Monday, July 31, 2017

Back to School Sale!

Greetings, bloglings!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! The store-wide Back to School sale on TPT is tomorrow and Wednesday!  


Remember to use the promo code BTS2017 when checking out to receive the full discount. 

Here are some resources that will get your students engaged in creative writing from the very first day of school:

Back to School Newspaper

This Back to School Newspaper is one of my favorite beginning of the year activities!  It's one of the first writing activities we do together as a class and a great way for teachers and students to get to know each other.

Last year, I used this activity as an introduction to Newspapers, non-fiction text features, and expository writing!  We used the Newspaper unit from the Curriculum Corner; it was incredibly thorough, hands-on, and my students loved it!



These "All About Me" posters are also great for Back to School bulletin boards as well as birthday or Star of the Week spotlights throughout the year.  You can snag them for just 75 cents during the sale!

All About Me: Star of the Week, Back to School, or Birthday Poster

To continue with the theme of writing, the beginning of the year is the perfect time to introduce journal writing as you are kicking off your Writers' Workshops and getting students into the classroom routines.  I have compiled all of my monthly journals into a bundle for an entire year of journal writing!  

Monthly No Prep Journals for Elementary Writers
Monthly Journal Prompts for the Entire Year!

You can also purchase these separately by month. Each month includes journal prompts in three different formats:  A calendar of 30 prompts is provided for each month which can be used as a display or student reference; a journal with a cover page and 30 lined pages with space for illustrating; and 30 task cards for laminating and using at a writing center, or cutting and gluing into student journals.  This makes it versatile and easy to use what works for your classroom, even if that changes throughout the year.  I am planning to use these in the journal format as my students' morning work! This will only need to be prepped on a monthly basis while giving students meaningful morning work and daily journaling/creative writing practice.

If you are looking for seasonal rather than monthly writing prompts, I have compiled those in task card format for writing centers, as well!  They are sold by season or as a yearly bundle.

Fall Writing Prompts

Writing Through the Seasons: Prompts for the Entire Year

If you are looking for classroom decor ideas & resources, you can check out my classroom schedule, supply, and job labels at the following link.  Each set is also sold separately as linked on the product page:

Classroom Labels (Bundle!)
Classroom Schedule, Supply, & Job Labels

I also have Days of the Week and Months of the Year Calendar Labels that include both the name and abbreviation in different formats:
Days of the Week & Months of the Year Calendar Labels
Days of the Week & Months of the Year Labels

These work great as a display or they can be printed and laminated to use for a center where students arrange the months in order. I use printed cards for my students to place in order around the "sun" to walk around for each year of their life during birthday celebrations!

You can also check our my colorful minute hand clock labels at the following link.  These are excellent support as students learn to tell time independently.

Clock Hand Labels:  Rainbow Minute Hands
Colorful Minute Hand Clock Labels

The sale begins at midnight.  Happy back to school shopping!


Sunday, July 30, 2017

Target Time!

Greetings, bloglings!

Great news:  Target is bursting with Back to School teacher treasures!  
What a time to be alive!


I like to consider the theme of my classroom as "Peaceful Rainbow."  Montessori classroom colors are often calming and earthy, but rainbows are earthy, too!  There are literally rainbows all over the earth at this very moment (probably).  Operation Classroom Set Up commences tomorrow morn' at 1100 hours sharp!


I am especially excited to use these clips as what will surely be the prettiest anchor chart holders to grace the walls of any classroom!  Anchor charts are so important, but also they are sometimes ugly.  I always want to frame my anchor charts, but even I know that this would be absurdly impractical.  I almost bought the entire bin of these beauties, but, alas, three shall suffice.

Rhonda Stewart at Scholastic offers an excellent guide for Anchor Chart usage: 
"As the teacher models the lesson or strategy, the lesson reinforcement or strategy tool is written on chart paper. Once the lesson is complete, the chart is placed in a convenient student-friendly location that the students can access it independently. This is another vehicle for academic support, especially for the visual learner. The beauty of an anchor chart is that it can be displayed as needed or determined by the student work. Some anchor charts live all year long in the classroom, while others are only displayed during the current unit of study."

It is also important to make anchor charts together with your students during the lesson.  This tool loses almost all of its value if it is simply teacher made and displayed without student involvement and input.  One option is for students to copy or design their own charts in their notebooks to reference when the large chart is no longer displayed on the classroom wall.  

