Well tomorrow is our first day of school and I thought it would be great to start off the school year with a post. Keeping up with my blog is definitely a new year resolution. Many things have changed over the summer...
1. I have moved to a new state...
OOOOOklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plains...
... this means new standards and curriculum... not to mention that
Oklahoma will be switching to Common Core in the next 3 years... more \
on that in a later post.
2. New school... I am so excited about my new school. It feels like heaven!
3. New apartment and roommate... Living with my best friend has been such
a blast. We are actually working on starting a joint blog. I'll share
right when it's launched. No worries.
4. New GRADE! That's right, I have left second grade and moved up in the
world to THIRD! A testing grade! I know I'm up for the challenge, but I
will definitely need some support!
New New New New New and I'm sooo excited about it all!
Tomorrow I will be posting classroom pics. I also have a new center idea and some classroom management ideas and printables to share in the near future. Feels good to be back! Happy New School Year everyone!!
Thursday, August 18
Tuesday, April 19
{Acitivity Sticks}
Our math curriculum at our school works wonders, but it can be a bit dry, so I wanted to come up with some quick activities to get my kids up and moving every 15/20 minutes. I came up with...
Activity Sticks!
Basically, when the kids are starting to drift I say "activity time!", I set the timer for one minute and draw an activity. We then do the activity until we finish or the timer goes off. The kids love it! You'd be surprised how excited they get when I draw push ups, especially the boys! Haha, show offs. :)
** UPDATE: Visit me on my TPT or Teacher's Notebook store to download these activities and browse my others!**
TPT: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Brain-Break-Activity-Sticks-858074
Teacher's Notebook: http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/rsullard/brain-break-activity-sticks
We love them, I hope you do too!
Teach On!
Rachel
Follow me on Instagram!
Follow me on Facebook!
Keep Calm and Teach On
Basically, when the kids are starting to drift I say "activity time!", I set the timer for one minute and draw an activity. We then do the activity until we finish or the timer goes off. The kids love it! You'd be surprised how excited they get when I draw push ups, especially the boys! Haha, show offs. :)
** UPDATE: Visit me on my TPT or Teacher's Notebook store to download these activities and browse my others!**
TPT: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Brain-Break-Activity-Sticks-858074
Teacher's Notebook: http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/rsullard/brain-break-activity-sticks
We love them, I hope you do too!
Teach On!
Rachel
Follow me on Instagram!
Follow me on Facebook!
Keep Calm and Teach On
Tuesday, April 12
{I'm Alive! Texas Book}
I promise I didn't give up on my blog! I have actually been working on some great stuff to share... but I can't find my camera to take pictures! I'll have it up this weekend though, promise!
In the mean time... here is a little Texas book I whipped up. Nothing fancy, just something I am using to introduce our Texas and local history unit.
Texas Book
Teach on!
In the mean time... here is a little Texas book I whipped up. Nothing fancy, just something I am using to introduce our Texas and local history unit.
Texas Book
Teach on!
Saturday, April 2
{Scoot Activity}
This is a very popular activity, so I'm sure that many of you have used or seen it. But I really wanted to post it because of how wonderful it is! My students LOVE it and after you do it once, it is a quick easy way to review in ANY content area!
This week we are studying place value in the hundreds place, so I whipped up a version of scoot for review before our test.
All you need to do is cut this sheet up and put one square on each desk.
place value scoot
Each student will get one of these sheets.
Scoot
When they get to a desk they match the number on the paper to number on their own paper. I use a timer to countdown 30 seconds at each desk (time depends on the difficulty of the problems.) At the end of the 30 seconds we say "3,2,1 SCOOT!" This cues the students to move to the next desk and repeat the process. The first time you play you will want to practice just the scooting part without doing any problems first. They tend to take the problems with them and leave their pencils and such, haha. After you play once, they have the hang of it and it's such a simple process!
I use this game at least once a week. Most recently for sentence editing practice, homophones practice, and compound words.
Try this activity. I'm sure you'll love it!
TEACH ON!!
This week we are studying place value in the hundreds place, so I whipped up a version of scoot for review before our test.
All you need to do is cut this sheet up and put one square on each desk.
place value scoot
Each student will get one of these sheets.
