Tried It Tuesday: Weekly Lessons Crate

 

Time to link up with my sweet BBB Holly for her Tried It Tuesday!

I bet you can't guess what I'm doing this weekend that I'm soooo excited about!!!!

I get to "meet" the host of this fun linky and her family when she comes to Florida!! Even though we haven't met, I feel like I've known her for years, plus we hit 1,000 followers within a few minutes of each other...that has to be fate! :)

I'd like to share something I've used since the beginning of my teaching career.

~Weekly Lessons Crate~

 
I use this crate to hold any mentor texts, resources for me, worksheets, handouts, newspapers, etc. I have a hanging file folder for each day of the week, plus a section for "extra" lessons or miscellaneous items in the back. I try to file them for the upcoming week as I plan my lessons and as my copies are made. This helps keep me organized and focused each day. You know, there's no time to dig for things in the middle of the day and we can't turn our backs for a second! :) I like this storage crate because it's about half the size of a regular milk crate and perfect to hold items for the week!
If you don't have a system in place, I hope this idea of a Weekly Lessons Crate is helpful! If you have a system for storing your daily or weekly lessons, I'd love to hear them! :)
Check out all the "Tried Its" this week! 

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Monday Made It-Bling and New Products

Linking up with Tara, my Florida buddy, who is probably just as stressed out as I am for our big writing test in 2 weeks, for her Monday Made It!

My first Made It is this treasure! I mean who wouldn't like drinking out of this cup? I think some may even get their allotted amount of water down if they had a fancy cup like this!!

It wasn't hard, but it was a little time consuming...each little gem was glued on individually...the cup didn't seem that large until I started gluing. LOL! All you need is a clear plastic cup, gems, and the powerful E6000 glue. It's a nice project in between chores-I glued a few rows, washed the dishes, glued a few more rows, folded some laundry, etc.-I like multi-tasking!

This one is for me, but I'd like to make two more for my children's teachers-they love sparkle just like me! :)

My next Made Its are TPT Products:

I introduced my students to SCOOT...and they LOVE IT! So, I've made a few on the current topics we're working on. I've used them with partners and individually. If it's a harder concept, I like them to work in partners to discuss how they determined their answers. If you're not sure how to play Scoot, here's the quick run-down: Place one of these task cards on each desk, each student solves the problem on the card and records it on their recording sheet, when you think everyone is finished, you say, "SCOOT", then all students move to the next card. This pattern continues until all cards have been answered. The best part...EVERY student is engaged! They are up and moving and LEARNING at the same time-I love when we trick them like that! LOL!

Use as an introduction, review, or as an assessment.

These task cards can also be used in a center, early finishers, or a guided math group.

Click HERE for Decimals Scoot Game (use three different ways-decimals, fractions, and percents).

Click HERE for Decimal Mixed Number Decimals. 

Click HERE for Factors & Multiples.

 

All of these Scoot Games are 50% off for the next 24 hours! Grab them for a little over a $1!!

Don't forget to check out all the other cleverness linked up this month!

Have a super week!

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Spark Student Motivation: Poems For Two Voices

Let's get MOTIVATED!

 

I'm so glad Jivey reminded me of poems for two voices that she linked up with me a couple of weeks ago! This book was assigned to me in college and I've always loved it, but you know you how you get so many ideas in your head sometimes you forget a few! (or a lot!)

The set up is for someone to read the left side and another person to read the right side, anything that's written on the same lines is read in unison. My students and I read a couple together for them to get the idea, then we wrote one together. It's about the teacher and the students. :)

I hate my voice...and I'm next to my phone so it's loud-sorry!

We whipped our class poem out in minutes-they loved it! I plan to revise and add to the poem for the final copy, but I was pretty impressed with the first draft!

Now...are YOU ready to be impressed??!! My students wrote their own poems for two voices from the voices of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. We've read several mentor texts about both of these inspirational people, so they used this knowledge to create their masterpieces!

Here's a copy of these two students' poem in case it's hard to understand.

 

 

My favorite part is for Martin, "I have a voice of thunder" and for Rosa, "I have lightning eyes."

Such deep and powerful thinking! Love!!! 

 

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW SOMETHING MORE IMPRESSIVE??!! I modeled the class poem the day before and they wrote these poems ALL ON THEIR OWN WITH A SUBSTITUTE!!

One of my friends subbed for me last week and she texted me after school to tell me how amazing they did on their poems-as soon as I returned the next day I knew they were very motivated by this assignment!

 They've already asked me when they can write them again! These are the kinds of lessons they remember and for teachers bring a smile to our hearts! You MUST try this with your class!

It could be used with so many concepts and grade levels!

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!
**NEW**Please type the name of your motivator with your blog name when you link up.

Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!

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Workshop Wednesday: Figurative Language

I look forward to Wednesdays for a few reasons...we have early release (1 hour early), we've made it to the halfway point of the work week, and I get to learn new ideas from my BBB Jivey for her Workshop Wednesday!

Figurative language is one of my favorite things about teaching writing (I think that it's my students too!). Once they start recognizing figurative language in their reading it starts transferring to their writing...so exciting for us as teachers! One of the ways I get my students to recognize and use figurative language in their writing is with my interactive figurative language bulletin board. I created this for a visual for my students to use as a reference and to engage them in their learning.

If you've ever read my blog, you know I try to incorporate Post-its DAILY in my classroom. (My name is Joanne Miller, and I am ADDICTED  to Post-Its...ok, I feel better now!) Each group has Post-Its in their tubs and can post findings of figurative language any time they find them in their reading. We REALLY love this bulletin board! It's interactive, purposeful, a resource for students, students have ownership, can be used as a formative assessment, and it can stay up all year long!

