Five for Friday

It's been a fun and hectic week! We're getting into the Christmas spirit at home and in the classroom so it's just been a lot of fun and excitement all week long :)

Like I said, I've been getting into the Christmas spirit and nothing does that like cookies!

The tree is also up with a special ornament!

When I was in 8th grade I gave one of my favorite teachers a pickle ornament and shared the tradition of hiding it in the tree. I now teach her daughter and when she gave me this gift of my very own pickle she was smiling ear to ear! And so was I!! 

We also welcomed back Bruno!

As you can see, he got a little lost (like where was he hiding! I'd like to know too because I spent a lot of time looking -_-) but luckily he found his way to my new school and the children have been over the moon about his adventures around our classroom this week. He even scribbled al over my science board.. Oh Bruno.

Our school was chosen to be a part of the teacher rewards program that Walmart does. Each teacher received a $50 gift card to use for their classroom!! I knew exactly what we needed.

We have a cube organizer holding up our fish tank, and it works beautifully. It's sturdy but compact, because space is an issue. Storage is an issue too, so it was a no brain-er that we could use another one for all of our books!

They look so snazzy together 😄

In personal news, I've become an old lady... But a fashionable one I'd like to think.

I learned to knit over thanksgiving and made this beauty! It's very warm and I love how chunky it is! I even had a kiddo ask me to teach them to knit during recess yesterday. Warmed my heart!

In farm news, because I usually talk about my goats, I needed to give the chickens some credit. We have an olive egger in the bunch! One chicken just started laying these beautiful dark green eggs! 

Off to make some omlets before school. Remember, after today, 3 1/2 days left till break!!!!!!!

Rock on,

Diana

Organizing with command hooks

At any given point in time I have at least two packages of command hooks stashed away in my desk drawer. I believe there are so many great uses for these nifty hooks and I keep finding new uses! Here's just a few of the ways I organize my classroom with command hooks.

We use timers to practice our math facts but when they were placed in a basket the cords kept getting tangled. Hanging the hooks right where our centers are kept worked perfectly and no tangled cords!

During math technology students use Moby Max, so in case they forget their username or password all of the cards are on a ring and kept on the other side of the math center bookcase. We also use Seesaw, a great way for us to safely share our work and comment on other students work using our tablets. It's hanging on a hook because it can be flipped around for Block 2's QR code to scan. 

Ok, there isn't command hooks here but there was fresh paint on the walls so they wouldn't stick. Otherwise I wouldn't have made holes in the wall.. Whoops! So this is a hook and claw clip combo- AMAZING. Yes I get this excited about claw clips. This is our anchor chart so I regularly take it down to hang a new poster up. This makes it easy to move back and forth without a bulky stand. 

The clips may be a little difficult to see here but they're holding up all of these envelopes. These envelopes have coupons in them that my students can buy with their "dojo cash". We do a classroom economy where good behavior and completing quality work gets them cash to shop. However all of the things to buy are more experiences than material things. I like that it connects doing the right thing with a warm fuzzy feeling :) Anywho, my students are such sweeties and hard workers so they shop pretty frequently, making this system of envelopes on hooks pretty easy to manage and see all of their buying options. 

So that does it folks! Do you use command hooks or other nifty things to organize your classroom? Comment and share!

Rock on,

Diana

Five for Fraturday

What a crazy week! October in general has been busy with report cards, conferences, fall festival, and science fair quickly approaching. We've also started multiplication and timed tests on their facts which is very new for my third graders. Luckily this past week was loaded with fun stuff so we made it through :) So here's my 5 for Friday (or Fraturday rather) and my link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching! Check out their blog at http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com/

First thing I want to chat about are our awesome tablets we got through a donors choose project. We were very fortunate to be funded for 3 Amazon Fire tablets and 2 iPad minis, bringing us to 9 total tablets in my classroom. This week was our first chance on them and with so many I could have each child in a small group on a tablet. The kiddos got to make tellagamis to explain math vocabulary, tweet about multiplication, and scan QR codes to self correct. They loved it!

