HERE IT IS!!!  Well, in a few days anyways.  I wanted to share with you some things I will be purchasing during the Love Back to School TPT Sale.

First, don't forget to go leave feedback on all your paid purchases before checking out!  Those purchases earn you credits to be used towards future items.

Second, don't forget to USE THE CODE!!  There have been many sales where I am sooo excited to get my new products printed and ready to go that I completely forget to add the TPT code for the extra 10%!

If you are interested in sharing what items you plan to purchase please download the above image for you blog post to link back and add your link below!

All product covers have links to TPT!

I knew coming from first that my thirdies were going to need a few different activities for Daily Five.  So here are some items I am purchasing to stock my work on writing area: 

 

These prompts from The Teacher's Toolbox look sooo kid friendly and integrate a variety of writing styles! 

These editing task cards from Rachel Lynette are going to be perfect for my work on writing to integrate proofreading skills and the kids will LOVE the fun facts.  They are also nice because each card has three errors....so my students don't have to guess if they have found them all.

In first grade we were always focusing so much time on phonics and decoding that I really feel I slacked in the fluency department.  I am a BIG FAN of fluent, expressive reading, so I am hoping to get it in with my thirdies!  After much research, I decided upon these from Ashleigh.  I love that they integrate science and social studies, areas we all know never get enough attention!

Multiplication/Division EEK!!  After teaching K and 1st....this is really a new adventure.  Hoping to use these puzzles for our fact fluency math rotation!

          

I have seen EVERYONE using interactive notebooks and am thinking about giving it a half shot this year!  These are two I am planning to purchase to help me.  The language one is from Nicole Shelby and the reading is from Melissa Mazur.

We just so happen to start school on a Wednesday this year so I saw this and thought it would be the perfect activity for Friday, after we are all EXHAUSTED! Thank you Not So Wimpy Teacher.

I plan to use these procedure task cards, courtesy of Fun in 5th, as a filler for the first few days of school.  They will be a good way to make sure all procedures are covered!

Well there you have it!  Don't tell my husband about this, because he would not be happy!!

If you are interested in sharing what items you plan to purchase please download the above image for you blog post to link back and add your link below!

Back to School {Whole Brain Teaching Style}

I get a lot of slack about getting such a long, luxurious, and relaxing 2 months off....when many think all teachers do is hang out by the pool, sleep, and catch-up on countless hours of crap t.v.  But honestly, our teacher brains are NEVER OFF!  I will admit I am guilty of the spending many hours next to some form of water...but I definitely was thinking about teaching the ENTIRE time.  To control my obsession with everything teaching and school related I vow to not do anything of the like during the entire month of June.  July I start easing my way back in and then by the end of July/early August....back to school is in full force!

With tomorrow being August 1st my classroom is almost ready for the big reveal and I wanted to share with you some things I will be upgrading this year in my classroom.  I have always used a handful of Whole Brain Teaching techniques, but never actually read any of the professional books.  Around Christmas last year I said good-bye to my behavior clip-chart and become much more reliant on natural consequences.  I also dabbled in the WBT scoreboard.  Knowing I wanted to know more WBT techniques and improve upon the ones I had already tried I got my hands on this book:

If you are interested in trying WBT or if you have already been using WBT, this book has something for everyone!  It first outlines the foundational games of the WBT program and then gives you countless games in a variety of subject areas to manage student behavior and increase engagement during your lessons.

Here are some of my favorite things from the book:

