Featured Teacher Tuesday - Week 8

Hey there! (Or as my three year-old has been saying lately... "Hey-dare!") Featured Teacher Tuesday is back from our Thanksgiving break!

 

This week we are featuring Elisabeth from Literacy and Lattes!

Elisabeth has been teaching kindergarten and first grade for 11 years and is a National Board Certified Teacher.  For the past 4 years, she has taught literacy, science, and social studies in a first grade classroom and provided one-on-one reading intervention in Reading Recovery.  Elisabeth is passionate about helping her students find a love of reading and making sure that each student feels loved and valued when they come to school each day.  

When she is not in the classroom or creating products for her students, Elisabeth spends time with her husband and two crazy kiddos.  She loves to hike, read, watch Grey’s Anatomy, put monograms on basically everything, and drink way too much coffee!

Elisabeth is also a Teacher-Author on TpT.  You can find her store at Literacy and Lattes and she specializes in products for Reading Recovery / reading intervention and science in the primary classroom.  

Her newest product - Learning Letters with QR codes - is a perfect no prep literacy center. 

   

Her best selling product - Reading Recovery and Small Group Data Collection and Planning -  includes everything you need to track data in reading intervention or guided reading groups.

Elisabeth also loves teaching science in the classroom and making materials for simple science lab investigations.  

Keep your literacy centers fun and engaging with the Super Fun Centers packs!

These printable books are perfect for the earliest readers!  

And how about some freebies?!?

You can also follow Elisabeth by clicking the links below.

Teachers Pay Teachers

See you next week when we feature Sarah from "Learning is for Superstars!"

Be sure to check out what the other great teacher bloggers (from the Featured Teacher Tuesday linky party) have in store for you this week! 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!  :)

Stretchy the Word Snake - Updated FREEBIE!

Hi there!  My Kinders are working on blending letter sounds together in order to sound out CVC words.  So I thought it would be a great time to break out my good friend, Stretchy the Word Snake!

(If you are unfamiliar with him, you can read about Stretchy the Word Snake in an older post HERE.  But basically you print these cards on card stock, cut them out, then slip them into those sliding pencil cases.  The students pull out the pencil case drawer to reveal the word only at first, read the word, then pull the drawer out more to reveal the picture and check to see if they read the word correctly.)

Anyway, when I pulled this activity out of the cabinet, I realized it needed some updating.  I added dots (black for consonants and red for vowels) and arrows.  I will teach my students to point to the dots as they say the letter sounds, then drag their finger across the arrow (from left to right, of course) as they blend the sounds together to read the word.

I updated short "o" and short "u" at this point.  You can find them for FREE at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  Enjoy!

Click HERE for short "o."

Click HERE for short "u."

As always, thanks for stopping by my little piece of the blog world!

Sunday Start on my Monday Made It and a FREEBIE!

Happy Monday Sunday everyone!  I have a simple project to share with you.

 

 

 

(Haha!  I just noticed my son in this picture.  Oh well!)

 

Next year, when I (hopefully) get into my new classroom, I am determined to create a beautiful, cheerful, and organized learning environment that my students are happy to walk into everyday and that I can be proud of.  The organized part is easy-peasy for me - organization is in my blood.  BUT - the hard part is making it beautiful.  I see all these aMaZiNg classrooms on your blogs and I want that so badly, but I do not know how you afford it!

 

So...

 

One thing I have been doing lately is taking inexpensive, free, and previously owned items (in this case, I used veggie cans and baby food containers) and spray painting them so they match the color theme I plan to go with next year.  Then, I wrapped some fun washi tape around them.

 

I liked the washi tape, but the expressions tape was kind of see-through.  I do not think I will buy that again.  I am going to hot glue some ribbon on my next round of spray painted goodies.

 

If you have any ideas on how to create a beautiful classroom on a budget, please do share!  I would love to hear how you all do it!

 

Do not forget to swing by Tara's linky party on her awesome blog, 4th Grade Frolics, to see what other teachers have created.

 

 

On a different note...

 

I bet many of you have been incorporating name activities into your ELA and Math units during this "back to school" time, right?  Well, that is why I thought you might be able to use this FREEBIE that I created.  If you would like to snag it, please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking HERE!  I really do read and appreciate your feedback!!