Scoot
When they get to a desk they match the number on the paper to number on their own paper. I use a timer to countdown 30 seconds at each desk (time depends on the difficulty of the problems.) At the end of the 30 seconds we say "3,2,1 SCOOT!" This cues the students to move to the next desk and repeat the process. The first time you play you will want to practice just the scooting part without doing any problems first. They tend to take the problems with them and leave their pencils and such, haha. After you play once, they have the hang of it and it's such a simple process!
I use this game at least once a week. Most recently for sentence editing practice, homophones practice, and compound words.
Try this activity. I'm sure you'll love it!
TEACH ON!!
{Homophones}
We studied homophones last week and in while in the spring spirit we made some kites! It was a simple, fun acitivy that turned out so cute... in my opinion.
They wrote a homophone pair on each piece of the kite, with an illustration of each on the diamond shape. I wanted to hang them from the ceiling, but they were just too small. :( The bulletin board is not a disappointment though!
This could be applied to many other phonics/grammar areas, such as contractions.
Enjoy your weekend and then.... TEACH ON!
They wrote a homophone pair on each piece of the kite, with an illustration of each on the diamond shape. I wanted to hang them from the ceiling, but they were just too small. :( The bulletin board is not a disappointment though!
Sorry about the lighting. The sun was hitting the hallway strangely.
The pair of homophones on the diamond is "moose" and "mousse."
"buy" and "bye"
This could be applied to many other phonics/grammar areas, such as contractions.
Enjoy your weekend and then.... TEACH ON!
Friday, April 1
{Ocean Animals}
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I guess blogging just isn't routine yet!
So, next week we are going on a field trip to... Sea World! To prepare ourselves for our learning adventure we are researching all of the animals we will see. As a class, we will read and learn about many animals, while partners work together to complete this book about the animal of their choice.
Ocean Animal Journal 2
We will also be discussing life cycles of insects soon. I whipped up this simple form for my students to fill out as we talk about the different insects.
Life Cycle
This is a simpler version of the animal research book. The font was a little hard to read and it lacks the critical thinking questions the new version has, but it might work for someone out there, so I thought I'd share. :)
Ocean Animal Journal
I hope these are useful! TEACH ON!
So, next week we are going on a field trip to... Sea World! To prepare ourselves for our learning adventure we are researching all of the animals we will see. As a class, we will read and learn about many animals, while partners work together to complete this book about the animal of their choice.
Ocean Animal Journal 2
We will also be discussing life cycles of insects soon. I whipped up this simple form for my students to fill out as we talk about the different insects.
Life Cycle
This is a simpler version of the animal research book. The font was a little hard to read and it lacks the critical thinking questions the new version has, but it might work for someone out there, so I thought I'd share. :)
Ocean Animal Journal
I hope these are useful! TEACH ON!
Saturday, March 26
{Word Work Sheets}
Word Wall Words Activities
Wow, this is one of the first pages I ever made! It looks so simple now with all the fonts I've recently become obsessed with. Haha. But it still works great! :)
This is the Word Wall Activity sheet that I use each week. I use this time to have my students practive their Word Wall, or Sight, Words for the week as well as do some phonological awareness activities. This is what a typical weeks activities look like:
This is just an example, every week looks a little different. That's why I like the flexibility of this sheet.
Spelling Tic Tac Toe Homework
Here is my weekly spelling homework. I change out the activities every few weeks. This is just my regular list, I also have a challenge and modified list. The activities are a little different on these version as well. Make sure you download the text version so you can change it and use it in your classroom!
Hope these are useful! Have a fantastic weekend!
TEACH ON!
Wow, this is one of the first pages I ever made! It looks so simple now with all the fonts I've recently become obsessed with. Haha. But it still works great! :)
This is the Word Wall Activity sheet that I use each week. I use this time to have my students practive their Word Wall, or Sight, Words for the week as well as do some phonological awareness activities. This is what a typical weeks activities look like:
Monday - Put this weeks sight words in alphabetical order
Tuesday - Rhyming words
Wednesday - "Word Detectives" I give them clues to which word wall word I'm thinking of (from all of our words from the year, not just this weeks). It would sound something like this... "I'm thinking of a verb. This verb has one silent letter. If I changed the "t" in talk to a "w", I would have this word. My word is... walk!!
