Beginning of the Year Letters

One of my favorite beginning of the school year activities is for students to write a letter to their future selves.

I review components of a friendly letter and offer minimal support.  I use this as a chance to see their background skills in writing and guide my future mini-lessons.

The letters are pretty enlightening.  Yes, I get to see their writing skills and yes, it's clear to see which teachers didn't really emphasize writing in second grade.  It's also another chance to learn a little bit about them.  Several have told me that they want to be a teacher just like me, which is sweet.  Several have also shown me that they didn't follow directions with how to organize their paper, so that's been very helpful too.

I don't take a grade on the assignment, so that puts students at ease.  I do however, read each one and take notes about student strengths and weaknesses.  I record these notes in a Google doc so I can quickly access it from any school computer.  While it's more work to type the data in twice, it also means I don't have to lug around a huge stack of papers around to all my meetings.

After I make my way through this stack:

(I'm about half done)

I'll seal them in envelopes.  We took a "brain break" and decorated envelopes.  

(It was nice to give them a chance to be creative and exercise the right hemisphere of their brains.  I also know I have a very artistic and creative class, so they loved this opportunity.  Plus it was only 10 minutes, so it can't really be viewed as "wasted learning time".)

I then take the envelopes:

And  hide them until May.  A majority of my students forget about them, so it's a fun surprise at the end of the year.

Classroom Set Up

Tomorrow may mark the fifteenth day of school (and the start of week number four), but it's time to take a sneak peek into my classroom and all the prep that went into the first days of school.

Bulletin Boards

These are a huge deal at my school.  Having a well put together bulletin board is a point of pride and my classroom boards are no exception.

I pattern mixed with chevron and polka dots, but still think the work looks. 

I decided this would be my Reading Rangers board and added red accents.

The top sheet is a guide that reminds students of how the colored dots coincide with Reading Rangers.  With this program, students read within their ZPD (zone of proximal development) and increasingly tackle more complex texts. The envelopes hold tickets and they fill them out as they complete their individual goals.  

The other bulletin board in my room is complimentary colors, but chevron with a solid.

This  is where we'll hang our anchor charts, so we can "anchor" our learning.

 

I struggled to perfectly match the grays, but I think it's close enough.

The outside board has overlapping post cards to make a border.  

Since fabric can be expensive, my teacher hack is to use a flat sheet and cut off extra.  Works like a charm! 

Since I have so many students, I took over space beyond the bulletin board to fit everyone's work.  

It's still strange to see my new future last name. I won't be changing it on this blog, my teacher twitter account, or on my {Teachers pay Teachers} store, but everywhere else my last name will be changed.

My students are calling me by both last names, I've changed it with Scholastic book orders, and I made new business cards, but I won't jump through the school district's hoops until summer break.



Standards

We're expected to display our learning standards, so I might as well make the space cute. 

I also have space for our "ten for ten" checklist.  Every time students earn a perfect 10 in specials, I write the date in the box.  When ten are filled, students get a bonus recess.  (They've already earned their first one, which we took indoors due to the weather.)

Below is a classroom motto, then below that is space for the standards. 

Missing Work

Absenteeism can be a problem and after a few years, it was time for some new absent folders. The paper folders just won't do, so I snagged a few bright yellow plastic folders from Target:

I'm working on  being more explicit with my students, so I tweaked the folders to have very clear instructions:

So far it's working!  For a class of 35, I have 5 folders.  I hope I'm never missing more than 5 students at a time!  In terms of procedures, the missing student's fellow table mates are responsible for completing the folders and filling in the student upon his or her return to the classroom.

Work to Finish

In elementary school, we often use the same passage for several days, or make work double sided and need to return to it later.  For this reason, I make work to finish folders.

Again, using the same plastic folders as above,  each student now has a space to keep his or her work.  For most students, this is manageable.  Every year I have a few that really struggle with organization and need more support in keeping materials together.

As a side note, buying plastic ones means I can reuse them for several years before I have to replace them, which is good for my back to school shopping budget.

Class Decor

I've tried to keep the decorating of my classroom to a minimum, but there are still a few places that I've added some personal touches.  I'm in my room a lot so I want to like what I see.

The crayon wreath I made last year didn't survive the summer heat, so I found a wooden one at Target that was much easier to recreate.  I had the Harry Potter inspired sign from years ago just hanging out in a box, so I brought it into the classroom.  The tissue box is a plain wooden one that I added scrapbook paper to and then taped over.  It's held up to a few years of student use.

I found the board in the dollar spot of Target (although it was one of those weird items that's $3) and had a friend vinyl cut the letters for me.

Class Information

Instead of doing the standard "meet the teacher" letter that parents always use, as a grade level we switched it up and made flip books:

Forty of them.   Students were excited!  This was a download from TpT and before we cut them, each page had 2.  They are pretty easy to assemble and I'm sure would have gone much quicker if we didn't all try to copy at once and use four different colors.  Lessons for next time.

I also dedicated the space behind my teacher desk to be class information and a reference space:

Specials schedules, GATE time (although this year it's push in and called Project Based Learning), and more is easily accessible for me, the students, and substitutes.  I'm all for making everyone's job easier.  


Through the power of caffeine, DVDs, B's help, and sheer determination (cough stubbornness), my classroom went from this:

To this:  

 (Yes, the table cloth is totally a strategic move so I can hide things under my teacher prep table.  As a bonus, it was on sale at Target.)