Charts that I leave up all year include classroom rules and shelf work choices.  These clips will make it so easy to change other lesson-based charts without needing to find wall space, and I can plan where to display the few that will stay up for longer periods throughout the year as I set up my room.  It is critical to minimize clutter in the classroom, so I make sure to only leave up charts that reflect current learning in addition to keeping the charts concise, easy to read, and free of unnecessary or distracting graphics.



I have a few decorations that I leave up on my classroom walls year after year:  Our Morning Meeting area includes the calendar, days of school counter, schedule, job chart, and 100 chart.  I also have a framed print of Norman Rockwell's "Happy Birthday Miss Jones," a framed print of Henri Matisse's "Goldfish," two maps of the U.S. and the continents, our CAFE bulletin board, and the display in the picture above that includes our three classroom rules (be respectful; take care of each other; and take care of our classroom), our attendance magnet chart, and our Daily 5 and Math buddies magnet chart (I made these with cookie trays and labeled the magnets with Sharpies!).  

The rest of the wall space is either empty or used to display student work.  For example, in the picture above, you can also see the twine and clothespins that I use as an easy and simple way to display whole class activities like poems or artwork.  The clothespins make changing the display a breeze; I had students doing it themselves last year!



How do you display anchor charts and student work in your classroom?

Curiously,

Friday, July 28, 2017

Freebie Friday!

Greetings, bloglings!

It's Friday and I've got some FREEBIES for you!  

First thing's first:  I am in love with The Daily 5, and I don't care who knows it.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Daily 5 is a program for structuring literacy blocks so that every day students are engaged in:

1) Reading to Self
2) Reading to Someone (Buddy Reading)
3) Work on Writing
4) Listening to Reading
5) Word Work


Daily 5 Labels

This allows the teacher to conference with individual students and implement small group instruction.  In my opinion, Gail Boushey and Joan Mosher are, in a word, brilliant, and they have transformed my Montessori classroom for the best.  Using this structure of literacy (and math!) instruction has infused my classroom's work cycles with balance, variety, and student stamina and accountability.  Above all, it has blended seamlessly with the Montessori philosophy:  Because of The Daily 5, my students are equipped with the support and tools necessary to work independently while making meaningful work choices and exploring their individual interests.  I am able to implement individual and small group instruction while resting assured that my other students are engaged and learning even though, at the moment, I am not by their side.  I truly cannot imagine following a different format, especially in a multi-grade classroom with so many different abilities.



Blending the Daily 5 and CAFE strategies with Montessori and Common Core did involve a fairly steep learning curve, and I created several resources that have helped tremendously with my time management and organization.  For example, in my classroom, Grammar has taken the place of "Listen to Reading."  My students have the opportunity to listen to reading during Buddy Reading, Read Aloud, and as a choice at our computer listening center when the rest of their work plan is completed.  Grammar is strongly emphasized in the Montessori curriculum, so students use shelf work in this area during our Daily 5 cycle separately from their weekly spelling/word work.  

And now for the freebies!  Drum roll, please...

Freebie #1:

I mapped out a daily launch of all components of the Daily 5 with CAFE strategies.  I've uploaded my plans to my TPT store, and you can find them at the link below.  This is what has worked for my classroom.  It is slightly abridged from the "official" plan, but it has been a great pace for my second and third graders.  

I found that when I launched everything too slowly, I started to lose the students who were familiar with the routines from the previous year.  The beauty of having returning third graders each year is that they know the classroom expectations and can function as role models for their younger classmates.  Do what works for you and your students!

Daily 5 with CAFE Launch
My 14-Day Guide to Launching the Daily 5 with CAFE

At the following link, you can find the Work Plan that my students use during math and literacy blocks.  At the first through third grade level, Work Plans are used in Montessori classrooms to guide students in independently managing their assignments, but they would be valuable tools for any classroom that implements the Daily 5.  The Work Plan functions as individual checklists for students, helps students make choices, and increases students' level of personal accountability during periods of independent work.  The resources at the following link include Work Plans for both ELA and the Math Daily 3 (Math By Myself, Math Writing, & Math with a Partner), as well as word work materials!


Click Here for my Daily 5 Resources

...and here are 3 more freebies for you!

I created posters to align with the Daily 5 plan for establishing rules and expectations for each component.  These expectations are reinforced daily at the beginning of the year, and on an as needed basis afterward to ensure that each child knows exactly how to execute every routine successfully.

