St. Patrick's Day 2017

One of the most exciting things to do on St. Patrick's Day for first graders is to have a leprechaun visit  the classroom.  It seems that some leprechauns wreak havoc on the classroom, while others leave a few scattered gold-covered, chocolate coins.  I prefer the latter because I really don't want to clean up the room any more than I already do.

To add to our independent reading this month, I made QR Codes for March and April read alouds for several books about St. Patrick's Day.

At our school we have B.Y.O.D. (Bring Your Own Device) day every Wednesday, and sometimes on Fridays as well.  We are fortunate to have a few iPads in our classroom as well.  I rotate the classroom iPads and students who don't have one, know they will get a turn next time.  All you need is a QR Code scanner which can be downloaded for free from the app store.


I like these QR codes because they do not show advertisements to my students at the beginning of the read aloud.  My students like them because they feel so hi-tech using their devices to read the wonderful stories themselves.

Easter comes in March this year, so I added Easter books in this QR Codes for March and April Read Alongs  I've included several of my favorite books.  Here is a list of the books included.

• St. Patrick’s Day
• The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day
• The History of St. Patrick’s Day
• That’s What Leprechauns Do
• Jack and the Leprechaun
• Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato
• The Luckiest St. Patrick’s Day Ever
• There Was and Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover
• The Leprechaun’s Gold
• Fin M’Coul, The Giant of Knockmany Hill
• The Easter Egg
• Pete the Cat Big Easter Adventure
• The Night Before Easter
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit
• Marley and the Great Easter Egg Hunt
• The Easter Bunny’s Assistant
• Bunny Cakes
• Happy Easter, Curious George
• Happy Easter, Little Critter
• Happy Easter, Mouse!
• The Runaway Bunny

There are times I want my students to respond to a book they've read independently.  Here is a FREE copy of one of the response sheets I use in my classroom.  You can cut it in half and have students paste the sheet into their regular Reader's Notebook.  Another ides is to make a Response Journal and put in several blank copies of this page or others like it.  Then have your students fill out one response per day, or as you desire.

If you happen to be a second or third grade teacher reading this blog, you probably teach the difference between simple and compound subjects and predicates.  Here is an activity I made to help, at least with the subject topic.  It's called St. Patrick's Day Simple Subjects vs. Compound Subjects.

I always love to include an educational video that explains the origins and traditions about our national holidays.  

Here is a great one that tells all about St. Patrick's Day.

I hope you and your students enjoy St. Patty's Day this March 17th!

Math Rotations Help Manage Centers

For a long time I thought of work after kids were finished in Math, only as Centers.  I worked long hours switching out materials and keeping those centers up-to-date, only to stay frustrated that it took so much of my time.

One day, it dawned on me to try things a different way... Math Rotations!  With Math Rotations, I still use centers, but they are just a small part of the big picture, which reduces the prep time that usually goes with setting up centers for a classroom full of kids.

With my Math Rotations, I usually have  4 math stations or rotations, because I have 4 days to teach math.  We are assigned S.T.E.M. Lab on Tuesdays this year.

1. Math with Mrs. H.
2. Math by Myself
3. Computers
4. Centers

1. Math with Mrs. H. is a opportunity when I remediate or enrich a group of students based on earlier work or prior assessments.  There are times that I need to pull individuals to assess.  For these times, I will replace the words "Math with Mrs. H" with another activity like "Counting Bags".  Doing that, gives all students something to do, and I can just pull individuals as needed.  Above is  picture of my rotational chart prior to completing the assessments that determine student placement in Fluency Folders for Math by Myself.

2. Math by Myself is a opportunity where students work on their math fluency.  I assess kids independently to see which number (1 through 10), they are fluent at,  in other words... which number combinations they know with automaticity.  For each student, I design a math fluency folder with activities based solely around their target number (5 for example).    They have a small "toolbox" with manipulatives of that same number as well (5 two-color counters, 5 red squares, 5 yellow squares, 5 beans, etc).  At the start of the year, before I have their fluency folders created, or when they complete their fluency folder but I haven't re-assessed them yet, I will use this time to give them application material from lessons in class.

3. Computers - You probably already have this one down!  I am fortunate to have 4 student desktop/laptop computers and 3 iPads in my classroom.  If you do not, maybe you have enough for students to play as partners.  I sign them three math sites they will log onto:  Ten Marks, Sum Dog and X-tra Math.  On my iPads, there are other math apps as well.

