Favorite Things Sunday

Glad that you have joined me!  Every Sunday I share some of the best ideas I have found throughout the week. 

Anchor Charts
Anchor charts are staple in my classroom. I use them to summarize our learning for the lesson. My students continue to use them as reminders of what we have learned. Mrs. M and Ladybug's Teacher Files are hosting linky parties to showcase how you use anchor charts. For grades K-2, see Mrs. M. For grades 3-6, see Ladybug's Teacher Files.

 

(grades K-2)

(grades 3-6)

Craft

Do you use The Sister's Cafe?  If you do, I found this wonderful bulletin board set from Ladybug's Teacher Files.  She adapted CAFE to meet her students' needs and called it CRAFT:  comprehension, response to text, accuracy, fluency, and text features/elements.  To get your FREE bulletin board set, click her blog button below.  The set even includes a PowerPoint of the lined paper she uses, so you can type in your own information to put under the headers.

Student Data Binders

Hilary from Rockin' Teacher Materials shared how she uses data binders with her students.  She shares examples from her students' notebooks and downloadable files so you can implement data binders in your classroom.  Just click on her blog button below to be taken to her post.

I hope you have enjoyed "A Few of My Favorite Things" and come back each Sunday to see what other fabulous finds I have gathered for your enjoyment and to add to your resources.

Thank you to all my readers who stayed with me after my absence.  Life (especially work) got really hectic in the last few weeks.   I can't wait to share with you what we have been doing in my classroom.  You got the first glimpse in my Crafting Sentences post.

Crafting Sentences

Each quarter, my school has a different academic goal we focus on to improve student learning.  This cycle we are focusing on improving style in our students' writing.  To begin our style unit (in first grade), I wanted to make sure that my students knew how to write a complete sentence.  They are very good at using a capital letter at the beginning and ending punctuation at the end.  The middle part of the sentence was a little fuzzy for them.  The question I asked myself was, "How do I teach writing a complete thought to first graders?"

Instead of typing everything I did, I thought I would try my hand at a screen cast showing you the Smart Board Notebook I created to go with this lesson.  This is the first time I have ever done this before.

To get the sentence graphic organizer and lesson plan I used with the lesson, click the image below.

UPDATE (4/28/2013):  I have recently put up my Notebook file on SMART Exchange after requests for the file.  Check out the file by clicking HERE or on the picture below.

I am honored that This Reading Mama wrote about how she adapted these materials for her own children.  I love her idea of using big dice as a different way to build sentences.  You need to check out her wonderful post:  Roll a Sentence.  She includes a freebie of the inserts she used for the dice and great pictures of it in action.

Stay tuned for future posts on where we go next - expanded sentences.  Now that we can write a complete sentence, I want my students to write better complete sentences.

Favorite Things Sunday

Glad that you have joined me!  Every Sunday I share some of the best ideas I have found throughout the week. 

Teachers are Readers Too
Tammy from Forever in First shared a great bulletin board called "Teachers are Reader Too."  She got the idea from Lori at Conversations in Literacy.  The bulletin board combines childhood pictures of the teachers and their favorite books when they were kids.  Love this idea!  Click on her blog button below to be taken to the post to see the bulletin board and close up pictures of the teachers as children.  I am thinking this would be a great beginning of the year bulletin board.  My school has to large bulletin boards in the entryway that this would look great on.

Food and Learning

Mrs. Carroll from The First Grade Parade has an blog post full of freebies that combine learning and food (always an interest to students).  The first freebie combines pizza and fractions.  Wonderful way to teach fractions.  She has the students investigate different pizza toppings.  The second freebie is about baking synonym rolls.  How cute is that? Check out her post by clicking her blog picture below.  You will not be disappointed!!

Grades and Feedback

Stephanie from Teaching in Room 6 shares an easy way to provide written feedback on more assignments, especially those that are posted on bulletin boards and all over the room.  Let's face it, the feedback is super important, but time is not on your side.  Let Stephanie show you how she does it.  I am working on my Vista Print order right now!  Click on her blog button below to be taken to the exact post where she shows you how she does it.

I hope you have enjoyed "A Few of My Favorite Things" and come back each Sunday to see what other fabulous finds I have gathered for your enjoyment and to add to your resources.

Currently April

Where has the year gone?  It is already April.  I am ready for summer, but state testing is only one week away.  Sometimes it feels like we just started the school year.  Since it is April, it's time for Farley's (from Oh Boy 4th Grade) monthly Currently linky party.

My super power is not really a super power, I know.  Here's the thing:  I can't cook or bake (and I hate to clean my house).  If it doesn't come out of a box or the freezer, I will mess it up.  I wish I could cook and bake, but that's okay.  I loved how Mrs. Weasley waved her wand around and the knife started cutting the food and the broom swept by itself.  I would love living in Harry Potter's world!

Click on Farley's blog button below to be taken to the other blogs who have linked up so far this month.

Favorite Things Sunday

Glad that you have joined me!  Every Sunday I share some of the best ideas I have found throughout the week.

Directional Signs

My hunt began on Pinterest when I saw a picture of a directional sign post (this city in ___ miles kinda thing) for book settings.  Trying to trace it back to its original owner was not successful because it ended up on tumblr, which led me nowhere.  However, I found some great ideas along the way.  First stop, The Adventures of a Library Girl - She posts a picture of her directional sign posts with stops like Neverland, Camp Halfblood, Ember and Panem (pictured below).  I have been to all of these except for Ember, which is on to read list.  Click on the picture to be taken to her post for directions on how she created her signs.

Photo used with permission from The Adventures of Library Girl

She got the idea from The Eliterate Librarian who created a sign post with some of the stops being Naria, District 13, Forks, and Lorien (pictured below).  I have been to all of these, great books all.  Click on the picture to be taken to her post for directions on how to recreate.  She got the idea from a Pinterest page of a fellow librarian - Library Displays/Decor.  From there, it goes to Sunsurfer on tumblr, which is a dead end.

Photo used with permission from Eliterate Librarian

Mini Chart Stand

A Modern Teacher shared a great idea that I plan to use at my guided reading table - a mini chart stand.  She took a plain clipboard and turned it into a chart stand for under $5.00.  Fabulous!  Check out how she did it and see the pictures of the final product by clicking on her blog button below.  You will be taken to the exact post.

I hope you have enjoyed "A Few of My Favorite Things" and come back each Sunday to see what other fabulous finds I have gathered for your enjoyment and to add to your resources.