Reorganizing

At the beginning of summer my head is full of wishful thinking and a to do list that is a mile long. I want to tackle the world. I want to redo my year plans, remap my weekly lesson plans, reorganize my furniture, reorganize my materials and resources, reorganize my classroom library,  and redecorate EVERYTHING. Then summer vacation comes........beach time comes..........pool time comes...........family time comes.............and my to do list becomes a "will do if I have time when school starts list". Well, here it is the end of July and we go back in a couple of weeks. I am happy to say that I did manage to completely accomplish 2 things!!! One thing that was on that beginning of summer to do list and one thing that just popped up and I had to do it because it was cute! (Priorities right!!??) So what DID I get done?
1) I painted this mural of some of my favorite characters outside my classroom door. (Not on my list but too cute not to right??!!)

2) A newly organized classroom library!

My library had become a bit of a nuisance over the years.  I have too many books, not enough bins, too many categories, and too many books, and oh yeah, too many books! (I know some of you are like "GASP......., No teacher could EVER have too many books" and I am hear to tell you I do!! Where I teach each teacher is required to have a classroom library.  This year we have several new teachers coming on board and I know that they need as much help as they can get to begin the task of collecting books to create a good library. My classroom library is made up of thousands of books ( I have been teaching for a long time) and it really needed a makeover so I considered this a win-win. I get rid of some books that I really don't want to just throw out and the new teachers gain a library.

Here is how it works. My classroom library is made up of two different "shopping areas". The Leveled Library (Our Dinner Books) and the Themed Library (Our Dessert Books). For more information on using shopping cards you can refer to a previous post about Shopping In The Classroom from my good friend Andrea. The system in a nutshell is:
1) I give a reading assessment to each kiddo and provide them with a level on a Shopping card.
2) Each kiddo can search for 2 below level books, 2 on level books, 2 above level books, and 1-2 desert books (depending on their level-for example, I am not going to give a level B reader in August 2 desert books because I primarily want them reading the levels on or close to their level)
3) Kiddos shop for books by teams on a different day of the week. (Ex. Team 1 on Monday, Team 2 on Tuesday) This happens during Morning Announcements every morning.
4) Each week as kiddos go to the classroom library to shop, they put their "old" books into a book return bin. Then shop for their "new" books.
5) The classroom helper called the "Librarian" returns all the books to the proper book baskets at the end of each day.

So how did I reorganize to create a better system and clean house? I spread everything out and went through each. and. every. book! (Of course older grades probably don’t have to deal with this but for us younger grades, OH.MY.WORD!!! Talk about a mess!!) Trying to find more different colored dots, stars, shapes stickers to color code books so kiddos know which bin to put them back in.....TOTAL NIGHTMARE!!! As I mentioned above, my books were getting WWWAAAAAYYYYYY out of hand.  This year I noticed that my previous system of writing the levels for the leveled library on the back cover and the themed number for the themed library on the front of each book was confusing (jeez I am even confused just writing that--what in the heck made me think the littles could do it (although they did and it worked for YEARS) but I wanted something less confusing.  Here are a few pics of how I organized in the PAST........total waste of time and effort because the system was too confusing.

So I have developed a better system to keep the library looking great and help books get to the correct spot. I can show you how to Organize a system like this if you choose to do it.
The organization went like this:
1) I kept my two separate leveled (Dinner) and themed (Dessert) libraries but instead of putting them in two separate spots in the classroom, it is all in one area. With the leveled books going across the top shelf.
2) I developed classroom basket labels for the categories (that I have seen my kiddos go to year after year the most) that has words and pictures describing the books that belong in that basket. I also created matching stickers to place on each book within that basket. So NO MORE searching for matching stickers, just print, cut, stick and go!

3) I went through each and every book and separated them into their appropriate category and placed a small sticker in the upper right hand corner.  On this sticker is a word and a picture of the corresponding book basket that the book should go inside.  There are stickers for the leveled library and the themed/genre library
4) I made sure that each book basket had the corresponding word/picture sticker placed on the front/center of the basket.

I am not going to lie, this process was time consuming but WELL worth it. If you are interested in this system, you can get these Classroom Library Labels for $8.00 in my store.

I hope your school year gets off to a great start! You know because as of right now, I actually only finished 1 thing from my summer to do list!
Happy organizing!

Teachers Collaborating!

Getting to hang out with friends learning and having fun is one of my favorite things to do! This summer was filled with learning and collaboration. As you may have read on Elaine's post
about What Happens in Vegas Doesn't Stay in Vegas, a bunch of teacher friends went on a wild adventure together. The beauty of this experience was in the knowledge we shared with one another, the closeness we gained from really getting to know each other, and the energy we acquired from this trip.