4. Centers - Now, having kids only rotate through this once each week, centers are so much more manageable!  I feel successful leveling my centers and having it stocked with activities that address the specific skills we are currently working on in the classroom.  All I really need is one activity per level.  Depending on how you plan to level your groups, that could be just two or three activities. (low and high, or low, medium and high)  Once they complete their "required" activity, they are allowed to work on the other one.  I set up colored folders in the center tubs, which are color-coded to match the students' level.

5. Counting Bags - I mentioned this activity above.  If you have 5 full days of Math, and need a fifth rotation, this would be the one I would choose.  From Oriental Trading, I purchased an assortment of little fun-shaped erasers, which we do not use as erasers.  We call them counters.  We have soccer balls, footballs, balls of every sport, puppy dogs, ice cream cones, starbursts, fish of every color, smilie faces, owls, turtles, and more.  I sorted them and put the like shapes in a baggie.  During this rotation, a student chooses a bag of counters and finds a spot on the floor to spend time counting.  As time goes on, I have them begin to record their count on a small post-it note and then verify their count using a hundreds board.  Later in the year, I have them write their prediction first, then write their count, and finally verify.  Before introducing this activity,  I model how I want them to count, which is to make ten-frame arrangements using their counters.  I have found this dramatically improves their accuracy for a number of reasons, the least being that if they get interrupted or loose their place, they can count by tens more easily, to find the number where they left off.

Here is a link to pick up your free Math Rotations Classroom Management Chart for yourself.  There are text boxes provided so you can edit names and activities.  I've used a common font found on most computers, but you can change it to whatever you have that you like.


If this is something you found helpful, I would love to hear about it in the comments section below.

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SUMMER FREEBIES #1

By now, most of you are out of school for the summer! Yeah!!!  We got out before Memorial Day, but my schedule has still been busy.  We started our summer with a beach vacation, which was awesome, and very much needed!   My summer has been packed with kid camps, dental visits, kids' sports physicals, and Vacation Bible School, but all that just ended for the most part.  Now it's time for what I've truly been waiting on... the "lazy days of summer"!  I really just want to lie by the pool and read a good book for days on end!  (without guilt!!!)  How 'bout you?

This float is calling my name!

I do have a few things on my plate to accomplish "at my leisure".

1. Experiment with some new food dishes.  I love watching The Pioneer Woman and Trish Yearwood, and there are so many great dishes I want to try!  I've included the links in the names below the pics in case you want to give them a try as well.  Yum!!!

Trisha's Beef Potatoe Casserole and Ree's Spicy Baby Back Ribs

2. Clean out the playroom. (my least favorite, but most needed item)

3. Make new products for my classroom.  This is what I do when I don't want to get up an clean the house, but still I can look like I'm doing important work in the eyes of my family.  Ha. Ha.

A new item I've been working on was inspired by the movie, Finding Dory, which was great!!  If you haven't seen the movie yet, it's great for the whole family.  I am in the process of making this math center for students to match ten frames with the numerals they represent.  My kiddos will love the fish theme!  Here's a sneak peak!

If you have iPads or other such devices in your classroom, you will definitely want to check out my Back to School QR Codes!  Simply print and laminate and your kiddos will have access to 20 great back to school stories, read aloud to them.  Most have the words visible so they can read along as well.  I've used safe share so that students won't be exposed to unwanted advertisements.  You won't want to miss this.  Just think... access to 20 stories for the cost of one book!  

Summer Freebie #1

Here are some Back to School Bookmarks I've just updated, that you can pick up for FREE.  Print and laminate.  They'll make a nice welcome on the first day of school.  One set is black and white if you think your kiddos will want to color them (laminate after coloring).

 

I hope you have a restful summer!  Check back soon for more SUMMER FREEBIES!

End of Year Student Gift and Party

Today was our last day of school!

To begin our day, I wanted our morning work to be a bit more fun, but something that would hold my children's interest for a while.  I got this idea from a follow teacher and quickly saw how much fun they would have, so I went with it.  I covered their group of desks with bulletin board paper, and I put out washable markers, which they almost never get to use.  When they came in I told them they would get to draw all over their area with markers, and they could draw anything they wanted.  They absolutely loved it!  Here's a picture of one of the group's handiwork.

I thought this drawing was so cute!

As the day went one, we played math games, cleaned our desks and looked through all of our folders before packing them for home.  I read stories to them and we worked on our Memory Books.  They loved playing our End of Year Scavenger Hunt.  They looked for friends who loved or were doing certain things mentioned on the scavenger hunt.  You can get your FREE copy by clicking on the name, End Of Year Scavenger Hunt.

All day long, they asked the same question over and over... "Is it time for the party to start?" Finally, it was time!

