Morning Meeting Review Game

We will be ending our 3rd term on Friday.  Today in Morning Meeting I was able to tie in three academics in one activity.  I took out our class IPod where we have a coin flip ap.  I wrote on our message board "Heads/ Something interesting I have learned in science this term is......", and "Tails/Something interesting I have learned in social studies this term is......".  Then I passed around the IPod.  Each time a student flipped the coin s/he shared something different.  It was a great way to review our learning.  The other academic I pulled in was math, because one student kept the data on the heads and tails, using tally marks to record. Then we shared math statements about the data we collected. This 10 minute activity was loaded with learning!!!!!!! And who says they have "no time" for morning meeting in their day?

Bye Bye Boo Boos

When you are teaching little learners small things can become big things quickly.  A little bump to them can seem like a "must see the nurse" trip and can distract their learning if gone "untreated".  My solution to keeping students in the classroom and learning, is to validate their "pain", by offering icepacks.  I buy a half dozen from the dollar store every year.  I put them in the freezer of the mini fridge in our classroom. I put each one in a new ziplock bag.  I teach the students how to get out a bag, and then when they are done they know just how to put it back with a clean ziplock bag all ready for the next "patient".  It's true at the beginning of the year there are frequent users, but it is so much better than long trips to the nurse for "growing pains". The novelty wears off, and then they are used much less. 

Another cheap and great trick is to simply use frozen wet sponges in a ziplock bag.  We use these at our camp all summer because somehow the real icepacks seem to get left around camp. The sponges are cheaper and you can make a big deal out of letting them pick the color of the sponge.  Bye bye boo boos!

Reader's Notebooks

My learners keep a Reader's Notebook where they write to me about their reading.  I integrate the Common Core ELA standards in by writing back to them and asking them a question relating to our objectives of the week.  I also have a very specific rubric for that letter.  For years I printed them on paper, trimmed them and glued them in the notebooks.  I also used to hand write all the letters.  The hard part was how much time it took, and I was rewriting the same question to every child, and the books were so heavy to bring back and forth from school.  Last year I had the great idea of creating the rubric on an Avery shipping labels.  I have the basic rubric all set up, and then I can change the "focus areas" to match the objective or standard we are working on for that week or story.  If the book they are reading does not fit the standard, then I ask a question about our class Read-a-Loud, because I always choose books which focus on our theme.  Students must answer my question in the first paragraph of their letter.  The second paragraph must be an original thought or idea about what they read.  I give them a list of topics they can write about to keep in their writing folder. 

The other great thing I discovered is I can respond using the shipping labels too.  I choose a very nice font that looks like hand writing and then this quickens the process too.  My first paragraph is always personal and a response to what they wrote to me.  Then in the second paragraph I can ask the same question or type of question to each child quickly and easy by pasting it in or having it saved in the template beside the rubric.  What used to take me about 3 hours, now takes me about 45 minutes!

My kids just finished the state's exam (MCAS) and one of my kids shared that she felt the best part was the open response questions, because they were just like our Reader's Notebooks.

Our Book Boxes

Book Box in my class

Every day in our class we have K-BAR time, Kick Back And Read.  Students know this is a very serious reading time, and that good readers always have a book going.  Really good readers are so interested in their book choices, that they bring them back and forth to school.  That being said, students are required at all times to have 3 books in their book box. 


The first book is the chapter book they are reading right now.  This is the book that should be going back and forth to school.  They know to put it in the backpack each afternoon and put it back in their book box each morning. 


The second book is their "next" book.  This is a book they have chosen to read after they finish the novel they are working on.  This book should be chosen during a non K-BAR time, as no one is ever out of their seat for any reason during K-BAR time.  They can choose this book  from our classroom library before morning meeting, after their work is done, wiggle jiggle breaks, afternoon job time, or right before lunch. 


Their final book is a "quick read".  This could be a periodical like Scholastic News ora Zoo book, a joke book, or an I Spy type of book, anything that they can pick up for 2-5 minutes.  The purpose of the quick read is for times when they may have just a few minutes to read, like the end of K-bar and they do not want to begin a new chapter, or a new book, or maybe the end of a work period.

Diving In

For years I have thought about jumping into the blogging world but did not know really where to start.  Two things have come into my life recently and have made me take the plunge.  First I have been taking a wonderful class all about Technology in my classroom.  I have learned so many wonderful and interesting ideas in this class.  I can't wait to try everything, but I am taking it one step at a time.  My second reason I diving in is, I have become obsessed with Pintrest.  I have learned so many things, and I can't wait to share some of my own.

Let me share a little about me.  I am a third grade teacher in a wonderful little community in Western Massachusetts.  I have been teaching for 26 years.  I was the "Teacher of the Year" in 2007.  I am also a Responsive Classroom consulting teacher, (which changed my life)!!!!!

I have an amazing (teacher) husband, and two tweens. Together with my husband we run a very successful non profit summer daycamp for 6 weeks each summer called Camp Kee-wanee.  Our children have grown up there and it has become quite the family affair.

As I finish out this class, I was required to begin a blog.  So here I am.....let the adventure begin!