One of the best parts of this trip was feeling like I was a part of something special. I also love how when you put your heads together the synergy flows, ideas are born, and inspiration blossoms.

Teaching is hard. The one thing that can make it better is finding someone in which you can rely on. People or a person who really get you. A group, a tribe, a partnership, a family. Call it whatever you want, it means the same. These people can make a hard year bearable. They can make a great year even greater. Everyone needs a person in which to bounce off ideas, or share a celebration with, or a shoulder to cry on.

Collaboration is something we hope to teach out students. Why not start with ourselves? In fact isn't being a role model of collaboration the best way in which to teach it?

I love Edutopia. I think it is an outstanding resource in which to collaborate. Edutopia offers great ideas and fresh perspectives on how to get the job done. It reminds me a lot of the people in these pictures. People who come together to do what is best for kids and education.

If that is you, why not check out this great article by Vicki Davis, Teacherpreneurs: We're Here to Inspire. It might just remind you of your purpose this year.

What Happens in Vegas Isn't Staying in Vegas!  

I'm going back to Florida with a full heart and a full to do list!

O  by  Cirque du Soleil

Math Word Walls: Unlocking the Language of Mathematics

A former colleague of mine loves to tell the story about when she was administering a high stakes test and the question instructed the students to, “Draw a table to display this data.” Her determined student drew a Pottery Barn catalogue worthy DINNER TABLE, with each dish containing one the of numbers from the data she was meant to display. While one would want to give this kid points for style and creativity, I imagine the people grading the test were not so amused. 

This story made me realize that instruction in math vocabulary could mean the difference between a child “getting it” or missing it. Math is no longer just about being able to compute an answer correctly. It is about reading and understanding the language of mathematics. 

Our math series does an excellent job of pulling out the vocabulary, defining it, and putting the word in bold, with yellow highlights. It helps, but I realized it was not cutting the mustard with some of my students. Simple words like sum (as in “find the sum”) have sent otherwise excellent mathematical thinkers into a tizzy. These kids can add into the millions, but the word sum, which was clearly defined and tested 7 chapters ago did not stick for whatever reason. And it freaks them out so they freeze or panic. Don’t even let me get started on words like equivalent! Sheesh! The words are defined in the glossary, and I HAVE tried to train my kiddos to look there, but we all know how that goes.

Also, my struggling readers often struggle with the words and even though they might be able to solve the problem, they miss it because of the vocabulary. 

A few years ago this inspired me to sit down with the Common Core Standards and find the important vocabulary. I made a word wall card with the word, definition, and an example if possible. I color coded the words by domain and posted the words on a wall in my classroom. 

At first when I posted the words no one really noticed all my hard work. I soon realized that was sort of my fault because I was not referring to the wall or the words. If a kid asked me what a factors was, I just told the kid. This prompted me to start doing what I have seen so many primary teachers do with their word walls. I started integrating the words into my lessons and held kids accountable for LOOKING at the words and using them. 

The results were incredible. It was like the movie Field of Dreams (“If you build it, they will come”) except it was “If you post it on the wall, refer to it, and hold them accountable for AT LEAST looking at it, they will look”. It also didn’t hurt that the words were posted right by the window, so kids who want to check the weather also get a healthy dose of math vocabulary! I referred to the words and required the kids to do the same...and they did. They might have started to refer to the wall because they got so sick of hearing me say, “Did you check the word wall?” Words like product and equivalent seemed much less intimidating!

It worked so well, I wanted to send the wall home with my students. The only problem is the average 4th grade doesn’t want to decorate his/her room in math vocabulary. Since my students love interactive things and they love to make things (but we only have about 15 seconds in our jam packed day to make things) I developed vocabulary flippers to match the word wall. These are super simple to make and the students can take them home! All you have to do is copy them (double sided),  fold ‘em in half (hot dog style) and cut on the dotted lines. On the outside is the word, on the inside is the definition. My students love them.   Some use them like flash cards to study. Others keep them in their interactive math notebook to refer to. Parents like the words also, because math is waaay different than when we went to school! I have also included a free geometry set here so you can take a gander at it and try it out! 

I made word walls for grades 3 - 6 and my friend Trina who is a primary expert, made math word walls for 1st and 2nd grade. They are in our TPT Stores.

 

               

shopping in the classroom library

I've been teaching first grade for a long time and I've had so many guided reading groups, I probably talk about it in my sleep.  Doesn't your "guided-reading-talk" spill over into other parts of your life, too?  My own children, who are not in elementary school anymore, will ask me homework questions like, "What does perseverate mean?" and "What's an algorithm?" and I instinctively respond, "Well, what strategy can you try to figure that out?"  I know they wish I'd check my teacher-hat at the door.