• Class Yes - To get student attention the teacher states, "Class!" and the students respond, "Yes?"  There can be any variation such as "Class, Class, Class" and "Yes, Yes, Yes" or "Classy, Classy, Classy" and "Yessy, Yessy, Yessy."  You can play around with this one using different voices and versions.
• Name Yes - This is another version to the Class Yes, except you train students to respond "Yes?" when their name is called.
• Hands and Eyes - This is a simple three word command.  Students are expected to fold their hands and have both eyes looking at you.  Sometimes I use this one after the Class Yes to be sure my students are 100% focused on me.  I DO NOT move forward until I see all hands and eyes.
• Mirror Words - Have you ever needed to remember something so you started to say it out loud?  This is based on that same premise that speaking something increases understanding.  The teacher will hold up both hands and say "Mirror Words" and then begin to make a key point; 3-4 sentences.  The teacher will also add gestures to important vocabulary within those sentences.  For Example:  "A proper noun (put hands on hips) has a capital letter (make a point for the capital A) and names one (hold up 1 finger) specific person, place, or thing (giving that 1 finger a wiggle with each word).  This approach is not only stimulating the visual part of the brain, but also the oral and motor.
• Three-Peat - This is similar to mirror words except there are no gestures and it is usually used more with transitions or quick directions.  Teacher may say "Three-peat....word work notebook, word work notebook, word work notebook" students respond while starting to complete the direction, "word work notebook, word work notebook, word work notebook" and the direction is completed within the repeat.
• Rule Introduction - One of the most profound things that I loved in this book was their approaching to introducing the rules.  The author suggests introducing one rule at a time (for about 2-3 days)...of course your rules will start with the most important or at least most essential to running a smooth class.  You be sure to teach the rule with the gestures and then practice the rule at a minimum of 5 times a day until the kids have it memorized!  Gradually add each rule and continue to review the previous ones.
• Wrong Way/Right Way - This is a technique used to remind students when they are breaking a rule and also a way to be sure each rule has been modeling correctly and incorrectly.  If you are working on rule: follow directions quickly, you will want one student to be the actor to portray what it looks like when breaking this rule.  You may give the kids a simple direction and be sure the actor doesn't comply.  As you notice this actor, you say "Rule 1" and the class repeats "follow directions quickly" along with the gestures.  You should be sure this technique is used before there is a problem.
• Long Talk, Short Talk, Plan Together - I have NO IDEA why I haven't thought of this before!!  After getting rid of my clip-chart last year I found myself spending a lot more time actually talking with the kids about their problems and helping them with conflict resolution...which is a major benefit to ditching the clip-chart.  This technique helps give the child a choice, helps them learn to self-monitor, and be active in making plan for change.  The long talk is simply the teacher lectures the child on what he/she did and what he/she should have done and drills it in till the child wants to rip his/her ears off :)  The child may not speak.  The short talk is the teacher stating what he/she did, what he/she should have done and quickly moving on to a consequence if necessary.  The child may not speak.  Or the child may choose plan together.  Where both the teacher and the child have a voice and identify the problem and possibly solutions.  If applicable, you could also write down the solutions.
• Growth Talk - This was more of a principle of WBT, rather than a technique, in my opinion.  In a WBT classroom all the academics are focused on improvement and growth rather than obtaining a certain level of achievement.  Therefore, as a teacher you should be complimenting students on their efforts and persistence....not ability.  This levels the playing field between high and low achievers...you are rewarded on effort...not grades!
• SCOREBOARD - One of the most critical pieces to the WBT classroom is the scoreboard.  Introduce this classroom management technique to your students as a game.  Tell them they are going to get the chance to play a game every single day and all day long in your classroom.  The best part is it is all up to them if they WANT to win!  The scoreboard begins with smileys and frownys on a t-chart.  Whenever 1 or more students displays appropriate behavior the entire class earns a smiley.  The entire class celebrates with an "OH YEAH!"  On the flip side, frownys can only be earned by more than 1 child....1 child's behavior should not affect the classroom as a whole.  The entire class mourns with an "OH NO!"  As in any game there are levels and it gets harder and harder to reach the next level, but the prizes also get sweeter!  You may choose what prizes the students may win.  Maybe it is something each day they have more smileys than frownys.  Maybe it is a class reward once they reach a certain number of wins.  It is suggested in the book to start with 10 wins to level up and then eventually move to 15 wins to level up.  Some variations include boys vs. girls, teacher vs. students, and left vs. right.    

These are only a few of the 122 Amazing Games that are explained in the book.  

I am so excited to really jump in full force with Whole Brain Teaching this year and hope it has a positive effect on my students engagement and behavior!  Check back in a month or so once school gets rolling and I will be sure to give an update on how our WBT classroom is coming along!

End of the Year Part 3

 I am officially on summer vacation, but I know many of you still have days or even weeks to go... sorry #not sorry.  This is my part 3 and final portion of my end of the year posts.  If you are interested in reading here are links to Part 1 and Part 2.  Just a quick recap: for the last 10 days of school we did a balloon pop countdown.  This was my first year doing this type of countdown.  I previously taught K and we counted down the last 26 days to go along with the alphabet - A to Z and then only did fun things the last 10 days.  Here are the details on our final four days of the year!  

Day 4 was No Papers Day!  This should have been called No Worksheets day.  I planned a day full of hands on, engaging, and academic activities!  We played a spelling review game using the resource list I have utilized all year.

