Animal Tech Show!

 My students have been working so hard the last couple weeks on their animal reports! Since the beginning of the school year we have been writing explanatory paragraphs and essays. As our culminating project before moving on (for now) to opinion writing, we wrote animal reports!

The writing process was fairly lengthy, and this was our first essay that we typed. I wanted something to reward the students with and a way they could have fun with this project so I had them make slide shows!

All the students have a school gmail account. They used their gmail accounts to type their essay on google docs and made their slide shows on google slides. It worked wonderfully! They loved being able to pick out the most interesting parts of their essays and put those facts on slides complete with interesting pictures! It was fun for my more advanced students to figure out how to use the transitions, themes, and other attributes you can find on google slides. My only requirement was 10 slides!

To present our projects we put on a Class Animal Show! Other classes from the school, parents, and administration signed up for a time to come check out our show.  We put all of our desks around the outside of the room. On their desk I had them put their typed essay on one side and had a chrome book (our school is lucky to have 2 chrome carts we share between grades) with their slide show on the other side. As students and parents came through students presented their essay and slide show to them. We were set up for about 2 hours and the students had an absolute blast!

It was so fun for them to be able to create something to go with their essays! I love being able to give the students meaningful projects and really see them develop their skills in a fun way.

Using Class Dojo in the Upper Grades

Using Class Dojo in the Upper Grades

I’m sure you’ve heard of, or seen the online management system Class Dojo! I’m here to show you how to use Class Dojo in the upper grades!

When I first heard of Class Dojo, it seemed daunting. Having to give points to every single student...through out the whole day...both positive and negative?! I have 30- 4^th graders in my class and it seemed unrealistic to be at my computer all day giving points! After using class Dojo last year and now this year, I feel like I’ve mastered some tips to really make Dojo work for you.

What is Class Dojo?

Class dojo is an online management system where you can reward students with positive or negative points, connect with parents, and post photos of what’s going on in your classroom.

How do you keep up with points all day?

Class Dojo is available as an app on your phone and tablet. I rarely give points from my computer because I’m constantly moving around. You can also set up tables or groups of students on dojo so you can give an entire group a point at the same time. There is also an option to reward multiple students at the same time. By walking around with my phone, it really doesn’t take too much time! The great thing about giving points through the day is it makes an audible sound. Students can hear when someone gets a point, and it immediately reminds them to check that they are on task! I also let my “Dojo of the Day” use my tablet to give points! More on that down below!

How Do You Use Class Dojo as a Rewards System?

My students are very motivated to earn dojo points, because there are rewards tied to points! Here is a picture of my reward chart! I start with one at the beginning of the school year and then after Christmas break I wipe everyone clean and we start on a second chart with new prizes and rewards! I don’t let students see their points until the very end of the day. After clean up, I pull up the website and project it on the board! I then go into score reports and the class gets to see who earned the most points that day! They become our “Dojo of the Day” the following day and receive extra privileges! The students do a big drum roll leading up to the reveal of “Dojo of the Day” and sing a good job chant for that student. We can get pretty excited about this!

What is Dojo of the Day? What do they get?

Dojo of the day is the student who received the most points the day before. The following day they get a special chair bag, a necklace, can sit in my banana chair during silent reading time and are also able to give out points on my tablet if I need them to! I also send home a special note to parents! My note is pre-typed and I keep a whole bunch of copies ready to go! 

Here is my Dojo of the Day necklace! I got the plastic necklace holder at the dollar store! 

Here is my Dojo of the Day Chair Bag! The green bag is really just a dollar store draw string backpack! I bought some felt and hand made the rest!

Here is the special banana chair!

This is the special note I send home at the end of the day after our big drum roll and good job cheer!

What if a student reaches 100 points before Christmas Break?

I normally will have a few students get to 100 points before they are wiped clean! No problem! They simply start back at the bottom of the reward chart but earn doubles! For example, if a student reaches 110 points they get 2 candies instead of one. If they reach 130 points they get to wear a hat for two days instead of one.

