Math Pretests... Continued

Well, I'm 3 for 3 now with pretests! My goal is to make one for each of the 12 units, so I'm a quarter of the way done! If you are interested in using them in your own classroom, Chapters 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 are all available. Enjoy!

Spelling Headaches Finally Solved

It's always a challenge moving to a new grade level, and I've been feeling like I'm trying to dig my way out of a hole ever since the year started.  All of the wonderful plans I had put together in my head, and in some cases on paper, finally had their chance to be implemented, and while some of them worked out well, some of them didn't go as well as I'd hoped.

Spelling has been my biggest nemesis so far this year, but I think I have finally gained the upper hand! Last year I continued using Words Their Way, but I just wasn't happy with it in the end.  My summer planning put me on a path to use a modified version of Spelling Connections so that students would have their own, individualized list of words, practice with using words in context (something I just couldn't get to work for me with the way we were using WTW), and get extra practice with grammar skills.  I used the WTW spelling inventory at the start of the year, and I just couldn't figure out how to mesh the missing spelling patterns for some kids with the lessons in the book.  So, a new plan was needed.

I finally decided on using both programs (Spelling Connections and WTW), alternating between lists each week, but the details were still fuzzy on how exactly to implement everything.  First, I had to go back to the original assessments and place each student at an appropriate spot in both programs.  Out of 10 kids (yes, 10... it's part of the reason that I CAN do this!) I have 4 groups in SC and 6 groups in WTW.  I decided to use the SC program the first week since it was easier to wrap my head around, and the lists were already premade, which made it easier to get everyone started with Spelling City.  Thankfully, that all went smoothly!

No matter how many times I thought I'd had a plan for the WTW weeks, I just kept finding problems with my solutions.  When I left work on Friday, I knew that next week would be a WTW week, and I still didn't have the details sorted out on how to implement it smoothly! After hours of working on it this weekend, I FINALLY have a plan!

I started going through the WTW program and creating lists of 15 words from each sort that represent all of the different spelling patterns being covered, including some of the extra words that are listed in the book but are not part of the sorts.  I then double checked my lists against the different lessons that use those patterns in the SC book and made any necessary changes.  Each list is being printed out and put on a 4x6 index card with a heading like WW Sort 19 (Within Words Sort 19) or SA Sort 4 (Syllables and Affixes Sort 4).  The lists are also color coded by which book they came from to help us keep them organized.  Those short headings will then be used for the Spelling City lists, and hopefully will be easy enough for the kids to remember.

So, on Monday morning, each child will get their sort card (they may have to share with a friend) so that they can copy their 15 spelling pattern words into their agenda.  I will meet with each student/group to discuss their sort.  They will then add any words they misspelled from last week's test to their list, followed by any words on their misspelled words card (which is where I've been writing down any words they have misspelled in their writing).  If they still have spaces to go in their list of 20 words, I have a few math vocabulary words they can choose from.

Their homework/classwork will be from a spelling packet where I've broken the activities down into groups... Practicing the Pattern, What Does It Mean?, Break It Down, Playing With Words, and Just for Fun!  That way, I can assign work based on what they need... spelling patterns, vocabulary, etc.  They will also be able to use Spelling City for practice, although they will have to go in and practice their list in two parts... the WTW sort words and their individual list.

Whew!

An example of the WTW lists I am printing for the 4x6 cards

The Dreaded Basic Math Facts

I knew at the end of last year that there would still be some students who really struggled with basic facts.  Watching a child sit there adding 7+7+7+7+7+7 on their fingers can be almost painful, so I wanted to try doing the 1 minute timed tests this year as just another technique that might help reach some students.  I spent the summer putting together a set of multiplication/division tests, but alas, it seems that many of my students need to brush up on their addition and subtraction!  So, I put together a smaller review set of +/- timed tests and added it to the multiplication/division packet I had already done.  That means there is now a total of 54 tests with answer keys, and student and teacher recording sheets.  If you are interested in purchasing the new, extended version, I have it available on my TpT store.

When You Enter...

I came to the sudden realization the other day that except for the little welcome bird I made, my doors were quite empty!  Worse yet, I have two doors to my classroom.  So, a quick Pinterest search, a hunt for fonts, a little scrapbook paper... and voila!  It's nothing too fancy, but I like that it gives credence to so many different roles that students may take on within the course of a day in my classroom.