We also used the tablets to research for their engineering projects! With the science fair quickly approaching my students were introduced to the engineering design process. What better time than the week of Halloween! Our first project was candy corn towers. I do not want to wish this project on my worst enemy... I saw the idea on Pinterest and candy corn is definitely not the ideal building material. But hey, it was perfect for the "improve and redesign" step of the design process LOL! The other project we engineered was a catapult. Now THOSE were a HIT! The "problem" they were facing was how to launch a candy corn pumpkin the farthest possible distance. We took time researching catapults and different designs with various materials. They planned their designs and put it into action. After each team launched their pumpkin we graphed the distances. 

Monday we'll do some math with the results finding the difference between first and last place and also the total distance from all 6 teams. It's been a blast!

Totally random note here, I saw this book from the Math Coaches Corner and I was so pumped about it I went right on over to Amazon and got it. "Building Mathematical Comorehension- Using Literacy Strategies to Make Meaning" by Laney Sammons.

I'm only on chapter 2 but I'm loving it so far. I'm noticing some of my students are having trouble visualizing the difference between addition and multiplication. We draw pictures to demonstrate the situation in the word problem but I'm looking forward to some fresh insight from this book and incorporating it in my lessons as we explore multiplication and division more. 

While working on word problems and multiplication techniques we are also starting to work on multiplication fluency and memorizing their times tables facts. We take a 1 minute timed test and when they pass they move onto the next fact. I've been thinking of a way to motivate students to move onto the next facts without doing a clip chart sort of thing that shows what children are behind. So in comes the multiplication monster! 

Each time they pass a fact they can add an eyeball, arm, antenna, tooth or spike to the monster with their name on it. They have love this! We can't wait to see our monster grow :) 

Last but not least it's Halloween! Us teachers have to have a little fun too and spook the kids hahaha. The kids have launched an investigation as to who is placing these creepy dolls in our classroom.

Grading made easy

I'm writing today after the daunting task of grading 45 benchmark tests with 30 questions.. Normally just getting myself mentally prepared for the idea of grading all those papers would take me at least a week to come to terms with, but I have exciting news- it only took me 4 minutes. Yep, not even 5 full minutes. Take that extra minute to revel in your success and productivity!

I was able to do this with a nifty app called zipgrade. I first saw it pop up on Pinterest and I was intrigued but like all my other pins I saved it to a board and it was lost in the abyss. It kept popping up though so I figured I'd check it out. It's an app that will scan bubble sheets and grade it for you, like a scantron. You use the bubble sheet made by zipgrade.com which are easy to find and print. Then with your phone or device you can scan a paper in seconds. You enter your key, and can even do multiple versions of the test. After all of your papers are scanned you can find valuable information like the class average and even item analysis so you can see what percent of the class got each individual question- GREAT for reteaching! 

You can view individual papers, so this is a scan of this students bubble sheet.

You can also view all of the scanned papers to easily add to your grade book. The names have been blurred, but they'll appear as the student has written them.

Here's the item analysis I was referring to. I literally graded these tests while the children put their test materials away and in minutes we were discussing he first question since it was only answered correctly by 43% of the class. This instant feedback is great because it's fresh on their minds.

The app also allows you to export your data from the assessment so you can print out and have a hard copy, or need to file it.

The first 100 scans are free, so that's a great way to try it out with no strings attached. After that a year of unlimited scanning is $7.. Let's be real I was hooked and thought that's a steal for such a time saver and great data analysis!

I hope you consider checking out zipgrade. I highly recommend it!

Rock on,

Diana 

Five for Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! Here's my 5 random thoughts for the week :)

Multiplication!! We were off to a great start this week and the kiddos have named themselves the master of multiplication. Before we jumped in I met with groups to see how they would go about solving word problems with pictures and repeated addition. It was so neat to see all the different strategies! The other kids in the group would share what they liked about the strategies and ask questions. It was a great opportunity for math talk.

 

While working on multiplication we reviewed arrays which they learned in 2nd grade. We talked about how arrays aren't just dots and counters though- they're all around us in real life! We takes about the floor tiles, or the many windows in our school's lobby. If we needed to know the total number of objects we could look at the array and use a multiplication equation instead of counting every single object. Pretty cool! So that sparked an impromtu scavenger hunt of course. We recorded all the arrays we could find in our classroom and around the school. So fun!

Another plus this week that could have made me cry was finding a little note...