(Confession:  Sometimes I don't know the answers to their hard homework, so my response is really a win-win for everyone.  My kids learn to be resourceful and I don't look dumb.)

The work we do during our guided reading groups is so important, I want to make sure the children have a lot of additional time to read a lot of books that are just-right for them... books that will help them grow as readers and continue to foster a love for reading.

It's critical that all of my students have a handy collection of books to read at any given time and I've structured our schedule and classroom environment to make sure that happens daily.  A well-stocked classroom library, with a wide variety of books, is the most important part of making this a reality for my kids.  My classroom library isn't just in one part of the classroom... I've got shelves and bins and cubbies of books all over the place.  (Don't worry... it's organized.)  There's a fiction section, a nonfiction section, a section of favorite authors and one for favorite characters, and we have a leveled books section, too.

When I first started teaching (forever ago), I made my fair share of rookie mistakes, one of which was letting children choose ALL of their own books, ALL of the time.  It seems like a good idea, right?  And don't I want "buy-in?"  I mean, what's so hard about choosing books?  I do it myself all the time.  

But I'm an adult.

And they're six.

And I soon figured out something important about new, emergent readers... they don't always know how to pick out books that are going to help them grow.  It doesn't really make a lot of sense to read with children in a guided reading group on Level E books and then watch them self-select 10 Junie B. Jones chapter books from the classroom library for their personal reading collections.  That offers them little chance of practicing proficient reading behaviors on their own. And then I realized, little kids need a little help when shopping for their books.

(You should know:  I take great care at the beginning of the year making sure our classroom culture is safe and encouraging.  We talk about individual strengths and needs and how people, including myself, set goals for areas where we want to continue growing.  We value differences and celebrate everyone's successes, big and small.  These are the kinds of conversations that need to take place so my students understand why different students have different books at different times.  They make great connections when we talk about how training wheels and swim floaties come off at different times for different kids.  And it's important that children are keenly aware of what their peers are good at and that there's a spirit of collaboration and camaraderie in the classroom.  When that is missing, competition creeps in and that's why some of our emerging readers are choosing 100-page Junie B. Jones chapter books and pretending to read them during reading workshop.  There is a place for chapter books in their reading lives, and I'll explain how I honor that in just a minute, but a large amount of time spent pretending to read isn't really helping anyone.)

This is when I started using "Shopping Cards" and I've been using them for years because they work so well for us.  Here's how they work in our room:

After I finish my initial running records at the beginning of the year, I make a shopping card for each student.  The last letter on the card indicates the child's instructional reading level... the level we're working on during our guided reading time together.  This is the level that "pushes" the reader just a bit because it's a level where they need to be actively using strategies to read and make sense of the text.  

The other two levels are just slightly lower than their instructional level. Reading books at these levels strengthens their confidence, helps them read sight words more automatically, and improves their fluency (both rate and expression).  

The cupcake represents something we call "Dessert Books."  (Hello, Junie B.)  To help them understand this, we have fun talking about desserts... about how they're not the best part of our daily diet, but how we want them anyway, don't we?  We talk about how it's important to have a balanced diet and how it's okay to have dessert once in a while as long as it's not the thing we're eating most often.  They understand how that's unhealthy for our bodies.  And then I make the leap to a healthy reading diet... and they're able to leap with me... they get it. They learn that a healthy reading diet has to be full of books that are just-right for us; that are good for us; that will help us grow.  Dessert books may not be just-right for us, but they're a fun treat to have if we have just a little.

Each week, my students go shopping in our classroom library for their own books.  (I have 5 student teams, so one team goes each day.  This prevents the library from feeling too crowded.) They pick their own books (buy-in) with a little guidance from me... so much better than what I did my first year of teaching. Students self-select 3 books from each leveled bin on their own shopping card and then they head over to the fiction / nonfiction sections of our library and choose ANY 3 dessert books they want.  All the books they choose go into a canvas book pocket that hangs on the back of their chair, along with all the books we've been reading during our guided reading time together. As they grow as readers, so do their cards and they begin to shop for different levels.

When we get ready to go home each day, each child picks one leveled book and one dessert book to take home.  The goal is for them to read their leveled book to a family member and then ask a family member to read their dessert book to them or with them.  