 

 

I have never met a child that does not like to talk about him or herself and most kids (at least the little ones) are pretty proud of their names.  So this activity is sure to interest your kiddos!  Have fun with it!

 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful week!  :)

 

A Long Awaited FREEBIE!

Happy holiday weekend to you!  I hope you are enjoying the extended weekend, as I am.  :)  My sweet hubby is taking me down to Illinois tomorrow (for my upcoming birthday) to see my favorite band - Collective Soul!

 

I love me some Dean Roland!

 

Anyway, back on track.  Way back when (I am talking 2011), I wrote about how I use "Stretchy the Word Snake" in the classroom.  Click HERE if you want to go back and re-read that post.  I started off by creating cards for Short A, then
s - l - o - w - l - y
over time, I created cards for Short E, I, and O.  Then came along my switch from Kindergarten to ESL and I no longer had an immediate need to make the Short U cards.

 

However... since then, many teachers (maybe YOU) - even until this day - have asked, "Where are the Short U cards?"  Well, my friends, I finally got around to making them for you!  Yippee!  Soooo... if you are interested in grabbing this FREEBIE, please visit my TPT store and you will find them there!

 

 

We go back to school again (we technically started in July) on Tuesday, but things will be slightly different now because I have a student teacher joining me for the first time.  I am pretty excited about it!

 

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

 

 





Awesome Book for Pre-K - 2nd Grade Teachers and a FREEBIE!

Hello!  I just wanted to stop by quick in order to tell you about a new and AWESOME professional development book that I highly recommend you put on your To-Read List.  It is written by Cindy Middendorf and it is called Early Reading Instruction and Intervention: A Source Book for Pre-K - 2.

 

 

While I am still on summer break, my 14-month old son makes it challenging to read.  So...I have been plugging away, little by little each night after he goes to bed.  As always, Cindy has reignited my teaching fire!  Seriously - if you read any of her books, you will be so motivated to become the best primary teacher you can be!  AND...she always gives awesome examples and strategies that you can implement easily in your own classroom.

 

 

 

I have been a huge fan of Cindy Middendorf for a few years now.  If you want to read a previous blog post about Cindy and her other books, click HERE!  I was oh-so-excited the day that Cindy Middendorf wrote a comment on my little 'ole blog!  I asked her if she could sign my book and she kindly obliged.

 

Chapter 1 of this book is all about physical readiness being the prerequisite for intellectual success.  (Isn't awesome to have educational leaders out there back up, with brain-based research, what we primary teachers already know instinctively?  Thank goodness for them!)  Anyway, I got to thinking about ways I can easily incorporate important physical interventions that improve core strength, balance, etc.  Then, I thought about this DVD my son and I checked out at the library recently...the kids do exercises for each letter of the alphabet.  I like most of the exercises on the DVD, but some of them were kind of lame or redundent...like "B" for "bounce" and "J" for jump.  Eh.  So I decided to make up my own list.

 

 

Here is how I intend to use this list:

 

1 - Show large letter cards, starting with "A," once at a time.  Ask the students to identify the letter.

 

2 - State the corresponding exercise.  Then, model the proper way to do the exercise and encourage the students to do the same.

 

3 - Ask the students what letter comes next, then repeat!  Easy-peasy, lemon squeezey!

 

So anywho...if you are interested in doing Alphabet Exercises with your little ones in order to get the jitters out AND build core strength, please click HERE to visit my TPT store and grab it for FREE!

 

Alrighty, I am off for now!  I intend on working on my first author study unit.  We will see how that goes!  Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by!  :)

 



LOTS of Spring Activities, Fun Photos, and a FREEBIE!

While many of you out there are thinking more along the lines of SUMMER BREAK - maybe your vacation has even started already... lucky you! - our school is still thinking Spring, or at least I am.  We are on a non-traditional year-round schedule, so our last day of school is not until June 20th.  Anyway, I have LOTS of photos and ideas for some fun Spring activities to share with you today!

 

You may have read in the past about the calendars that my two First Grade groups work on each month.  I love having the kids do these because they incorporate numbers, writing, art, discussion, and the calendar concept.  Here are the calendars that we created for the month of March:

 

 

My kiddos also had the option of creating a bird (with their handprints as the bird wings) or a kite, if they chose not to create an Easter basket.

 

As always, the students had to respond (verbally and through writing and illustrating) to the following question, "What can we do this month?"  The actual calendars are glued at the bottom.