Classroom Tour

Well, I'm not done, but I at least left today with a room full of clean tables that look presentable.  I'm still waiting for my TV to be remounted in my new room, and after that is done I can hang the framed posters I made. I'm also still looking for the cursive alphabet chart that went missing over the summer, and lockers and cubbies still need to be labeled, and... well, the list never really ends, does it?  But, I snapped a few overall pictures of the room before I left today.

 Supply shelves, reading area, and possibly the wall where the TV will be mounted.  The bird nests look really tiny hanging up there in these pictures. Maybe once the rest of the wall stuff goes up, it won't look so odd.

 Looking towards the back table where I will work with students.  Love those curtains and windows, but dislike the black blinds underneath.  They will stay hidden as much as possible!

 Just going around the room... my desk is in the back corner.

Computer and extra work tables, cubby "island", and my little storage cube that I *love*, but that flag needs to be moved to another location. I keep running into it when I stand at the cube and do any work there.

The front of the room... the crates managed to last the year last year, though the fabric looks a little worn.  Hoping I can get another year out of them.  And I like my little pennant... adds just enough of a splash of color.

And, just to compare... this was what the room looked when I first started setting up... black blinds, no bulletin board on the far wall.

Everyday Math - Pretests

One of the goals I have for this year is to take more of a math workshop style approach to math so that I can differentiate more effectively.  That means that I need to pretest students at the beginning of each unit, and since I couldn't find any pretests, I decided to just make them myself.  I decided to include one question from each lesson in the unit, plus additional ‘Practice’ problems, covering items that the students should be able to do independently. I rated each question as easy (one star), medium (two stars) or hard (3 stars) so that I can see which questions they are missing and hopefully group them more appropriately.  So far I have units 1 and 2 done, but the goal is to complete the set by the end of the year!  If you are interested in using them, they are in my TpT (Ch. 1, Ch. 2) and TN stores (Ch. 1, Ch. 2).

DIY Projects

Moving to a new grade level for the second year in a row, I didn't quite know where to start again this summer.  I brought home curriculum and textbooks, downloaded all of the common core standards, started looking at what went wrong last year that needed to be improved... but most importantly, since I will have some of the same kids that I had last year, I needed a new classroom theme!  And that meant that the cute DIY projects took precedence over everything else for a while!

My room was repainted, and while the color is lighter than it was before, it's still quite yellow.  Pair that with wooden cubbies, wood trim, a wooden desk, wood doors... it was a little overwhelming and needed some contrast and color!  I am a huge fan of the white shelves and cart that I painted last year, with all of my clear and white bins, so that helped.  I decided to get rid of the lime green bulletin boards and trade it for turquoise, and then I found the cute, white, Boho Birds borders to tie it all together.

After a few trips to the craft stores, I had tulle, scrapbooking paper, a cute wooden bird cutout (on clearance for a dollar), a few small wood birds, small wood rectangles, small clothespins, glitter glue, glue dots, and probably a few other things.

The large bird is decoration for the classroom door, the medium birds will be locker tags, and the small birds and white rectangles will be the dismissal board.

Tulle and scrapbook paper turned into cute little nested birds to number the tables.

Leftover scrapbook paper turned into a pennant to hang above the white board and all the little critters my kids have given me over the years (two sided means it's even pretty in from the hallway!)

Here is the bird on the door with my homemade "curtains" (scrapbook cardstock punched into circles and sewn together on the sewing machine), and my jobs board with the glittered clothespins to hold the name cards.  The 5 jobs at the top will be revealed a few weeks into school, and students will need to apply for those 'Specialists' jobs.

Now that everything is hung up, I guess I better dig back into the planning!

Classroom Library Reorganization

Moving to a new grade level, yet again, and inheriting books from the outgoing 4th grade teacher gave me another chance at getting my classroom library organized in a more meaningful way.  I got it about half way there last year, but even with the system I was using, I found that kids kept reading the same series of books over, and over, and over... So, I wanted to organize more by genre this year.

I once again had high hopes for some of the book cataloging apps, and pulled up the Classroom Organizer app that I tried using last year, but still found it too frustrating with the lack of titles in the database.  It was also too cumbersome to label each book with level and genre after I scanned it in.  Even for the books that I put in manually, it was inconsistent when it came to checking them out to students.  So, that app has since been deleted.  If only Amazon and Scholastic would get together to create an amazing app to catalog books (already including their levels and genres) and check them out... Ahhhh, one can only dream.  Anyway, back to the classroom library.

