Five for Fraturday... and Free Writing Folder Labels!

It's been awhile since I joined the Five for Friday Linky Party. I'm happy to be linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching and so many other talented teacher authors.

It's been a busy summer and a very busy week now that it's time to begin getting ready for the school year. Here are some highlights.

I made a feeble attempt this week to join the latest teacher-author craze: video tutorials. I was making my writing folders for this year. I've been creating four-pocket folders for my writing workshop for several years and they really work well, so I thought I could share how I make them.

After multiple attempts to film myself using one hand to do a job that requires two hands, I gave up in disgust. I either need to hire a videographer or stick to using photographs.  

So here are a few photographs to show how to create the folders. I bought a class set of folders with prongs and a class set without prongs.  Putting them together provides students with four pockets that keep their resources, ideas, and writing pieces organized. 

1. Open the prongs on the first folder.

2. Turn the second folder (without prongs)
inside out. The ones I bought were already
hole-punched. If yours aren't, use a three-
hole punch to prepare the folder. Make sure
you punch your holes on the outer edge
of the folder (not on the fold) to avoid step 5.

  

3. Place the inside-out folder on the prongs
of the first folder.

4. Close the prongs.

5. If your holes were on the fold side of the
folder, you will need to secure the inner
folder using tape. Use a box cutter to
make sure the tape does not interfere
with the pocket.

6. Label folders as desired for student use. 

I'm pleased to offer you a free set of my writing folder labels. Please download them by clicking the link. You can print them on Avery labels #5163 or #8253. 

I made my annual visit to the Lakeshore Learning Store. 

I might have gone a little overboard. 

#buyallthethings

Enough said.

My district has officially adopted the Fry Words for word study progression. Once I got the news, I quickly got to work on creating activities for my second graders to practice their word wall words. 

Here's my latest product. It's available in my store.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Word-Searches-Word-Finds-for-Second-Graders-2730305

Public Domain-US

This is how I felt on Wednesday when I found out that, due to zoning issues, the mobile classroom I will be moving into this year will not arrive until October. I'll be setting up in my old classroom for now, but will have to move once it arrives. 

I have no words. 

Sigh.

I've decided to live in the moment and I'm eagerly preparing my current classroom for my new group of friends.  Here's a record of my progress over the last two days. I'll post some photos of the finished product once I'm ready for Open House next week.

It's coming along.

That's it for this week. I hope everyone's school year is off to a great start.

Until next time,

Where Did The Summer Go?

I can't help but think that summer went by incredibly fast as I sit here on my couch contemplating the very long list of things I wanted to accomplish (very few of which are checked off). So in the spirit of one last whine before I put on my positive pants and head back for another great school year, here is my ode to summer.

There.

Now that I've got that off my chest, I'll get busy creating my writing folders and setting up my teacher binder. 

If you enjoyed my poem and would like a copy of it, click here.

Wishing everyone a wonderful school year!

Five Things I Learned That Make Me a Better Teacher...Thanks, Mom.

I've been away from blogging for awhile, but I had a very good reason. My mom passed away at the end of May. She was my best friend, my rock, the confidante I turned to whenever I needed to talk. I miss her every moment of every day.

Since this is my first blog post since her passing, it feels appropriate to dedicate it to her. I hope you'll also see how much I learned from her and how I feel it helps me in my teaching career.

A sense of fun and adventure

My mom had a wonderful sense of humor and knew how to make ordinary activities fun. We had family game nights with Scrabble, Boggle, Yahtzee, or card games. We would play with troll dolls and mom would make them "talk" with funny voices. 

She even made riding in the car fun. We would drive around town and she would exclaim, "Oh, no. We're lost!" We'd have conversations about where we might be, where we would end up, and how we would ever find our way home. We'd see a little park and pull over to play. We'd look for street signs that might be familiar. We'd try to figure out what direction we were going and which way we needed to go next. "Turn right!" we'd say and my mom would turn right. My brother, sister, and I never knew for sure whether we were really lost or not, but we grew to love the anxious excitement of trying to find our way. Unknown adventures awaited those who were lost. 