 

 

This was my May example.  You can see how we always highlight holidays, birthdays, and special events that are going on at our school.

 

 

I wanted my students to create Spring scenes as their artwork for the month of May, but there was NO WAY I was going to take the time to cut out these little pieces and there was ABSOLUTELY NO WAY I was going to waste valuable learning time having the kids cut out all those pieces, soooo...

 

I contacted the Production Center at our district office building!  Do you have something like this in your school district?  They will cut out designs and letters, laminate, bind books, etc. all for a minimal fee.  Such lifesavors, they are!  And they are FAST!  I sent them an e-mail and in a matter of a few days, these arrived in my mailbox.  How easy is that!?

 

 

I was able to get all of these for a little over $3.00!!

 

 

Here is a close-up of one, but I am sure you get the picture:

 

 

Creative minds at work!  I love providing my students with opportunities to use their artistic sides, but yet not taking up too much of our valuable time doing so.

 

 Here are some of their Spring scene creations: 

 

 

 

Almost all of my groups participated in some sort of Easter egg hunt.  I couldn't just let the kids "have fun"... I tied the activity to academics.  (What a mean teacher, I am!  Hehe.)  My intermediate kids, who are reading chapter books, found eggs that had questions inside about the stories they are reading.  They, of course, had to write the answers on a provided recording sheet, after the hunt was over.  My primary kids found eggs that had high frequency words, questions about books we had read recently, etc. depending on their needs.

 

 

You would think the egg hunt would go rather quickly, given the fact that I teach in a small room... but it took them longer than I anticipated to find all the egss.  Some of them seemed to be lost for good!

 

In the 4K classroom, we were learning about how living things grow and change.  One week, we focused on gardens, plants, and flowers.  We read the book, I'm a Seed, by Jean Marzollo (super cute book)!

 

 

Then, I partnered up the kiddos and gave each set of partners a little baby food container that held various types of seeds:  corn, watermelon, sunflower, pumpkin, peas, etc. 

 

 

I just bought the packets of seeds at Wal-Mart for a buck each.  The plastic containers are Gerber baby food containers that my husband so kindly washes for me, after my baby boy is done eating.  :)  My hubby keeps asking me if I need more... really I don't, but I just cannot stand the thought of recycling them. 

I instructed the kids to sort the seeds into groups, any way they liked.  But I told them they had to EXPLAIN to me how they sorted.  Hard at work!  I just love this sight!  :)

 

 

A group of my Second Grade students read the following books for Earth Day:

 

 

(Todd Parr is one of my very FAVORITE children's book authors and illustrators!!  His illustrations are colorful, simple, and clean.  His words are easy-to-comprehend, yet powerful.  I highly recommend any and all of his books!)

 

 

I found this one by accident at Barnes and Noble.  Once I started skimming the pages, I knew I had to have it!!

 

Then, the students wrote about ways they can help the Earth.  I required them to include an opening, 3 support statements, a closing, and temporal words.

 

We glued their writing pieces to green construction paper.  They made a green handprint on light blue paper (to represent the land and water on Earth) and sprinkled it with glitter.  Finally, we took their photos as though they were holding the Earth, cut them out, and glued them accordingly.

 

Here are some close-up shots of their work:

 

 

(The Earth is heavy!!  What a hoot, she is!)

 

(Or maybe it's not such a challenge to hold.  This guy is taking a nap!)



 

We also went outside one day, so the students could write about what they saw, heard, smelled, and touched outdoors.  They love any reason to go outside; I love any way I can get them excited about writing.  :)  Oh yeah, and anytime students get to use a clipboard...that really gets them geeked!

 

 

 (Random side note:  Do you see the yellow and blue playground set?  Along with several very generous donations, our students raised money to purchase that set!  Our staff is currently looking into ways to raise money for phase 2 of the playground.  If you have any great ideas, please share!  I would so appreciate it!)

 

So I have a group of primary kiddos (1 Kindergarten, 3 First Grade) that are pretty low, in terms of their English language acquisition (though they have made awesome gains this year).  Academically speaking, each of them is quite high.  But we focus quite a bit on vocabulary and the 4 domains: speaking, listening, reading, and writing in the English language.  All the activities they have been doing are tied into our "Spring" theme in one way or another.  So we had to build that Spring vocabulary.  We started with a Word Wall.