 Ready or not, here they come!

#year8isgreat

Yeah...we're going to lose.

One of the adorable traditions at my school is the fall decorating of pumpkins for the library.

We get a bunch of pumpkins donated and each class gets to decorate the pumpkin based on a book character.  I tried to slap a post-it on our class pumpkin and say "this is a gourd, we read informational text" but was vetoed.  The pumpkins have to be based on a book character (not a recent movie character).

The pumpkins also can't be punctured in any way because we want them on display in the library for a few weeks.

The primary classes usually produce the most adorable pumpkins because parent helpers or the teachers spend hours crafting very adorable and very complex designs.

Mine however, is completely student driven...and it shows.  

Volunteers stay after school and armed with paint and big ideas, they navigate working together to create this work of art that will be on display for the rest of the school.

I'd love to do this:

However, we haven't read any books on mummies and my students are very excited about all their ideas.  We have an online poll going, but then will turn that into a survey (embedding that technology folks!)

The current winning idea is...

The Minotaur.

From Greek Mythology.

Something tells me we're not going to win the cutest pumpkin contest, but if my students have fun making it, that's all that matters.

Puzzles

Our first two days back at work were amazing. We did some great ice breakers, dived into data, and talked about how to move forward as a staff to continue to be awesome.

Seriously, we had memes like this from our admin.

One of the activities we did in our grade level Olympics (yes, seriously) was building puzzles.

However, the pieces were mixed up.  So, being the loud problem solvers that we are, we freaked out then ran around swapping pieces with other groups.  

The point wasn't to build the puzzles.  The point was to see how the team dealt with challenges and worked together.

I loved the message, so I bought some dollar store puzzles and began making a version for my own classroom.  I lettered the pieces on the back of each puzzle piece and carefully mixed up the bags.  B looked at me like I was crazy, but he should be used to teacher antics in the name of team building.

I gave the task to my students:

They did amazing!  There was no yelling, running, or fighting about the pieces.  (Unlike the teachers...)  They simply thought there was a mistake and moved on.  

I was beyond impressed with their problem solving abilities and team work.  Way to go munchkins!

mini-math

My students needed a little extra practice with fractions before our test.  I could have assigned them book problems to work on silently, but that wasn't what they needed. They needed to work with each other and learn from each other.  During this time, I pulled the students who really weren't getting it to the back table for some intervention work.

The novelty of having mini-math problems was extremely motivating for them.  I also like to include the "create your own" option.  I can see their levels of comfort with the ideas based on the problems they choose to create and then solve.

Since it's May, many of my fifth graders are plagued with the end of the year-itis.  Any new strategies that keep them engaged are always welcome!

How do you keep your students motivated in May?

Digging into History

One of my favorite eras in history is the American Revolution...which so nicely ties itself with some of our informational text standards (RI 5.6 and RI 5.8).  These standards examine multiple perspectives, author bias, reasons, and evidence--perfect for looking at this era! 

Over a week and a half, students analyzed many different accounts, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, Paul Revere's account (available here), and multiple accounts of the Boston Massacre.

I gave each table team a different combination of the primary source documents from Colonial Williamsburg (here) to closely read and annotate.  

From there, students did a gallery walk to see how other groups analyzed the documents.

What is great to see is the different ways students dive into the text.  Some make meaning by drawing pictures to narrate what is occurring in the text.  Some highlight reasons and evidence.  My job is to teach them multiple strategies, then let them take ownership over their own learning. 

How do your students dive into history?

Math explorations

I am a huge advocate of the use of manipulatives and hands-on exploration.  Right before spring break we dived into volume.

Our first day was focused on exploring cubic volume with cubes.  It was such a great opportunity to watch them struggle through the challenge sheets and learn from one another with no pressure of assessment.  

Their task:

They had a great time exploring with cubes.  I also frequently allow them to work on the floor and move around.  They're ten and need to wiggle sometimes.  I might as well embrace this and provide these opportunities in the classroom.
 

They had a specific task sheet (for accountability).  I gave them ten minutes to explore, then they shared with a partner (Kagan hand up, stand up, pair up, and share).
 

One group was super excited that their blocks were ASU colored!

After a day of exploration, we dived into strategies, formulas, and problem solving.  We spent a few days on regular shapes before diving into the irregular ones.  I posed the problem as a challenge and let them struggle as a team.  Most groups figured out that they could find the volumes separately, then add them together.  

They had so much fun exploring volume.  Instead of just giving them the formula, I felt it was more important for them to have hands-on practice exploring exactly what volume means.

Who says math can't be fun?

Narrative Informational Writing

In whole group reading, we've been working on narrative informational texts.  This concept was a tad difficult for our students to wrap their brains around.

The text is informational and designed to provide facts to the readers.  However, the text is also written as a story.  These texts aren't literature because the characters and settings are real people.

We used historical passages from the American Revolutionary Era to help students with this concept.  We chose this because students were already familiar with some of the key historical players and we could incorporate social studies content.

When students were reading, they also had to analyze the text to determine the text structure.  They made organizers in their notebook and I used the social studies readers. 

 I split the class into groups and gave them different sections to read.  

After giving them time to struggle with the text, they met with another group to compare answers.  For the most part, both groups came up with the same answers.

They did really well with this concept!