Teaching and learning are a little bit like that. You step away from the familiar, explore and discover different paths to knowledge, and find excitement in discovery. Teachers are guides along these unknown paths, but sometimes we're learning our way along with our students. Sometimes we need to let our students tell us where to go and then follow their lead. Unknown adventures await those who are excited about learning.

In my classroom, I try to make learning fun. I read aloud using lots of expression and character voices. (My mom used to do that, too.) I find or create math games to teach concepts and fluency. I get kids up and moving several times during the day. (Go Noodle is the best!) When kids are having fun, they don't even realize they are learning!

The importance of kindness

Mom was endlessly kind. She'd smile and strike up conversations with strangers in the grocery store. She loved animals and I don't ever remember a time when we did not have a stray dog (and occasionally, a cat) that we had adopted. We never had much, but that didn't stop her from offering what she could to others. Whether it was offering a place to stay, a meal to eat, or a dollar for gas, she never hesitated to give help when needed. She encouraged me to work toward my goals. She empathized when someone was sick or going through a hard time. She lived her life by the golden rule. Through her example, I've tried to do the same.

Because of my mom, I know the value of showing kindness. I've also discovered that, in the classroom, it needs to be modeled by word and action. It needs to be explicitly taught. In my classroom, I teach kindness every day. From the first week of school when we create our class promise to our 100 Acts of Kindness challenge to the last day of school when we have a kindness celebration, I teach students that kindness matters. 

The gift of patience

Patience is a virtue. It's an axiom that I learned at my mother's knee. Whenever we were waiting in line, she would remind me to be patient. She didn't show anger at having to wait. We'd complain about waiting in line at Disney World or at the Dade County Youth Fair. She would remind us that the reward at the end would be worth the wait. She was a single mom with three energetic children. I'm sure we taxed her patience often, but that rarely showed. She knew how to deliver "the look" and we would get a talking to if we needed it. When she did lose it, you knew you had messed up!

Patience is a necessity in a primary classroom. Students constantly find new ways to try to push my buttons. It can be difficult to maintain calm. For me, this has been challenging at times. I often try to channel my mom's patience on the worst days. She was in my mind as I was writing my poem, Hold On To Your Patience. 

The value of hard work

My mom was a single mother with three kids. Child support checks rarely arrived on time and sometimes didn't arrive at all. Mom never finished high school, but she always worked hard to provide for her family. She was a waitress for most of my childhood. We moved often and paying the bills was tough. Some years, she worked three jobs to try and make ends meet. My mom followed my grandfather's belief that you didn't take government handouts, so we never had the extra help of food stamps or welfare no matter how desperate things got.  My mom just worked. And things eventually got better. My siblings and I got jobs as soon as we were old enough. Later, my mom got into training and restaurant management. Her example throughout my childhood taught me the value of working hard for what you want.

Mom with my niece just before leaving for work in 1987

My mom was a model for growth-mindset long before it was an educational catchphrase. 
I carry that belief with me today. I work many hours to prepare lessons and meet the expectations of my job. I pursue professional development opportunities in a quest to improve my craft. I try to be open to new ideas and to try a variety of approaches in order to help my students. I never stop learning.

In my classroom today, I try to instill that work ethic in my students. Learning anything new is never easy. We have to work hard and do our best. If we mess up, we learn from our mistakes and get back to work. We improve and learn through effort. 

An attitude of optimism

Mom was an expert at looking on the bright side. No matter how dark things got, she would find the silver lining in the clouds. She knew (and because of her, we did, too) that things could and would always get better. Bad times were temporary. Good times were just ahead.

Sometimes, it's hard to be a teacher. It's hard to go in day after day and battle the same battles. Kids curse us, they throw things, their parents bad-mouth us, administrators want us to prove we are doing a good job. Some days you just want to say, "Enough!"

