The winner of my new Writing Process Posters
is Kim Worthey! I sent you an email, Kim.
Happy Fourth everyone!
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Writing Posters Winner
Happy Fourth everyone!
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
The Writing Process
I finally got around to updating my Writing Process posters.
I included the traditional 5 steps: Prewrite, Draft, Revise, Edit, and Publish.
However, I also included the variations I use with my 1st graders. For instance, I think Prewrite is a little confusing for 6 year olds so I broke it into the two parts of Think and Plan. I've found that many kids (and adults) brainstorm but skip the planning and just start writing.
I ask my class to read their story over with their whisper phones (I made them out of PVC.) The kids love to use them and it is a great way for them to realize they left out a word (or two or three...)
 | |
I have students sign up for conferences after they have tried to edit and revise on their own first. I thought I might try to use name magnets or clips on the posters this year.
The students LOVE to share but there is never enough time for everyone. Again, maybe 3 magnets or clips from this poster could be picked at random.
Do you stick with the original 5 or use a variation? Maybe a little mix and match?
Leave me a comment and I'll pick 1 winner tomorrow to email a set to. Your comment can be about this post, telling me you pinned this, that you are now following my TpT store, whatever you'd like.
I'm bummed today because one of our cats, Shadow, has been missing for 1 week now. This happened one other time and she did come home the 2nd week so I am trying to keep my hopes up that someone is taking care of her.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Sticky note list freebie
"Yeah, I'm a planner. No, actually I'm more of a fly by the seat of my pants gal, you know, moment to moment. Yeah, that's me. " MOVIE ANYONE??
Which do you think I am? HA, was that even a question? No surprise, I am TOTALLY a list person. So I was inspired by this project from a great DIY site called Cornflower Blue.
I wanted to make them for my family so I was lazy efficient and made a smaller printable version with space for doodling-although no one else in my family seems to have the doodle bug. Do you?
I decided a DAILY PLAN was needed to make sure we were all balancing our free time with our responsibilities.
The categories work for the boys and me.
CHORES-These are in addition to the ones they have every day. For me, I am trying to break my big monthly goals into smaller parts so I don't feel so overwhelmed.
SCHOOL WORK-They have Summer Bridge workbooks, flashcards, math games,etc to keep their brain from turning to mush. I have my teaching stuff to work on.
OUTSIDE-They love hockey, football, etc but get drawn by electronics so I schedule it. I am even worse and send them out but get sucked in by the computer. Trying to change this.
READING-I require at least an hour but luckily they like to read so this isn't an issue. I would read ALL DAY if I could so this is giving me time but I also have to do the others. RATS.
The boys decided they wanted to write with a dry erase marker instead of post-its which worked for me. They hadn't finished filling it out when I snapped the picture.
Then, I started thinking about how it would be great to have a To Do version of this for my teacher organizational binder so I made a version of that as well.
If you think you may be able to use any of these sticky note lists you can download them FREE by clicking on the pic below. I'd love to hear from you if you do.
Which do you think I am? HA, was that even a question? No surprise, I am TOTALLY a list person. So I was inspired by this project from a great DIY site called Cornflower Blue.
CHORES-These are in addition to the ones they have every day. For me, I am trying to break my big monthly goals into smaller parts so I don't feel so overwhelmed.
SCHOOL WORK-They have Summer Bridge workbooks, flashcards, math games,etc to keep their brain from turning to mush. I have my teaching stuff to work on.
OUTSIDE-They love hockey, football, etc but get drawn by electronics so I schedule it. I am even worse and send them out but get sucked in by the computer. Trying to change this.
READING-I require at least an hour but luckily they like to read so this isn't an issue. I would read ALL DAY if I could so this is giving me time but I also have to do the others. RATS.
The boys decided they wanted to write with a dry erase marker instead of post-its which worked for me. They hadn't finished filling it out when I snapped the picture.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Listening FREEBIE & 2nd grade CCSS Pack
Hi, my name is Jenn and I am addicting to teaching.
{"Hi, Jenn," the rest of the meeting intones.}
A lot of my brain is consumed by this Common Core leadership thing I have gotten myself into. I am feeling kind of stressed that I am the only one at my site (20ish in the whole district) to pilot this. I keep looking over my yearly plan at what I will need to change. I am still not 100% clear if somethings are still mine to teach or not. For example, I am not seeing contractions or compound words as a first grade standard. Anyone who is teaching/learning common core want to chime in and tell me if I am correct on that? What are the other changes you have noticed? I bet a conversation on this would help a lot of us.
One of the things I am trying to do is tweak what I already do to make it fit the standards better. I adjusted my listening center response sheets. These are FREE in my TpT store.
1st grade: I filled this one in as an example.