Students learn how to select books that are a "good fit" for them.  This eliminates the need for segregating books by level, and allows students to access a wider variety of texts for independent reading. 



Students learn how to be a "Reading Coach" and help each other during shared reading experiences.  This has been so helpful during our guided reading/book club lessons.  Students are no longer offering corrections and are instead allowing their peers the time or help they need.


How to be a Reading Coach Poster 

Teach your students the EEKK poem and they will always remember Buddy Reading expectations!  I had a student who actually taught this poem to her siblings for when they read together at home :)  Be still my heart!


Buddy Reading Poem Poster

Another tool that I cannot recommend enough is CCPensieve.  This is a paid subscription, but I find it to be highly beneficial for record keeping and small group management.  As a Montessori teacher, observing students, documenting progress, and following the child is paramount.  This can be overwhelming with over 25 students in a class, but there are tools out there to make it manageable, and this is one of them!

Do you use the Daily 5 in your classroom?

Happy weekend!


Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Sight Words in the Summer

Greetings, Bloglings! 

We are working through many a phonics rule in summer school these days:
When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking!  I before E, except after C!  Use /ck/ after a short vowel!  Magic E makes the vowel say its name!  Listen to the Bossy R!  
My sweet second graders have these rules memorized.  The problem, of course, is that they only occasionally apply in English.

Enter Sight Words.  Aside from for the benefit of individual students, I have not found a great need to emphasize sight words in my second and third grade classroom during the school year.  Most of my students come into second grade with a strong enough reading foundation that has allowed me to implement balanced literacy instruction with high engagement in authentic reading.  We systemically study words and spelling patterns in daily mini-lessons and independent work, and I am cognizant of the research supporting the importance of inventive spelling opportunities as opposed to memorizing weekly word lists in isolation.  However, summer school has rendered me a bit less idealistic.  This teacher only has four weeks, and I am pulling out all the stops to make the biggest impact possible in a short amount of time.

Sight Word practice can get very "drilly" very fast, so we've been using games galore to keep things fun!  Today I introduced my Sight Word I Have... Who Has?  game, and it was a hit! You can find 5 sets of this game, including every Dolch Sight Word from Pre-Primer through Grade 3, at the link below the picture. 


Another fun option is Sight Word Splat!  This gets kids moving as they "splat" colorful bugs labeled with sight words that are called out by the teacher or student partner.  It's a silly game that's great for small groups. 

  
Perhaps my most favorite part of teaching in a Montessori classroom is that students are expected to learn at their own pace.  In order to track their progress through the different Dolch lists, I am using the following form that you can pick up for free at the link below:


How do students practice sight words in your classroom?

Curiously,


Saturday, July 22, 2017

Greetings, Bloglings

Alas, I have decided to start a teacher blog for documenting all things Room 11, one of my most dearest happy places.  I just realized that my name will be Mrs. Megan once I marry Mr. Greg in September!  I will obviously need to change my blog title then ☺



Am I the only person who is excited to go to school in July?  Summer school began last week, and I am so happy to be back in the classroom!  My little friends are reading, reading, reading, and they are filling me with much excitement and inspiration for the upcoming school year!  

Some of the kiddos did not seem too excited when they came in last Monday morning (go figure).  They perked up through the week, though, and they already have a great sense of the routine and are putting forth consistent effort throughout our mornings together.  By the end of the week, I noticed that they seemed excited to write in their Summer Journals!  I made these as a simple way to keep them engaged in creative writing through the summer session, and I am so pleased to see that it is something they look forward to and enjoy.  I've decided to integrate this into next year and see how my class likes journal writing for morning work.  I'm working on making journals for each month of the school year!  



Each month includes 30 thematic journal writing prompts in three different formats.  There's a calendar that can be displayed in the classroom or used as a table of contents.


I also included the prompts in task card format.  These could be printed, cut, and glued into existing writing journals, or they can be laminated and used as a writing choice or center activity.



I am planning to compile the monthly journals for each student as they will make great mementos and portfolio items. It will be another way to document students' writing growth and development throughout the entire school year from month to month. It also integrates journal writing in a relaxed yet meaningful way.  The importance of journal writing across all levels and curricular subjects is well researched and documented.  In addition to building writing mechanics, regularly engaging in this process helps students develop metacognition, reflection, and self-awareness while additionally offering an efficient outlet for teachers to better understand and connect with their students.  I'm going to use this blog as a journal for myself for the same reasons!!

Enjoy the weekend! 





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