Five For Friday! December 11, 2015

1) Christmas Monkey Elf!

Last year almost all of the teachers on my team used the adorable Elf on the Shelf in the classroom.  Since I didn't want to shell out the $30 for the kit I got a Christmas Monkey from Dollar Tree for another teacher and myself.  Our monkey has been causing lots of trouble around the room and occasionally leaving us notes.  Below he is hiding in a wreath near our handmade Christmas tree.  So much fun!

2)  Grateful to my wonderful helping parents!
I am blessed again this year to have an amazing group of helpful and artistic parents.  They made origami ornaments with the kids and everyone had a blast!  They also made a beautiful 3-D Christmas tree by accordion folding!  Talented!

3)  Christmas Opinion Writing!
We had so much fun discussing, graphing, and writing about who we thought worked harder the elves or Santa.  I absolutely love reading the reasoning of first graders!  We will turn their opinion pieces into little books next week!

4)  Take Brain Breaks!
Super blessed to have a track at our school and we take advantage of it at each transition running a lap or two before we get inside to get to business!  I love having the kids get oxygen to their brains.

5)  Our Celebration of Learning!
We have been working on our Life Long Ago unit for social studies for the past few weeks.  Our informational text has been articles about life long ago, Blend Space research, and for fiction we have been reading about Johnny Appleseed. The kids were in expert groups that studied one area of Life Long Ago in depth. They loved doing their projects and here is some of their great work!  We present to other grade levels and parents next week.  The links for products are also below if interested.

 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Long-Ago-Common-Core-Informational-Text-Unit-1531230

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Johnny-Appleseed-Common-Core-Unit-1496196

  1) We began our Data and Graphing Unit!   We started the week by defining organized and unorganized data, graphing blocks, shoes, and other fun activities. Then we ended the week with the kids conducting surveys.  The had a blast and their cute little survey responses warm my heart!  See below:

All of this can be found in my new data, graphing, and survey unit found on TPT.  It has wall vocabulary cards, activities, surveys, and centers.  We'll be moving on to using the concepts in centers as a review this week.  Here is the unit link if you are interested.    2)  Gratitude We make it part of our day to make sure that we write a gratitude message at the end of each day.  We are fortunate to have write on desks, but this could easily be done in a paper journal, which would be such a cute footprint of the kids' year.  It is one of my favorite parts of the day to read what these fantastic firsties write!  Here's one below:     3)  San Diego Area TPT Meetup! It was awesome to meet other local TPT authors over the Thanksgiving week break.  I loved learning about the powers of Instagram from Kristen Kalani (@easyteachingtools).  I am always impressed by the dedication these ladies have to teaching!   4)  Power Writing! It is one of our class goals to become better writers and also to read like a writer.  I am so impressed by my kids each and every day as they try to improve their craft and grow as writers.  Below is a picture of one of my little guys using his Opinion Writing Handbook in a Power Writing entry.  When the other kids saw him it was like the domino effect.  Soon everyone was accessing their handbooks and I saw a sea of green, red, and blue books.  The color coding is for the text type they choose to write.  In Power Writing, we brainstorm two topics.  We have a few minutes of table group discussion about each topic and then we create a brainstormed list on the white board.  The kids then share with their tables what text type they will write and what topic they will write about.  I then set the time and the kids are off. We write without stopping to build stamina.  If someone finishes their first topic, then they go on to the next.  I scaffold the journals also for my kids who have a tough time looking from board to desk and need the extra support.  I LOVE this time because everyone focuses on writing fluency which is essential.  They are also given a scaffold with a white board list of ideas, and they are given CHOICE.  Choice on which topics to write on and choice on what text type to write about it.  As the kids write I go around and give little mini lessons like capitals, noticing strong introductions or conclusions, and even focusing on proper printer motions.  It's a little one on one time for me with the kids as I circulate.  This is just one part of my writing program and takes only about 15-20 minutes.  It truly is valuable time!     I also started using some of the great introductions and conclusions I was seeing in our class and putting them up on our wall. I teach the kids the names of the introduction and conclusion to the kids so that they can have them as part of their vocabulary.  For example when they use a question as an introduction I put it up under our Question Introduction poster.  When kids talk like a writer, they write like a writer.  The kids love having their writing as the mentor text. Last week, a little firstie came up to me and said, "Look Mrs. Miller. I came up with a new introduction type. . . the countdown!"  I loved it and I love that he even gave it his own name! Below are some of these fun pics and the products that I use to teach these things!        5) I'm so ready for Christmas!  I just love the holiday times.  People just act a little nicer, have extra kindness in their hearts, and family time is prime time!  I love it.  I'm so thankful for all that we have have and that I have my two beautiful children.  Below are some fun Christmas products I'm looking forward to using and a couple of Pinterest snapshots of things I'm going to try in my classroom.  Happy Holidays!      

Five For Friday- November 20th

 

 1) Blend Space for Research

 My colleague Gisell Barrett (https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Maestra-Barrett)
is just finishing her Masters program and brought this great knowledge to our team.  It is a researching platform that the kids can navigate on a computer or iPad.  Each member of our first grade team made a platform in Blend Space for our life long ago unit (transportation, communication, daily life, jobs, school,  and games and fun). 

