I Graduated from GLAD!

Have you heard of GLAD training?  I just finished 10 days of training this year.  The last 4 days we have been in a model classroom in the mornings, watching the trainers go through an American Revolution unit with the kids.  

Three reasons why I LOVED this week:

1) I learned something new.

2) I was able to see my kiddos from last year.

3) There were 4 days of prep time in the afternoons, complete with free color printing, posters, and lamination.  

Today I wanted to share some of my pictures from the week.  So many interactive charts, the butcher paper was literally falling off the walls.  Not everything, just the things I really wanted to remember.  

On the last day, the trainer met with small groups.  The first two groups were on level kids, so they read informational passages and did a jigsaw activity.  The third group was an ELD group, which went through a narrative (lots of pictures on a chart, the story on the back) and then each student had to add a sentence after the topic sentence prompt.  

These inquiry charts were added to every day for 4 days.  The kids asked a question, and the trainer didn't answer them, but had them add it to the chart.  There was an opportunity every night for students to choose a question from the chart and do research to find out the answers.  LOVE it!

I want to remember that poems/chants are NOT just for the primary grades.  Back when I taught 2nd grade, I would always have a Poem of the Week to practice for fluency.  Well I learned that poems can be used to teach vocabulary in the upper grades.  The chart started off nice and BW.  Then the kids had an activity to stand up and shout it out.  Afterward, the trainer asked kids what words they thought were important and highlighted them, then added some illustrations and picture file cards to help bring the poem/chant alive.

The kids created this timeline, and it expanded over two days.  The first day was only the last half of it, just the words, the second day the kids reviewed it, added pictures and vocabulary words, and then found more information to add more events to the front of it.  I've always had a CA timeline, but never thought to add pictures as we walk through the story.

There is so much more that I'm still pondering how I can add it to my classroom, and honestly there are tons of units out there for almost every part of my Social Studies and Science standards (just google GLAD units 4th grade), but here's what I came up with at this point in time.  Check out the links to grab them from Google Docs.  :)

Home/School Connection - The kids take a sheet home, talk to their parents about what they learned, and write about it on the back.  They get a parent signature and can earn some points for their team if they choose to do the assignment.  The real GLAD units usually have specific questions to talk about, but I wanted some I could use anytime to review.  These are for Fourth Grade California Social Studies and NGSS units.   

      

Caught You Cards - These are inspired by GLAD's literacy awards.  Basically during direct instruction a teacher is busy teaching :), so you choose two helpers that are your scouts.  You tell them to pay attention to the other student's behavior, something specific like active listening, eye contact, participation, etc.  After the lesson you ask the scouts which kids demonstrated those qualities, and they can give an award to them.  The kids are recognized for doing a great job, and then they have a choice to do an extra activity for a reward.  Those rewards don't have to entail anything more than giving some team points, or a spot on the raffle.  These Caught You Cards are for Social Studies and Science - research options and STEM.  :)  

Oh, Research!  How I love thee... Well, with all the research options they had, the kids need a little help with organizing their thoughts.  The focus with research is that it is taking a question from the unit, and learning how to cite a source. Here's a little sheet. 

Okay - last one for the moment...  There are tons of anchor charts that the trainers used, but I was drawn to something similar to this... It's called a Mind Map.  Students record information on it from all the many informational passages, timeline, narratives, pictures, etc. that they learned from the week.  I love the fact that it's a way to culminate everything.  

I hope these help you.  There are still tons more that I want to recreate for my classroom.  I'll check back in another time.  Hope you are having a great day! 

Back to School Freebies {Did you grab these?}

I hope that you are having a relaxing summer.  This morning I woke up at 4:30 am with my head in full to do list mode.  The back to school nightmares dreams haven't started yet, but I'm sure they are just around the corner.

Today I wanted to share some quick links to FREEBIES that have made my classroom run extra smooth the past couple of years.   

Absent Folders

I printed these covers 4 per page, laminated, and stapled onto plastic folders (plastic since they are easily washable for sick kids).  They stay in a bucket, along with the included checklist.  When a student is absent, their neighbor grabs a folder and checklist, and throughout the day they update the folder with the materials the absent student will need when they return to school (papers that need to go home, interactive notebook papers to be glued, homework, etc).  

Back to School Teacher Lists

This is my "get ready for school" teacher info. packet that I jot down notes and make plans for an easy transition back to school.  

Essentials

This contains more those Student papers that make life easier for me... Rainbow Edit, Whole Class Writing, and Monthly Grammar.  :)  

Birthday Cards

I print a stack of these cards on colored card stock, and on student birthdays I give students a glow stick, card, and homework pass.  

Novel Notes

These notes keep my reading instruction moving nice and smooth.  Last year I passed out file folders for every novel, and the kids added these sheets to keep everything organized.  