Kindergarten
I also added the requested 2nd Grade version of my Common Core Assessment Pack to my store along with the Kinder & 1st. {Click the picture to visit my store}
I'd love to hear from you if you download my listening center freebie, want to talk about what standards you notice are different, or want to come up with a name for our Anonymous meetings? :-)
Friday, June 22, 2012
Number Sense Game & a discount
Don't you just love coming home to a box by your front door? Today I received my order from MPM School Supplies.
I was pleased with the variety of items that are available on this site! I got EXACTLY what I needed and couldn't find at the stores near us. The website was easy to navigate and the order came quickly. I highly suggest you check them out. The first 25 readers of my blog can click {here} to get 15% off their purchase.
So what did I get?
1. Hundreds Pocket Chart (I saw some great activities with this at my math training.)
2. Ladybug 2-sided (I have this already in my door window but mine is faded so I needed a new one.)
3. 10 sided dice. I have been looking for these and the kids will LOVE that they are die in die!
4. Transparent counters (to use on 100 chart activities)
Do you have a hundred pocket chart?
Part of my math training last week was provided by outside speakers from the Silicon Valley Math Initiative. They suggested that you change it to a 0 to 99 chart which was very interesting. If you think about it, that makes a lot more sense. Not only are all the tens digits on the same row (rather than the 30 last in the row of all the 20's) but I think it reinforces place value better. At the end of the row you have to make a move to the next row, just like you have to bundle that tenth straw and move it over to the tens pocket.
One of the activities that they shared was a game called Build it Fast using the 0 to 99 pocket chart.
We went to a summer school class of 1st graders and they fish-bowled the game for us.
First, she passed out all the number cards to the class and they put them in order, least to greatest, on the rug in front of them. This in itself was an interesting assessment since it became clear who was unable to do it. She went around, helping those that needed it.
Next, the teacher explained to the students that during the game they would use a technique called Silent Star. When she made a star on the whiteboard, no one (not even the teacher) could talk. She then wrote their starting time on the white board.
She placed the 99 in the bottom right pocket and motioned to the 98 spot. When a student raised the card she motioned for her to come put it in the chart. The students were encouraged to go up on their own and put their card in when they saw where it went. When the teacher noticed a student holding two cards because they were only one apart from each other, she silently encouraged her to put both of them in at once, leaving the appropriate space.
If someone put a card in the wrong spot, the teacher did not correct them but waited for another student to notice the mistake and fix it when they went to put their cards in. It was
This was an awesome way to assess. You could see who totally got it, fixing others mistakes, using the ones place in a lower row (off-decade ten) to determine the correct spot for their card, and who needed to be prodded by their neighbor because they had no idea they should be up there.
It took this class 14 minutes but the teacher said after you play a few times they get it down to about 5 minutes. I thought this was a terrific number sense activity and I hope you do too!
So what did I get?
1. Hundreds Pocket Chart (I saw some great activities with this at my math training.)
2. Ladybug 2-sided (I have this already in my door window but mine is faded so I needed a new one.)
3. 10 sided dice. I have been looking for these and the kids will LOVE that they are die in die!
4. Transparent counters (to use on 100 chart activities)
Do you have a hundred pocket chart?
Part of my math training last week was provided by outside speakers from the Silicon Valley Math Initiative. They suggested that you change it to a 0 to 99 chart which was very interesting. If you think about it, that makes a lot more sense. Not only are all the tens digits on the same row (rather than the 30 last in the row of all the 20's) but I think it reinforces place value better. At the end of the row you have to make a move to the next row, just like you have to bundle that tenth straw and move it over to the tens pocket.
One of the activities that they shared was a game called Build it Fast using the 0 to 99 pocket chart.
We went to a summer school class of 1st graders and they fish-bowled the game for us.
First, she passed out all the number cards to the class and they put them in order, least to greatest, on the rug in front of them. This in itself was an interesting assessment since it became clear who was unable to do it. She went around, helping those that needed it.
Next, the teacher explained to the students that during the game they would use a technique called Silent Star. When she made a star on the whiteboard, no one (not even the teacher) could talk. She then wrote their starting time on the white board.
She placed the 99 in the bottom right pocket and motioned to the 98 spot. When a student raised the card she motioned for her to come put it in the chart. The students were encouraged to go up on their own and put their card in when they saw where it went. When the teacher noticed a student holding two cards because they were only one apart from each other, she silently encouraged her to put both of them in at once, leaving the appropriate space.
If someone put a card in the wrong spot, the teacher did not correct them but waited for another student to notice the mistake and fix it when they went to put their cards in. It was
This was an awesome way to assess. You could see who totally got it, fixing others mistakes, using the ones place in a lower row (off-decade ten) to determine the correct spot for their card, and who needed to be prodded by their neighbor because they had no idea they should be up there.
It took this class 14 minutes but the teacher said after you play a few times they get it down to about 5 minutes. I thought this was a terrific number sense activity and I hope you do too!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)