Thursday - Use your word wall words in a sentence.
Friday - Students are assessed on their ability to spell the words and use them in a sentence on their spelling test.
This is just an example, every week looks a little different. That's why I like the flexibility of this sheet.
Spelling Tic Tac Toe Homework
Here is my weekly spelling homework. I change out the activities every few weeks. This is just my regular list, I also have a challenge and modified list. The activities are a little different on these version as well. Make sure you download the text version so you can change it and use it in your classroom!
Hope these are useful! Have a fantastic weekend!
TEACH ON!
Tuesday, March 22
{Non-Fiction Features Assessment}
I wanted to test adding a pdf file, so here is the assessment I plan to give at the end of my non-fiction unit. Enjoy! .... Well, if it works! ;)
Non- Fiction Features Test
Non- Fiction Features Test
{Spring Time Flowers...}
Happy Spring everyone! The last season before.... that's right.... SUMMER!
Of course, in order to celebrate spring appropriately, we are currently studying plants and non-fiction features. Today we discussed the parts of the plant (1st grade review) and then discussed the functions of each part. Next, each student created their own flower! They turned out soooo cute!
They look so festive lined up in our hall! I have to give credit to my girl and co-second grade diva, Mrs. Acklen, this was totally her activity, as most of mine are!
While we study plants in science we are integrating reading as well and learning about non-fiction text features. Yesterday we began by comparing and contrasting fiction and non-fiction.
The activity is from the wonderful Lesson Plan SOS Teachers! As we get further into this non-fiction adventure I'll post more!
Happy Spring!
Of course, in order to celebrate spring appropriately, we are currently studying plants and non-fiction features. Today we discussed the parts of the plant (1st grade review) and then discussed the functions of each part. Next, each student created their own flower! They turned out soooo cute!
They look so festive lined up in our hall! I have to give credit to my girl and co-second grade diva, Mrs. Acklen, this was totally her activity, as most of mine are!
While we study plants in science we are integrating reading as well and learning about non-fiction text features. Yesterday we began by comparing and contrasting fiction and non-fiction.
The activity is from the wonderful Lesson Plan SOS Teachers! As we get further into this non-fiction adventure I'll post more!
Happy Spring!
Monday, March 21
{Literacy Centers}
My literacy centers have been a total work in progress all year. My poor kids probably don't realize that in some classrooms centers look the same from week to week. But, I think I've found something that I like... for now. :) Since I had this struggle, I figured other teachers might too, so I wanted to share. This is my own adaptation of The Daily Five strategies.
We use our buddies during mini-lessons and carpet time as well as during center time. The groups are their reading groups that I pull during center time. I have 8 centers that include:
*Independent Reading
*Buddy Reading
*Listening
*Comprehension
*Vocabulary
*Word Work
*Writing
*Technology
Each center has a Can Do paper, which gives my students the options for that center. I try and give them 4-5 options and rotate them every couple weeks or so. But honestly, changes in activites is pretty sporadic. I really just add things I love as I see them on a blog! :)
My reading groups are based on my students reading levels and the skills they need work on. Because of this, buddies are also on similar reading levels. I love that this allows the students to read the same books during buddy reading and work together without one child pulling the other along. I don't love this because I think it lacks the scaffolding that would push the student on a lower reading level if I had my buddies mixed. So... I just try mix groups in other activities throughout the day. My students work with their buddies only during centers. I meet with one group during every 10-12 minute center, at least I try. I usually get to 2 or 3.
Please let me know if there are any activities you are interested in for a specific center. I would love to share, but it would be crazy to try and post them all! Please let me know about your great center set-up!
For now...
Tuesday, March 15
{Welcome to Teach On}
Welcome to Teach On. I have been inspired to create my own blog by one of my favorite teaching philosophies:
Steal, Cheat, and Borrow!
I hope to share all of the great teaching activities and strategies I collect from fellow bloggers as well as my beloved co-workers. I might even create a few to share myself. ;)
Stay tuned! Hopefully, there is greatness to follow!
Steal, Cheat, and Borrow!
I hope to share all of the great teaching activities and strategies I collect from fellow bloggers as well as my beloved co-workers. I might even create a few to share myself. ;)
Stay tuned! Hopefully, there is greatness to follow!
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