This little sticky note was stuck under my big fake apple that sits on my desk. Creston had came in to help me hang some things in the classroom and left it there 😊 I can't believe we've been married a month now! 

Now that we've been in school for 9 weeks almost, my students have really gotten the hang of math centers. They know where to go, what to do, and MOSTLY what the voice volume should be :) So time for me to add in more differentiation! They already come to math group where I work with a small group on a skill deficit from their pretest and check-ins. I'd been trying to think of a way to make their independent practice more differentiated and how to organize that. I've now got a color system and envelopes and we'll see how this works.

The color coordinates to the color of the charts on my board with their groups and assignments.

Now the trick will be finding enough resources or making enough to have all my groups working on their own level. Their math technology assignment is on Mobymax, which also has them work on an appropriate level with lessons to move up. I'm excited to see how much these kiddos grow with everything going on with our math centers!

Finally at the end of a long but exciting week, I go out to my little farm and am greeted by this.

Love my furbabies ❤️

Link up and share your week!

Rock on,

Diana

Daily 5 Math Centers with Freebies!

I'm finally getting caught up with grading and planning since the wedding! It only took me a month :) I wanted to share how we do math centers in my classroom- which the routines set in place for those were a God send with being gone for a week!

Although I call it Daily 5 centers, we actually do 3 a day. We only have about 45 minutes for centers so by doing 3 each day I get a longer chunk with my math groups. There are 5 centers that we rotate between.

1. Math by Myself
2. Math with partner
3. Math Writing
4. Math technology
5. Math with teacher

I love that these 5 centers allow for different approaches to a concept where students can have independent practice, play games, write about vocabulary or explain their thinking, and use technology to reinforce their skills.

This is a few examples of what math centers look like around my room. You'll see children all around the room in seats, on the floor, crowded on the couch, bouncing on our bouncy ball chairs, even standing. I believe movement is so important to incorporate, not only as they transition between centers, but also while they're at their center. You'll also see different manipulatives, technology, and games to reach all learners and keep that engagement going. However, you won't see blurry faces.. that's just a fancy app I have ;)

Every day students do "math by myself" which could be a page in their book, a worksheet, or interactive notebook activity. This should be something they can do completely on their own, since it's not partner work and I'll be working with a group. "Math with a partner" and "Math Writing" centers are visited twice a week, and "Math technology" and "Math with Teacher" are 3 times a week. On Friday I meet with all my groups to reteach anything they missed from our weekly quizzes.

So, here's the kicker. I start centers on day 3. I promise I'm not crazy!! The first full I week I do not do my "Math with teacher" group and they just play a game or do a review activity as a group. Meanwhile, I monitor the class and check on groups to make sure everyone is on task and I can answer any questions. I set a timer for 12-15 minutes and display it on the smartboard. When the timer goes off, we clean up our centers and all the of the students return to their seats. I start by setting a timer for 1 minute, and then each day I see if we can beat our previous time to clean up. Once all students are at their seats I announce where the groups go next and send them on their way.

During that week my students learn procedures such as where to find their work for each center, what materials they need (and where they can get them), when it's appropriate to talk or when they should work quietly, and where to turn in their work. This takes a lot of modeling and repetition, but that saves you a whole lot of time in the long run! Now my students know exactly where to go, and can even move into their next center without me announcing each group. They know to move quickly during transitions before I start the timer. They've even gotten the hang of "early finishers" activities and working on those independently. I'm so proud of how far these kiddos have come so far and how independent they are! They take pride in their work and do not take the responsibility of centers lightly.

If you're interested in trying out our centers I've made a few different schedules and cards for math centers to help get started! I'm still working on a product that has the 3 centers, but feel free to check them out and see which fits your schedule the best!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Daily-5-Math-Schedule-2007691

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Daily-4-Math-Schedule-2092579

Rock on,

Diana

Establishing Routines & Expectations

Here's my post about the first two weeks... a week late!  :)

We're currently in our third week of school and things are running smoothly! I'm so happy with how my kiddos are doing with math rotations and our general classroom procedures. I wanted to share some of the things I do the first two weeks to have everything running like a well oiled machine (ok it's still a little squeaky but we're getting there!)