Here's one way I use it as a formative assessment...look at the close up below.

See how many similes they found? They are GREAT at identifying similes, but don't feel as confident at identifying the other types of figurative language. So, I know I need to model the other types more often and help them identify them during read alouds. They have student tracking sheets to record their findings in their writing folders. Here is a writing sample I took today-very excited to see this board transferring over to their writing! 

"John  Baptush is in my house. I almost screamed my head off."

"That was a barrel of fun. That ride was as fast as a bullet dashing up into space, a universe with amazing stars!"

The best part is when a section gets filled, we take down the Post-Its and start over!

Check out all the other ideas linked up this week to W.W.!

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Tried It Tuesday: The Question Could Be...

I'm excited to share today for my sweet BBB, Holly, for her Tried It Tuesday!

I learned about from my skinny, beautiful, intelligent friend AMC!!! (She didn't pay me to say those things, they're just TRUE!)  :)

 

It's so simple...

 

Promotes great discussion...

 

Forces students to think critically...

 

Little prep for the teacher...

 

It involves POST-IT NOTES (I know you're not surprised!)

 

Are you ready??!!

 

The Question could be... POSTER!

Give students an answer to a question and allow them to determine what the question could be!

In the following pictures are samples of "questions" for the answer 1/3.

There are many possibilities and levels of difficulty that could be used for this poster!

The first student gave an equivalent fraction and the second gave a percent and decimal example. 

The first student is this photo showed a missing space on a number line for benchmark fractions and the second asked for half of 2/6.

PERFECT opportunity for misconceptions too!

I see exactly why this student thought half of 2/6 was 1/3-this gives me an opportunity to extend a lesson.

 

Holds up to 24 sticky notes and at a quick glance you can see which students haven't responded!

 See? When I took this picture, two people hadn't responded (1 was absent).

 

I just introduced this poster this week and my students and I already love it!

This is a 20x24 poster and I have it in my TPT store for ONLY $1 for the next 48 hours!

I develop my posters at Sam's Club-I find them to be the least expensive and they'll develop it in an hour!

 

Check out all the other ideas that have already been tried and tested by amazing teachers!

 

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Must Read Mentor Text: The Ocean Is...

One of my favorite linkies is this Must Read Mentor Text (gives me an excuse to buy more books!). Amanda & Stacia are to blame for our huge wish lists on Amazon, but I still love those girls!

I present to you...

 

The gorgeous illustrations and the metaphors create the perfect visual to describe the ocean.

This book compares the ocean to several things with illustrations/text to support the metaphor (traffic jam, playground, dentist, a stage, a galaxy, etc.). So many comparisons to describe the ocean gave my students concrete examples of metaphors.  

Similes are usually easier for students to create and include in their writing. My students have a strong grasp of similes, but sometimes overuse the same ones (fast a cheetah, small as a mouse). Metaphors provide a stronger comparison in writing, but are also harder for students to create, so with this book and my activity I knew I could deepen their understanding. :)

 

We made our own metaphors based on our own classroom.

Each student wrote a metaphor for "Our classroom is..." and then a small description to support the metaphor.

Here are some student samples:

Their metaphors were so deep and thoughtful!

You know I love this one!!!

This melts my heart! It makes me smile to hear my students talk about our class family! 

 

All of my students did an amazing job! Focusing and creating only one metaphor is a not so scary assignment for writers, but very purposeful! I've noticed several students effectively using metaphors in their writing since this activity. After I display them, I will make them into a class book. Go check out all the other great mentor texts suggested today!

 

Don't forget I'm having a 20% off Super Bowl Sale at my TPT Store today! And, I added two new products last night!

Reading Non-Fiction With Post-Its (great to hold your students' thinking while interacting with text) and Decimal Mixed Numbers Scoot Game (fun, engaging way to introduce, review, or assess your students)!

        

 

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Spark Student Motivation-Scratch Off Tickets

Time to get students motivated with a fun incentive and teachers motivated with a sale!

Several people asked me about my Scratch Off Tickets from my Reading Counts prize board, so I wanted to show them to you!

I make several scratch off tickets for students to choose from: they range in prizes from lunch with me, homework pass, new book, 10 tickets, ring pop, etc.

 

I make 10 to a sheet, 3 of every ten say, "Sorry, try again". My husband thinks this is mean, but we don't win every time we play the lottery! :) They can choose a treat from my treat jar or take a risk and go for the Scratch Off, of course, they always go for the Scratch Off! 

This is the favorite prize revealed! Most popular choices are lunch with me or full size candy (depending on the time of day they win it...if it's the end of the day, they take that candy, so they don't have to wait until the next day for their prize!)

I have a little box on my desk of "lucky pennies" and the students gather around to see what prize will be revealed! 

YES, I promote 4th grade gambling! LOL!

 

At open house I make them for my parents with household chores their children can do for them (vacuum the house, breakfast in bed, clean bathroom, etc.). No, my students aren't super happy about this! :) But, just like for my students, some of them say, "Sorry try again". It's funny to hear the moans of the students whose parents reveal the chores and others say "Yes!" when their parents aren't winners!

 

I bought a large roll several years ago, so I don't remember which company I purchased them from, but this one looks familiar to me. They're not cheap, which is why I made my Scan to Win Tickets, so I could make as many as I want...just print! And they're on sale this weekend for 20% off, so for $5.60 you can have unlimited tickets and excitement to reveal the prizes!

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!

Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!

 

TPT is not having an official sale, BUT several sellers are having their own sale!

My ENTIRE store is 20% off today and tomorrow! Get those items off your wish lists!

Happy Shopping!

 



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