How Do You Use Dojo for Consequences?

My classroom consequences are as follows

-1st offense: Re-direct card. I simply place a re-direct card on a students desk to remind them to make better choices. They also loose a dojo point for this.

-2nd offense: Sideline. Very similar to a time out. Students loose 3 dojo pts. for this.

-3rd offense: Parent letter home. I send home my pre-made parent letter. Student looses 5 dojo pts. for this.

How do you connect with parents?

When you first put your students into Class Dojo, there is an option to print off parent access codes. It's so simple to do and gives parents access to their child's personal Class Dojo. They are also able to message me through the app and check out and pictures I post on Class Story.

What is class story, do you use it?

Class Story is the social media part of Class Dojo. Now and then I post pictures of what we're doing on our Class Story through the Dojo app. Parents are able to "like" or comment on the photo. 

There you have it! Class Dojo is a WONDERFUL tool for classroom management! My students respond very well to it, and I hope your class will too!

Any other question! Please don't hesitate to ask!

Teaching Main Idea

This week we worked a lot on understanding main idea, as well as trying to determine it. I teach that main idea is a "one sentence summary of the text." In fact, every time I say "main idea," the students have to shout back the line at me! They really get this nailed into there head after saying this about 10 million times a day! Later on, in the year when I start teaching fiction skills and focus on theme, I do a week of comparing the differences between theme and main idea so students really get a clear understanding of both. Here are a few activities I did with my 4th graders to help them understand main idea.

Before I started with my anchor chart, I pulled out a brown bag. I pulled out a ticket, popcorn, cake, birthday hat, and some balloons. I then asked the students what all the items had in common. After discussion, we came up with a movie birthday party! I told them they were correct and that was the MAIN IDEA of my bag. Then I made this anchor chart with them. 

While we made the anchor chart, each student had a nonfiction book that we flipped through and pointed out each of the "clues."

At the end of this lesson, I put the students into groups and told them each group would be making there own brown bag with there own main idea! I gave each group this organizer to plan out their bags. The following day they presented their bags to the class while we all tried to guess what their main idea was. The kids really got into this! Here are a few pictures of the bags they came up with!

Baking 

Football

Football

Birthday Party

Going to the Movies

School!

Through out the week we worked on some main idea stations. The students rotated through the following stations each day with a buddy. 

Here is a sentence sort. The main idea was found in the topic sentence.  

This station was very challenging for my students! I printed out various articles on interesting topics from time for kids. I had a star wars article, baseball, Dolphin tale, a volcano, and other options for students to choose from. I glued the article on the front of a 9x18 piece of construction paper that was folded in half. On the inside I wrote the "catchy title" on one side and the subtitle (main idea) on the other side. Students were to read through the article and give it a catchy title as well as try to identify the main idea. Afterwards, they opened the construction paper and checked if they were close. They struggled coming up with the main idea, but loved the catchy titles!

My third station was some differentiated task cards! You can download them for free here

After students got some practice with main idea, we focused on PROVING the main idea by identifying key details. I used these two articles from super teacher worksheets as well as multiple articles from my student's scholastic news magazines. We read articles together (2 a day) and decided on the main idea together. Then we went back and highlighted any evidence that proved we were correct. This really helped to solidify main idea AND had them finding evidence in non fiction text. 

At the end of our two weeks I gave students a brief main idea assessment. We will be revisiting this skill throughout the whole year in reading and writing! I hope you can use some of these ideas with your own class!

Factors, Multiples, Prime & Composite Lesson

This past week we have been working on our basic multiplication unit. Within that unit comes the daunting task of teaching factors, multiples, prime and composite numbers. In years past I've felt like I rushed through these concepts and my kids never really grasped them. This year, I took a few new perspectives, spent a little more time, and really feel like my kids have this concept down! I wanted to share a few ideas that will hopefully help you in teaching!