Looking up every single title in the Scholastic Book Wizard can be quite tedious.  My mom made the silly mistake of saying "If there is anything I can do to help you with your classroom, let me know." She probably thought she was off the hook living hundreds of miles away, but you can probably guess what request came next!  I took pictures of stacks of books and sent them off in emails, and magically emails came back giving me the levels and genres of all of the books.  After that, I just had to match emails to the piles of books, then put a genre sticker on each book and write the level on the back.  This project NEVER would have gotten finished if I didn't have help! (Thanks, mom!)

I'm pleased with the way everything is set up now.  One shelf is baskets of books sorted by genre, one shelf is popular authors and series, and the last shelf is sort of the "Land of Misfit Toys."  There are also a few baskets of non-fiction picture books and informational books.  When I created the labels, I changed to rectangles instead of circles, since they didn't seem to stay on so well last year.  I also created dividers for the books that are not in baskets, in the hopes that giving everything it's designated place will encourage students to put books back where they belong.  We will see how long those dividers last, but hopefully this will encourage kids to try reading new books and authors.

Peanut Free/Nut Free Posters

As I was walking down the hallway at school yesterday, I noticed that everyone has their peanut free posters hanging up, and it's the same posters, year after year.  So, I put together some new peanut free signs, and this time added actual peanut pictures to them instead of just making them classroom themed.  I also made table labels, and a list of peanut free snacks to send home to parents.  You can get a copy through my TpT store or my Teachers Notebook store.

Phonics Cards - Vowels and Digraphs

A second-grade teacher at my school found a set of phonics cards that she thought would be great to hang on the wall behind the table where she pulls small groups, but the cards were only sold in the UK.  She scoured TpT for something similar and found nothing, so she told me about it, knowing that I'm always looking for new stuff to create. So, after days of searching for graphics that would fit each vowel and digraph, it's finally complete! And, now that TpT is allowing you to correlate your items to the Common Core standards, it's aligned with standards in K-2.  So, if you would like to check it out, you can visit my TpT store.
 

8/20/13 - Edit to add photos of the cards all laminated and hung on the wall!

I Can Posters - 4th Grade Math

Last year I put together a set of "I Can" Posters for Math and ELA for Third Grade, which hung on my wall and could help students keep track of what their goals were.  As I change grade levels, I wanted to remake them for fourth grade.  The math posters are done, and hopefully I can find the patience to muddle through the ELA standards before the new year starts!  If you would like to use them in your classroom, they are available both on my TpT store and my Teachers Notebook store.

Multiplication and Division Timed Tests

Moving up to fourth grade with the students I had last year certainly has it's advantages.  For example, I know that they still need practice with their math facts (and I'm sure having the summer off hasn't helped).  While it may not be part of the Everyday Math program, I think that some of my students may just need this type of activity to help them focus on smaller sets of facts and find motivation to learn them.  I can't sit and watch them count by 7's to 49 on their fingers anymore as they try to complete lattice method multiplication... so much wasted time!

The packet has 36 timed tests with 21 questions per sheet.  Included are the following:

• Multiplication - 1 through 12 (two versions each)
• Mixed multiplication review (two versions)
• Multiplication - doubles
• Division - mixed sheets - 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, 9/10, 11/12, and division review (two versions)
• Mixed multiplication/division

There are also a recording sheets for both teachers and students, and an answer key at the end.  Each test and answer key has a code on the bottom so they can be matched for easy checking (ex. M.1a is Multiplication, 1’s, version a).
If you are interested, it is for sale on both my TpT store and my Teacher's Notebook store.  Enjoy!

Inspirational Posters

The mix of emotions in switching grade levels can be overwhelming. Excitement at the prospect of something new, and in this case getting to work with a great group of kids for the second year in a row, yet apprehension about a brand new curriculum.  In my case, it's the second year in a row for this range of emotions and without being able to get into my new room to start organizing things physically, all I can do is sit and plan things out in my head or on paper.  And boy do I have notes and new projects started everywhere! I'm happy to finally be finishing a thing or two on my to-do list!

