Win a $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Certificate

Friday!  It has been a very short week, but it still all seems like Friday is so very far in the distance all week long!  I am linking up with the always fabulous Five for Friday from Doodle Bugs Teaching.

Thank you KB Connected for the Chalkboard numbers!

We started the week off with a visit from our nephew, Noah.  He has never spent the night away from his mom and dad, and we gave his parents a much deserved night off.  We also spoiled him rotten of course!  We took him out to ice-cream.  He said, "Look at all the colors!"

We let him get a sundae with whipped cream and a cherry on top! I love being an aunt!

I finished up my Read and Respond Journals for the year.  I have been using the first set with my kiddos so far, and I am loving the results!  Lots of great thinking and writing about their at home reading!

 

Child mishap # 1 - Remember that snake I told you about last week? 

Yeah, the one that my son won.  Well, the snake is an escape artist and has wandered out of his tank and is wandering around my home somewhere right now as I speak.  We have been on the hunt for a day and a half now, but can't find him - ARGGGHHH! Can you say sleepless night?

Child mishap #2 - Well, if I'm not going to get any sleep anyway, it seems perfectly reasonable that my youngest child should stumble into my room puking at 3:30 in the morning.  So, I got out of bed to wash sheets and scramble to make sub plans, because of course I haven't done that thinking I wouldn't need a sub this early on in the year.  But, on the bright side, I got an extra day off this week.  Too bad it was spent trying to avoid find a snake.

And last but not least, it is time for my monthly TpT gift certificate giveaway! Do you see the tab at the top of my blog that says $25 TpT Gift Certificate Monthly Giveaway?  I giveaway a gift certificate each month to a lucky TpT follower.  All you have to do is follow me on TpT to be eligible!

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Teaching Subjects and Predicates With Mr. Morton - FREEBIE

‘Mr Morton is the subject of the sentence, and what the predicate says he does.’

That song is ingrained in my brain after I used the Grammar Rock anthem to teach some of my kiddos about subjects and predicates.  Several of them were having difficulty with  writing complete sentences, and most of them were thrown into a tizzy when we were working on some of Jivey's amazing grammar lessons when they were asked to identify the subject and predicate in her mentor sentences.

So... a mini-lesson was in order.

First we watched the video:

Then we practiced identifying the subject and the predicate in the sentences from the video. They really got it after I modeled a few of the sentences.

I also found this picture from Doxie House that I will definitely incorporate next year or if I have a few strugglers.

I made a free worksheet for you to use with your students if you would like.  You can download it here. 

While you are there, be sure to follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers for the chance to win a $25 TpT gift certificate :D

Whole Brain Teaching - The Scoreboard

The Scoreboard is THE classroom management tool piece of Whole Brain Teaching. Teachers who implement the Whole Brain Teaching method use tally marks for when the class is good and tally marks for when the class is not so good.  They are explicit about the good and not so good behavior and they have kids working for the teeniest little reward - and the kids love it!

Last year I just used a little whiteboard that I drew a line down each day with smileys on one side and frownies on the other.  But... this year I decided to go fancy dancy with this adorable Scoreboard made by Nicole from Teaching With Style.

 You can download this freebie from Teaching With Style. Not only does it have the Scoreboard above, but it also has a variety of other styles and some teaching notes to help you out if this is your first time using Whole Brain Teaching. I just printed it out and laminated it so that I could use it over and over again.



Using the scoreboard is a whole class behavior system.  The class works together to earn the reward.  If I spot a kiddo displaying negative behavior, I don't call them out specifically, I just add a tally mark under the frownie side and say, "Someone was blurting out, frownie." or "Waiting for someone to sit at the carpet, frownie."  Whenever I give a frownie, I try really hard to find someone modeling the correct behavior.  "I love the way (Child's name) is sitting on the carpet, Smilie.  If you are not sitting that way, please fix yourself so you can earn more Smilies for the class."

One trick of the trade is to use the Scoreboard A LOT!  Way more than you think you need to.  I always keep in mind that just like math and reading, students need to be taught the type of behavior that is expected of them.  The more you remind them, the more they learn.

Here is my scoreboard for just half the day:

What do the students get if they win? In my class they earn 5 minutes extra recess or free time (You Tube videos are a huge hit in our classroom - even the educational ones!). If they lose, we spend 5 minutes practicing correct behavior or procedures.

Prizes should be small and easy to implement - if you can get away with it let the prize be bragging rights!  My kiddos are a tougher crowd, but it worked last year for the first few weeks.

My other tip - USE THE SCOREBOARD!  Sorry to yell, but it is that important.  I have noticed my students' behavior goes downhill when I don't use it as often, and is AMAZING when I  am consistent with it.







You can watch Chris Bifle's video about The Scoreboard here:

Do you use the Scoreboard in your classroom?  Do you have any tips or suggestions?

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  

September Currently

My poor neglected blog!  The past two weeks have been so busy with back to school craziness that I have not had time or energy to blog at all!  Luckily, it is September, and Farley has come to the rescue with her Currently!  They are so easy to do - even the most energy zapped among us can do it!

Five For Friday!

 

Well, we have survived the second week of school!  Woo hoo!  Time for a three day weekend, and of course, Five For Friday with DoodleBugs Teaching!

