Getting-to-Know-You Icebreaker Activity

Have you ever bought those blank building block towers and thought, "Oh! I'm totally going to do something cool with these for my students!" and then you never get around to it?  Yeah...me too.

Well - until today!

"something cool" = Getting-to-Know-You Icebreaker Activity

Do you want one for your classroom?  Follow the simple steps below:

Head over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store to grab the printable.  Yes, of course you could type up your own questions.  But for a buck, you will save the time and energy of getting the formatting and sizing perfect.  Trust me, it took me for-ev-er this morning and I wasted a lot of paper and ink figuring it out, LOL!

Cut out the boxes.  I even trimmed a bit on the inside of each box for my mini blocks, but if you have the normal-sized Jenga blocks, you could cut right on the lines.

 THIS PART IS IMPORTANT!  Smear some glue on the block before you put the paper down!  At first, I was just laying the paper down without glue and when I tried to apply the tape, the static would make the paper jump up to the tape and the alignment would get off.  My husband was like, "Why don't you just glue it first?"  Duh Amber.  :)

Lay down the paper.  (Please ignore my chipped nails...)

Rip off some packing tape about that long for the mini blocks; perhaps a bitter longer for the normal-sized Jenga blocks.

You can skip this step if you are using the normal-sized Jenga blocks, but if you have the minis like me, you'll want to cut off a bit of the edge of the packing tape (or it will hang off the side of the block).

Put the tape on the paper...

...then wrap the tape around the block.

Viola!

Once assembled this is assembled, you can use it year after year during that back to school time.  The questions are appropriate for any elementary or middle school grade level.  I have included way more questions than blocks that come in a set, so you can pick and choose which questions you like best!

I am going to have my first graders pull a block from a bag, read and answer the question, then place the block on the tower in the middle of the circle. You could do it where each child answers each question...it just depends on how much time you have! I plan to have my students build our tower on a tray, so if we don't finish in one day, we can set the tray aside and continue the next day.

I hope you and your students LOVE this great icebreaker activity!  If you have any questions, send 'em my way.

Five for Fraturday

Don't you just LOVE Kacey's weekly linky party!?  I sure do!  I may not get around to posting every week, but when I have time, I love knowing she is always there to host!

November!?  How did that happen!?!  Ah, well...I guess I need to just embrace it.  I am totally in love with my new calendar cards!

We took 15 minutes or so on Friday to celebrate 10 days of 100% perfect attendance by having a basketball shoot-out!  It was a fun, free, and easy-to-implement activity. 

I started a new high-frequency word practice activity to my students this week.  They went on a HFW hunt in books.  I introduced this activity to the whole group and they searched in books for about 15 - 20 minutes, but moving forward, this sheet is just going to go into their reading toolkits and they an add to it as they see fit.

I kept it pretty simple: 1) find a sentence that has the HFW, 2) write the sentence, and 3) highlight the HFW.

My students voted on which Election Day-themed book to read.

We graphed the ballots.

Note to self for next year: Do not use bingo dabbers.  The paint smeared when the kids folded their ballots and it was difficult to tell which book they voted for.  *sigh*

My students practiced writing high-frequency words in shaving cream...errrr..."Magic Spelling Foam."  They loved it, of course!

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for stopping by!  :)

Caring, Sharing, and Preparing: Advice From Amber - Building Reading Stamina

I think it is safe to assume that most teachers struggle to get their students to build (and maintain) good, consistent reading stamina.  I'm talking about "actually reading and thinking about the book, not just pretending because my teacher wants me to focus" kind of stamina.  Can you relate?

Well, I tried something this year with my firsties and it worked like a charm!

We have a mini poster in our classroom that has a thermometer outline.  It is tough to see, but the mini poster hangs on the upper-left-hand corner of our whiteboard and this is what we use to record our minutes (or at least the highest number of minutes we have reached).  Do you see it?  (I'm sorry I do not have a close-up!)

Every single day, I refer to our stamina chart.  We talked about it A LOT in the first few weeks of school...less now because it is not as necessary.  We also learn, regularly discuss, review, and routinely practice what good habits readers have and show without reminders.

I told my students that when they reached 5 minutes, they would get to use the "fun stuff."  This includes pillows, stuffed animals (to whisper read to), laundry baskets (to sit in), and exercise balls.  Do you think they tried hard to focus on their reading and thinking in order to show that they were building stamina?  Yep!  It took them a few days, but they got the hang of it.

After the students showed 5 minutes of stamina, our next goal was to get to 10 minutes.  It was at this time that I told them the next incentive = reading partners!

These pictures were actually not taken during Partner Reading, but I realized I do not have any pictures to show this.  I am using these as a substitute.  These partners pictured here were actually trying out a new reading strategy during the Active Engagement section of our Mini-Lesson.

So the next goal was...yep, you guessed it = 15 minutes.  After my students met the 10 minute reading stamina goal, I then told them the next incentive was... Flashlight Friday!

I have not yet taken a picture of our bucket of flashlights, but I can tell you that I found mine at Wal-Mart for $1.00 each in cute colors.

Our next goal was then 20 minutes, which my students have already exceeded, but...there is problem.  The incentive is to read books via Raz-Kids on our tablets, but we are having issues deploying apps to the tablets in our school district right now.  I hope the issue is resolved SOON because I have some antsy first graders.

What do you use as incentives (or anything really) to encourage your students to build and maintain reading stamina?

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

Caring, Sharing, and Preparing: Advice from Amber

Anyone who knows me as a teacher knows that I LOVE to share!  I like to share my books (I have too many to count...my book app stopped counting at 1,000), my products, my resources, my ideas...anything that will be helpful to another teacher.  After all, none of it is any good if it is kept to myself.  Sharing is caring!

My hope is to share a teacher tip or idea with you each week.  I know this might not seem like much to those of you who blog often, but for me, it would be an improvement from the status quo.

Every morning, I greet each of my students at our classroom door.  Wherever they stand gives me a clue about how they want to be greeted:

number 5 = high five

heart = hug

hand = handshake

smiley face = just a smile (no touching)

After I greet each student, they get to do something fun.  Here is an example: the secret password.  They have to check the secret password and whisper it in my ear before they can enter the classroom.  (This week, I am using CVC words, but in the past, I have done numbers, equations, high-frequency words...)

Here are some other fun activities my students have done this year as they cross our threshold:

 * pop bubbles (I have done this from a wand and also from a bubble machine.)

* walk the red carpet (I have 3 red bathroom mats that I lay down.  In years past, I have also offered the students over-sized glasses, feather boas, and other fancy accessories.  Bonus - Pump up some music during this threshold activity!)

* crawl though a tunnel (I have one of those spring tunnels.) 

* answer a trivia question (I use a stack of 1st grade trivia cards that I found in Target's Dollar Spot.)

I used to have a slide for my Kindergarten students last year, but my first graders were too big for it.

I also used to have a blow-up limbo stick, but one of my Kinders popped it last year.  :(

Be creative with your threshold activities!  As long as your integrating that "joy factor" into your school day and putting a smile on your students' faces... mission accomplished.

Do YOU have any cool threshold activity ideas to share?  I would love to hear them!  Please comment below!

As always, thanks for stopping by!  :)