Getting Your Books In Order And Keeping Them That Way!
Help your students easily sort books and get them back into their appropriate tubs by putting an easy-to-understand label on them.
Decide how you want to divide your books up, get tubs that are all the same size so that the shelves look neat and organized, make sure they are large enough to hold the various sizes of books, and deep enough to grow with you as your collections expand.
Pick categories that make sense and are easy for your students to understand. Assign a color to them. Buy color sticker dots at an office supply store and you're in business to get organized.
Print off a set of my labels and color the balloon to match your color-coding system. i.e. All math books have a yellow dot sticker on them. The Math tub has a yellow dot sticker and a yellow balloon.
There are a variety of tub labels to choose from, including a blank set to program with your own categories.
I’ve made labels for all of the months too, incase you keep those in tubs.
Because I have such a huge collection of books, I keep those at home in boxes that are the same size that I buy and label with the month.
I put the seasonal books that I read to my students next to my rocking chair on a wooden display rack. These are rather expensive and include pop-up books, so I don’t let my students read these.
They have a large plastic tub at the head of the classroom that I dump anywhere from 20-50 seasonal books for the month in, for DARE time, as well as an option for Tummy Tubby Time, where they can use a beanbag.
Scholastic points, and going to a zillion garage sales and picking up books for dimes and quarters has helped me to grow quite a huge collection.
I just found this “personal reading space” idea on Pinterest from Mrs. Goerend's 5th grade class, and thought it was an awesome idea! How easy to tip a chair over, plop a pillow down and read in comfort! "Way cool!"
Click on the link to view/download the Book Tub Tags
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"Do what you love!" -Henry David Thoreau
30 Days Hath September...
Summer is a great time to start collecting new things to spruce up your room, tweaking things like your calendar board and adding a few new items to make it fresh, and designing some games.
All that can get a bit expensive, so it’s nice when you can get freebies on the Internet.
I’ve been busy all week designing lots of anchor charts, posters and calendar items.
You only have so much room for huge posters, so I think mini-anchor charts the size of a sheet of copy paper are wonderfully effective in reminding students of a variety of things.
Smaller versions can be made into a booklet for them as well or used as flashcards or made into games.
I’ve done just that with Phillip Martin’s calendar clip art.
Print off a set to freshen up your calendar, laminate a set and put on a split ring to use as flashcards, put a mini set up as a “What’s Missing?” activity.
Each day remove a month and have students guess which month was “stolen”.
Laminate extra sets and make Memory Match Concentration games. Be sure and put the matching pair on a buff or off white shade so that matching is a bit easier.
Play “I Have; Who Has?” after 12 students choose a card, to help learn the order of the months, and then repeat the game so that everyone gets a turn.
Run off enough copies to make a “Speed” card game. Students choose a partner. They each mix up their deck of cards. Partners say in unison, “Ready-Set-Go!” and then proceed to put the months in order.
The 1st one done is the winner. You could also have students alphabetize their cards before they put them in sequential order to make their Itty Bitty booklet to take home and share with their families.
Click on the link to view/download Months of the year cards.
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“Successful people are not gifted; they just work hard and then succeed on purpose” –G.K. Nielson
An Adventure With Numbers
In my teaching experience, I found that it was a bit more difficult to get the boys excited about doing some of the daily activities I had planned.
I also learned quickly, that if I incorporated something as simple as clip art into the lesson, that this would peak their interest, and I’d have a real motivational tool to helping them get down to business.
Even though God’s given me the wonderful gift to be able to draw a lot of my own creations for this website, it’s always nice to integrate clips from a male perspective.
When you tell a little boy that you’re going to count today, you’ll likely see eyes roll in a bored fashion, followed by audible groans.
Instead, whisper that they’re going on an adventure, to see how many snails, snakes, frogs and dragons they can find and count; and you’ll not only have their attention, but they’ll probably WANT to get going right away!
I designed Counting Creatures with this in mind, and was delighted to have Phillip Martin’s permission to use his wonderful clip art for my TeachWithMe projects.
Click on the link to check out his awesome site.
I think the girls will have fun too. I used to say my daughter was a princess with hiking boots.
This packet includes the following:
1. An easy reader booklet where students read the sentence, trace and write the number and number word, make that many tally marks, circle the number in the sequence, and then glue the number creature to the matching box in their booklet.
2. Number cards + a cover so that students can make an Itty Bitty booklet.
You can also use these for flashcards, or a variety of games. I’ve included a tip sheet of what else you can do with them.
3. A graphing extension
4. An anchor chart number poster +
5. A certificate of praise.
Click on the link to view/download Counting Creatures packet
I hope these cute creatures get your creative kids counting!
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“What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.” –Joseph Addison
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Who? What Do They Look Like? DESCRIPTION please!
One thing students seem to need to do more of, in their writing, is expand it, and include more description.
Even at the college level, I’m constantly telling my students to add more interest by including adjectives.
Involve your reader’s senses and your writing will come alive!
I’ve designed a Sensory Word Anchor chart poster for each month, to help students practice that skill.
For some of their senses they’ll have to think outside the box and use their imaginations. This can be a lot of fun, and their answers quite interesting!
Click on the link to view/download My Sensory Words Anchor Chart Monthly Posters.
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"The heart is happiest when it beats for others!" -Unknown
The Buck Stops Here!
You asked for it, you got it!
I’ve had several requests to make an easy reader about the dollar, as a way of reviewing the various coins that make up a dollar. I had time this week to check that off the “honey-do” list.
I did a little research on the “silver dollar”. The US mint continues to keep coin collectors happy by minting different designs of that coin.
You may want to go to the bank and see if you can get a few examples to show your students.
In this booklet, students trace and write, as well as cut and glue. Encourage students to count all of the coins on the page that now make up the dollar, after they have glued that final coin to complete the dollar.
When everyone has finished their booklet, read it together to review concepts of print.
Click on the link to view/download My Buck Book.
There’s an interesting and informative 5-minute YouTube video of How you make coins, that’s well done, that would be a nice culmination to this activity. Click on the link to have a look.
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I hope you can pop in tomorrow for another fun teaching tip!
"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not come. We have only today. Let us begin!" -Mother Teresa
