Prepping for a Week in Advance

I posted this picture on Instagram on Friday. I asked if I was the only one who had to have everything prepped for the next week before leaving school. Some of you are just as weird as I am about having absolutely everything ready to roll. :) Others asked me how this could possibly be accomplished. So, since you asked, I will tell you how I prep for a week in advance. I have used this same system for years. I will tell you that the only thing I ever bring home is laminating to be cut out, new activities I want to make, and some last minute papers to grade on Friday nights. 

Monday: On Mondays, I check out any books or materials I will need from the media center next week. I also pull masters or files for things I know I need: the next week's morning work, Saxon phonics folders, or SRA reading lessons. 

Tuesday:  I start doing a rough sketch of the coming week's math plans. I pull my files, shop around on TPT, and see which interactive notebooking lessons I want to copy for the next week. 

Wednesday:  I finalize my math plans, make any copies that I need, and laminate any new centers I will be using. I also pull any manipulatives I will need. If time allows, I start sketching out my ELA plans for the next week. 

Thursday:  I finish the sketch for ELA and copy/laminate any needed materials.

Friday: I type up and email out my plans to admin/2nd grade team. When I had my own room, I also made sure that Monday's newsletter was ready to roll. Then, before I leave, I use my plans to sort everything into its bin. These Lakeshore bins have been with me for a long time! I love being able to just grab that day's items and go!

This also comes in handy when you have to be out unexpectedly. It was always so nice to be able to call my teacher buddy across the hall and say, "My schedule is posted. The bin is ready to go!" 

Here is a little peek at my week's plans. I have heard that some of you have to write plans that are PAGES long! Bless your hearts! We do have some incredible units that our grade level wrote and use. Admin gives the support staff a lot of leeway in what we teach and how we plan. This rough sketch works for me.

So, how do you plan for the days ahead? I would love to hear from you! 

Behavior Management Tips {Freebie}

So, I went to a Professional Learning course last week and actually picked up a few new strategies to add to my bag of tricks. I also wanted to share my new small groups engagement strategy with you all. It is working out so well! 

In our class, we spent some time exploring the differences between praise and encouragement. Praise is vague and non-specific. "This looks great!", "You did that so well!", and "I love your work!" are all examples of praise. We often interject our own feelings into praise statements. If you have students who are in a power struggle with you, praise is likely to backfire. Encouragement,  however, is extremely effective. It describes the student's efforts. For example, "You finished the whole paper!", "You stayed in your seat all during math today!", or ""You scored 8 out of ten correct. You are really improving!". So, I am working on being more specific in my comments to my students. 

A very wise teacher once advised me to incorporate as much choice and chance as possible into my instruction. Kids LOVE choice or chance! For example, I might say to a student, "Drew, your finger and eyes never left the page as we were reading. I appreciate your attention. You may choose the highlighter color for the group today." Kids also love it when their choice impacts others. I may also say, "We are going to read both of these passages this week, but today, Sarah is going to roll this die. If it lands on an even number, we will read the one about apples today. If it lands on an odd number, we will read the one about Johnny Appleseed first."

We are also implementing a new behavior management tool during our RtI reading sessions. I am really pleased with how it is going so far. Very often, these struggling students also have behavior related issues, too. They can be inattentive, overactive, withdrawn, or argumentative. I needed something that would work for specific behavior goals. I don't expect my students to be perfect right off the bat. We are still getting to know each other. I do, however, expect them to work hard and be respectful to me and the other students in our group. So, I am targeting key behaviors with them using a punch card system. I bought these sets from Pink Cat Studio. You can check them out {HERE} in her store.

The very first thing I do during our small group time is distribute their punch cards. They keep them right at the top of their work space.  They know their target behaviors. If Harry starts getting up out of his seat, I just put my finger on his card, and he sits back down. If I have not gotten much voluntary participation out of Carrie today, I may scoot her card towards her and say, "The next question is for you, sweet one. Go ahead and read it now and be thinking about your answer."  If they met our expectations and goals for that session, they earn one punch. 10 sessions should equal 10 punches. 

This little darling is on her way to cashing in her punch card tomorrow!

We decided to come up with some incentives that were quick, easy, and free/inexpensive. I have seen treats like these on other blogs and on Pinterest, but I only have my reading students for 40 minutes. I needed something that I could use just during that time and still get their group work for the day accomplished. I think that the kids will enjoy spending their tickets on a treat! I am planning to staple their punch card and ticket to their work so that they can share it with their classroom teacher and family. If you would like to use these blackline masters for treats for your kiddos, you can download them by clicking {HERE} or on the picture below. 

I would love to hear any ideas you have for other free rewards! 

Owls

I thoroughly enjoyed researching this product. Owls are completely fascinating to me! Their silent flight, incredible senses, and unique calls intrigue me. I hope that your class might enjoy learning more about some different species of owls, too. There are so many ways to use the book (color or black/white version) that comes with this unit. You could bind it for your classroom library, project each page onto your interactive whiteboard, or use a page a day during close reading. There are several graphic organizers included along with clickable links to audio recordings of calls, webcams, and interesting videos. Two assessment options are also in this product. Click {HERE} or on the picture below to find out more. 

During my research, I found some awesome videos. The one below is included in the section on the great grey owl. This clip from the BBC is riveting. I think your kiddos would love to watch it, too!

