Teacher Stuff

Monday, April 30, 2012

Spelling Worksheet

     I recently saw this really cool spelling worksheet on Pinterest from the 3rd Grade Gridiron. Somehow, seeing this struck a major light bulb in my mind! For spelling, I use Words Their Way. I loved it in 4th grade and parents seemed to really like how it was individualized. It teaches kids patterns in words rather than just to memorization. When I taught 4th grade, I had certain activities that the kids did everyday. I just had them do it in their Spelling Notebook and then turn it in occasionally. I was a real slacker on checking up on their spelling work.
     Now that I saw this idea from Pinterest, I thought that would be a much better way to go with spelling work each week. The students keep this worksheet I made all week, and each day they do what it says in the box. Then they turn in this one completed paper to me on Friday before they get to play a spelling game as a review right before the test. It will hold them accountable, keep the paper trail down, and be much easier on me for grading. I'm even thinking of changing it up a bit and sending a worksheet home each week with their homework packets.
     Without further ado, here is my weekly spelling work worksheet. I noticed that uploading it to googledocs changed the font and even deleted cute little boxes around each day's section so picture those when looking at this. Why does googledocs do that?! I wish I could just upload files directly to this blog post instead of going through them.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3-FAjs-aBYpQkJQdExteWZHWHM/edit

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Class Newsletter

When I taught 4th grade, my classroom theme was "A Safari for Success" using the jungle. Well, I've really been wanting to do an owl classroom theme since Pinterest has gotten me obsessed with those cute little creatures. After thinking for a while, I decided that it would probably be smarter to just use all the jungle stuff I already have. However, every time someone asked me what theme I was going to do for my classroom, I kept saying, "I really want to do an owl theme, but I already have everything for the jungle theme already. Plus, with making new curriculum too I shouldn't overwhelm myself with a new theme." The conversation always seemed to end on a sad note. Therefore, I have decided to just do it. I am going with an owl theme next year and am totally excited!! I've gotten busy creating stuff for "Our Task Tree" (job chart) which I'll post about once it's all done and up. Along with that, I created a new newsletter that will go out every week with homework. I created the template and then just copied and pasted some info that I had from previous newsletters so you could see what it would look like. I LOVE how it turned out, if I do say so myself. :) Sorry, the document was uploading funny onto googledocs and I can't figure out how to just attach something here. All you get is a fuzzy little screenshot I took and uploaded. I guess you get the idea though. If any of you know how I could fix this, please share! :)

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

MIA

Sorry I've been MIA for a little while. I wish I could say that I have been busy, but really, I've just been lazy. All my 4th grade documents and whatnot are on our desktop computer and I don't get on there very often since I have my laptop. However, I just found out today that I will be teaching 3rd grade next year (so excited!!) so I will be digging back into all my files to see what I can use next year. I'm thinking that will be a Spring Break activity. I'll let you know what I find. ;)

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

PE Closet

I said I would post some pictures of my PE closet. Before we get to them, I must give a shout out to my awesome hubby. This is my second year teaching PE, but during the summer before my first year, I dragged my husband to the school with me to pull everything out of the closet. Nothing was organized (or so it seemed) and I didn't know what I had or where everything was. He helped me pull everything out, take inventory, and put it all back in nicely organized. I am an organize freak and cannot tell you how nice it is. Everything has a place and I know right where to go when I need to get something or put something away. Without further ado, here are the pictures with some elaboration.

This is a jump rope stand made out of PVC pipes. The previous PE teacher's hubby made it for her. It is handy!

Each bin is labeled and the lighter ones are on the top shelf so I don't kill myself pulling them down or putting them up.

I thought of this awesome idea of using bungee cords to keep the balls on the shelves. I got them from the dollar store and they have been awesome! They keep the balls in but make it so easy to pull them out when I need to. The bags on the left hold my pool noodles and blindfolds and extra empty bags to help transport balls.

The hula hoops are hanging on the wall with big hooks, but not all of them fit on the hooks so I used my handy dandy bungee cords to make it so they all hung up.

Closeup of the bungee cord contraptions. I also noticed that I was able to fit a whole lot more balls on the shelves using the bungee cords since it allowed me to stack the balls and none of them roll off.

There you go. It's an awfully small closet. I don't have much equipment but don't have room for any more either! I've got every bit of this little closet taken up.

Friday, February 17, 2012

4th Grade Bulletin Boards and Classroom Tour

Here are the bulletin boards I used when I taught fourth grade. Also, this was my room before the 1st day of school. I eventually learned that the table in the center wouldn't work.

This is my awesome mailbox that my brother in-law made. It's sturdy and has 35 slots. I used two of them for an inbox and outbox. Whenever students needed to turn something in, they would put it in the inbox. If I needed something passed out, like lunch menus or homework, I would put it in the outbox. One students job was to distribute the outbox items to whatever slot they needed to go in whenever they saw something in there and had time to do it.. All the slots are numbered to correspond with a certain student. I like this because it means I don't have to change the labels every year. Click here for "Check your work" posters above mailbox.

Daily Schedule, Birthdays, Calendar that showed when there was no school etc., lunch menu. I eventually put missing assignments on this board as well.

