Monday Made It

It's time for Monday Made It with 4th Grade Frolics!

I was trying to think of a way to display exemplars for students to reference, so I put this on the bottom of one of my bulletin boards.  I plan to put student work samples there that meet exemplar standards with a note from me about exactly why they did.  I love these letters!  I also realized, after I took the picture, that yellow pennants hung a little closer would look like the sun's rays.  Hmmmmmm.  May be another MMI coming on.

Our PTO membership drive is beginning today, and our PTO officers always put up adorable decorations in the cafeteria to track how many memberships each class is bringing in.  This year the theme is minions, so each teacher was asked to decorate a minion to go on the walls of the cafeteria; they'll be judged by a "celebrity" judge and the winner gets a local gift certificate!

So, here's my George Washington minion.  Sorry about the glare.

The names of kids who join will be written on bananas and posted around our minions.  Love!!!

I love, love, love Catherine Reed at The Brown Bag Teacher.  She has posted about how she differentiates her learning centers, so I took the plunge with my math centers this week.

I love the visual directions she uses, too.  We'll see how they do with them this week!

This Monday Made It will definitely be a work in progress.

We are using Engage NY for our math curriculum, and I love it, but I didn't love how the student work looked.  The fonts are pretty small, and there seems to be a lot of white space on the page - my learners who need more scaffolding were struggling, and I thought that the work format may be part of it.  So, I redesigned the work for the next few lessons; I put boxes for them to write in and tried to use more rectangles than blanks so they could clearly see where to put their work.  I also included the learning target on everything (that's a big push in our district this year).  We'll see if it helps or not.

And speaking of learning targets, I made one of these for each of my reading groups.  It's hot glued to the side of a magazine holder I use to keep all of the supplies I need for each group.  Since all of my reading instruction is in small groups, and each group may be working on a different skill, posting the learning target on the whiteboard wouldn't make sense.  So, when I pull out each group's work, I'll leave this sitting on the table and use a dry erase marker to write the learning target for that group.  I've also included a general outline that each lesson follows so that kids have a visual reminder of what we've done and what we still have to do.

And that was one busy, but fun-filled, week.  I can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to!

Have a great Monday!

Monday Made It - August 10

I'm linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for this week's Monday Made It!

It hasn't been a super productive week, made-it-wise, because last week was the first week of school.  And y'all, there is NO tired like first-week-of-school tired.  Partly because you're . . . well, tired.  And because on top of being tired you:

• feel guilty because you have fed your family pizza or fast food all week long
• have 3.978 gazillion things still to do for school
• have to get school supplies and fill out paperwork for your own personal children
• are emotionally drained.  I mean, you've been on stage nonstop for a week.
• miss last year's kids.  They already knew how to do all of the things.
• still have to plan for Back to School night.
• are too keyed up to really sleep.

Or is it just me?

Despite all of this, I do have a couple of MMI's to share!  Which is proof that miracles really do happen.

I'm a big fan of reciprocal teaching, and I made these cards, then printed them on Astrobright cardstock - I think I've talked about my slight obsession with the stuff - and laminated them.  I made a set for each of my reading groups and popped them into each group's book bins so we're ready to go!

I finished this beauty and got it listed in my TpT store!  Click here to get your copy.  Student-led conferences have totally changed my teaching world - for the better, I should add - and I worked this summer to put together all of the resources and forms I use to manage them.  I listed it now because to do student-led conferences really well, the work begins even before the school year starts (though, obviously, you can jump in at any time).  

And, for the first week of school, I'm pretty proud of my two Monday Made Its.  Be sure to visit Tara's blog and see what everyone else has been up to!

Monday Made It

I am linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It!  Thank you to Becky at Cookin' Up Success in Third Grade for posting last week - and inspiring me to, too!

I have been busy this past week getting ready for school, because a fresh crop of peaches will be in my classroom ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!  I'm so excited!!  I've been putting the finishing touches on my room and working on lesson plans and materials so that this week I can work on just "fun stuff."  I hate greatly dislike leaving things until the last minute and then scurrying around to do a rush job on stuff.

You know, we don't use the "h word."

So, humble as it is, here's my Monday Made It.

It seriously doesn't get much easier - or cheaper than - than this.  A couple of packages of glow bracelets from Dollar Tree and a few sheets of Astrobright paper and voila!  

(Astrobright paper has become one of my new favorite things.  Every time I go to Wally World I throw a pack in my buggy.  We now have a lot of Astrobright paper.  Which is a good thing.)

Not mind-blowing, but a Monday Made It that needed to be made.  Be sure to check back tomorrow for my big classroom reveal!!

Monday Made It - VIP Table

I'm linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for this week's Monday Made It!

I saw the idea for having a VIP table somewhere - if it was you, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due - and I thought it'd be the perfect shot in the arm that my behavior plan needs this time of year.  You know.  When nothing.  Is.  Working.  Anyone else?

I started the year with Class Dojo, and around Christmas time I switched back to the clip chart.  The kids needed a visual reminder of where they were, and it was just more efficient to clip someone up or down than it was to get the iPad, start the app, find the kid, award or detract points, etc.

So, if a kid gets to the top of the clip chart, he or she gets to sit at the VIP table the following day!

All I did is use some existing table space and just pretty it up.  The banner matches the banner on my window treatment.  I found the runner at Hobby Lobby, the flowers are from Dollar Tree and put into a can covered with wrapping paper, the stools are from Ikea (I added the cushioned tops), and the caddy holds lots of fun school supplies.  

In it, I have erasable colored pencils, my favorite Friction pens, mechanical pencils, little Post-Its, pencil grips, scented erasers, and page flags.

I also have my iPads over here.  Kids at the VIP table can listen to kid-friendly music on Pandora with headphones while they do independent work - as long as they can handle it, of course.

Here's one of my sweeties working hard on a test prep activity at the VIP table.

The VIP table has gotten rave reviews from the kids - they tell me that I need to start it at the beginning of the year for next year's kiddos - and they do try really hard to get to the top of the chart so they can sit there.  I've found that more than two at a time back there don't work, so if I have more than two, I just ask the others to wait a day to sit back there.  So far, it hasn't been a problem.

Easy, fun, and inexpensive.  My favorite kind of reward!!