This link is not all that educational and is not in the product, but it was too precious not to share here on the blog. I dare you to watch it and not feel a burning desire to pet a northern saw whet owl! :)


I also found a fascinating site for bird research. It is called allaboutbirds.com . It is run by the Cornell Lab. You can research almost any bird and listen to audio recordings of their calls. Click {HERE} or on the picture below to listen to the northern saw whet owl's various calls.

If you like this series, please check out more of my nonfiction titles in my store. Thanks so much!

Doubles Facts Freebie

We are kicking off our study of addition fact strategies this week! I am using this little poem/chant to help my RtI students remember their doubles facts. I made this anchor chart to display in class as we recite the poem together. We are going to add in hand motions for each fact, too. The more visual and hands-on I can make their math instruction, the better, right? :)

We will also add this printable copy to our interactive notebook. This freebie includes a color and b/w version. I hope it will be helpful to your sweeties, too. Click {HERE} to download your copy.

Hope your year is off to a great start!

Listen Buddy: Book Chat and a Freebie

Listen Buddy by Helen Lester is my other favorite book for teaching listening expectations during the first few days of school. Buddy may have beautiful big ears, but he doesn't listen! When his parents ask him for a slice of bread, he shows up with a slice of bed! His funny antics aren't so funny though when he runs into the Scruffy Varmint who doesn't like little bunnies who don't listen. Here is a little book trailer so that you can get a better view of the hilarious illustrations that Lynn Munsinger created.

I have whipped up a little book study to go along with this funny tale. It includes lots of standards based skills practice and even a few fun listening activities, too! You can check it out {HERE} or by clicking on the picture.

What's a book recommendation without a freebie? I love sharing ideas with you all! This little flip book is super easy. Just fold the organizer in half down the solid line. Then, cut on the dotted lines to make four flaps. It is up to you what you want to require the students to write or draw inside for each story element. I hope this story helps your students become good little listeners!

I am also working hard on getting my classroom ready! I hope to have my room reveal ready to post in a day or two! 

Authors in the Spotlight Update

As promised, I just finished updating my Authors in the Spotlight product. I added biographies, birthdays, and contact information for Lewis Carroll, Tomie dePaola, Julia Donaldson, Anne Fine, C.S. Lewis, Leo Lionni, Laura Numeroff, Barbara Park, Peter H. Reynolds, J.K. Rowling, Shel Silverstein, and E.B. White!  If you have already purchased this product, visit your My Purchases page on TPT to grab this new set for free! If you have not bought it yet, you can check it out {HERE}.

One of the authors in this set is Peter H. Reynolds who wrote The Dot. I found this nice read aloud/animated version online and thought I would share it with you. Enjoy!

Character Collage Project

My elementary school's media center had murals of popular characters painted on the walls above the shelves. I can remember seeing Ramona Quimby, Pinkerton, and Corduroy lovingly hand painted onto the cinder block walls. Maybe that is why I was so inspired by a project I saw on Instagram by Apples and ABC's. She had created art for her new Dr. Seuss themed classroom. You can see her beautiful work {HERE} on her blog. I decided that I wanted to do something similar for the space behind my guided reading table in my room. I shared my finished project on Instagram and Facebook. A lot of you had questions about how you could do something similar. So, here is a quick step by step guide to how I made this project.

Step One: Gather Supplies

Sweet Girl and I made a run to Hobby Lobby. I bought black acrylic paint, Glossy Mod Podge, foam brushes, and 2 packages (12 tiles) of Master's Touch Artist Canvas Panels. These were thin and 8 inches square.

Step Two: Who to Include?

While the family watched a movie, I started brainstorming a list of my 2nd graders favorite characters, series, and authors. Then, based on images I could find or personal preference, I narrowed my list down to enough for 12 tiles. For individual characters like Froggy, I thought I might could do a collage of many characters on one tile.

Step Three: The Search Begins

I started searching through Google Images by title, author, or character name. I looked for crisp images that would fit the space I had in mind. This one was a winner because it would be easy to cut out and it had three of the characters I wanted in one shot. I just right clicked and copied the image. 

Step Four: Creating a Document

Using the design tab in Power Point, I set up my slides to be 9 inches square. I knew I would need to buffer for printing. This size slide gave me a good perception of how the images would look on my canvases. Here you can see how the image above looked on the slide.

Here you can also see how some of the images looked before they were cut out and arranged.

Sometimes I used more than one slide. For my Dr. Seuss canvas, I used one slide for the characters and another for the truffula trees. Later, I would layer these images.

Step Five: Print, Paint, and Cut!

Sorry but I didn't get any pictures of this process. 

Important: Print your slides on CARDSTOCK! Copy paper is too thin and tears too easily! 

Basically, I covered the table with paper. Then, I used a foam brush to do two coats of black acrylic paint on each canvas. While they were drying, I cut out the images I wanted and toyed around with how to arrange them. 

Helpful hint: Eliminate all white space when cutting out the characters. Sometimes I had to make a tiny cut to get through to the white space by a character's arm or something. I knew it would be okay because the mod podge would glue it all back as one image anyway. 

Step Six: Let the Fun Begin!

Once the paint was dry and the images were ready, I slathered mod podge all over the canvas with a foam brush. I laid the cut out images on top and then sealed it down with more mod podge. Here is a peek at one freshly mod podged. 

Step 7: Enjoy!

Once it's done drying, have fun arranging your tiles and deciding how to display them. I thought about adding ribbon and hanging them on command hooks. Instead, I decided just to hot glue them to the wall as is. I will post pictures when I do my classroom reveal soon.

I would LOVE to see pictures if you decide to give this a try! What characters will you use?