 

 

We created booklets, in which they had to read the vocabulary word, say a sentence using that word, write the sentence, then illustrate the sentence.  This took several of our sessions together, but it was totally worth it and the boys really loved making their booklets.

 

Recently, the kiddos participated in a vocabulary review using technology - iPads... and boy were they ever excited!  (Our school is quite fortunate because we have an entire class set of iPads.  We do have to share with the whole school, but our school is kind of small, so getting our hands on them is not that difficult.)

 

 

Are you familiar with QR Codes?  If not, I recommend checking out QR Stuff.  It is a free, easy-to-use, pretty self-explanatory website for creating, downloading, saving, and printing QR codes.

 

 

I created 12 QR codes for 12 of our Spring vocabulary words.  Then, I printed them, cut them out, and taped them around our classroom.  I also stuck a number card next to each QR code.

 

First, we discussed my expectations for iPad usage:  1) Only use the iPad in the way that Mrs. Unger is instructing you to do.  In other words, they were not allowed to poke around on other apps...stay on task.  2)  Use the iPad with care.  We talked about things to do and NOT do with the iPads.

 

 

Then, I gave each of my kiddos a recording sheet and explained the directions.  Their job was to hunt for QR codes, scan the code, verbally identify the picture that popped up, go back to the table (I teach in a very small room, otherwise I would give the kids clipboards to write on), read the word that matched the picture, then write the corresponding number in the circle next to the word.

 

By the way, the name of the app on our iPads that we use to scan QR codes is "Scan."

 

 

If you would like to snag a copy of this FREEBIE to use in your own classroom, please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking HERE!

 

(The green scallop frame was a generous freebie from Kyp McLaren.)

 

So this was my first experience trying out QR codes and it went over REALLY well!  The activity was easy-peezy to set up, the kids LOVED it, they were using technology, and the kids were able to get up and move around, while reviewing vocabulary.

I have a group of 1st graders who also spied the QR codes taped around the room.  When the kids asked what they were and I explained, they also wanted to partake in the fun.  This group did not need help on Spring vocabulary, nor was that something they had been working on, BUT I just could not resist allowing them to have a little fun with the iPads, too.  (Next time I will be better prepared and have a QR Code Hunt ready that aligns with what they are learning and doing.)

Anyway, back to my Kindergarten / First Grade group of ELLs that was working on Spring vocabulary... here is another review activity that we did the other day.  This was a listening activity.

 

 

First, I had the kids start at the table, standing with their hands on the table.

 

Then, I gave clues by describing a Spring object / one of our vocabulary words.  The boys then had to walk around the classroom until the found the corresponding picture laying on the floor.  I had told them to stand on our around the picture, but they decided a group hug seemed more appropriate.  ;)

 

 

 I really liked doing this activity with them because it was easy to set up, it was quick to implement, it focused on one of the 4 ELL domains (listening), the kids were up and moving, and it was a fun way to review our vocabulary again.

 

 

 This 1st Grade / Kindergarten group read Spring-themed poetry.  I assigned each of them a different poem, based on their reading levels.  They practiced independently and with the teacher before reading it aloud to the small group.  They were so proud of them themselves when they were able to read them in front of the group!

 

 

 I had planned to work on acrostic poems with a group of my 2nd grade students, so you can imagine my excitement when I found this book in our school library!  We started off by reading this mentor text.

 

 

Then, we created an anchor chart of Spring-related words.  My intent was for the students to use this (along with our Spring-themed Word Wall) when they got stuck coming up with sentences that started with the letters in their chosen Spring word.

 

Next, the students chose a Spring word and got to work.  I have to be honest... I was expecting to have to provide LOTS of support with this activity (I thought it would be challenging for them to come up with sentences that started with a certain letter AND related to their chosen word), but these kiddos blew.me.away with their creativity.  They came up with better sentences than I would have ever thought of!

 

(Side note:  I laminated some scrapbook paper and taped them to my door to provide pretty backgrounds behind my students' work.  I really like the way it turned out!  I intend on changing up the scrapbook paper each season.)

 

 Well, I have run out of pictures, so I guess that means I am (finally) done.  I hope you were able to snag a few ideas that you can use in your own classroom.  Have fun!  As always, thank you for stopping by.  :)