You can make your own shopping cards with a simple index card, but if it would save you some time, you can pick up these blank cards for free in my TPT store.   They go all the way up to guided reading level M, but a lot of students no longer need help choosing books after about levels J or K.  By that point, they're pretty good at knowing what's just-right for their reading diet.  I have also included a completely blank card in case you use a leveling system other than guided reading levels.

Free Shopping Cards for Primary Readers

If this is the time of year when you think about updating or redesigning your own classroom library, check out this Pinterest board dedicated to special reading spaces for young children.  It is loaded with pictures and links to dozens and dozens of classroom (and home) libraries. They are cozy and inviting and inspiring to young readers.  You'll find great tips for not only reimagining your library space, but organizing it as well.

Library Spaces for Kids

Happy teaching!  :)

Teaching: Making a Difference

This is Robin from Class of Kinders. It is summer break for me and I was just at the beach the other day. We can do that here in Paradise, because the warm sunny beach is just a short drive away. It is a great escape from the fast paced life to reflect. Most of my trips to the beach are during the summer…when school is out for summer break. I do a bit of reflecting about the school year…thinking about the things I loved about the year and things I might do differently.

I take a book, listen to music, soak in the water and work on my tan! 

(Why is it that tanner skin always seems to help the figure?…lol.)

Sometimes, I go just for the sunset. Equally as beautiful! 

One evening when I was there, I happened upon lots of starfish washing up onto the shore.

There were literally what seemed like hundreds of them! It honestly made my heart beat faster and faster, to see them there, knowing if they did not get back into the water….

But there were just so many to rescue. 

The Starfish Story immediately popped into my head. The one where the little boy was throwing things  back into the water as a man approached him asking what he was doing. He told the man he was throwing the starfish back into the ocean that had washed up onto shore. The man laughed at the boy and basically told him he was wasting his time. He said the boy was just one person and there were so many starfish. The boy listened, but continued his work throwing them into the water. He turned to the man as he threw one starfish into the ocean saying… see, it made a difference for that one.

This is how I feel about teaching. I am the boy. And the man, well, "he" is ALL of 

"those things" that get in the way of me teaching my students.  Regardless, we should continue our work as teachers, just as the boy did, throwing the starfish back into the ocean

…making a difference in the lives of our students!

I created a copy of this Starfish Story originally written by Loren Eiseley.

You can get this copy free from my TpT store as a tribute to summer, teaching, and the students we work tirelessly for. Give it to a friend to encourage them…hang it in your classroom so you don't forget.

Enjoy your summer.

 Recharge your batteries.

And...

Continue making a difference!

I need a wAtEr BrEaK!!!

Each year at my school, our Firsties get to have a fun filled day of WATER!!

In honor of our summer vacation being HERE!!!! YAY!!!! I thought I would share some of our AWESOME Water Day Games.  In order to keep costs low for us, we asked all the parents to donate supplies for each of these games.  And boy did they followed through! We had more than enough of everything.

 #1. Water Squirters - We filled buckets with water, gave each child a water squirter, and they were off! (Of course we went over rules like no spraying in the face before hand AND NO water guns were allowed.)

  

#2. Bubbles - We gave each child a bottle of bubbles. just look at the excitement on her face!

#3. Car Wash - There are 2 buckets at either end of a line of kiddos.  One bucket is full of water and the other is empty. The first person in line squeezes a sponge and fills it with water from the first bucket. Then they pass the sponge down the line. The last person in line runs to the empty bucket and squeezes the sponge.  Then they run with the sponge back to the front of the line to refill it and start the sponge going down the line again. They get really wet with this one!

#4. Ice pops - We gave each child an ice pop as a fun snack. 

#5. Polar Plunge - We had 2 plastic pools filled with water and ice.  Brrrrr!!! The kiddos were in 2 lines and had to run down to the end of the pool, jump in the water, spin around on their bottoms, get back out, then run to their line and tag the next person. However, we live in FL and it was soooo hot that the ice kept melting and didn't stay very cold! One of our FABULOUS PTO moms decided that the kids should be squirted with ice cold water from a cooler in order to help us solve that problem!!

#6. Duck Duck Splash - We had 1 plastic pool filled with water, one small bucket of water, and 1 sponge. The kiddos sat around the pool and began a normal game of duck duck goose. The difference here is that the person walking around the circle is holding a sponge that is loaded with water. They hod the sponge over everyone's head as they say "duck". When they finally choose their "goose", they say "goose" and squeeze the sponge over that persons head.  Then they run around the pool. If the "chooser" catches the "goose", then the goose has to sit inside the pool until someone else gets caught!

These are just a few of our fun games. We also do a field day with more "DRY" activities but that I will save for another day!

Does your school allow you to have water games? How do you celebrate summer coming with your kiddos?