Recess Ideas: Fun and Academic - Tuesday Teacher Idea


Sometimes it seems like inside recess are two of the most dreaded words a teacher can hear.  It seems inside recess days occur on the days when your students need to go outside and expend some energy the most.

Just like you make emergency sub plans, I highly recommend you make a menu of options for inside recess now so when it happens it won't be as stressful. Don't forget to put a copy of it with your emergency sub plans.


My students always enjoy having flashcard races when it is inside recess.  You can organize this different ways. 

Around the World:
The object of around the world, is for one student to compete one-on-one with classmates answering questions on flashcards.  The student is trying to answer the question before his/her classmates and go completely through all the classmates or around the world without stopping.  

One student stands next to another student's desk.  I hold up a flashcard.  Only the person standing and the person who sitting at the desk can answer.  The first person wins.  If the person sitting at the desk answers correctly first, that person stands next to the desk after his/hers and the person who didn't answer correctly sits in the winner's desk.

This is a good game for inside recess when your class is having a calm day.


When my students are needing to wiggle more, I divide my class into two groups.  If they are really active I divide them into three groups.  I have them stand in teams like a relay race.  The people at the front of the line are the ones who can answer the question on the flashcard.  One of my students is a scorekeeper for this game.

These flashcard games are a great way to work on fluency skills.  Your students will strengthen their automaticity of letter identification, letter sounds, sight words, or math facts.  


When I was a little girl, I spent almost every Friday night at my grandparents' house.  My Grandma loved to sew.  In fact, she made most of my clothes until I went to junior high.  I spent many hours looking at tins of buttons, spools of thread, and patterns.  One of the games that I played with Grandma while she sewed was "hide the thimble".  Have you heard of that game?  It may have been a game that Grandma invented to entertain me.  It is also one that you can use for inside recess.  It has an added bonus of teaching your students prepositions.  

I would recommend playing this whole group the first time.  After your students learn how to do it, you can divide your class into small groups.  You will need as many thimbles as the number of groups.  

Before playing this, you will want to introduce prepositions to your class.  I have a free packet that has a word bank that would be helpful to use as a reference for this.



Click HERE to download this for free.

Have your students put their heads down and close their eyes.  While they are doing this, you will hide the thimble somewhere in the classroom.  After you finish hiding the thimble, let your students put their heads up and open their eyes.  Now choose one row or one team at a time to get up and walk around the room to look for the thimble.  Set a timer or watch the clock.  Give them a short amount of time.  At the end of the time, tell the row or team that they may (as a team) ask you 3 things about where the thimble is hidden.  Their questions should include a preposition.  Example:
  1. Is the thimble near the sink?  
  2. Is the thimble beside a shelf?
  3. Is the thimble under a book?
You can answer with yes or no.  Or if you think your students need help, you can give clues like, no but you are getting warmer, you are cold or your are in the hot zone. That's when they get really excited!

The team that figures out where the thimble is hidden gets to hide it the next time.  They love to be in charge and answer the questions.

This is a fun game that gets your students up and moving.  They are working together and strategizing.  You'll be amazed to see that when one group doesn't get it and the next group doesn't get it, the first group is already planning what their next questions for you are going to be.

Your next preposition lesson will be a snap because your students will remember the hide the thimble game!


Looking for more tips?  Check out my Morning Messages Pinterest board.  Click on the picture below.



Fern has a few tips to share with you, too.  Be sure to hop over to her blog!




Each week, Fern and I will share a teacher tip. We love to read teacher blogs and the latest teacher idea books and hope you do, too!  Stop by Fern's blog and my blog each week for our latest tips.  We hope you will share your ideas, too.  

Each week we will choose one person who shared a tip on our blog who will get a $10 shopping trip.  We will announce the winner on the following Tuesday's post.  

Do you have a tip to share?  Be sure to include your email so I can contact you if you're the winner of the $10 shopping trip. You must leave your email address in order to win.

Looking for more ideas?  Click on the pictures below.








Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.
0

Fire Prevention Week: Fire Safety Lesson - fluency, mini book, and interactive journal printables


It is a new season, so you know what that means, right?  Time to change the batteries in your smoke alarm.  It will soon be Fire Prevention Week.  This week is a great time to review rules that help save many lives every year.  Even if you think your students have already heard this before, it is always good to have a refresher.

For those of you who don't have a lot of class time to devote to fire safety lesson, you may want to check out my new fire safety packet.  It is something that can be set up in centers and your students can do independently.  


With the fluency center, students shuffle the cards and sort them into piles.  They will sort by color in the colored version of the game and sort by pattern of the frame around the phrases in the black and white version.  If you want to make this center colorful but don't want to spend extra money on ink, copy it on colored paper or card stock.  Students will put the cards on the sorting sheet.  There is a colorful sorting sheet and black & white sorting sheet.  



Students will practice making sentence that are real and nonsense.  This is also a great center to reinforce sentence formation because students quickly figure out that the card with the capital letter is always first and the card that ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation mark is the last card.  Not only are they strengthening their fluency skills, but they working on writing skills, too.  Add a few tools like the ones in the picture to make it fun.  I found the finger lights at Michaels.  Students put a green puff ball next to the letter at the beginning of the sentence after checking to make sure it begins with a capital letter.  Then they put a red puff ball on the punctuation mark at the end of the sentence.  