I love teaching, but I have my bad days. Sometimes, I wonder why I do what I do. Because I have my mom's optimism, I always come back to the belief that today will be a better day, that today is the day I will make that breakthrough, and that I am making a difference. I'm able to take the long view. One bad day does not equal a bad career choice. With an optimistic attitude, I am able to stay focused on the reason I do this job: for the kids. 

Our matriarch with family on her last birthday in September

In a way, Mom began preparing me to be a teacher when I was very young. She would have been a great teacher herself. She taught me so many values that make me a good person and a better teacher. I wish she were still with me. 

I guess, in a way, she is. And always will be. 

Until next time,

Math Tip Monday: End of Year Wrap Up

Due to a death in the family, I won't be posting this week.

Check out the great tips from my fellow bloggers and please feel free to link up your blog post with your end of the year math ideas.

An InLinkz Link-up

Five for Friday - On Saturday, of Course!

May is officially kicking my butt!  With three four-day weeks left, the end is in sight, though.  I can do this! There are so many things going on, I don't have enough time to blog about them. Thank goodness Doodle Bugs Teaching hosts Five for Friday. Otherwise, I'd never be able to make time for blogging at all!

Here are my five random things from the last week (or so).

Our ABC Countdown is sometimes a joy and sometimes a "what was I thinking?!" Ice Cream Day was a mixture of both. The kids had a ball mixing and shaking their ice cream bags. I had the brilliant idea of using containers instead of bags so their ice cream would be ready to eat once it was mixed. This worked well until two of the students gripped the containers so hard that either the lid popped off or the container cracked. Once the ice cream mixture leaks into the ice and salt, there's nothing to do but start over. Sigh. The experiment itself was only partly successful as some students' ice cream never actually solidified. However, a good time was had by all and most agreed it tasted good anyway. We also had a great discussion trying to figure out what went wrong. A little science, anyone?

The fantastic Mrs. Parker, our Teacher Assistant and resident Science Guru helped us out!

The wonderful Mrs. Carter, a former TA at our school, also gave us a hand.

Shake, shake, shake!

I love it when I see evidence of kindness and caring in our classroom community! Over the last few weeks, we've been writing compliments to random classmates and posting them on their cabinet doors. One of my students did not receive a written compliment this week to put on her cubby. The student who pulled her name forgot to write it and then was absent the next day. When Chloe saw that she didn't have one, she took it upon herself to fix it.  When I read this, I felt warm and fuzzy all over. 

I posted this on Instagram earlier this week while I was working on the flyer. Isn't Scrappin' Doodles' clip art adorable? I'm so excited about our Second Grade Book exchange. I did this over the last two years, but this year four of my colleagues are taking part and it's turning into a big event. We're asking students to bring in gently used books that they no longer want. We'll collect the books over the course of a week. The day before the exchange, we'll count the number received and divide by the number of students to determine how many books each child is able to select. Last year, each of my students was able to choose four books! Since many of my students have no books at home, this is a great way to help them keep reading over the summer.

This year, another colleague, the amazing Maria, convinced me to reach out to the community, as well. My students decorated boxes and I made up a community flyer. I've been going around asking businesses to collect books for us. Our incoming PTA president is going to reach out to our church partners for me, too. I can't wait to see how many donations we get!  I'll blog about the event afterwards and let you know how it turns out.

We played Pinching Paper Clips to review subtraction from 100. Isn't it wonderful when you see them working together and talking about math?  Don't you wish it would last longer than ten minutes before you had to resolve an argument? Or is that just in my classroom? Sigh.

I got in some great relax time last weekend. It was a beautiful day for kayaking with friends on the Catawba River.

I wish I could do this every weekend!

I'm really bad at taking selfies. Can you tell?

Today, I'm relaxing by staying in my PJs 'til 3 in the afternoon (don't judge me), reading, and writing this blog post. But now, I really need to get busy. 

Until next time,

Math Tip Monday: Teaching Time in First and Second Grade

Welcome to the May edition of Math Tip Monday!  K's Classroom Kreations and I have enjoyed bringing you some great tips this year. I hope you've found some excellent ideas and resources to use in your classroom.

