Monthly Organization

Hi! It's Jen, from Teacher by the Beach.


I'm just stopping by to show you how I like to organize my monthly activities. If you don't know, I like to thematic teach. I don't use the curriculum, so I use whatever I want and align it with whatever skills I have to teach that week/quarter.

SO, I keep all my monthly activities (minus center packs) in those buckets you see on top of my cabinets up there.

(If you want to see the rest of my room for this year, you can check out {THIS} post)

This was my bucket labels from a few years ago (hence my old name on the picture), but this is a close up of the buckets. I like the ones that have the handles that fold over...for any of those tough-to-close months... you know the months that have SO much to do in them! ha!

And within those buckets, I have all my themes just in ziploc baggies so I can easily see what theme is what, but it keeps them from getting all mixed up with other themes.

You can come see more about my organization {HERE} - I LOVE organizing.

Here is my organization HERE  and HERE for all the posts.

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Word Problem Freebie

Hello! Halle here!

I have a freebie to share with you today :)

Around this time of year, my students are moving on to more difficult word problems. Be it multiplication, division, two-step, or missing/extra information, these more intense problems are always tough at first. Which is why I like to provide a lot of extra opportunities for extra practice.

I decided to whip-up a little spring-themed extra/missing information center. Use it in your math tubs rotation, as an early finisher activity, or with small groups.

Just click the picture to download.

I hope it helps your kiddos over the hurdle of these more intense word problems!

-Halle

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Technology in the Class: Plickers

Hey everyone!

I've seen other teachers post about this lately and I am here to say that I love Plickers too!

I created my class list and printed out the Plickers cards for my class. Whomever last used the copy machine left green paper in it, so now my Plickesr cards look like something from Minecraft lol. It actually makes them easier for the kids to find, so it was a happy mistake.

I put all of the kids' names on the backs. This one happens to be mine, because I wanted to be part of the fun too!

I wanted to start off easy, to get the kids used to this. The first question was what was their favorite color, next was favorite specials, do you like math, and then favorite flavor of ice cream.

All they had to do was rotate their paper to either A, B, C, or D, and then I used the free app on my phone to scan their cards.

I love that their name pops up with the letter choice right there! And then I could could use my app to just swipe to the question from my phone and presto, it changed on the computer!

There are two nice features with this program. You can see who hasn't voted where it says "students" , or you can have it on graph, like on the picture below. If it's something that you want to have a correct answer, you can program that in too and then reveal the correct answer after all kids have entered their answer.

And I had 6 kids absent this day (day before their spring break!)

I plan on using Plickers for math or reading questions. A quick way to assess students and a great way for me to save data, paperless! I can't wait to see how this turns out for the rest of the school year too. I'd have to say that at conferences, 98% of my kids included this in their conference, because they loved it so much.

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Lucky TIEKS Giveaway

 

EEK!  Have you heard of TIEKS??  So many teachers love these super comfy, yet stylish ballet flats!

 

They are made of the finest Italian leather and designed to fold and fit in your purse.  But, it's not likely you'll be taking them off!  They are made to be super comfy - wearable all day, every day!  Sounds like a teacher's dream, right?

Here's what a few of our very own Owls have to say about their Tieks -

{http://www.3rdgradegridiron.com/}

{http://www.teachingsuperpower.com/}

{http://mrslambsclass.blogspot.com/}

Take a look at that gorgeous packaging Rachel is talking about...

Who wouldn't want THAT showing up on their doorstep? 

Well, the Owl girls have joined together for an amazing giveaway that will make one teacher the LUCKY recipient of her very own choice of classic TIEKS!

How do you enter?  Just hop over to any of our Instagram accounts and look for the picture below.

You can start at my account if you'd like!  You can find me at @teachingmaddeneess - https://instagram.com/teachingmaddeness/ 

Good luck! 

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H(array) for St. Patrick's Day!

H(array) it's almost St. Patrick's day! It's Linda from 

Around the Kampfire here with one more glorious 

day of Spring Break then it's back to school to buckle 

down for the home stretch! I thought I'd share this 

free printable my little leprechauns will be using this week.

Before our break we did some St. Patrick's Day writing about 

how to capture a leprechaun and the wishes he would have to 

grant in order to be set free!

We defined a leprechaun and learned about the

history of St. Patrick's Day then made these pots o' gold!

You can find another quick lesson for arrays, along with
a free printable over at my home blog, Around the Kampfire!

My little leprechauns think they'll get to pinch me on Tuesday

but I'm ready with this adorable shirt from Teacher T-shirts!

How do you keep from getting pinched on St. Patrick's day?

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Raving Over Reading - Bookflix LOVE!

One of my most favorite resources for Reading is Bookflix!

Have you tried it?!

I love that it offers both fiction and nonfiction texts.  The kids can watch videos of the books or have them read aloud.  Either way, they can follow along with the text.  It's perfect!

One of our latest lessons was comparing and contrasting characters from two texts.  We compared "Duck on a Bike" and "Curious George Rides a Bike."  

We created a Venn diagram together:

The kiddos made their own and used it to write their own story comparing and contrasting the two characters.  We're working through the writing process now.  I'm beyond excited to see their published pieces!

Here's a copy of the Venn diagram if you're interested:

What are some ways you use Bookflix in your classroom?

Feel free to share below in the comments!

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Dear National Geographic, I Love You

Hey y’all! It’s Megan from I Teach. What’s Your Super Power? sharing one of my faaaaaavorite reading resources with you.

Isn’t it beautiful?  I started using National Geographic Explorer years ago with my second graders.  This is the classroom edition and not the regular kids edition.  I like it better than some of the other classroom magazines because it’s just articles.  That’s it.  Not little graphs stuck in, comics, random mini articles-just three good, solid articles.  That makes it perfect for reading groups.  And the photography is amazing.

I mean, look at these pictures.  What kid wouldn’t get sucked into these articles?

I order a set of 10 to use with my small groups (that’s the smallest number you can order).  I like them because I can use them differently with my small groups despite the differences in reading ability.  With my second grade friends, I give a lot more support.  We stop and discuss often and spend longer on an article.  With my third grade friends, we can get through an article more quickly and focus on some higher level comprehension skills.  I lead the discussion less and ask more open ended questions.

Each set comes with an extra copy for the teacher, a two sided poster, and an activity for each article.  There are great support resources online, too.  There’s an extensive teacher guide on the website and digital resources available for computers or iPads.

The best part is that the kids love them.  We are reading “Call of the Wildflowers” this week, and they’re already begging to read “Spinosaurs!” next week.  You couldn’t hope for a better response than that!

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