Day 1:
A little background first (because I didn't snap photos of everything.) I first started off by teaching prime and composite numbers. We made anchor charts and I taught them how to test out a variety of numbers using divisibility tricks and skip counting. I started with prime and composite so we could review it all week while learning about factors and multiples. Here's where it get's fun!

Day 2:
To introduce factors and multiples I gave each student 12 baby m and m's. Their only instructions were to make an array using all 12 pieces of candy.

MnM Array

Then we listed the dimensions up on the board. We came up with 1x12, 2x6, and 3x4. I explained to them that if they could do this, they already knew what factors were! We then moved to the back rug and made an anchor chart. They copied it down in their math notebooks!

For fun, every time I said "factor" the kids replied with HIIIIYAAAA or some other ninja sounds. Every time I said "multiple" the kids made monster noises! This really helped the concept sink in for my audible learners.

Next thing I had them do was to get with their math workshop partners and choose a card that matches their workshop color. This was an easy way to differentiate between learners. I already have my students separated by red, yellow, and green levels for this unit, so the number cards worked with a number I knew was within their abilities. With their partner they had to list all the factors and multiples of the number and check it off with me.

I had them turn their paper over and repeat this with a new number card afterwards. However, to raise the stakes I told them if they were able to complete it the first time correctly they would each get a big sticker! If it took them more than one try they got a little sticker. This was a great motivator that really had them referring back to their notebooks and the anchor chart. It forced them to think a little more before rushing through the assignment or giving me an "I don't get it" right away.




After this, we did a some whiteboard practice together. We talked about students who received the number card 17 or 5 and why it was hard to find factors (reviewing prime vs. composite numbers.) White board practice really helps me to see who's got it and which students and not quite there. I give them a problem, they solve it on their whiteboards and then hold them up. Either me or my "math mentors" go around and check for understanding. Once I felt like we were getting this whole factors and multiples we moved onto an activity!

The factor game! This game is soooo fun!!! We started by playing as a whole class, and my kids were going nuts! We talked a lot about prime and composite numbers during this game as well. Full instructions can be found here.

Day 3:
Today I decided to take a completely different approach to typical math activities. We started with whiteboard practice of prime, composite, factors, and multiples. Then I took an this art idea
and used it to really review what we have been talking about the last few days. I gave each student a number card (differentiated by level) and a piece of drawing paper. There only guidelines were that they had to have their number on their paper with the following information:
1. multiples of my number
2. factors of my number
3. is my number prime or composite
4. A word definition of multiple, factor, prime and composite

I then let them loose and encouraged them to be as creative as possible! Here are a few examples.

This student did a Harry Potter theme! How creative!!!! I love how Voldemort "chops up the product!"

As they finished, they partnered up and played the factor game from yesterday with a buddy. This way no one was sitting around when they were finished, but they also had plenty of time to be creative! They LOVED this activity and it really helped solidify the concepts to have them explain them in words.

I hope this helps in your teaching of prime, composite, factor, and multiples lessons!

Best Way to Display Anchor Charts!

Just wanted to share a quick idea that I have been absolutely LOVING so far this year; my anchor chart review wall!

I have loved using anchor charts the past couple years, however I always ended up throwing them away shortly after making them because there was no wall space or it was too time consuming to put them in the cupboard and pull them back out to ever use! Problem solved! I made this anchor chart review wall so that all of my anchor charts are easily at the ready for both me AND my students to use. I made it so that my most recent anchor charts are on top but I also have the option to flip back through and display older charts as we review or need to reference them! This. Is. Awesome. 

With a few command hooks, a hole punch, and flash cards ring you too can have the ultimate anchor chart review wall!

P.S. While my anchor charts might not be the most beautiful, having a display wall has really helped me put a little more effort into the look of my charts! 