The first big thing I push is class building. Before you can expect these kids to listen to you and respect eachother you need to build those relationships. I know there's a lot out there about being stricter the first few months and then letting off  a bit but I really feel like if you build a trusting relationship with your students they will listen to you because they WANT to, not because you scare the bejesus out of them.

Some fun things I like to do for class building are get to know you games. One we do is called a snowball fight. I found this fun idea on pinterest and the students LOVED it! You write a couple facts about yourself on a piece of paper with your name, crumple it up, and then let the kids have at it. After a few minutes of snowball fights, or until a snowball falls in the fishtank for us, the students each grab a snow ball and have to find the person who wrote it. They then read the facts about the person and get to know them a bit. After a couple of rounds I had the kids write the same facts but with no name, so they had to try and guess who it matched. Here's the link I found on pinterest if you want to check it out: http://www.minds-in-bloom.com/2011/07/back-to-school-snowball-fight.html

Another fun class building thing I do is ask silly questions. I have them either pair up,  or work with teams of 4. I then ask a silly question like "If you were a vending machine that could sell anything, what would you sell?" and each of the kids share. Then I'll share a few with the whole class and they get a good giggle out of it. Some other good questions are "what's the craziest dream you've ever had?" or "If you could be any sound, what would you sound like?"

I like to have one class building activity per day for the first full week. After that, I really like to do one a week if I can, to keep everyone working together and feeling like a trusting family.

After we knock out some class building I then go into the classroom rules and some procedures we use every day to learn. I'm a big fan of Whole Brain Teaching. If you're looking to learn more about it I highly suggest you check out the book by Chris Biffle OR you can check out a site I made for some district PD last year: www.wholebrainteacher.weebly.com

I start with how I plan to get their attention. When I say class, they say yes. The trick is, they have to match the way I say it... no matter how goofy I do it! so if I say WHATS UP CLASSY CLASS?! They say "WHATS UP YESSY YES!!" or "hey hey class" they say " hey hey yes". You can switch it up however you'd like so they don't get bored and neither do you! You'll get some laughs out of it, so whats neat is you have kids following rules and enjoying themselves as they do it. THAT IS KEY!

I then go over my 5 classroom rules. These rules have NO LOOPHOLES. So if you have a kiddo thats really tough to crack and likes to find a special way to get under your skin, they still have to follow your rules!

1. Follow directions quickly
2. Raise your hand for permission to speak
3. Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat
4. Make smart choices (no loophole here-a kid that likes to find loopholes does not want their intelligence questioned!)
5. Keep your dear teacher happy (by doing the right thing!)

I teach these rules by using "Mirrors Up" which is another WBT technique. They repeat after me with actions and words, so we match movements and words to the classroom rules (the brain is getting a workout!). I go over the rules several times a day the first week. I want the rules to be memorized- there's only 5 and if the kids learn movement with it then they can have it memorized by day 2 no joke. After the first week I go down to just doing the rules once a day, and after week 2 we try to do it once a week if we can, just to keep it fresh and on their mind.

After we've grown together as a family and set out our behavior expectations, it's time to show them that I actually will be looking for those behaviors and rewarding them. I like to use class dojo to give my students points for good behavior and for doing their work. What I like about class dojo is its online, so I can add it from my classroom computer during class, or take my phone to lunch and even give points as we're walking in line or outside of our classroom. Also, parents can log in and check their child's points. Class dojo allows you to also take away points. There's lots of different philosophies on this, but I'm ok with them losing points for excessive breaking of rules, and they lose that point privately. Students all have different totals of points so usually it's not noticed by other students. I think that's important. You as the teacher can leave a comment with the points they earn or lose, or can send a message to the parent so they are clear as to what happened. I of course like to send messages about the positive behaviors to open up dialogue with parents and have them know that I love their child and appreciate their positive qualities :)

I would like to add that students then use these points for rewards- and I do not have a prize box. Instead I do coupons for privileges, such as lunch with teacher or feeding a mealworm to our class pet Stubs. This way, the positive behavior is linked to a good feeling, rather than a material thing. It's been pretty motivating so far :)

So these are the big things we've had in place the past two weeks! The students show great compassion towards eachother and they want to do good, because it feels good :) I'm so excited to have this great bunch of kiddos.

I hope everyone is off to a great start to the school year!