Fun Friday: Increasing Student Confidence

Do you have that student who is always down on themselves?  Who needs a little shot of confidence every now and then?

How can you help?

Start The 100 Club!   

Sign I put on the Clipboard

If I am giving a quiz or an assessment, I pick two students to be in The 100 Club.  I make a big deal out of selecting these students...I tell them I have special super hero type powers that lets me know who will make a 100.  If they are selected, I give them the "magical 100 clipboard" and they get to sit in the comfy reading seats while taking their test.

It is also a great way to separate kids who you think might be cheating.

Happy Friday!

180 Days of Inspired Teaching: Story Elements {Week 1}

Last year I taught story elements towards the end of the year...total accident on my part.
I was going through my standards checklist and realized {with slight panic} that I totally overlooked story elements!  We squeezed it in.  BUT it was not the best teaching I've done. 

I decided then and there this kind of thing would not happen again.
And so......
I made a commitment that every day would be
Great 
Engaging
Inspiring.

So, back to story elements.
 It seemed logical {and smart} to start with story elements this year.

How I did it...

1.  I put the students into pairs.
2.  Everyday I introduced a new story element concept {character, character trait, setting, conflict/problem, plot}
3.  I gave the students the definition
4.  We watched a Pixar short {they LOVED this!}
5.  I asked the students to power write for one minute about how the element was displayed in the clip.  Then, they turned and talked to their partner about what they wrote.  I walked around during this time to make sure everyone was on the right track.

{Transition to the application portion of the lesson}

6.  I handed out a numbered blue shopping bag {Walmart: $0.50} to each pair.  Inside the bag was a picture book, chart paper, and markers.
7.  The students read the book.

Paired Reading!

8.  When finished, they had to visually represent the the element of the day on the chart paper.  For example, the first day we talked about characters.  They had to draw the main characters on the chart paper.  Afterwards, they rolled the chart paper up and put it back in the bag with the picture book.  I really stressed creativity at this point!
9.  The next day the pairs got a new bag, with a new book.  
10.  They read the book and added the new element of the day to the chart paper.  For example, on day 2 we talked about character traits.  The pairs added character traits to the characters the previous group drew. 
11.  By Friday every pair read 5 books and each book had a visual representation of the elements we talked about that week! 
They had fun.  They were engaged.  It was awesome!

Happy Teaching,

The Joys of Grammar: Investigative Learning!

I am a big believer in investigative learning...even in the language arts classroom!

I take whatever opportunity I can to get students to come up with their own definitions. 

My first noun activity did just that!

The students were in groups of four and handed envelopes with various nouns.

They had to determine the part of speech of all the words {nouns}, split them into categories they came up with, then write a definition for noun {Since I included words like trust, faith, & Courage it was a little bit harder than person, place or thing...I encouraged them to write "fancy definitions"}

Shared all of our definitions and came up with a class definition.

I have found this type of investigative learning engages the students and helps them remember and understand important LA terms. 

And that is awesome!

I have this and four other noun activities bundled & available at my TPT store.  They are fun and sure to engage even your most reluctant learner.

Happy Teaching,

Grouping Students

Today marks the fourth day of school and I already love my students.

However, they are super comfortable with me and each other.  The kind of comfortable that usually doesn't happen until November or December.

There was no honeymoon period with these students and they already needed a new seating assignment.  Since I do not know them really well yet, I decided to make the new seats random.

Before class started, I put a round sticker with a number {1-7 since I have 7 tables} on the bottom of every chair.

 The students came in and sat in their normal seats....oblivious to how I was going to shake up their world.

Once I reviewed the table numbers with them, I told them to look under their chairs for a new table number {game show style}.

They had one minute to move to their new seat...the whole thing took less than three minutes!! 

Awesome!!

Happy Teaching,

Felt Footies

I used to really want tennis balls on all of my classroom chairs...they would reduce all of the noise that comes with a 7th grade classroom.

I just couldn't get past the price.

And since I wasn't willing to sell my shoe collection, I had to come up with an alternative.

Introducing...

Felt Footies!

They are soooooo much cheaper, the scrapping noise is gone, and it looks super awesome....don't you just love the little burst of color?

PLUS, I can customize the colors...every table is different! 

For just $27 you get felt footies for 35 chairs!

You can get them here or just click on the right.

Love it!

Happy Teaching,

Chalkboard Bulletin Board

Confession:  I am totally obsessed with chalkboards right now!

I asked my friend Cindy, who owns this awesome education store, All About Education, if they sell chalkboard bulletin board paper??

Nope.

So.....I decided to make my own!

Chalkboard Bulletin Board

It was super easy!

1.  Put up black bulletin board paper.
2.  Rub white chalk {flat side} all over the board.
3.  Rub the chalk in with a white board eraser {I did this in circles}

That's it!!

Here is the final product...

And it was so super easy! Awesome!

Happy Teaching,

Newsletter

The first three years I taught I thought newsletters were sooooo elementary school.  I was way too cool for that kind of stuff.

Then I had a child who started kindergarten and I quickly realized their importance.

All parents want to know what is going on in their child's class no matter the age or grade level.

For the past 5 years I have played around with various templates and I think I finally have something that works well...

You can download here

Does anyone else use newsletters in their class?