Toss the Tickets

This is by far the best classroom decision I made.  No more tickets, just a simple chart on the board that we add student classroom numbers, and still have the raffle on Fridays.  

Hope this helps!  

Highlighter Comprehension {Freebie}

Another summer project complete!  

This last school year I expanded my use of highlighters in the classroom.  I've always used different colored markers and pencils to do Rainbow Editing, and for taking notes, but usually I only give my students one single highlighter.  We use it constantly though - during math, during reading, highlighting topic sentences, etc....    This upcoming year I wanted to bring in different colored highlighters to use on a daily basis, to check comprehension, and to make sure the kids are looking carefully at their work.  

The kids always love to use them... I personally think they feel like they are in college when they do... and they really take good care of them.  It's a big discussion at the beginning of the year.  Bumping from a single highlighter per student to six is an investment though.  A big portion of my budget, but it will be worth it.  It makes things easy to grade, and I can check comprehension as I walk around the room.

I made these reminders for my own class - you can see them above. It's all in Black and White, so you can print and then add whatever highlighter colors you own, or you can make multiple copies if you want to highlight one area on a sheet for students to focus on.  That's my plan for the Reading Strategies (why I didn't laminate that one).  These will reside in a stack on my front cart, and I can add the specific sheet to the board when it's time for guided and independent work.  

   

Check it out on Google Drive.  :)  I hope it helps.  

Hope you have had a wonderful day!  

Subject Pencils {Freebie}

Yesterday morning I was playing around with my Silhouette and decided to use those Dollar Spot wood pencils as subject labels for my bulletin boards. I love how they came out.  The pencils come as a banner, but it was super easy to just slide out the ribbon and create individual ones instead.  

Some Silhouette settings if you want to do this yourself:

Font - KG Always a Good Time 

Size: 114 font (Read, Write, Math) a little smaller for Social Studies and Science

*Weld the font together so you don't have tons of little cuts

I used cardstock and attached with adhesive, but you could also use vinyl. 

The wood pieces are 5" x 8", so make sure your titles are a little under 5" before you cut.  

Target Teachers on IG shared the above image yesterday and that made my day.  There were some comments that others wished they could have this too, so I made a paper version.  Hope it helps.  It's over on Google Docs.  The pencil size is the same as the wood ones.    

Subject Pencils - Paper Version

Have a fabulous day!  I'm now off to take the kids to Finding Dory.  :)  

Desk Organizer {Freebie Signs}

I found the last red plastic spinner in the dollar spot in Target a couple of weeks ago and decided to turn it into a pen catcher on my school desk, keeping everything sorted.  This replaced 4 mugs with sorted pens...  I attached the little signs to the edges using binder clips at home, because my glue gun was at school.... guess what?  It's been sitting on my desk for days now and I never used the glue.  I did push back the inner metal hinge of the binder clip before filling with my markers, but I realized that for me, I want to be able to change this out when needed.  I may grow tired of these signs and change to something else...doubt it, but it may happen... Anyhow, it's working for me and I wanted to share the tags if you need something like this too.

2 versions, both the perfect size for a little container.  Hope it helps!  

Snow Day Similes {Freebie File}

That week right after break we had our Snow Day party at school.  I've done it for a couple of years, so you might have seen other posts about it.  This year it was simplified since I was still functioning at 60% after the bout with Bronchitis and we were catching up after 3 days of subs.

Here was our day:

*Math - Math fact snowball fight

Each student had a piece of scratch paper, they wrote a simple multiplication fact in the center of the paper, then crumpled it up.  On the count of 3 they all threw the paper balls, and then grabbed one off the ground.  They had to answer the math problem, sign their initial, and then write another math problem on the paper.  They then crumpled it up again, threw it again, and it continued again and again...  SO MUCH FUN!  Lots of giggles and my teacher heart was happy!

*Read Aloud: Snowflake Bentley

The big deal was making sure the kids knew how unique snowflakes are. 

*Snowflake Similes

In past years I've passed out the copy paper for students to make their own snowflake, or passed out a dicut that students add glue and glitter to... but this year I needed to simplify it... so we used coffee filters.  Here's the google doc. if you want the student paper. 

Do you celebrate snow in your classroom?   

 

Mission History Freebie

Know what I love? FREEBIES!  Click the link above to snatch up this Mission History Freebie with you.  It's a peace offering because this little blog has been sitting pretty empty for a while, and I'm sorry about that.  This school year has just done me in... between teaching 32 kids and carting my own 3 boys to school with me... and then homework, grading, cooking, laundry, cleaning, and... and... and... I'm just tired.  

I sometimes wonder if anyone ever comes over to check to see what I've been up to, wonders where I've been... or if everyone already sees my posts over at IG or FB and knows I haven't jumped off the bridge (yet).  ;)  Just kidding...

