New Year's Resolutions, Classroom Style

Like I don't know, 95% of America, I've made my new years resolutions to start next week.  However, I started thinking about my classroom and resolutions that we could make there.

We talk a lot about goal setting and academic growth.  We will have a behavior assembly first thing in January because some of their choices are not appropriate and attitudes are escalating quickly.  I expect the hormonal shift around testing time (March) but I'm pretty sure this group came in sassy and with attitudes.  It's been a long, uphill battle to get the talking under control this year.


They're also getting new seats and assigned seats for all subjects, not just my homeroom.  That means their desks will have 4 names on it: whole group, small group AM, small group PM and science.  That way there's more accountability and less theft (fingers crossed).

So I think I need something like this:

I'll have them fill out their own reflective sheets and we'll make our own chart.  This image is from a primary classroom but I think the idea can be adapted for fifth.

We'll hit the ground running in 2014, testing is coming up and we've got to prepare them for success in middle school!

#95! Comprehension Question Stems

I'm pleased to announce my favorite center is now available on TpT!

I'm an advocate of guided release, which means over the course of our school year, I relinguish more and more control to my students.  This comprehension station perfectly aligns with this teaching practice.

This mega center (50+ pages) includes question stems to help students guide their own discussions.  It is color coded and includes different fonts for easy clean up!

The skills that students will practice are:

Snapshots of the center:

This product is priced at $6.00 on TpT, which is quite a bargain considering it is 59 pages long!

The best part is this station can be used for literature or informational text! (The second best parts are that the center is in color and uses fun chevron prints!)

Novel Guides

Teacher guides for J.K. Rowling's The Goblet of Fire and The Half-Blood Prince are now available on TpT!  

Each guide contains suggested spelling or vocabulary words, pre-reading predictions, comprehension questions with suggested answers for each chapter, homework questions and post-reading extension activities!



Both guides are quite lengthy (28 and 33 pages respectively) and are quite the bargain! I've done the prep for you :)

Snag yours here!

Happy reading :)

Chronological Order Sort: Loser

I first read Jerry Spinelli's Loser over the summer after a retiring teacher gave me a few copies from his library. 

I love this author, so I immediately ordered a few more from Amazon so I'd have enough to read the novel with small groups.

I'm almost done with the novel with my group (they're finishing over winter break) and I'm really impressed with how well they're doing.  Some of the members of my small group have been bullying others, so I decided to use this text as a teachable moment.  

They're having some great discussions about being kind to others and labels like "loser".  What we talk about in our small group literature circle is having a positive impact on their classroom and playground choices, which is quite exciting.

My teacher guide is available here.

I'm pleased to announce I've made a chronological order sort as well!

Happy reading!

Elf on the Shelf, Classroom edition

Perhaps I'm a little behind on the times, but this was the first year I heard of the "Elf on the Shelf" phenomena.

I don't have children of my own yet, so I didn't see the point in purchasing one for myself.

However, after browsing pinterest, I kept seeing lots of ideas for a classroom adaptation.  Granted, there are blog posts like this that discourage the Elf, so you might need to treat it cautiously.  I'd set up the elf as a winter visitor without religious ties and send a note home to parents & families before hand to cover my self.

Fellow teachers at my school used it this year and said it was very helpful with management!

Here are some of my favorites:

I'd need my sign to say Winter Break, not Christmas break but still a cute idea

I could easily hide him/her in my bookshelves...

In this case, it'd need to say "I will be a good listener"

The elf could totally hang out with our school supplies...

Or take a nap with a tissue blanket!

Perhaps the elf could use technology to leave us  messages...

Creepy...but in a fun way.

I can definitely see the elf blogging!

This would be easy to duplicate!

We already have jenga boards that have been upcycled to be character questions or multiplication problems...

He/she could be reading our grade level read aloud...

Or be mischievious!

I'm a fan of these simple (no mess ones) as opposed to these ideas:

My classroom is messy enough. I don't need to create additional messy areas.

I think I may need to pick up my own elf for next year!  Of course, I'll wait until after Christmas when it's on sale :)

I'm still debating between the "traditional" elf (which apparently can be dressed up!) and this version:

We'll see what's on sale!  Good thing I've got a year to think about it!

Tech Tip: Dafont

One of my favorite places to download fun fonts is dafont.

There are free fonts & commerical fonts, so make sure to read the fine print.

You can navigate easily with a search bar or use their categories:

At the time of this post, there were over 22,000 fonts there!  

You download the files, extract them and save the True Text files in your "fonts" folder on control panel. (I'm a PC person...so MAC, I'm sure it's a similar process).

Find your file (I usually save to the desktop or my downloads):

Extract it:

Open control panel, find fonts folder:

Select fonts from extracted files:

Drag your new font over!

You may have to restart word for the fonts to appear as an option.  

Some of my favorites:

If you create something and want to send it to someone who might not have the fonts, be sure to save as a pdf rather than a word document.

Dafont isn't blocked on my school computer, so I was able to use these fonts in my classroom.  If it is blocked, create documents at home and send them to yourself as PDFs.

Enjoy!

Just a few of my favorite (FREE) things

In the spirit of the holidays, I've decided to compile a list of some of my favorite free things, all from TpT.

I did not make these products but love using them in my classroom!

Item 1: Schedule Cards

These adorable cards were made by  Cara Carroll and available free here!  She's included so many subjects and they're perfect for almost any classroom.  

Here's a snapshot of them in my classroom:

When combined with green marker and a funky polka dot border, our schedule gets a lot more fun in fifth grade!  Since they have different specials each day, I just use a magnetic clip to keep them organized.

Item two: Star Wars fluency posters

I'm a nerd, I'll embrace it.  There are superhero and Star Wars things all over my classroom.  I'm not ashamed of it :)

So when I found these adorable freebies:

I literally squealed in delight!  Then of course, forwarded the link to my grade level because who wouldn't want R2D2 helping out their students?

This gem was made by Jane Loretz and is available here on TpT.  Use the force to go snag yours.

Item 3: Grammar Cheat Sheet

I struggle with teaching grammar, especially to my second language learners and inclusion students.  Maybe that's why I love this cheat sheet:

Created by Jen of Hello Literacy and available here, this cheat sheet is a great reference.  I have students place a copy in their writing binders as a resource.

Item 4: Bookmarks

While Carly Rae's song may be a little dated at this point, I still love these free bookmarks:

Available here and made by Kathryn, my students get a kick out of these.  Anything to encourage reading, right?

Item 5: Author's Craft

Another great freebie from Jen at helloliteracy!  

It goes great in our reader notebooks :)

What freebies would you add to the list?