So we have a very special student at our school that is going through medical treatments. We wanted to decorate his room with lots of color, silly sayings, love and well wishes. The following file started out very small (33 cards). It has sense grown to over 120. When I think of something fun, cute, or if someone asks... I add a new card. If you have something special you are looking for, please reach out to me. I am more than happy to make a special card and add it to the file. I'm always looking for new ideas.
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This can be a daunting task to teach for sure! So... take it slow and step by step. Kids feel overwhelmed just like we do when learning something new. Every word that comes out of our mouth may seem like we are speaking a foreign language. So, I make sure I take plenty of time to teach each step in the writing and editing of a paragraph. Start with basics.... editing mistakes. Steps: 1. What makes a paragraph. Finding the topic (main idea), details, and closing in a paragraph. Really reading and understanding why it is written the way it is before we ever begin writing our own. 2. Off Topic: Well that is what I call it. It's the little details that get thrown in that we don't need and don't help the paragraph. Kinda like the old saying.... "Squirrel.... " . 3. Adding More: Everyone may say, add more, but what does this mean. Spend some time discussing adding more to strengthen the writing and staying On TOPIC. Not always an easy thing to do when you are 8! 4. Putting it all together. Writing about the topic we just directed/read/edited. This will be a students own time to see what they have learned and write a paragraph (simple at first). Stick with the basics.. Topic Sentence, 3 Detail Sentences, Closing Sentence. Then graduate to more...... *My checklist for deciding if I like an activity.* 1. Is it easy to use? 2. Will the students enjoy it? 3. Will the students learn from it? This little ditty is about something I LOVE and haven't written about in a while. Listening and Math. The biggest struggle as a teacher has always been keeping the kiddos engaged while teaching, and assessing how everyone is doing (are they getting it?). Teachers.... WE JUST NEED TO KNOW EVERYONE IS GETTING IT!!!! Right? With a class of 28+ students, that's not always the easiest task. In my class we did math warm ups every day. We started with our math binders. This daily routine included tons of math vocabulary, review, and number sense. The biggest part of all of those things was the listening. If the students weren't listening, they weren't learning. I enjoyed the math binders and our math white boards because students had a chance to show me right away their work/answers. I could see quite easily who was struggling (those lost looking eyes that wandered around the room looking for answers). My teacher brain was able to identify these students right away and you can bet I was paying closer attention to how they were doing with the activities. I could keep the students engaged by asking them to "show me their work'. In 2nd grade, our warm ups looked a lot different than they did in Kinder. However, the ideas were the same. Use tons of math vocabulary, get the kids interested in what we were doing, keep them on task and focused, and see how everyone was doing while teaching (sounds easy enough right). Few... Not so much. The math binders helped, math journaling helped, and the 100's, 200's chart work helped. However, for my kinder kiddos, they needed so much more. That's when I came up with a daily routine called : Listen to me Math. It needed to be fun, fairly simple, easy to teach, keep the students engaged and above all... teach them what they needed to know. Each "lesson" comes with step by step teacher directions. Students have the student "copy". I always made myself one as well. When we started out, I always did the first few with the students (together). We would talk about what we were doing and what my directions were. We would check our work as we went. As the students progressed in their listening and math skills, I was able to give the directions (step by step) and then students were able to "grade" or check their work on their own when I went over it. This was a pretty important step I don't want to leave out. This is where the learning (not just practicing) comes in. When the students are able to check their work, this gives them a chance to see (possibly) what they did wrong. They correct it with a crayon (or highlighters which they love). This is when I fix my copy on the ELMO (overhead). I can see right away as I look around the room who is missing problems and who is "getting it". Often times, the ones struggling simply needed to listen more. They had to stay focused on the task at hand because my directions just kept going. This was hard at first (I can't lie). Listening and doing is harder then it sounds for 6 year olds! But it is a really useful tool. Now.... here comes the part I actually enjoyed the most. I was able to pull the students that had a harder time during our centers or even during independent math time. We were able to go over the warm up. (Have a fresh copy on hand) This was a great time to see who needed more time, who needed me to slow down and go over things again, and who just didn't know how to do the math. Do they need work on number sense, vocabulary, etc.? Finally, the last thing I can say is that I loved this activity because it wasn't a teach and go type of thing. I felt like I was really interacting with the kids. Each lesson shouldn't take more than 15 minutes. They also make fantastic activities to do when you have a sub (have them copied and ready to stick in a sub folder, they come with directions) or when you have observations and need something different and fun.
Just to make things a bit more fun and "cute". I found that I always needed some type of Graphic Organizer (we called them thinking maps). Whether for science, social studies, or language arts. I also tend to want them to be "cute" and not boring. I created this file to save myself time and have things on hand to grab quickly. I tried to think of every topic I myself would use. Check out the long list of items covered in this file on TPT. Hope you can use them as much as I always do!
The first few weeks can be long and stressful. The following activities combine learning, with fun! Students will work together, get to know one another better, and be busy all at the same time.The activities in this lesson may be a little more challenging for 2nd grade students. I used it towards the end of the year (April) ish... Each activity can be made easier and less challenging. Many of these creative writing ideas are started with partner work as well! Great lesson ideas for the year.
I'll start off by explaining why I began making this file. I wanted something fun, unique, and engaging for my students to work on when it came to writing. I wanted something that my more advanced students could do at the same time as my struggling students. It needed to be geared towards differentiated instruction (but not more or less work). Lots of research went into this. I saw ideas I liked on the internet, some I didn't. I found things and changed them to fit my second graders. As I worked through these lessons I realized, they could absolutely be done with much older students as well. A few BIG things that are covered for standards across the board in this pack include: Opinion writing, narrative writing, expository writing, creative (fiction) writing, adding detail, interview writing, and so much more! There are lesson ideas given for each lesson. Many ideas are self explanatory, but the teacher lessons will offer you ideas. These lessons are fun and creative and would make great ideas for observations as well. Engaging and unique ideas to get kids writing. Good luck writers!!! This file has many activities. Some of my favorite to use are the Name Tag Glyphs and the Listen and follow direction activities. There are many activities for students to do on their own and also as a group or with a partner. Many activities revolve around getting to know your students and building a classroom community. There are ideas for bulletin boards and back to school night as well.
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