A New Year of Inspiration

It's New Years Eve and I've really been reflecting on 2015; what was great, good and what needs to take a turn in 2016.

In May when I finished the final testing on my students from last school year, I had a student who made the greatest improvement of my career.  It was exhilarating and I was so proud of his accomplishments.  What felt even better is that he was proud of himself and has continued this school year making great gains and loving to read and learn at home (Another plus is I got to be close to his parents and have continued to touch base with them.  I love when that happens!)

I took the summer to really rejuvenate myself and have set up boundaries this school year so that I'm leaving at a decent time and taking time for myself in the evenings so I am not stressing myself out as much as in the past.  I've also started this blog- I love sharing ideas and different tips I've learned so that help other educators or readers that work with young minds.

As I think about next year, I really want to start blogging more regularly.  I have a goal to finish big projects I've started in my room and get a new behavior system up and running in the next couple weeks.

A very dear friend gave me this wonderful book for Christmas:  The 52 List Project by Moorea Seal.  It's a book to help guide an inspire your life.  I plan on making this a weekly session where I take time for myself to go through the book and see where this book helps me end up at the end of 2016.

Cheers to getting inspired and living your best life yet!  

Keep things simple but change it up for the holidays!

I'm a teacher that likes to keep routine.  I want to change things up for the holidays, but still keep things as calm as possible before the excitement of the holidays takes over and the kids are crazy.  :)  

Here are some ideas for keeping centers in order but adding some merry to them:  

-  Making Words:  use a holiday word and have the kids come up with as many words as they can from that word or phrase.  Example:  holiday or holiday cheer; words made:  day, dial, deer etc.

-  Comprehension:  reading passages that relate to different celebrations or activities this time of year.  Reading A-Z and some TPT accounts have ready-made books/passages you can use! Chose, print and done!

-  Writing:  Chose a picture of kids decorating a tree or playing dreidel.  Students have to create a story 4-6 sentences long with that picture.  

-Poetry:  Pick poems that incorporate the holiday season.  I have activities like a cut and past "Who Is It? (Santa) page that we add to our day and making a foldable book.  

-  Holiday Scoot:  Scoot games are really popular right now with many being available on TPT.  I've printed off 3 that are related to the standards I'm covering and will change them out each week this month.  Sellers have added holiday pictures :)  

-Holiday music in the background:  I pop on Pandora and type in Christmas music- walaa!  Instant holiday feel and the music is calm so the kids feel "homey" and continue to work hard.  

So far, I have noticed that the kids are enjoying the center activities and our routine is still intact.  The week before our break is a little nutty with outside the room activities so we change things up that week as far as turning center time into whole class activities or seat work to complete parent gifts etc.  As long as the kids are engaged- it works!  

Happy Holidays,

Making Decisions with Centers...

You've taught some basic centers, but what now?  How do you decide how things are going?

After I have things rolling for a couple of weeks, I lay out my center cards like this:  

I take a look to see that centers are "even" meaning that the activities are heavier/more work from one day to the next.  If you notice that on Monday, kids are finishing activities quickly but Tuesday, kids are having to stay in at recess to complete work; they might need switched around.  For 1st grade I have four-15 minute centers with a 2 minute break in-between (I use GoNoodle for brain breaks).  I like to have all days at this time of year to have 2 paper centers- where the kids turn something in for me to review, and 2 activity centers- where they are practicing a skill but not having to turn anything in.  If you are teaching a higher grade you might want to make each day 3-20 minute centers so that the students have more time to complete tasks.  

Here are my centers by day:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

I can say that things are "just right" if my kids are mostly going outside (maybe a couple stragglers because they were avoiding tasks) and the work is primarily completed well (meaning about 85-90% of the kids are "getting it" and only a small portion of the class needs to have reteaching).  

As the year goes on I continue to make adjustments, so look for coming blogposts that continue to address center-based learning :)

Sincerely,

Anchor Charts: Starting Read to Self

Hello Readers!  

I hope everyone is off to a fabulous new school year!  I wanted to share how I normally start independent reading.  So, for the past couple weeks I have been filling the students' book boxes with leveled paper books.  These books can be from Reading A-Z, paper books from your reading program, self made, whatever you can find but try to make them very read-able for your kiddos.  After you have about 5-6 books, have a mini lesson on Read to Self.  This lingo came from the Daily 5 initiative but I have my own spin on centers.  I do really like the language of Read to Self though.  Easy, concise and kids can visualize it.  



First, I bring everyone to the carpet, I take chart paper and create a "T" chart.  We discuss all of the things the kids should be doing during read to self:  sitting where they cannot touch another student, reading books from their book boxes (reading can mean using the pictures to invent a story), quiet, comfortable, whisper reading, etc.  Then we talk about what I am doing:  working with students.  

After the chart is created, we practice this activity each day. I started the first time with a 4 min block of time.  In Daily 5, it says to stop the students and revisit the anchor chart if someone gets off task.  I believe that disrupts the kiddos that are working hard so I independently visit the off take child and review the chart.  Each day I add a minute or two to our time until we get to 15 minutes.  We revisit the anchor chart each day for the first 3-4 days and then as needed.  It is also posted in the room after the first few days.  

And now you have indpenedent readers at any level!!  

As the year progresses, I also have a mini-lesson on "Just Right" books from the classroom library.  You can either have students add these to their book boxes or have these books as an additional choice during this time.  

I hope you try Read to Self and see all of readers start blooming like I have!  

Classroom Reveal: My first blogpost!!

So excited for this journey!!!

Welcome to my blog!  

I am a 1st grade teacher in Troy, OH who has a passion to share ideas.  

In my spare time, I help with dog rescue.  I brought my doggie-lovin' heart into the classroom and wallah!

These are laminated squares outside of my classroom that are attached to the tack strips.  I put clothespins on them to switch out hallway displays quickly and easily.

These are cubbies for my kids but also are used for storage.  Each bin is labeled with the items that go inside.  At the bottom are any papers that I use consistently throughout the year.  I can copy in advance and the kids use the bins as a shelf.  

I got the blue shelves from Walmart and the multi-color drawers from Target.  

My reading corner: tried stools this year from IKEA (Thanks Mrs. DeCarbo!)  The kids are LOVING them!  Paper letters are stored in the red little drawers to use during reading groups; posters help with decoding and the caterpillar shows word families.

Chapter books and book boxes:  They are actually shower caddies!  I turned a wooden paper sorter sideways and wallah!    

This will be my work board for Literacy Collaborative (AM Reading) and Daily 4 (PM Math)

Calendar:  I LOVE to incorporate a new thing each month to continue challenging kiddos during our time here.  

Behavior Plan:  All children start on green.  The system is fluid, so even if he/she moves down- they can always earn their way back up!

Drawers for needed copies throughout the week!

Math manipulatives and School/Home Folders:  labeled so that children can grab independently and a place in the morning with everything goes as well as any copies that I need to send home get put (so I don't lose things)!

Thanks you so much for visiting my blog!  I'm super excited to start sharing my knowledge and ideas as well as learning from others that post/share!