For the End-of-Year party, we made Ice Cream Sundaes, complete with all the toppings!  While we enjoyed our sweet concoctions, we watched our End-of-Year photo video, featuring all of my sweet kiddos.  After the video, I handed each kid or parent a card with the QR code and link to the End-of-Year photo video, where they can download the video to their own computer.

In addition to the End-of-Year photo video I spoke about in my last post, I like to give my students a little going away present.  I found these colorful beach pails at Dollar General for a buck each.  I used paint pens to personalize a pail for each of my students.

To go inside each pail, I made a treat bag with a few pieces of candy. 

Then I put the treat bag inside beach pail, along with a couple of pieces of sidewalk chalk.  I found a large container of 54 pieces of sidewalk chalk at Hobby Lobby for $6, and using the weekly 40% off coupon, the whole thing was less than $4.  That was about 7 cents for each piece of chalk - a real bargain.

Finally, I gave my sweet kiddos their personalized beach pails to take home and enjoy over the summer, and received in return, some of the sweetest hugs and smiles.  It was a great party to end a great year!

Helpful Tips Teaching Non English Speakng ELLs

We just finished our first week back after Christmas break, and as expected, we received our fair share of new students.  In fact we set a record number of new students entering after the holidays.  One of those entered my classroom this week.  Several of these new students were ELL students, but they all understand and speak English fairly well.  However I have taught 4 students in my teaching career that spoke NO English at all.

The first time I received a non-English speaking student was back in 2008.  She was our school's first non-English speaking student and it was all new territory for us.  At that time we used the term ESOL and although our school system had over 20 elementary schools, just 5 years prior (2003), our system only had one ESOL teacher because there were so few students that needed those services.  By 2008, we were adding an ESOL teacher at our own school, but there were still so few resources and local knowledge to support the classroom teacher.  To this day, I still use many of the same techniques for communication and instruction, that I discovered by trial and error back then.  I'm going to share some of these with you today.

1. Provide a Quick Quotes Translation sheet. - Although these students come to us speaking no English, many of their parents do.  We are in a military town, so many non-English speaking students have parents who are woking with a connection to our Air Force Base.  For these students, their parents are their greatest resource.  I have listed what I have found to be the most used phrases used by ELLs, that need translation.  I have their parent write the same phrase in their language right next to the English phrase.  This paper stays on their desk in a sheet protector.  This only works if the student is old enough to read in their home language. Click on this title, Quick Reference Quotes, to get a FREE copy,
   
2. Use a Translator App. - With my third and fourth non-English speaking students, I had an iPhone, and I found a great free translator app.  If you have not seen this translator app before, it is awesome!!!  The list of languages it can translate seems endless.  With someone of another language that uses our same letters, you can reverse the languages and the student can type in their language to communicate with you.  I had a Japanese students, and the keyboard only English letters and not their Japanese characters so they could not type messages to me.  Now we have iPads in the classroom and the increased size makes it so much better!   
     
3. Add Parent Contact to Your Phone. -           I can't tell you how many times I just handed the phone to the child, who simply called their parents, spoke, and then handed me the phone.  The parent could tell me exactly what their child needed.   This saved me so much time in the long run.  I used it when the child was upset, was sick or we just couldn't figure our what he/she needed.  There was this one time when I walked into the lunchroom to pick up my class, and my student was sitting by herself crying.  When she saw me, she ran to me and clinched her arms around my waist, sobbing hysterically.  She was so inconsolable that I could not find out what the problem was.  I immediately pulled out my phone and called her mom.  Once they spoke, the child calmed down and the mom filled me in.  Here is what had happened... My class had all been seated at the lunchroom table and because she could not communicate with words, she used hand and arm gestures in a very animated way, trying to intact with her new classmates.  The lunchroom monitor was not aware of her situation and asked her to sit down several times, unaware that the child could not understand her.  Because the behavior persisted, the monitor sent her to sit in a Time-Out area.  The poor child simply didn't understand what she had done wrong and was worried that she'd never get back to her familiar class.  She felt so afraid, since she couldn't understand any of the explanations from the monitor.  That simple phone defused the situation with the child and parent, convincing both of them that I had their child's interest foremost in my mind.  Needless to say, my principal sent out notices to everyone of the situation.  
4. Use Google Images. - "A picture is worth a thousand words." So true!  Whether you are introducing content vocabulary or simply trying to explain what a BBQ sandwich is for lunch, Google Images makes the task much easier.  I keep this site bookmarked on the home screen of my iPads and I often show it on my smart board.  
5. Try to Get Rosetta Stone. - If your school system will pay for this or if you can get a sponsor, this is well-worth the money.  Rosetta Stone teaches with pictures and words.  What I find so wonderful is that it teaches things that cannot be taught as well with flashcards and such.  Nouns and verbs can be easily taught with flashcards, but how about the word "the", "when" or  "those".  It seems that teaching the use of pronouns and subject/verb agreement skills are a defining strength of this program.  (See the examples below.)  
   It also gives your ELL student quality instruction, while you are presenting a focused lesson such as "Using Voice in Your Writing".  That lesson would be completely over the head of your non-English speaking student.  Differentiation doesn't get any plainer than this.  So plan on assigning a Rosetta Stone lesson to your ELL when you are going to teach a writing, usage, or grammar lesson that would have no benefit to your ELL, but is key information for the rest of your class.    
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Seek access to helpful websites like Brain Pop, Jr., and Tumble Books. - These websites offer a limited amount of FREE material, but a subscription is not very expensive, and well worth it.  Our school system's ELL program pays for our Brain Pop, Jr. subscription and our Media Specialist uses Media funds to pay for out Tumble Books subscription.  Brain Pop is designed for upper elementary and middle schoolers, and Brain Pop, Jr. is meant for younger children.  Both sights offer informative videos in all subject areas, but I use them most for Science and Social Studies skills.  Tumble Books offers a read aloud element to a vast amount of popular and familiar books.  What is so great about this sight is that the words are highlighted as the computer reads them and the texts are leveled.  Go check these out!  
   