This month, we are focusing on tips for teaching time and money. I'd like to share some of the strategies that I've found effective when teaching first and second graders to tell time.

First, I'm going to recommend that you run, not walk, to find the nearest copy of Teaching Student-Centered Mathematics by Van de Walle, et al. and read the unit on teaching measurement. Trust me. This book is going to transform your teaching of mathematics, especially telling time. You will never again teach students to tell time by saying, "The little hand is on the one and the big hand is on the six."

Van de Walle opened my eyes to the fact that the reason so many kids had difficulty learning to tell time on the analog clock was that the two hands measured two completely different things. By simply telling kids to look at which numbers the different hands were pointing to, we neglected to teach them the function of those hands. The hour hand's function is to tell us which hour of the day we are currently in.  The minute hand measures how many minutes have gone by within that hour or how many minutes that are left before the next hour begins. 

To clear up that confusion, I teach students that each clock has two different number lines. Here's a poem that I wrote to teach students the difference between the two number lines and the job of each of the hands on the analog clock. It's included in my Math Poems for Fun and Understanding K-2.

With first graders (and as a review with second grade), we focus on the hour hand first. First, I remind students that we have been working with number lines in a lot of ways this year. Now, we will work with a number line that is shaped like a circle. With first graders, I use a ribbon or string that is numbered from 1 to 12. We begin with the number line arranged in a line as we count from 1 to 12. Then, I rearrange the ribbon into a circle with the number 12 at the top. I ask students to tell me if they've seen a number line like this before. Usually, at least a few of them connect it to a clock. After affirming their connection, I have them count from 1 to 12 again and tell them that when we read a clock, we are counting the hours in the day. Each day, the hour hand goes around the clock two times. There are 24 hours in one day.

As Van de Walle recommends, I try to start teaching students to tell time with a one-handed clock. You can easily make one using a paper plate. In the clocks below, I used Ashley Hughes' Build-a-Clock Clipart. I also use a hula hoop or a sorting circle with number cards 1 - 12 spaced around the circle.

We use only the hour hand at this point. We talk about how many numbers are on the number line. As I move the hour hand around the clock, we use a lot of language of approximation. It's "about 1:00" or it's "a little after 1:00" or it's "almost 2:00". One thing I want to make sure my students realize is that the hour hand is always moving and that it won't always point directly at a number. This understanding will help them later on when it's time to read 11:45 or 1:55.

After I'm sure that my students have a thorough understanding of the hour hand and it's function, it's time to introduce the second number line on an analog clock. First, I want students to understand that there are sixty minutes in an hour. We start again with a straight number line, counting from 1 to 60. Then, I introduce the 60 minutes that go around an analog clock. We count each minute individually at first. After that, we count how many minutes are counted by each darker line. We label the clock with index cards to show that you can figure out the minutes by counting by fives. I remind students that there are sixty minutes in each hour and the minute hand keeps track of how many minutes have gone by. We spend several days practicing with only the minute hand. I ask, "How many minutes have gone by?" "How many minutes until the next hour?"

Finally, we are ready to put the two number lines together and use what we've learned to read an analog clock. Whenever we practice, I always begin by reminding students of the two different jobs of the hour hand and the minute hand. We review the two number lines found on the clock. Most importantly, whenever a student identifies a time (whether correctly or not) I ask, "How do you know?" or "Why do you think that's the time?"

Once my students understand the different functions of the hour hand and the minute hand, they are easily able to read an analog clock. Many of my students in the second part of the year do not even need to use the resource on my classroom wall.

Needless to say, this is not taught in just a one or two-week unit. Teaching time this way requires an investment of... well, time. After introducing each clock, I usually work this into our warm-up time at least two to three times weekly. Students are also given opportunities to practice at math workstations throughout the year.

I hope you find this helpful. Make sure you check out all the other great tips from bloggers participating in our linky.

An InLinkz Link-up