   

Then, we created QR codes so that the kids could research in their expert groups.  It was easy because you can upload videos from You Tube, Power Points, Articles, and even things that you create. 

 We are giving the kids research time each day.  They are having a great time with it, and so far it has been great. It has eliminated the challenge for younger students to navigate spelling in searches and also having 10 QR codes for different sources. 

They are taking notes and preparing to write an informative book on their expert topic, create a timeline, and make a group iMovie.  We first gave them all background information on all the topics, but each expert group will share out after their projects are done and give us more information so that we can learn from each other!
If you are interested in this unit I just added 100 pages to it.  Here is the link on TPT:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Long-Ago-Common-Core-Informational-Text-Unit-1531230

2)  Being Thankful!
 

 I love seeing the kids art and how different each one looks.  We made some simple turkeys and they were adorable.  Kid art is the best!

3)  We love field trips!

This is a cute picture of my firsties having some hands on fun with a telegraph.  We went on a Life Long Ago field trip to a local spot in our community that features a school house of the past, a working blacksmith, a telegraph, and much more.  It was fun!

 4)  Checking our Success Criteria in Math!
We made a great poster of all the things we need to include in order to be successful when solving a word problem.  I've been having the kids go to the poster to check as they finish their work and it has been working great!  It's teaching them to catch little things like missing labels or forgetting to write an equation or number bond!

 5)  Goodbye to a great leader.
Our fabulous principal Dr. Winters left this week to move on to a district directorship.  He is, without a doubt, a phenomenal leader who is humble, intelligent, kind, and a great person.  Our entire school sang to him in a farewell on his last day.  He opened our school and will forever be the heart of it. 

 

Parent Teacher Conferences -Together we are better!

After almost 20 years of doing parent/teacher conferences they are not the scary thing they once used to be for me.  I really enjoy meeting the parents and sharing how their kids are in school.  Here are some things I've learned over the years. 

1) Start with the positive ... always.

Each and everyone of the kids we teach have many wonderful qualities.  I like to celebrate them first.  Below is a form that I use to guide my conferences.

I also like to ask what strengths the parents see at home.  Sometimes the parents and teachers see different things as strengths.  This is always a great conversation.

2)  If you have an exceptionally kind, considerate, or conscientious student, tell mom and/or dad "Good Job!"  

While parenting doesn't account for all great traits in kids, it really does play a big role in a lot of them.  As a mom, I know we don't hear compliments a lot, but when I do get a compliment (as a mom) I absolutely treasure it.  It also sets the tone for a positive conference.  Before I had kids, I always asked the parents of the kids that were wonderful in my class the kinds of things they did as parents.  It was my way of learning from them.  I always remember that parents are a child's first and most important teacher. 

3) Listen and ask questions.

I find conferencing my biggest tool in motivating my kids.  If I have a difficult customer I ask the parents what their kids enjoy at home.  Whether it be a particular character, game, song, or anything I try to use it to motivate that child in school.  I also ask about things like what their consequences are at home, how the kids manage homework, where and when they do the homework, chores, and other things that help me get a bigger picture of the child in their surroundings.  I feel that so much valuable discussion can be centered around listening, and so many confusions can be cleared up. For example, I had a little guy who was taking hours to do his homework.  When mom and I talked, we found a solution to modify what he was doing and include math facts practice on the computer to supplement.  After that, homework was much more manageable for  her. I also always like to have the parents come in with wishes for the school year that they and their child have. I send home the paper below to have them bring with them to the conference.

 

 

4)  Have evidence.

For each talking point that I have with the parents I have evidence to show how their child is performing.  I especially highlight growth.  This is super fun in writing because first graders grow so much so fast.  I also show them where they need to be at the end of the year by showing samples of writing from the previous year's students and an end of the year reading passage.  I organize all of the work in a folder and put writing/reading on the left hand pocket and math on the right and pocket. In the center prongs I keep the report card.  Anything loose in the folder are resources that I'm giving the parents. I place all the folders in a file box and then put them in the cupboard until the next round of assessments/conferences.  I have also seen evidence organized in a 1 inch three ring binder, which I love. I just haven't done it yet. Next year, during back to school sales, I will buckle down and buy a class set.  

5)  Make a 6 week plan for those who need it.

A six week intervention plan is very important for any of your littles that are struggling or that you are worried about making end of the year benchmarks.  My wonderful colleague, Christine, developed a Microsoft word form plan for this, but below is my version.  I try to limit it to 3 goals.  The easy part is the what (the goals), but super important is the how (the school and at home interventions). I always schedule my 6 week plan conferences to be longer because I need to help my parents with strategies. I often give them 2-3 things that they can do each day with their child.  I give a copy of the plan to the parents and I keep a copy for myself.  This is great documentation for any student study teams you have on campus or if you need to show that you had an intervention plan.  After the six weeks we meet again and either devise a new plan or discontinue it if the student is at grade level.  

 

 Lastly, b

http://www.schroedershenanigansin2nd.com/ 

 

http://www.luckylittlelearners.com/