The one thing I do know is that my new classroom is getting a fresh coat of paint, and it's a bright yellow (quite a change from the calming blue I had last year).  I wanted to keep the same clean, organized look that I had last year, but I needed to switch up the color scheme a bit from the bright lime and turquoise I had.  Perhaps a set of posters with little inspirational sayings would be nice if they were in white frames?  But wouldn't that get expensive?  Lucky for me, I was able to find 4-packs of black document frames at the Christmas Tree Shop for $4.99... who can pass up 8 frames for $10? A few coats of white paint and, voila!  That left finding just the right posters to match and fit into my frames, and they seemed to be non-existent, so I decided to create them myself.

These are 6 out of the 8 posters, ready to be hung.  If you are interested in your own copy of the posters, you can find them on my TpT store, or my Teacher's Notebook store.  Enjoy!

Reader's Response

I designed this packet to use as reader's response homework for my students, which I assign once or twice a week. Included are a rubric, an example heading, directions for 15 different types of responses, and a recording sheet so that students can keep track of which responses they've completed and the number of points they earned for each. I have included the same set of materials both in cursive and print.

Here is a list of the responses:
Book Recommendation
Character Comparison
Crossword Puzzle
Diary Entry
I Figured It Out
I Wonder
Interview
Letter to the Author
Make Me Laugh
Nose for News
Predicting the Future
That Reminds Me
Trading Places
Write Me a Letter
You Should Try That

It is for sale on both my TpT store, and my Teachers Notebook store.

Graphic Organizers

Moving to third grade this year, I needed some different graphic organizers, and it was one of those projects I kept wanting to do, but never got around to... creating a new set of graphic organizers!  Now that school is out, it was an easy summer project to get started with! I'm sure I will add more as time goes on, but it's a good start! Click to view the file in my TpT store or in my Teachers Notebook store.

So here it is, a compilation of 22 graphic organizers, covering story writing, research, comparisons, timelines, the 5 W's and much more. Nothing fancy, but sometimes that is just what our students need to keep them from being distracted! Here are the pages included:
- 2 Story Webs
- Clock (sequencing time events)
- Story Star (5 W's)
- Character Traits (planning sheet)
- Character Planning
- Planning Sheet (audience)
- Conflict Planner
- Problem & Solution Chart
- Tic Tac Toe
- 2 Cluster Webs
- Fact & Opinion
- Timeline
- The 5 W's
- KWL
- Observation Chart
- Time and Order Chart
- Persuasion Map
- Step by Step
- Venn Diagram
- E-chart

Anchor Charts - Take 2

Well, it's been a busy few months, and I've added a few anchor charts to the list as the months have gone on, and finally got around to putting an updated version on TpT and on Teachers Notebook.  The new charts include:

Reading:
Homophones

Writing:
Their, There and They're
y to i (adding endings)
Crazy for Commas
When Do I Need a New Paragraph?
Fiction Writing

Math:
Math Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)

Anchor Charts

Am I the only one who dislikes making those big anchor charts? Inevitably, I run out of space somewhere, or smudge marker when the poster is all but finished. Well, no more for me. I've started moving all of my anchor charts into small, digital format. With the Apple TV (which I LOVE by the way), I can put the digital copy up on the TV for my mini-lesson and then print a copy to put in our class anchor chart binder. Some of the charts I can print for individual students to keep in their own writing binders, too. Yes, I know. They aren't all hanging on the walls, but maybe I'll still put up a few of the more commonly used charts. Anyway, I'm sharing what I have done so far on TpT. Below is the description and a link to the download page. Enjoy!

Anchor Charts
This is a collection of printable anchor charts that can mainly be used in Second through Fourth Grade. I got tired of making the large anchor charts for the walls and finding places to store them, so I began moving my anchor charts into digital format. I can introduce them by showing them with a projector/apple TV connection and then just add them to our class anchor chart binder.

I am working on moving all of my old anchor charts into printable format, so this file will continue to be updated as I add more. It currently includes:

Reading:
I PICK (available as a separate download)
Figurative Language

Writing:
Writing Process (available as a separate download)
Nouns and Proper Nouns
Other Ways to Say Said
Story Starters
Proofreading Marks

Math:
Subtraction Poem
Mean, Median, Mode and Range
Math Key Words
Equal Fractions Hopscotch