 

Here are 5 Random things from this week:

 

1. I am LOVING the First Ten Weeks: Mentor Sentence Unit from Ideas by Jivey that I bought during the big TpT sale!

 

One thing that I really don't think I taught as well as I could have last year was grammar.  Our district has adopted the Common Core in full force, and in doing so has pretty much dumped all of our text books.  I felt like last year I was just piecing things together.  I love the flow of her unit, and I feel like my students are gaining so much more from this.  Even though things aren't perfect, as you can see above, I know where my students are and what I need to do to get them there.  I love having a plan!

 

2.

My kiddos have been hard at work Kicking those math facts!

This is similar to what I used last year, but they are loving the new karate style theme! I will be posting this to TpT soon - hopefully this weekend.

 

3. Reptiles!  My boys have gone reptile crazy!  My husband took the youngest two to Repticon, a big reptile convention. 

 

 

 While they were there, they learned about a reptile club, which they wanted to join.  The first meeting they went to was this week.  They brought their leopard ghecko to show and tell.  Here are a few of the other pets that were shown:

 

 

While at the club, Cody won a new reptile - A corn snake! Yikes!  I am not sure what I think about this new hobby :/ - but they are loving it.

 

4. Birthdays! We have LOTS of birthdays in August and September, and I always make them wear the birthday hat!

 

 

5. Homework funny:

Just had to share this little homework funny:

 

If you can't read it - it says "The problem was that the author could not write a good book.  The problem got solved when they got good at it."

 

Made me chuckle!

 

 

 

Whole Brain Teaching - The First Hour

Ahhh... I have now survived day 2 of the new school year!  I was super exhausted yesterday, but today wasn't quite as bad.  I am using Whole Brain Teaching for the second year now, and I love it!
If you have been wanting to give it a try, but aren't quite sure what to do, here are a few tips for starting with your class.  By the way, you don't have to wait until the beginning of a new year to try it out, you can really start anytime.

Anyway, here is a video from Chris Biffle explaining the first ten minutes of implementing Whole Brain Teaching along with a few of my own implementations.

Chris Biffle suggests that the first lesson be conducted in the hallway before entering the room.  At my school, our students come straight to our room from recess (or are brought in early by their parents) so we are not able to do this. 

I had morning work placed at each student’s desk (with their nametag).  On the Smart Board were the following directions:

I want them to get in the routine of what will be expected in class every day.  They will come in and get started right away.  This fits with the Whole Brain Teaching idea of creating urgency – we don’t have one minute to waste in the morning.  I also have incorporated his idea of letting the students know that I am happy to see them, and I have used the word please as Biffle suggests.

Once I was ready to begin teaching (when all of the students had filtered in and the morning announcements and pledge were over). I started the lesson suggested by Chris Biffle for the first 10 minutes of class.  You can download a copy of the script I used this year here.  Feel free to make it your own and practice, practice, practice until it feels natural.

The agenda was posted on the board and looked like this:

Do you use Whole Brain Teaching in your class?  Do you have any questions or concerns about using Whole Brain Teaching?

Classroom Digs - A Tour of My Classroom

 I am super behind on this week's blog hoppin'!  We officially started back at work on Tuesday, and my family and I went to a baseball game at night and didn't get home until 11 - and then Wednesday was training all day and dinner with the hubby - so I have been too exhausted to blog.  Too exhausted and the kiddos haven't even arrived yet!  Yikes!  Anyway, catching up now with my classroom tour!

 

This is the view from my door:

On the other side of the room are my student's book boxes for Daily 5.

The other wall has our Daily 5 Wall and CRAFT wall.  I will be adding I Charts underneath each section as I introduce them.

A closer look at the CRAFT board.  Whenever another teacher comes in my room, I always get asked about where I got this, so I will let you know that I got it from Ladybug's Teaching Files. 

Here is my doorway with the hand signals we use in class.  I used these last year and love them!  Students can ask me if they need to go to the bathroom, sharpen a pencil, etc. just by raising their hands.  I can nod at them without interrupting work with other students.  I got these from Clutter-Free Classroom here.

This is my Independent Math Station.  We use Accelerated Math at our school, so I made this file box to put the student's work in for them to grab.  They scan their work to grade, and then put completed work in that file for me to check later. I might also add skill sheets for extra practice as needed.

This is my favorite area of the classroom, the library.  I love the chairs - they are super comfy, I almost want to keep one for myself!  I got them at Wal-Mart.

In the background you can see my Power Pix wall for Language Arts for Whole Brain Teaching.

A close up of the Read sign. I painted the canvases this summer and am super proud of them!

Speaking of PowerPix, This is my Math side which is next to our daily schedule and underneath our 7 habits signs.

Close up of our 7 habits posters and our Whole Brain Teaching 5 Rules posters.

And finally my Smart Board!  I didn't get a Smart Board until late last year, so I am excited to start out the year with this one!

I have added a bit to my classroom decorations since I took these pictures because I got a special package in the mail that I wasn't expecting.

It was from my Super Sweet Blogger Exchange Partner Amy! Amy  blogs at The Teacher Next Door.  She had already sent me some goodies that I posted about here. It was an awesome surprise because I was feeling a little Blech yesterday and this package made my day!  I love how supportive the teaching Blogger community is! Both of the posters she sent are hanging outside my door- I just need to take a picture of them.