There is a black and white version of the word cards that are used to make sentences.  You can print a set of these for your students.  Let them use a BINGO dauber to stamp the beginning letter with green and the ending punctuation mark with red.  Students can put the cards into 3 piles and then make sentences.  I like to use these type of envelopes for homework like the ones in the picture above. They fit easily into pocket folders and binders.  I don't laminate them.  I'm not sure if it is the bright colors, the different style of envelope, or what it is about this type of envelope, but when I send homework in these I have a higher percentage of my students do it and return it.  They are a little pricey but I am able to use the same envelopes year after to year.



After students finish making and reading sentences at the Sentence Shuffle Center, they will complete a writing extension.  There are 3 assignments to choose from so you can differentiate the center.


There is also an fire safety facts mini-book included.  To save time, let your students make the mini-book during center time.  It is an easy center to set up.  All you need are book printables, crayons, scissors, pencil, and stapler.  






There are also 3 printables that you can use with your interactive journal notebooks.  The beginning, middle, end can be used with any book about fire.  You can also set this up as a book center.  Your students will love drawing the body shape to look like a fire fighter.  Afterwards, they will lift the body and list 3 facts about a fire fire fighter.  There is an fire safety at home printable.  Great way to wrap up your fire safety unit.  Hopefully, after studying fire safety your students will go home and discuss what they learned with their family.



Click HERE if you'd like to read more about this.





Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.
0

Mammals: Bats, Bats, and more Bats


Do you teach at a school that doesn't allow you to celebrate or do Halloween activities?  I taught at one of those schools.  It was so hard to skip the Halloween lessons when my students were so excited about the holiday.

I did find a way to follow the no-Halloween rule, yet still have some seasonal fun.  My answer was to study mammals and arachnids in October.  The mammal that I focused on was bats.  And you guessed it!  Spiders was the second focus for this month. My Bats, Bats, and more Bats packet and Spiders, Spiders, and more Spiders packet are a great way to enrich your language arts lessons if you are looking for some bats and spider lessons that are not Halloween themed. The bonus with these packets is these lessons can be taught at ANY TIME of the year but also can add some fun to your October lessons.


Through the years, I have been surprised when I received my standardized test results.  There were always one or two students that scored lower than expected.  I’ve also had surprises when grading work throughout the year.  Students who seemed very capable when discussing stories orally, were not showing the same potential on paper.  Rushing through their work and not paying attention to details seemed to be the cause of most of these surprises. Small words like “not” are important when answering questions.  I’ve tried a variety of things to slow these students down.  We circled important words of the sentence, rephrased question in the answer,  highlighted details, and a variety of other techniques with modest success.  One of the teams I was on used a phrase called “steal and slide”.  This catchy phrase seemed to work the best for my students. Probably because it is a sporty-themed phrase, boys and girls liked it and used it. 
Students are told they need to steal some of the words in the question to slide in the answer.  I used this technique with students as young as first grade.  With young students, we completed the questions together. I taped the question on chart tablet paper. Then I wrote the answers on chart tablet paper and then had volunteers circle the words that were stolen.  By the end of the year, my higher ability students were able to answer questions on paper using this method. This method makes students slow down and pay attention to every word in the question because they may want to steal that word for their answer. 

I realize this method is not unique.  Teachers have been telling their students to answer questions using words from the questions for a long time.  My teachers told me to do that when I was a student because I was one of those who saw school work as a race.  Your district may have you do the same type of activity but call it something else.  You should still be able to use the activities in this packet using whatever phrase your district uses.

Test prep lessons should be taught throughout the year. This helps with anxiety and ensures that these strategies have become a habit.  Both packets include test prep lessons for the following stories:
  • Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
  • Bats by Gail Gibbons
  • Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin
  • Spinning Spiders by Melvin Berger

Once your students understand the test prep strategies, you can set it up as a center.


Whether you have your students complete the reading comprehension assignments as a seat work assignment or as a center, it is important to go over the answers together.  This will enforce the strategies.



Bat-themed task cards are included.  The task cards are differentiated.  There are two sets of Batty about Contractions task cards.  Both sets include the same bat facts.  Students will add a contraction to complete the sentence, which is a bat fact. Set #1 includes two words that the student makes into a contraction.  Set #2 does not include the words.  Students will complete the sentence with a contraction.  Answers will vary with this set.  There are also different recording sheets.



Batty about Suffixes task cards includes two sets that are differentiated.  Both sets include the same bat facts. Set #1 -  students will add a suffix to the word to complete the sentence which is a bat fact. Set #2 does not include the words.  Students will complete the sentence with a word that includes a suffix.  Answers will vary with this set.  There are also different recording sheets.