So, let's talk for a moment about how my classroom is going this year.  This Fall at our PD we were told that we would be doing RCD - ELA (SS) this coming year.  I didn't even know what that was... the acronyms change all the time, but I've learned it's Rigorous Curriculum Development, and my grade level would be taking our Social Studies curriculum and diving deeper to apply our reading standards in a new content area... to make the units integrated.  Sounded great until the part that we needed to find resources to do that...

So I started researching our different units and created reading passages for what my students need to know.  Those informative, interesting, and fun facts that glue their attention year after year.  The passages led to spiral strategy grids... which led to thinking maps... which led to comprehension questions... which led to unit tests... which led to research opportunities for my students to grow deeper with their knowledge.  

California Regions

California Native Tribes

California Explorers

California Missions

California Famous Men of the Gold Rush

California Reading Passages Bundle (5 Reading Passage Products)

I have always LOVED teaching my kids about our California History, but this year it has really flourished with these passages in addition to the research, writing, and activities that we were already doing.  

California History Bundle (Activities and Writing 8 products)

Reminder: this Monday and Tuesday everything will be on sale over at TPT.  Don't forget to use the code (though if you do forget you can contact their customer service to get some help).  

  

Have a great day!

Undercover CIA (Math Lesson)

 Yesterday we started chapter 2, we're moving onto addition! When learning about Commutative, Identity, and Associative properties, I like to use the acronym CIA.  The kids totally get it, and I get to have fun with it. When I think of CIA (probably because of all the spy shows I have watched over the years - Alias, Burn Notice, Chuck, Covert Affairs), I tend to think of those dark sunglasses that hide true identities.  

The students took a piece of copy paper and folded it in half.  Then, with the fold on the top of the paper, we drew a line across the paper as the top part of a pair of sunglasses.  Then we drew 3 lines underneath - one on each side for the temples, and then one in the middle for the nose bridge.  After drawing the lines, we then drew 2 U shapes for the lens, and filled in the details like above.  

Cutting was a big deal.  When folded, they cut along the bottom 3 lines and the lens.  The top was left intact to make it a flip up book.  Inside we wrote our notes for Addition Properties and the Subtraction Rules.  The kids were able to decorate their sunglasses in any way (as long as they could still read the notes).  

I used Ashley Hughes' cute sunglasses to create a version that is easy to print!  Just click the picture!

  Have a great day!

Back to School in a Flash: Student Engagement

I'm so excited about this next week of school.  Every year I always forget how draining the first week can be as the kids are learning the routines and procedures, but then the second week comes and things are so much better.  I thrive on having a routine and I start to really know my new students.  With starting the true curriculum, there is always the need to keep the students engaged and focused as they learn, so today I wanted to share some things I've learned after all these years.   

 I love using games in my classroom to review concepts.  It makes it fun and exciting.  One of my favorite games is Scoot.  It's easy to play... just grab a set of task cards (one card per child), and place them on the different desks.

 The kids have a limited amount of time to answer that one question/card on a separate sheet of paper.  When the teacher calls "Scoot" the kids scoot to the next desk to answer yet another card. The movement makes it fun, yet the kids are still getting a lot of review.  It's because it's such a fun game that I decided to create task cards for every math concept that I need to teach my kids.  Between using them for scoot, intervention, and math centers, the cards are used a lot every single year.  I love how it's a one time prep, many year use.

For behavior, I love to focus on the positives.  One of the best tips I learned years ago was to use prizes that cost me close to nothing.  I didn't have to worry about running to the store at 8pm at night to pick up more treats.

  

I use these prizes as part of my Friday raffle.  In the past years students have turned in their tickets to enter the raffle (I choose 3-5 winners every week), and the kids choose a prize card out of a little bin.  They hold onto it until they use the card.  It's easy stuff - like using a pen all day, or sitting on the floor for a lesson, or taking off their shoes during a test...  It's free if you need something!  This year I decided to not buy any more of the raffle tickets and instead am using a 100 grid.  It worked so well this past week.  I let kids choose a spot to write their classroom number, and then I added students numbers as well when I would normally have given a ticket (pushing in chairs without being asked, lining up quietly, being a helper, etc.... all those normal things).

     

You have probably heard of this before... but student choice is by far one of the most valuable student engagement tools possible.  Years ago (at least 5) I learned about Daily 5.  By far one of the best professional development books I have ever read.  Now, over the years I have tweaked it to make it work for me and my schedule... but that's the beauty of it... CHOICES! 

My workshop time (both ELA and Math) has been changed forever.  The mini lessons add to the day, the student work time has everyone on task, and the kids are excited when it's time for Daily 5 (or Math Daily 3)...  I really love it!  

 Speaking about another thing that has transformed my classroom...  Whole Brain Teaching!

 I have the book, but the best thing that helped me was watching the videos both on Youtube and at WholeBrainTeaching.com 

Want to join in on the fun?  Link up a blog post to the below linky!  I hope this helped.  :)  

An InLinkz Link-up