Teaching Fluency with E.A.R.S

Teaching Fluency

The first week of school was a haze. Our first week was a half week (Wednesday-Friday) and there really wasn’t time to accomplish anything academic; which I was totally fine with. Fast forward to week 2, reading block. In my reading block I teach an ELA mini-lesson each day. My team this year decided to start off the year by teaching a week of fluency. It’s fairly simple for the kids, nothing heavy, and was a great ease into our reading block and what the procedures would be like for the kiddos. I thought our week of fluency went great and it’s completely adaptable for any grade. I would

teach/review fluency in every grade 1^st-6^th! It’s a great reminder for all students what a good, fluent reader consists of. 

I used the acronym E.A.R.S. to teach fluency and broke it up by taking one letter each day of the week. Monday I briefly taught the acronym and what fluency was and why it’s important then Tuesday-Friday I taught each skill more in depth! I hope you can adapt this and use it for yourself!

So first off, EARS stands for Expression, Accuracy, Rate, Smoothness!

Monday: I started with a youtube video from storyline online. We watched Betty White read this adorable picture picture book and I had the students jot down a few things that Betty did (yes, we’re on a first name basis) that made the story interesting to listen to. Afterward I explained that she is a fluent reader. To be a fluent reader you have to use your EARS! Then I pulled out these cute posters that a teacher from my team made. 

We read each one together and emphasized over and over that fluent readers use their EARS! We had a lot of fun memorizing what each letter stood for. I yelled out E and the kids would yell back EXPRESSION!

Tuesday: Today we practiced accuracy (I like saving expression for last.) To do this I set up 8 picture books around the room. The kids each partnered up with an inside partner siting on one side of the book and an outside partner sitting on the other side. Each time they heard my little bell they would take turns reading a page of the book while their partner checked for accuracy. I chose to use picture books because I wanted an easy text. I’ve noticed that most kids miss easy, filler words like: the, a, at, in, is or mix those type of words up. Their partners job was tap their finger against the page if their partner skipped or missed a word and the partner would correct. They would read back and forth until they heard the bell. After the bell the inside partner would rotate to the left and start again with their new partner. The outside partner would stay wherever they were at in the book and not start back at the beginning. I had the inside partners move 4 times to the right and then the outside partners move 4 times to the left. They LOVED this simple activity. Even upper elementary kids like picture books!

Here are some of the books I used for this activity. Skippyjon Jones was a little too difficult, but the Fly Guy books were perfect for this activity!

Wednesday: Today we practiced rate! I just went to this website and pasted in a reading passage. Then we “zapped it” to various reading speeds. As a class we talked about what it sounded like too slow, too fast, and then practiced multiple times with a just right 4^th grade rate. I also practiced with them at the rate they should be at by the end of the year. For fun we sped it up to 250 wpm and we tried to keep up. It was chaotic but a fun ending to our activity.

Thursday: Today we discussed smoothness. This was the day I had the hardest time with. Smoothness proved to be difficult to practice. To teach it, we discussed smooth reading vs. robotic choppy reading and of course practiced our robot voices. I read a few pages of a book to them and pointed out that each “phrase” or each time I took a breath was because the book gave me a clue: punctuation. I had the kids read outloud with a person and practice saying a phrase in 1 breath and not stopping or pausing until the book gave them their “clue.”

Friday: EXPRESSION! We had so much fun with this day. I showed the kids this clip (start at :23) to show what AMAZING Expression sounds like. Then I pulled out the picture book Seriously, Snow White is So Annoying.  I made copies of every couple pages every 2 students a few pages to work on together. They would need to look for punctuation and think really hard about how the author would want that page to sound. After giving them about 8 minutes to rehearse with their partner, the groups came up 1 at a time in order of thes tory and “presented” their pages. We had such a ball listening to all the good expression for the most part. Afterward we talked about who we liked listening to and why. I did have to clarify for them the difference between expression vs. accents and weird voices.

I plan to reference EARS all throughout the year during our reading block and especially during my reading groups! I hope you can find something here to help in your own fluency week! Thanks for stopping by!