sharing some chevron love

I like patterns - polka dot, mustache and chevron. I came across some super cute chevron freebies I'd like to pass along. Enjoy!

welcome banner

teacher notes

classroom rules 

Here are some more great ideas!

beyond the text

A group of third graders I tutor is going to be reading What Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You? I flipped through the book and think they'll enjoy it. There aren't a lot of words on the pages but I feel like we can do a lot with it. I'm thinking we'll do a writing piece afterwards where they have to tell what their defense would be if they were an animal. But then I thought about taking this a bit deeper. I went to the library and stumbled upon this great series of books, Animal Attack and Defense. I grabbed all the ones I could find! I was getting a little discouraged because I found random books on different animals but I really wanted...a series...and this is perfect! I'm adding it to my Amazon wish list for my classroom so I can buy them later :) So I think I'll give each kiddo a book and let them pick one animal to focus on. I found a cute graphic organizer on Teachers Pay Teachers they can fill out as they go, telling us about the animal's habitat, what it eats and its defense. If we have time, I may get some butcher paper and let them all share some of their findings with the others!

popsicle sticks

Popsicle sticks are awesome. They can be used for so many things! I used them last year for a sight word game called Boom! This year I found a similar version called Bump! to use for spelling the words instead of just being able to read them. The fifth graders I use the game with really like it and ask the next day if we'll be playing it :) I bought some colored sticks to use with some rereading practice. I found this great idea on Teachers Pay Teachers and instead of printing and laminating cards, I'm going to use popsicle sticks instead. There are some great ideas on Pinterest too - including this one! 

 

fabulous felt!

I needed erasers for a small group I'm working with. We had the white boards and markers...but not the erasers. Last year I gave each kiddo a sock. They put it on their hand and bam, instant eraser! But I wanted to try something different. I wasn't sure these fifth graders would find it as cute as my first graders did. So I thought about felt. Not only was it easy to cut it apart, I made a set of twelve erasers for less than fifty cents! I bought two pieces of felt and measured six squares on each. Cut them out and there you go! 

   

what's your number?

Yesterday we dismissed early for...snow! Students were calling parents to let them know but some didn't know their phone number. I'm constantly thinking about my future classroom and this is something I want to not be an issue. I'm thinking I'll have a ring of emergency cards hanging by my phone. Last year, we had an emergency packet by the door with each student's info but I want this to be so simple that someone walking into my room would know what to do (this actually happened to me last year. I left for a training and while I was gone, school dismissed early!). Maybe something like this. The second part of this process is making sure to keep the information up-to-date. So maybe I'll send home a form right after Christmas break just to make sure phone numbers haven't changed... 

 

the beat

I've been racking my brain about ways to help my kiddos build fluency. And the other day I had an "ah ha" moment! For fifth graders, they should be reading around 120 words a minute. I thought if they could hear how fast they should be reading, it might help them increase fluency. And it's not just about reading fast. I think there's a balance between speed and comprehension - I don't want them to lose their understanding of the passage while striving to read x number of words. But I found a free app called Tempo Lite. I set it for 120 and my kiddos were able to hear what that would sound like. It's a different approach to fluency but I plan on maybe playing it while we're reading aloud so they can practice keeping pace.

the amazingness of post its!

I've always liked post-its. They're just so handy and they come in all kinds of colors. But once I found out you can print on them, I knew I had to try! You can click on this link to grab the free template. Just be sure to print out a copy first for you to put your post-its on so you can then run them back through the printer. It's a little time consuming but wow, super cool! The picture I took is for three different groups I work with. Each group is a different color and I've found a list of websites they can go to on the computer. This way, I can hand them a post-it (I'm going to laminate them on sentence strips first), they can choose a computer and decide which website they want to use. I only have three websites listed so they don't feel overwhelmed but have made two different sets for each group so I can give them a different card later on.