I saw this idea on pinterest and tweaked it a bit for my classroom.  I printed enough copies for my class and one for myself.  My copy I simply wrote a fact specific to each student and only that student.  Some I had were: "shares a middle name with Mrs. Evans" "races dirt bikes" "has a March birthday" etc. I cut my spaces apart to be used as the cards.  Then the kids wrote each students' name on a space.  We used my name too so it would be 20 spaces.

The smile on the faces when the class shouted their name was priceless.  This game was a lot of fun!!

For math we did a survey activity that I found for FREE from Shoelaces and Sugar Cookies!  You can find it in her TPT store by clicking on one of the pictures below.

 I demonstrated the directions of the activity then I distributed different surveys to the kids. It was more interesting not having the same survey!

 Day 3 was shaving cream day!!  No primary classroom can end their year WITHOUT putting shaving cream on our desks.  The kids reactions to the shaving cream are sooo funny.  We did some word work and then they got some time to free play with the cream.

Later in the afternoon we had fun with some parts of speech and math review.

This was a freebie sample from a larger pack compliments of The Classroom Key. You can grab the freebie in her store by clicking on the picture.

 This is one of my creations that is a fun way to review math skills with a summer theme!  This is another activity the kids love!  You can grab a copy by clicking the picture below to head to my TPT store!

Day 2 was field day!!  Our school only has field day for first grade and up.  Because I previously taught K, this was my first time running a game for field day. I found this idea on pinterest and made it work for us.  Sadly, I think I may have also jinxed field day because it was the coldest field day many of the veteran teachers can remember. My buckets of sponge letters were supposed to be filled with soapy water...I made the executive decision to cut out the water component.  Even without the water this game was extremely successful.  It also only cost less than $10!

Day 1 was autograph day! I really have no idea how the last day of school sneaked up sooo quickly, but we had A LOT going on and I didn't get a picture.  I usually purchase the kids an end of the year gift and wanted something new and creative. Each kid got a beach ball that I purchased off of Amazon 12 for about $9!!  They are $1 at dollar tree so cheap either way.  We rotated the beach balls around the room and everyone got to sign each other's beach balls.  Then of course we played inside for about 30 minutes and outside for about 15 minutes.  This was an AMAZING way to use our time the last day when the kids energy level is through the roof!  It was the perfect example of organized chaos.

Lastly, I wanted to share a great freebie I made to send home with the kids to try and prevent the summer slide!

End of the Year Part 2 {FREEBIES}

The end of the year countdown is no new thing, but I thought I would share with you some fun things we are doing and have included a few freebies along the way as well!

Free painting!! With the hustle and the bustle of school there is very little time to let the kids do creative projects.  I even had some asking "I can paint what ever I want?!"  It actually kind of made me sad that they are so over-directed.

Eat with the teacher day!!  This is one of the those days where you truly see how little it takes to please children.  They were ecstatic to eat together outside!

Ice cream day!!  I just told the kids there would have been a special treat....however....I think next year it would be fun to make up some clues to give throughout the day and have the kids make and revise predictions as we go along!

First Grade Fun Day!!  This is by far my most favorite day yet!  We made homemade play-dough...the ENTIRE FIRST GRADE!  We did some fun rotations where each class got to do an activity with each teacher.  Some tips I learned.....if you let the kids help add the ingredients you need at least 45 min. to an hour for this activity.  Without them doing the adding you can easily complete within 30 min.  Teach the kids to flatten their play-dough and then add a few drops of food coloring in a bowl-like fashion....this way most of the food coloring gets on the dough FIRST and not on their hands.  It will come off with multiple washes!

Click the pictures below for a FREE copy of our play-dough recipe!

 

Extra Recess!! I actually had a sub this day so I didn't snag any pictures but hey, we all know what recess looks like!

Bubble Day!!  After the play-dough, this is my second runner up for my most favorite day.  We did all things bubble!  

We had fun listening to POP by Meghan McCarthy and learned about how bubble gum was invented.  We then did a fact and opinion sort that was FREE from All Y'All Need!  Just click the pics below to take you to her TPT store and grab yourself a copy!

We also did some fun bubble art using black construction paper and pastels.  To top it all of we did bubble math using bingo daubers!  This is also a FREE download from Jessica Michele through her TPT store!  Click the picture to grab a copy!

Come back next week to see what else we are doing for our final week!

I leave you with another FREEBIE!  I made these quick gifts for my daughter's preschool teachers...she has five, so it is great on a tight budget!  Clicking the pictures will get you the link for the download!