This also includes the following interactive journal printables:
  • Stellaluna by Janell Cannon:  2 vocabulary assignments 
  • Stellaluna:  1 Venn diagram
  • Stellaluna:  3 pages dictionary skills 
  • Bats by Gail Gibbons: Super Sentences
  • Bats by Gail Gibbons: Bat Facts



    Click HERE to read more about this.





    Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.
    0

    Classroom Pull-outs: Tips and a FREEBIE - Tuesday Teacher Tip


    It is hard enough to keep up with all the things in a busy teacher's life, and when you add all of the extra pull-outs to a teacher's schedule, it is very easy to feel overwhelmed.  Of course, you want your students to receive all of the extra support that they can get, but it is also very easy to forget to send your students to the correct place at the correct time.  What is a busy teacher who is well-intentioned to do?


    How do you keep up when you are juggling so many different schedules?    Are you familiar with the expression many hands make light work?  This is the perfect time to apply that philosophy.  Make a reminder note for each of your student that receive support through a pull-out program.  Click HERE to download a free reminder.

    `


    You can color code this reminders.  Color code them by the day, if it is a one day per week pull-out.  Example:  Students that go to the counselor once a week could have a blue reminder. Or you can color code them by the type of pull-out.  Example:  all of the students that go to speech could have a green reminder.  All of the students that go to the reading specialist could have a yellow reminder.  


    There are also reminders for students who receive more than one support service.


    Are you a techie!  Click on the links below to use technology reminders.



    Looking for more tips?  Check out my Morning Messages Pinterest board.  Click on the picture below.



    Fern has a few tips to share with you, too.  Be sure to hop over to her blog!




    Each week, Fern and I will share a teacher tip. We love to read teacher blogs and the latest teacher idea books and hope you do, too!  Stop by Fern's blog and my blog each week for our latest tips.  We hope you will share your ideas, too.  

    Each week we will choose one person who shared a tip on our blog who will get a $10 shopping trip.  We will announce the winner on the following Tuesday's post.  

    Do you have a tip to share?  Be sure to include your email so I can contact you if you're the winner of the $10 shopping trip. You must leave your email address in order to win.

    Looking for more ideas?  Click on the pictures below.







    Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.
    0

    Apples - non-fiction, fluency, writing, interactive journal printables


    When you think of fall, what comes to your mind?  Apples is a symbol of fall to me. Have you ever been to an apple orchard?  It is a great field trip to take if there is one near your school.

    John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, was born on September 26th.  Many teachers like to plan apple themed lessons around his birthday.  The nice thing about apples is almost all of your students have eaten an apple so your students have prior experience.  You can easily incorporate apple eating experiences into your lessons because apple allergies are rare and apples are healthy so parents won't be upset.


    I just revised my Apple Facts Sentence Shuffle Center.  If you previously purchased this, you may go to "my purchases" to download the revised version for free.

    You can see the new version in the picture above.  

    Students shuffle the cards and sort them into piles.  They will sort by color in the colored version of the game and sort by pattern of the frame around the phrases in the black and white version.  If you want to make this center colorful but don't want to spend extra money on ink, copy it on colored paper or card stock.  Students will put the cards on the sorting sheet.  There is a colorful sorting sheet and black & white sorting sheet.  


    Students will practice making sentence that are real and nonsense.  This is also a great center to reinforce sentence formation because students quickly figure out that the card with the capital letter is always first and the card that ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation mark is the last card.  Not only are they strengthening their fluency skills, but they working on writing skills, too.  Add a few tools like the ones in the picture to make it fun.  I found the finger lights at Michaels.  Students put a green puff ball next to the letter at the beginning of the sentence after checking to make sure it begins with a capital letter.  Then they put a red puff ball on the punctuation mark at the end of the sentence.  



    There is a black and white version of the word cards that are used to make sentences.  You can print a set of these for your students.  Let them use a BINGO dauber to stamp the beginning letter with green and the ending punctuation mark with red.  Students can put the cards into 3 piles and then make sentences.  


    I like to use these type of envelopes for homework like this.  They fit easily into pocket folders and binders.  I don't laminate them.  I'm not sure if it is the bright colors, the different style of envelope, or what it is about this type of envelope, but when I send homework in these I have a higher percentage of my students do it and return it.  They are a little pricey but I am able to use the same envelopes year after to year.


    After students finish making and reading sentences at the Sentence Shuffle Center, they will complete a writing extension.  There are 3 assignments to choose from so you can differentiate the center.


    There is also an apple facts mini-book included.  To save time, let your students make the mini-book during center time.  It is an easy center to set up.  All you need are book printables, crayons, scissors, pencil, and stapler.  I like to use the small stapler like the one in the picture because it is easier for students to use.  Sometimes you can get these for a dollar at the Back to School sales.


    There are also 3 printables that you can use with your interactive journal notebooks.  The beginning, middle, end can be used with any book about apples.  You can also set this up as a book center.  There is an apple fact printable.  Perfect extension after you do a fact vs. opinion mini-lesson.  Apples are useful is a great way to wrap up your apple unit.  Hopefully, after studying apples, your students will have a variety of uses to include.


    Click HERE if you'd like to read more about this.


    Looking for some new apples books?  Click on the books below for more information.























































    Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.
    1