    Brain Pop, Jr dashboard
   
   Brain Pop, Jr. list of movies
   
   
   
   Brain Pop list of movies - upper elementary and middle schoolers
   
   
   
   Tumble Book Library dashboard
   
   
   
   Tumble Pad image that shows once a book is clicked.
   
   
   
   As sentences are read aloud, they are highlighted in blue.  
   
   
7. Assign books in their own language for reading in-between assignments. - All children need to have something to keep them busy in-between activities.  Too much wait time leads to misbehavior, even for an ELL.  Constant reading of a foreign language can be exhausting.  If they know they have the "reward" of reading a fun book in their own language, they may work more diligently for you.  My first student was from Israel. I spoke with her parents about this, and they were happy to send her to school with one.  The day she brought in the Hebrew version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, was super exciting for the rest of my students.  For the first time, they saw her language as a real language, like their own.  They saw that she was smart and could read a "chapter book", even though it was not in English.  They also learned that the title of the book was located where we think the back of the book should be.  They turn pages from right to left... a surprising fact for me as well.   
   
8. Assign a partner helper.  Each morning, the partner helper took the ELL by the hand for a walk around the room.  They walked with a pen and large sticky note pad. (3rd graders)  The ELL student would point to something and the partner student would say the name several times.  The ELL would try and say the name back.  The partner would write the name of the item (ex door, table, clock, chart) on the large sticky note and attach it.  If you walk in my room when I have a non-English speaking student,  you will see a sea of yellow sticky notes.  This helps the other students as well, basically expanding the Word Wall.  You can find many preprinted sticky notes with common items already listed.  I found mine at Walmart and they were an off-brand.  Here is a copy of some cool Post-It Notes called Flash Sticks on Amazon. Click on the picture to check them out.  I haven't used these, but they are similar.  However, these even have some other languages on them, and the words showing are more abstract like "happy".  I just use plain notes so I can write what I want.      
   

One last thing to keep in mind, is that you don't have to assign grades to ELLs in the same way that you do for the rest of your class - differentiation for sure!  Check with your school system's policy to find out more specifics, but in our state, they are exempt from a large portion of all standardized testing for a full year as well.  This knowledge may relieve some of your stress.  

As far as classroom grades and report cards, I remember worrying and thinking, "There's no way she can pass any of our test, yet it's just not right that she should have zeros.  What am I to do?" The assessments I give my non-English speaking students are less paper and pencil and more performance assessments.  I take anecdotal notes to serve as my records and I collect writing samples, comparing the beginning of the year to the end, to show growth.  I also give them our county's reading assessment (Founts and Pinnell).  Of course in September, they are "below A".  Usually by the time we return from Christmas break, however they are reading at least at level C, again showing growth.  

For you upper grade teachers... check with your Kinder or 1st grade teachers and get a basic sight word list.  They will have several resources for you.  You will most likely need to start with the learning the alphabet, specifically names, sounds and being able to recognize both upper and lower case letters.  This knowledge will be mastered much more quickly than with a student in kindergarten, because your non-English speaker will have the mind of the age child you normally teach. 

Just remember...

I would love to hear from you...  Have you ever had a student that spoke no English before?  Which of these activities do you feel would be the easiest to implement in your classroom?   Just click on the "comment" button below.