Common Core Free Resources

I hope each of you had a wonderful Halloween yesterday!  It was the first for our little one and she did great helping us pass out candy to the trick or treaters.  :-)  The picture below is of her yesterday with her daddy before going to play school. It's so fantastic being a mom!

Now, back to Common Core.  I recently stumbled across an extremely helpful AND FREE common core site at LearnZillion.  They have Math and ELA 3-12 lessons.  If you click on the link, you will be able to switch between ELA and Math at the top right corner of the screen.  There are lesson plans, quick video tutorials, and interactive guided practice.  I use the math video links in my weekly newsletter for parents so they can better understand what I'm asking of their child.  The ELA portion is also helpful, especially if you need to see what exactly it is they are asking in the objective.  I'm a visual learner so this site has been super helpful for me as well as my students and parents.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I am. Any feedback from your experiences with the site is appreciated.  Happy Friday Eve! :-)

~Amanda  

The Perfect Place to Display Student Pictures and Notes

Ok, so I know I'm super behind on posting anything.  Teaching 5th grade is kicking my bum!  I guess I didn't realize the gigantic jump I was making from Kindergarten to 5th!  I do love my school and have good team members so I know I will get to know the 5th grade curriculum sooner or later.  Anyway, I wanted to share a fun way to display student notes and pictures that are given to us on a regular basis.  I created a wall space dedicated to student "gifts".  I hope you can use the idea.  The children really like to see their work displayed and it solves the age old question of 'What am I supposed to do with this?'.  Until next time...cheers! ~Amanda :)))

Behavior Planner Strips Dr. Seuss Inspired

So I haven't posted in a while, but can now explain why.  I've accepted a position as a 5th grade teacher in a local county school system.  My husband and I prayed about this decision and ultimately feel it's what's best for our family and Lillian's future public school education.  I was sad to leave Kindergarten, but am super excited about the new adventure in 5th grade.  That being said, my posts are going to now be geared towards 5th graders.  I think you will be able to adapt what I'm doing in the upper grades to what you do in the lower grades.  I've come to realize that a 5th grader is just a larger version of a kindergardener!  They love workstations, stickers, Dr. Seuss, and any other fun thing you can think of! :-)  I'm keeping my Dr. Seuss theme and am excited to post pictures of my classroom when it's finished (hopefully Thursday afternoon).  I did make some Dr. Seuss behavior strips for students to glue into planner.  At the end of the day the students color in the hat the color they finished their day on (i.e. green, yellow, orange, red, etc).  If you want the freebie click here and let me know what you think.  I'm excited to use them this year. Have a great rest of the week and I will be in touch again soon!
Cheers!
~Amanda 

Classroom Arrangement

Ok, so many of you are starting to think about how to set up your class for the new school year.  I seem to always struggle to find what I actually like; therefore, I end up rearranging my room a hundred times during the school year!  Yuck!  To solve this problem I recently read Spaces and Places by Debbie Diller and I LOVED it!  It has really offered insight on how to set up the best classroom environments conducive for learning.  She has tons of pictures and rational for everything she recommends.  If you haven't read the book and are in a pickle for how to set up your room, check it out!  It's a quick read with lots of fantastic information.  I will post pics when my room is together to show you how inspirational she can be!  Cheers! :-)  By the way, if you didn't already know, I'm a total professional book reading        junkie!  I LOVE learning new ways to grow as an educator!  

Teaching Inspiration for the House

This is the wreath I created :-)

Ok, so I know this isn't a "K-2" idea, but it is a fun and inexpensive idea to bring your love of teaching to your front door.  Tonight I made a teaching wreath with a embroidery ring, cheap rulers from Target, hot glue, a flower, and foam letters.  The idea originated from a wreath (click on the 'wreath' to go to the site of inspiration) I saw on Pinterest and then I added my own flare.  So fun and now if the neighbors didn't already know I am a teacher, they do now! 

Back in Town :)

We had a fantastic first family vacation with our little princess to Isle of Palms, SC.  Lillian really loved the ocean and it was great to see my mom and share our love of Charleston with her.  Now, back to school topics....I finished Growing Readers and it did not disappoint!  There are so many fantastic ideas for really going deeper with reading comprehension.  There's also a fabulous recommended plan for teaching comprehension and print awareness strategies for life long readers.  It was a great read and I will be re-reading the book this school year to refresh my memory for each new unit I teach.  This book compliments the Daily 5 and any Basal series if you teach with a reading workshop model.

On a side note, I found some really fun things for my students back to school bags at Target I wanted to share.  I love Dr. Seuss and these items were found in the dollar section at Target!  Feel free to use the poem that goes with the bag of goodies too!  I leave the poem the same and adjust the grade level if teaching a new grade.  I can't remember where I found the poem, but I did personalize it to make it mine.  :-)  Enjoy until next time!

Needs and Wants Quick Assessment Idea

Back in late Fall our class was learning about needs and wants.  We did several lessons on the concept, but when it came time to assess the children I was short on time.  I decided a whole class T-chart sort was in order.  This way I could assess the children without taking up too much time.  Genius I thought to myself!  Above is a picture of the sort.  I had each child draw two magnetic cards out of a basket and then take turns putting them on either side of the T-chart.  Some children drew two wants, two needs, or one of each.  They came to the chart, placed the cards under the category they thought the item belonged and then explained their thinking to me.  The entire class assessment took about 15 minutes.  I like to mix up assessment styles to better reach all of the children.  I'm not a great test taker; however, I can show and discuss what I know very well.  I think the children are the same way; therefore, assessments need to be varied to reach every learner to find out what they know.  The cards can be downloaded for free here.  Enjoy!