An Apple For The Teacher

Friday, August 19, 2016

Harry Potter Sorting Ceremony for Back To School and Giveaway!

The first week of school is in the books for me! I am exhausted, but it was a great week, and I have an amazing group this year! Today I am sharing how I put my students into table groups this year, and I have a giveaway for you if you stick around until the end!

Since we have a Harry Potter theme in our classroom this year, we used a Sorting Hat Ceremony to put the students into table groups.

I gathered the students to the carpet where I had a giant luggage case similar to the ones that the Hogwarts students brought to school.

Inside the trunk was baggies filled with white play dough. The kids didn't know it at first, but we had put food coloring in the middle of each ball of play dough.

Each student took their turns wearing the sorting hat. I took a picture of each one and then they chose one of the bags of play dough.

I LOVE that this one was wearing an owl shirt the first day of school! Perfect for the theme!

Then they squished the bag of play dough until it changed color revealing their "house placement". I used the bags because I didn't want them to get the food coloring everywhere!

We have a Slytherin!

And a Gryffindor!

The kids absolutely LOVED this! AND... bonus... NOT ONE kid complained about being in the groups they were put in. Usually I have students complain if they don't sit with their friend or if they feel "boy-trapped". Not one peep this year! They trusted the Sorting hat's judgement!

They will stay at these tables for one quarter when I will switch it up a bit. They earn house points for their team just like in the book.

Whether or not you have had your first week back or not, I am sure you could use a $25 Teachers Pay Teachers gift card to help you prepare for the upcoming year! Thanks to some of my blogging friends, you can win one now!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Prize: $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher),

Co-hosts: An Apple for the Teacher, The Chocolate Teacher, A Plus Kids, Amanda Kristofferson, Glistening Gems, and 180 Days of Reading.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 8/27/16 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media? Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Reading Strategies Goal 9: Supporting Comprehension in Nonfiction - Key Details

Welcome to our book study of The Reading Strategies Book: Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Readers by Jennifer Serravallo! I am joining forces with some other fabulous teacher bloggers to discuss the reading strategies we come across in this AMAZING professional text! If you missed my first post about this book study, you can find it here, along with a suggested way to set up your book for easy reference.

You can also find my thoughts and ideas on other goals in this book below:

Goal 1: Supporting Pre-Emergent and Emergent Readers
Goal 2: Reading Engagement
Goal 3: Supporting Print Work
Goal 4: Fluency
Goal 5:   Supporting Comprehension in Fiction Main Idea and Plot
Goal 6: Supporting Comprehension in Fiction Characters
Goal 7: Supporting Comprehension in Fiction Theme
Goal 8: Supporting Comprehension in Non-Fiction - Main Idea

This goal focuses on supporting comprehension in non-fiction, specifically in determining key details. Serravallo points out that "there is a difference between reading for details and reading for key details". That difference being that a student has the ability to determine importance.

Students who might benefit from this goal are those who:

can support a main idea with just one detail, but need prompting to list more than one.
can support main idea with just one portion of the fact
lists random facts to support details.

Focus Strategy 1: A Spin on KWL

This strategy is a pre-reading strategy and is a take on the traditional KWL method. Like the KWL, this method helps the student to prepare their brain for new information or learning.

You would have the student jot down:

1. What you know for sure.
2. What you think you know.
3. What you wonder.

Focus Strategy 2: Gather Up Facts

This strategy has students to gather up the facts that they learned in a particular book, article, or section of either. You would tell the student that one way to remember all of the things they learn is to stop often and gather up all that they know.

Some prompts you could use include:

1. What did you learn in this part?
2. List what you remember.
3. That's one fact, let's see if we can list anymore.

Focus Strategy 3: Important VS. Interesting

This strategy asks the reader to consider whether a statement is an important detail that supports the main idea or just an interesting fact. You would let the student know that in order for a detail to be considered a key detail, it must connect to the main idea that the author is presenting.

Young Teacher Love has a great anchor chart that goes with this strategy.

Life in 4B also has a great lesson that would help you to teach this strategy.

Remember, we are only picking and choosing some of the strategies to share with you - there are so many more great ones in this section as well as the rest of the book!

If you would like to purchase the book mentioned above, you can find it here.

Other books by this author that I LOVE!

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.

Diane from School House Treasures is officially hosting goal 9 over at her blog, so make sure you head over there to see which strategies she chose to share! While you are there, be sure to leave some comment love!

If you would like to link up your own blog posts about this book, feel free to do so in the linky below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Harry Potter Classroom Reveal

This year I decided to go with a Harry Potter theme for my classroom. I may have gone a little overboard, but I love it!

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.

When my students come to my door, they see this sign:

The door opens to Platform 9 3/4.

We made this curtain using some a red curtain and painted on the bricks using a sponge.

I love this Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 sign if you have the right types of walls to support it!

On the first day of school, my students found their Hogwarts acceptance letters on their desk.

They were then put into table groups with a little help from our Sorting Hat.

We also have many of the essential book accessories.

A Broom

A Golden Snitch

The Mirror of Erised

Old Wizard Pictures

A Snowy Owl for delivering mail

Hanging Candles

And a few other fun touches...

Here's a similar house elf sign from Amazon.

Wizard Pencils

Have you seen this wizard photo booth prop.

When I visited the Ron Clark Academy, I loved how they displayed photos of the students all over the school, so I used these pictures of my students to decorate the classroom.

You can find the Harry Potter House Banners here.

I Teach What's Your Super Power Sign (similar)

Harry Potter Book Cover Printables

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Win Your Own Laminator

One of my mottos could be "Laminate all the things!"

Seriously, though, I can't imagine life with out my own personal laminator. I loved the first one so much, that now I actually have two - one at home and one at school.

My blogging friends and I want to share the laminating love with you and are having a giveaway for your own laminator and supplies!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Prize: Laminator and set of laminating sheets

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher),

Co-hosts: An Apple for the Teacher, Schoolhouse Treasures, Crystal Clear Teaching, Teaching Ideas For Those Who Love Teaching, Simone's Math Resources, Teaching With Hope, Sarah Griffin (Daughters and Kindergarten), Mrs Humphries Class, and The Literacy Garden.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 8/21/16 and is open worldwide.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Win a $25 Target Gift Card

Have you been stalking the Dollar Deals at Target? There are so many fabulous Back to School items right now! Here is your chance to win a $25 Target gift card so you can buy a few things from this section, school supplies, or ????