I had great aspirations to put a picture of me driving the jeep along with pictures of my students, but unfortunately I never got around to it. Hey, being an intern was hard. :)

I absolutely loved this job system I came up with!! On each hut I have a job listed and how many students are needed.  I had little explorer children that were laminated and had each of my students' names on them. At the beginning of the year I explained and showed a couple jobs a day and the kids did them. Eventually, the kids got to pick the job they wanted to do, put their person on the corresponding hut, and did that job everyday right before closing meeting. I think I had students pick new jobs every week but the President stayed for 2. I can't remember for sure.

Here you can see the board with the explorer kids on it.

I had diecut leaves stapled onto some twine and dangled in front of my classroom door. I had some words on the brick below that said "Swinging into 4th" or something like that. Again, I can't remember exactly and don't have a picture of those.

Close-up of the class library. Everything in the shelves are chapter books. The white basket on top holds the picture books. Everything is leveled and the arrow you see up above shows the levels. Click here to look at my inspiration for my library and to find out more about the arrow and book leveling. By the arrow are genre posters. Traditional, Science Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Poetry, Mystery, Informational, Biography, Autobiography, Fantasy, and Historical Fiction.  I slowly put them up as we learned about each genre. Here are the labels I used on the book baskets and the actual book so the students knew where to put them back.

I used these to post the assignments for each of my small reading groups. The colors of these posters corresponded with the colors of the groups. These were great because they made it so the kids didn't have an excuse for not having their reading group assignment done. I laminated these papers and wrote on them with visa vis markers.

I had each child's name hanging down from the ceiling above their desk. I later added name tags to the front of their desks too. I am not a fan of nametags on the top of desks because the child already knows his/her name and, by 4th grade, should know how to spell it.

The papers on the desks said something like, "It's a treat having you in my class!" with a kitkat taped on. I got that from a teacher so I don't have a file for you or me. :( In the corner is each students' reading workshop baskets.They hold each child's two-pocket folder where they can store handouts from Reader's Workshop. They also keep their reading notebook, a pencil, and a couple books from the class library. I think I'd rather have bags behind chairs instead of baskets. They took up more space than they needed to.

Class library in this corner. I also had stuffed jungle animals and some pillows back there for the kids to use during their reading time. I pulled sticks with kids' names on them for them to choose what they wanted. It was so fun, the students gave names to each of those stuffed animals-Russell the Lion, Mango the Orangutan, Steve the Baboon, Tia the Tiger, and Big the Elephant (my husband named this one because it was his as a child).

D.O.L./Handwriting Binder, whiteboard and marker on right. Math, Writing, and Misc. notebook, and 2 pocket folder on the left.

This picture shows which students didn't come to "Back to School" night since they still have their treat on their desk.

Wooh! That was a lot of stuff! It is so fun going through all my old 4th grade stuff and really makes me miss teaching it. I have a ton more stuff to share so look forward to more coming. I think I'll go through what an average day looked like and branch out from there. I'll cover our morning and afternoon meetings among other things. :) Enjoy!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Cup Stacking Unit

I'm back already! This year I did a cup-stacking unit with all my classes (all 26 of them, 9 hundred and some odd students). All the kids loved it! I had heard the rage but thought, really? Kids actually like that? Well, my district had huge class sets that could be checked out so I decided to give it a try. I quickly found that indeed, all students love it! By the way, I was thinking this would be so fun to do right before testing at the end of the year in a classroom. You don't need much space and it really wakes kids up in a relatively short amount of time (my classes are 30 mins. long). I had typed up these lesson plans as I went so I wouldn't forget them and thought that maybe they could come in handy for someone else. So here they are!

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 4 2nd Option

PE Teachery Things

I created this blog with the intention of returning back to reg. ed. some day. I also created it so I could have a place to keep track of and share all the things I did and liked when I taught fourth grade a couple years back. Before I jump back into that big stack of things though, I want to share some things that I currently do/have while teaching PE Specialty. But first... A day in the life of an Elementary PE Teacher:

Now onto the good stuff.

Attention Signal Habit Sign. I used to teach habits when I taught 4th grade. I found it really effective. There are certain things you want to be a habit and for the kids to know exactly what to do.

Good Listening Habit Sign

Bonus Bucket: When individual students are following rules, being good examples, being obedient, etc...I will sometimes tell them to put their name in the Bonus Bucket. When I tell them that, they know to come over and put their first and last name on a piece of paper and slip it into the bucket. Every Thursday after school I pick 2 names out of the bucket. On Friday, those 2 students get to pick a treat. You can decide how often you want to draw names and how many. I think this would also work great in a reg. ed. classroom.

This is a reward system for classes rather than individuals. Each football has a teacher's name on it and starts at the Endzone on the left. I tell them at the beginning that in order to move their football, they have to work as a whole team. Everyone has to be doing what they should be. Once their football gets to the opposite Endzone, that class gets a Free Choice Day and then their football is returned to the start to try for another Free Choice Day. To see what a Free Choice Day is, click here.

This is my PE cart. I wish it was more clean and organized when I took this photo, but I guess you see it how it is usually. The basket on the second shelf holds my cd's. On the bottom shelf is a pump, my megaphone which needs new batteries, and some polyspots.

I forgot to get a picture of the PE closet where I store all my equipment. That will hopefully be coming soon in another post. Enjoy!